No. 06. “A Strange ‘Thanksgiving’ Banquet” - (Thanksgiving 2008)
Oct 12 2008 Bothwell & Clachan
Thanksgiving Sunday
Jesus Wants Me to Do What? - No. 06. “A Strange ‘Thanksgiving’ Banquet”
Matthew 22:1-14
Introduction
A Free Lunch
There have been times when I have turned down a free lunch. To make that sacrifice a little easier, I did not enquire to see if they would be serving raspberry pie for dessert. I should also state that I do NOT believe what the cynics state: that there are NO free lunches. One of the many lunches that are absolutely free in this Church is the snack provided by Rob Van Middelkoop and Dorothy Hounsell when they offer the preliminary Alpha night. Anyone is invited to come out that evening to see the introductory video, ask questions and enjoy some snacks, no questions asked.
But some of the “free” lunches that I have turned down do come with strings attached. Pastors get invited to quite a few of them; breakfasts in Chatham and lunches in Windsor and London. Christian organizations have new products or new mission initiatives that they wish to promote, and what better way than to get attention than by offering to feed the pastor? These all come with an R.S.V.P. but I rarely, if ever, respond to any of them. It is not that I do not get hungry, nor that I do not appreciate the fact that they might be wishing to do me a favour, gastronomically speaking. But usually it is just too far to drive, at that particular time of day in the midst of other responsibilities.
Good Excuses
If you do not wish to attend events like this or are in need of some good excuses for showing up late I did come across these. Perhaps you can adapt them for your own use. A few years ago The Toronto Star invited teachers to submit excuses they had received from their students. They received these examples:
A student explaining why he was late: "I was kidnapped by aliens and interrogated for three hours."
Another student, telling why he had failed to turn in his essay: "The bus driver read it and liked it so much he kept it to show to his passengers."
Another: "I got mugged on the way to school. I offered him my money, my watch, and my pen knife, but all he wanted was my essay."
Mike, a 14-year old, came up with a "watertight" excuse for arriving at school an hour late with his pants soaked to the knees: "I was just about to board the bus when I found I'd lost my ticket. Since it would take too long to walk to school, I hopped a fence onto a golf course. I headed for a creek that crisscrossed several fairways until I found a likely spot for lost balls. Retrieving three balls from their watery graves, I then made for the clubhouse where I sold the balls for bus fare! And that's why I'm late." Mike's entry won.[1]
Thanksgiving Season and Meals
As this is our Canadian Thanksgiving Weekend I do feel quite comfortable talking about food this morning. Our Thanksgiving is a Harvest Festival and seems to centre on food. We hold it earlier than our American friends whose Thanksgiving experience at the end of November is actually the kick-off to their Christmas Season.
Earlier we read about food in the Bible in Matthew 22:1-14. Based on that passage I am using as a title for this message “A Strange ‘Thanksgiving’ Banquet.” If you have done any reading of the New Testament you will be aware that there are many banquets and dinner parties mentioned. I do not know if any of them had raspberry or even cherry pie on the menu. But what they did have in common was that Jesus was often there. His first miracle was done at a wedding reception in the village of Cana, up in the Northern Galilee lake region. He was not afraid to eat with so-called religious “seekers.” Jesus presence at these various dinner parties actually became ammunition for his enemies. They did not like the company that Jesus chose. After all, these were not the so-called “nice” people of society. On the other hand Jesus had started his ministry with a 40 day fast in the wilderness so perhaps he was quite glad to attend any and all banquets after that hungry experience. Whatever his motivation, Jesus was always the ‘life of the party” and used these occasions to apply important spiritual truths.
In our reading from Matthew 22:1-14 we do not have an actual banquet, but a story of a banquet in which none of the invited guests showed up. And unlike our earlier illustration they do not seem to have sent any “excuse me” notes. But this story is more than a parable, it is an allegory. Unlike a parable, in an allegory you may freely substitute characters in the story for real-life people. The commentaries suggest many things that the elements of the story can represent. These include the roll played by some of the original Jewish listeners and go right up to the eventual later destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman Army. But at its central core it is quickly obvious that this is a story of Jesus and how throughout history people have responded to his appearance on earth.
