throw him out

11 “… when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, 12 and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?’ And he was speechless. 13 Then 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.’ 14 For many are called, but few are chosen.” Matthew 22:11-14 NRSV

Years ago, it might have been 1984 or 1990 but I think was 1987, when The Parable of the Wedding Banquet came up as the Sunday gospel reading, I remembered that when it had come up in the previous lectionary cycle three years earlier, that I’d heard people whining about how cruel and unfair of God, to be so concerned about what some guest wore to the banquet that God would condemn the poor soul to the hell of outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. God was unkind and unfair, they thought and said.

So this time (dating it in my mind, because of friends who were there at Trinity, Apalachicola for the first time, I’m pretty sure it was Fall 1987), I tried turning-the-tables on my congregation. Instead of the colorful, fancy vestments, alb, chasuble and stole, that we priests wear Sunday mornings, in the opening procession I came down the aisle wearing a gray suit with white shirt and suitable tie. Sure enough, members of the congregation were surprised, even shocked, stunned. What the … !?! Fr.Tom knows full well what is expected of the priest and celebrant in an Episcopal Church on Sunday morning. What the hell is he doing here dressed like that?

A lesson of my sermon that morning was that, whereas three years earlier they had been so judgmental of the King (God) in the parable for condemning the banquet guest for being improperly dressed, this morning they, like the King, were judging me for not being properly vested: either they were hypocrites or perhaps now they could better understand the King’s point of view about someone desecrating the Feast, failing to meet expectations and requirements.

My point was made, they “got it” that God was not so wrong for judging after all, or, if God was wrong for judging then, so are they wrong for judging me now. It’s your parable, the parable is about you, find yourself, identify how this parable applies to you, make up your own mind and take action. 

An "un-Jesus-ish" hard saying like the allegorized parable just before it, Matthew 22:11-14 may be an add-on by Matthew or the early church, about people who come to church for appearance sake, or for business connections, or other worldly reasons, but do not believe the gospel or try to walk the Way of the Cross as their way of life, or tithe; and so are kicked out of the church.  

Whatever; during the choir’s offertory anthem that Sunday, I did go to the adjacent sacristy and change to proper vestments for presiding the Eucharist.

DThos+