AProp23

Exodus 32:1-14; Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23; Philippians 4:1-9; Matthew 22:1-14

October 12, 2008

A politician enters the large city.

He has reserved the new arena

that happens to have been built by his own company.

He plans to have a huge rally

and invites all the people who belong to his political party,

especially those who are prominent  socially and politically.

He has booked a well-known band to put on a concert in the afternoon.

There is barbeque, plenty of whatever you want to drink.

And for every person who comes, the party colors,

let’s say, red, white AND blue, are available in vests, hats, posters, flags,

you name it.

He plans for thousands of people to show up.

The major TV stations are alerted

AND the corporations who support him

have paid bookoodles of money for trendy commercials.

The morning of the rally, he hears from his ‘people’

that it doesn’t look like the citizens of this city are going to show up.

They are just not into politics.

Those that have to work are not going take off,

And the rest don’t want to miss the football game scheduled for that afternoon.

He panics. The arena must be full when those TV cameras start rolling!

So, he tells his ‘people’ to go out into the city

and bring in anyone who will come. Bring them in buses.

Lure them in with free food and drink, live music, a good time.

All they have to do is put on the red, white and blue vests and hats

and cheer when the prompters say to during his speech.

He is a driven, power-hungry man

who will use every ounce of his wealth and ingenuity to win this election.

He has built his public persona piece by piece - by being a great imitator.

He has borrowed this look, that voice, this philosophy, that rhetoric,

this religious affiliation, that stance on ‘the issues.’

He is an ingenious hypocrite.

Tom Ettinger reminded the adult forum last week that

a hypocrite is simply an actor.

He is an ingenious actor.

Well, the rally begins.

The barbeque, baked beans, and Texas toast are served in generous portions.

In the hours before the big speech,

all the people in the arena walk around in their red, white and blue

enjoying the big name band and a fun, free, afternoon.

In exchange for all this, they will sit through the introductions and speeches,

and whoop and holler when cued.

As everyone settles down, the politician comes out onto the stage.

The bright lights are on him and they pan the crowd, too.

Music, confetti, a sea of red, white, and blue

flags, posters, vest, hats, buttons.

His eyes roam over the crowd and he thinks he sees, in the front row,

a man, a woman and teenage girl.

He notices them immediately because their clothing is in stark contrast

to the solid sea of red, white, and blue that fills the hall .

He looks more closely, shading his eyes from the glare of the lights

and freezes as he locks eyes with them.

His brother - who wouldn’t go along with his schemes during the early years

to get rich illegally and immorally carrying out schemes

invisibly hidden within the structures of their growing company.

He had long ago successfully pressed false charges against his brother

and cut him off both from family and business.

The woman and girl were a part of his life

that he thought he had paid off well enough and silenced.

He really had thought he had the power to make them disappear.

As he thought he saw these three, through the glare of the lights,

all the roudy cheering and noise in the arena became

muffled by the loud pulsing in his temples.

These three didn’t need to say anything.

They didn’t need to be seen by anyone else.

They had the power and authority of the truth

that spoke itself in their presence

and it stripped him down….

Authority - temple authority, religious authority continues to be the theme

of this section of Matthew.

The religious officials have been questioning Jesus’ authority at every turn.

Jesus has arrived in Jerusalem, and he has shown up with authority.

He has entered the great temple and ransacked the place –

driven out those who were buying and selling,

overturned the tables of the moneychangers,

shouted from Isaiah, “My house shall be called a house of prayer.”

Then, in the temple, he has cured the blind and the lame.

It is in the temple that the religious elders come to him

and challenge his authority;

and from what they witness, they want him gone.

The traditional reading of this parable has been about

who will be invited into the kingdom of heaven

and the importance of being prepared when called.

Another way to read the parable:

The King in the parable could very well be Herod the Great.

There are many similarities between the parable

and the historic events surrounding Herod.

He was the king who had rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem -

– not so it could be a house of prayer

but because it possessed huge political significance

and was crucial to Herod’s political security as King of the Jews.

Herod was in exile when he was named King.

He arrived at Jerusalem as the new king with two choices:

He could use the Roman army that accompanied him

to overtake the people by force,

or he could try to ingratiate them so that they would willingly receive him as king.

He actually was engaged at the time

to a woman who would greatly improve his status

and certainly strengthen the power

that his hoped for son would one day possess.

And so, a king inviting people to a wedding banquet for his son

would have had enough obvious elements to point to Herod.

Some of the people of Jerusalem ignored what was going on politically.

They put on their blinders and went about their work in shop or field

just hoping to avoid the whole political/religious upheaval.

Others, the zealots, were very engaged in the political/religious thing

and fought violently – as terrorists - against Herod and his soldiers.

And then, of course, the

‘troops, who destroyed those murderers and burned their city’

These troops would have been recognized by Matthew’s readers

as the Roman legions who took Jerusalem by force in the year 70.

So the the parable could be based on the events surrounding King Herod

and the question of who had political and religious authority.

It is possible that the man who appeared at the banquet

without the wedding garment

is meant to represent the suffering servant of Isaiah

…he shall startle many nations;

Kings shall shut their mouths because of him

for that which had not been told them they shall see

and that which they had not heard they shall contemplate.

He was despised and rejected by others;

A man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity;

and as one from whom others hide their faces

he was despised, and we held him of no account.

Whether it is King Herod and the whole religious/political structure

being faced by Jesus whose presence in the temple exposes the truth.

Or whether it is a hollow actor of a politician whose past arises

to press the truth upon him,

The kingdom of heaven is such that it always appears with authority

and exposes things for what they are

be they worthy and beautiful and true

or be they a distortion, an act, an abuse of the truth.

And all too often in human history,

when the latter is exposed,

the kingdom of heaven has been violently shut down or shoved aside.

One message for us is to notice our tendency

to shut down and even violently remove

the kingdom of heaven when it shows up –

when it’s truth exposes our truth,

whether that truth be about our own worth and goodness

that we shrink back from

or about our own egos and the successful acting we are getting away with.

What if we allow the presence of heaven, the presence of Christ

to win us - to wake us up

what if we accept the invitation to loosen our grip on ourselves and others

to give up the acting and imitating and covering the truth –

rather than pushing him away from the banquets we have contrived..

and finally, simply, to be true

 to God and ourselves and others.

That is the real banquet and we are all invited.