The Duty of Preparedness
The outline of this story would have been very familiar to Jesus’ listeners. William Barclay, in his book, The Gospel of Matthew tells that there was a story during Jesus' day that was told by the Rabbis and it went like this: There was king who invited his guest to a feast, without telling them the exact date and time; but he did tell them that they must wash, and anoint, and clothe themselves that they might be ready when the summons came. The wise prepared themselves at once, and took their places waiting at the palace door, for they believed that in a palace a feast could be prepared so quickly that there would be no long warning. The foolish believed that it would take a long time to make the necessary preparations and that they would have plenty of time. So they went, the mason to his lime, the potter to his clay, the smith to his furnace, the fuller to his bleaching-ground, and they went on with their work. Then, suddenly, the summons to the feast came without any warning. The wise were ready to sit down, and the king rejoiced over his guest, and they ate and drank. But those who had not arrayed themselves in their wedding garments had to stand outside, sad and hungry. They could only look on at the joy they had lost.
This Rabbinic parable tells of the duty of preparedness for the summons of God, and garments stand for the preparation that must be made.[2]
Preparation
There are many types of preparation depending on the circumstances. For those of you who are cooking this weekend, you must plan menus, find ingredients, budget time and refrigerator space etc. Your agenda is a prepared feast and because you are committed to your mission of providing food for loved ones you are willing to try to make these efforts.
Our agenda is important. In this story Jesus says that the agenda of some of these people needed serious “tweaking.”
In Fast Company, Richard Bolles, author of What Color Is Your Parachute?, was asked, "What stands in the way of people finding their mission?" Bolles replied:
Prior agendas. For example, my wife, Carol is a well-known career counselor in her own right. She was meeting with a client who worked in the rubber industry, let’s call him George. George told her in their first session, "I’ve got to get out of the rubber industry." So she gave him some homework to do before their next session. He came back the next week, and he hadn’t done a lick of the homework. My wife, rich with intuition, asked him, "What will happen if you don’t get out of the rubber industry?" George said, "My wife will divorce me." Carol said, "Do you want your wife to divorce you?"
He couldn’t keep the smile off of his face. She knew then that he would never change his job until it had given him what he wanted: a divorce, with his wife taking all of the initiative and the guilt. Based on his behavior, my wife named this "the doctrine of the prior agenda." You can’t help people change or find their mission when they have a conflicting prior agenda.
People will never change until they truly want to.[3]
There is a humorous example of this in the old TV series The Red Green Show. At the end of each episode as the credits roll the fellows all gather in the basement of the lodge and repeat their creed, “I’m a man; I can change…if I have to, I guess...” There is truth to that. All of the successful “12 step” groups use the same approach. One must first recognize that there is a problem before anything can be done to bring healing.
Speechless
In today’s story some of these people made it very plain that they wanted nothing to do with Jesus. Others made very half-hearted efforts to follow his teachings. Our story concludes by using the example of one guest’s poor choice of clothing, but it is NOT talking about his actual style of suit. In this allegory, the clothing in Jesus story stands for attitudes towards Jesus. As such it is a warning against false discipleship.
I guess we can at least be glad that this guest at least showed up. But he came thoughtlessly to the wedding banquet of the King’s Son. Others had no better right than he to be present, but they knew where they were and dressed accordingly. He, however, came as he was, without acknowledging his unworthiness. When asked about his attire, he was “speechless” (Matthew 22:12).
This speechless character represents a very superficial response to Jesus’ gospel. Such persons view the gracious invitation of the Good News of Jesus as a mere formality. They assume themselves worthy of the invitation. What others receive as grace, they take for granted. They are unwilling or incapable of seeing themselves honestly. Therefore, when God confronts their unworthiness, they can say nothing.
