20th Sunday after Pentecost

Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

One of the first things I do every Monday morning when I get to the office is to read the Bible texts assigned for the coming Sunday. That way I can start pondering their meanings and the direction a sermon might take.

So this past Monday, I read the parable Jesus is telling in today’s gospel. A strange story, isn’t it? A king is holding a wedding banquet for his son. All the invited guests are no-shows. The king is furious. Since the food is ready and the hall prepared, the king decides to fill the tables one way or another. He has his servants go and gather up people from the streets, whoever they can find, both good and bad. They come and fill the wedding hall.

Thus far, I love this story. What a nice way of turning a disappointment into a blessing for countless people. Unexpected guests get to come and feast and celebrate. I imagine the hall was filled with joyful chatter.

But then Jesus goes on with the parable, and suddenly it’s not so lovely anymore. One wedding guest is not dressed appropriately. The king is upset and has this man thrown out into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Yikes!

I read this parable on Monday morning and wondered where in the world I might be taking this text in a sermon, when not twenty minutes later the phone rang. A friend of my neighbor’s asked if I would possibly be available for an emergency wedding at the hospital.

This was the situation: Amber and Ian had been engaged for a while and were planning a wedding in the spring. Then Amber’s beloved grandmother Mimi had surgery to clear out the blocked artery in her neck. During the surgery, a piece of that blockage dislodged and caused a stroke. She was now dying. Ian and Amber really wanted Mimi to be there when they got married. They were at that moment at the courthouse before a judge to apply for an emergency marriage license. Was there any way I could come and officiate the wedding in Mimi’s hospital room.

Usually, I attend and partially lead our Bible study groups on Monday mornings. Our wonderful Deacon Linda and our amazing Christian Education chair Ann were willing to lead the classes, the whole group wished me and the couple well, and off I went to the hospital to perform a wedding.

Now, I had expected a day at the office that morning. Thus, I was dressed very casually, in blue cotton pants and a flannel shirt. That was not appropriate attire for a wedding ceremony. As luck would have it, the route to the hospital took me very close to my house, so I stopped at home and changed into clergy shirt and skirt. Then I went on to the hospital.

Just as in Jesus’ parable, the people who found themselves gathered in the hospital room were there quite unexpectedly. Amber’s sister and mother, father with current wife, aunt and, at the last moment, one brother came hastily as soon as they got the word. Ian’s parents came and brought a small bouquet of flowers they had picked in their garden.

People were wearing all kinds of outfits. Amber’s aunt was in sweats. Her dad and his wife were in casual summer attire, chinos with polo shirt and summer dress. Her sister had grabbed a sparkling party dress and heels and switched into them when she got there. Quite the hodgepodge.

While we were waiting for the couple to arrive from the courthouse with their emergency license, we move some furniture and created space at the foot end of the bed so Mimi could see. With two white bedsheets, draped over the wall mounted TV screen, we created a kind of backdrop – and hid the used sharps container.

Finally, the couple arrived. Ian wore khakis and a nice shirt and tie, his bride a pretty summer dress. I asked if they would be exchanging rings. I could tell from their faces that they hadn’t thought about rings, but before they could say anything, Amber’s dad stepped forward, pulled a ring from his finger and gave it to Ian and said, “Here, you can have it fitted later.” Ian looked dumbfounded and very much moved. “Really?”, he asked. The dad said, “I bought that ring in Hawaii seven years ago and never really knew why. Know I know why.”

Amber’s aunt pulled a small golden ring with a dark stone from her finger and gave it to Amber.

We took a deep breath and began the ceremony. It was so plain, and it was so moving! The room was filled with love: love between Ian and Amber, love for Mimi, love between all the people gathered in that room to mark this milestone in a young couple’s life and in a matriarch’s life. There were tears and hugs and kisses. I will never forget that wedding.

And you know what? Nobody cared what anyone was wearing.

Why then does Jesus talk about the wedding guest with improper attire getting thrown out? I believe that the attire is meant figuratively, not literally. I don’t think Jesus was concerned with what people were wearing. Especially in that situation: The guests had been picked off the street; how in the world could they be expected to be dressed for a party they didn’t know they would be attending?

I believe Jesus used attire as an image.

Many times in the Bible, and outward change of attire signifies an inward change of beliefs and values. For example, in Colossians 3 we read, “Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.” Compassion and kindness are not clothes you can put on, but values you can adopt inwardly and that will then shape your outward behavior.

In Romans 13, the Apostle Paul writes about us “putting on the Lord Jesus Christ”. Again, Jesus is not a piece of clothing we can wear. Rather, Paul encourages all believers to be wrapped in the gospel of Christ and let it shape how we show up in the world.

One more quote, from Paul’s letter to the Galatians chapter 3: “For in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.”

In this quote, Paul connects the image of the new attire with baptism into Christ. We are baptizing Makenna today. Today, she, too, will be clothed in Christ, will be adopted into God’s family, and will become heir to the promise of salvation. What a blessed day it is. Especially considering how scary her entrance into this world had been, our hearts today are filled with gratitude.

Most people who are being baptized, no matter what age, wear white clothes. With that color, they are signifying newness, a slate whipped clean, a new beginning as a new believer thanks to the grace of God. When my nephew was baptized in the orthodox church, they took this symbolism one step further: Peter arrived in normal clothes. When it was time for the baptism itself, he was stripped naked, dunked three times into the water in the baptismal font, and then dressed all in white.

And then he was taken right to the altar where he received his first communion. He was baptized, and as a baptized child of God, he was welcome at the table of God, at the wedding banquet of our Lord.

God’s grace has invited all of us into faith, into a loving relationship with God, into the hall of celebration and love and salvation. We have been called by grace no matter where we had been in life. Both good and bad are invited, the gospel says.

God’s hope is that this invitation, this grace, this feast at God’s table, this promise of salvation, this forgiveness of sins, this community of love will change us; will transform us inwardly; will determine our values and priorities, our hopes and dreams, our generosity and our service.

That one guest at the wedding, I believe, was not in trouble because of the clothes he wore. He was in trouble because the invitation he received by grace did not transform him.

The people in the hospital room for the wedding were wearing all kinds of clothes; and it didn’t matter. What mattered was that everyone in that room was filled with love and compassion for Mimi and for Ian and Amber. Everyone wore their care and support on their sleeves. Love shaped how everyone acted. And that created a holy moment filled with grace.

Today, we are invited to God’s table of grace. May the love of Christ present in bread and wine transform us into joyful wedding guests and joyful messengers of the gospel who touch the world with grace. Amen.