Sermon 10/05/08 (Matthew 22:1-14)

“The Entire Ugly, Beautiful World”
Matthew 22:1-14
Rev. Désirée H. Gold
St. Mark’s United Church of Christ, Baltimore, MD
Sunday, 5 October, 2008
Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
World Communion Sunday
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 I have worshiped in a lot of churches. I was baptized in a Congregational UCC church in Littleton, New Hampshire. I attended a Lutheran church in Fargo, North Dakota for about two years. Then there’s the UCC church I attended most of my years growing up in Fargo. There’s the church I attended in college, the churches I served as a seminary intern, the church I served in Sacramento, California, and, of course, St. Mark’s.

Then there are all of the churches I have attended as a visitor. When I travel I enjoy visiting churches, and I have worshiped in a number of sanctuaries throughout the United States. I have also had some opportunities to travel overseas, and I especially remember worshiping in a Russian Orthodox church for Easter in St. Petersburg and in a Protestant church in Ireland during my honeymoon.

All of these churches are of varying sizes, worship styles, theologies, cultural backgrounds, denominations. And, oh! the variety of Christians within them! In some of these churches I got to know the members quite well. The church in which I was raised, for example, provided me with many close friends. I have nurtured a pastoral relationship with members of the churches that I have served. But then there are the hundreds of people who I may have met for 30 seconds during the one time I worshiped with that congregation. They are Christian faces that essentially just flashed before my eyes -- a blink of Christian humanity.

This morning I -- and all of you -- are joining together with every one of those Christ-worshipers to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. On this World Communion Sunday we are gathering together with members of the UCC church in Dittmer, Missouri where I was an intern pastor and with the Russian Orthodox church in St. Petersburg, Russia that I walked past every day for months but only worshiped in once, and partaking of the Eucharist. We will do so in different ways -- every UCC church does communion a little differently, much less our Orthodox, and Methodist, and Lutheran, and Disciples of Christ, and Catholic, and Presbyterian brothers and sisters. It will mean different things for the Orthodox than it will for the Presbyterian. But it will be the same meal, celebrated in the spirit of Christian unity.

“The king said, ‘Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’ [They] went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.”

In this morning’s scripture a king is prepared to give a wedding banquet, and he sends his slaves to retrieve the invited guests. The guests apparently didn’t like what was on the menu, because they refused to come. Some of them were so offended at the invitation that they actually killed the slaves that had sent for them. The king retaliated with his own violence -- one of the many pieces of violence that we tend to miss when reading our scriptures. But then we get to the part of this scripture that we all remember: the grand invitation to any ragtag group of people that can be found on the streets. Matthew describes this new group of invitees as “both good and bad.”

What an interesting wedding party! The king invited bad people to his wedding. Sure, they were among the only people he could find, but that doesn’t take away much from the fact that they were invited.

On this World Communion Sunday, I think back to the people I have met in all the churches I have visited. There have surely been a collection of “both good and bad” among them. There are those who I have grown to know and love. There have also, I am ashamed to say, been a few people that I simply could not stand. There was the terrible conflict in the church in which I was raised, and I am not on speaking terms with some of those people. Then there are, again, all of those churches I have visited once. Surely there must be some truly wonderful people who are on their way to sainthood -- the simple and loving way that I have been greeted in some of these churches shows me that there are many goodhearted people. There are also, most likely, some who are less reputable. I have probably attended church with money embezzlers, people who commit acts of domestic violence, maybe even members of the Russian mafia, along with all the people who are just a little annoying.

Here’s the thing: We are all invited to this World Communion Sunday banquet today. We are all invited to the table, “both good and bad.” There are churches that may deny communion to certain folks, but we are not one of those churches. We’ll take ‘em all, every single Christian who wants to be here, the whole ugly, beautiful world. It’s a scary concept, thinking of some of the people with whom we may be communing today. But it’s marvelous too. We are not welcome here because we are good. We are welcome here because we believe that Jesus is our Savior. It would be lovely if we could just stop here, as one happy, dysfunctional Christian family gathered around an enormous table for a feast as big as the world. But there’s that pesky little ending bit of our morning’s scripture. As much as I would like to forget it’s there I cannot.

After the king makes his grand invitation, one would think he could put up with someone not adhering to exact wedding dress code. But when he notices a guest who is not wearing proper wedding attire he commits another one of those forgotten acts of violence in Matthew. “The king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’” This guest doesn’t merely get asked to go home and change, or even simply thrown out onto the street. Instead, he is tossed into hell itself, he has so offended his host!

What do we do with this? What happened to “invite everybody”?! What happened to our interpretation that “all are welcome”?! Scholars have struggled with this for centuries. But a general consensus is that, while everyone is invited, they are still expected to be prepared.

If we look at this story as an allegory, the king is, of course, God, and we are the guests -- the good and the bad, the ugly and beautiful, all of humanity. This story is not specifically speaking about communion -- in fact one scholar suggests that Matthew is speaking of baptism -- but the invitation to a “banquet” certainly works as a communion metaphor. We at St. Mark’s believe that everyone is always invited to the table, whether it’s World Communion Sunday or just any old day. After all, it’s God’s table, not ours. But while we invite everyone, we do ask one thing of them. We say that the table is open to “anyone who professes Christ as Lord.” We do actually expect you to believe in Christ in order to share this meal with us. Now, this doesn’t mean that you have to be rock-solid certain about your faith at every moment -- if we did not allow doubters to join us very few of us would be able to partake. We also do not require you to understand everything about communion -- we call it a mystery for a reason. This, by the way, is why I believe children should be allowed to receive communion -- the Eucharist is a mystery to us regardless of age. But we do expect you to say, “Yes, I believe in Jesus Christ.”

We expect something else of you too. We expect you to take this meal seriously and to approach the table with a contrite heart. Whether you are “good or bad” today, we ask that you set aside your sins and your saintliness and come here in humility. Don’t just say the words in the communion booklet and snack on some bread and grape juice. Pray these words and feast on the body and blood of Christ, or the Bread of Life and the Cup of Salvation. This is a very joyful meal, but it is solemn too. Take it seriously.

When you gather at this table today with Christians from around the world, your wedding garment will be your profession of faith and your sense of wonder at this love feast. You are invited; please “dress” appropriately. Jeans and a t-shirt are fine, as long as you take this shindig seriously.

Now let us pray.