We dare not consider the invitation of Christ lightly. We must be ready to meet the One who invites us into the kingdom of heaven.[4]
It is good to remember that God’s love will never let you go, but we must not be presumptuous. If we recited the sinner’s prayer twenty years ago and haven’t thought of God since, it’s time we woke up—we’re fooling no one. God calls us to a life of love, sacrifice and service. We must follow it in faith every day.[5]
Reaching for Rainbows
I know that we meant well, but one of the reasons that many churches across North America lost a whole previous generation for Jesus was that we too often got sidetracked right here just as the religious leaders of Jesus day did. We wanted Church to look nice and be nice and smell nice. And as we taught our kids, they got the idea that that was all that was involved in the proper “Jesus” way to do things. Ann Weems' tries to get this across in her poem Reaching for Rainbows.
"What do we want to tell the children?
Jesus Christ says, comb your hair.
And what do we tell the children?
Jesus Christ says, sit on your chair.
And what do we tell the children?
Jesus Christ says, be polite.
And what do we tell the children?
Jesus Christ says, do everything right!
Jesus says, please sit down
Jesus says, do not frown.
Jesus says, don't cry if you're hurt.
Jesus says, don't play in the dirt.
Jesus says, don't have any fun!
And what do we want to tell the children?
We want to tell them shhhhh!"[6]
Don’t get me wrong. To paraphrase Larry Crabb, “The core problem is not that we were too passionate about bad things, but that we were not passionate enough about good things.”[7] All of those instructions to the children could have been fine, they were not necessarily wrong. After all it was clean and it was polite. But in too many cases it stopped there at those nice churchy manners. But we did not see that it was also empty spiritually. In some of our Churches we mistook “Miss Manners” for the Spirit of God. And this is where the religious leaders of Jesus day often missed the point as they gave a superficial glance at his dinner companions. But unlike them, Jesus was able to look past the clothes and the lifestyle. He looks past the suit or lack thereof and deep into the soul. He knows if we are longing for something better, deeper; longing for Someone. The Bible says that the one who truly dresses appropriately, that is, is being saved, is the one who says to Jesus, “I need a Saviour. I don’t have the answer. I’m not righteous. Lord, I need You to robe me with Your robe of righteousness… Lord I need You. You are my Savior. You are my Redeemer.”[8] It is that kind of attitude that encourages us to recognize our need and respond to it with a step of faith towards Jesus.
Conclusions
It is interesting that our faith should involve not only thankfulness that God has brought us to where we are but also a desire to be somewhere else – somewhere deeper, higher and closer to Jesus. So on this Thanksgiving Sunday let me ask this: What will you be wearing to the king's reception? The invitation has gone out. The time has come. Let me suggest, in the words of the Apostle Paul, that you ”clothe yourself with Christ.” Upon the King's greeting, you will be let in. And I trust that you have not just stopped at that first step but pressed even further onward as a follower of Jesus. He gives us many things for which to be thankful, both now and in that future eternal banquet. It is because of all of this that we can have a deep sense of Thanksgiving -- to God, -- for all of the unearned, unmerited, uncontrollable or unpredictable goodnesses in our lives. Let’s reflect on some of them as we sing together Hymn #88 “Now Thank We All Our God.”
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[1] King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com 1. HAVE A GOOD DAY!
[2] William Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew Vol. 2
[3] Daniel H. Pink, "What Happened to Your Parachute?" Fast Company (September 1999)
[4] Bruce B. Barton, Matthew, Life application Bible commentary (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers, 1996), 430.
[5] Bruce B. Barton, Matthew, Life application Bible commentary (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers, 1996), 431.
[6] From Ann Weems' Reaching for Rainbows
[7] Larry Crabb in Finding God. Christianity Today, Vol. 38, no. 3.
[8]Jon Courson, Jon Courson's Application Commentary (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2003), 163.