Proper 23 2014

Proper 23, 2014

Who’s gonna show up? Who’s in and who’s out when it comes to the Kingdom of God? Who will even inherit the Kingdom of God?

All of these are themes that we’ve seen over the past few weeks with Jesus’ parables. He’s offered some heavy stuff, but has been able to root his lessons in some pretty understandable contexts. His audience is grounded in families who work vineyards, probably—they get how tenets are supposed to work for landlords—all of that makes sense.

But today, Jesus is really working the parable pretty hard. This is what is known as an eschatological teaching—in other words, it talks about the end of time… So, he’s kind of taking us to where the sidewalk ends in this one—and tells this bonkers story of a king who is planning a wedding feast for his son. The important people he’s invited, when they’re called, all turn their noses up—and some even beat-up and kill the servants.

So, the king sends out some other servants (after burning down the cities of the original guests) and tells the servants to invite anyone they meet—and we’re told that all kinds of people come to the feast; good and bad alike.

This is nice…we like this kind of parable, right? Everybody gets in, everyone’s invited and included—this is the kind of vision we like for the Kingdom of God.

But then, we have this whack-a-doodle ending to the story where the king finds some cat at the party who isn’t wearing the right clothes. And when the guy has no answer for why he’s not dressed properly, the king has him bound hand and foot to be cast into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth…

Well doesn’t that just suck… I mean, here’s this guy who’s been invited just like every other joker in town to this wedding feast for the king’s son—all of a sudden he’s getting singled-out by the king because he didn’t wear a wedding robe? And then…he gets bound hand and foot and thrown into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth? Talk about some rain falling on your day…

But before we get our ‘undies of indignation’ all in a bunch—we should probably clarify the situation. First, this is a parable; so , Jesus is taking everything to the ‘nth degree.

Secondly, if the king invited everyone around, and expected them to be properly dressed—we could assume that he was providing the proper robes. So, basically, this guy who’s getting the boot really was a jerk. I mean, instead of accepting the king’s gracious hospitality and receiving all that was freely offered at the feast—he’s instead acting more like a thief who’s snuck in and wants to steal...(not very nice.)

But even if we don’t like this explanation, it still adds something interesting to this question: “Who’s gonna show up?” I mean, as I’ve said before; “If you preach a Gospel of open doors and open hearts—you don’t get to be scandalized by who shows up to receive it…”

All the same, what could happen when anyone (the ‘good and bad’) showed up?

I recently saw one possible answer to this, at clergy conference, last week. We had a speaker from Nashville, named Becca Stevens. She happens to be an Episcopal priest who works with Magdalene House and Thistlefarms.

Magdalene House is a sort of half-way house program that helps women who are coming out of prison, and are trying to recover from addiction—many of whom were also trafficked as prostitutes… This is who shows up at Magdalene House—women who need the open hearts and open doors, but also have the kind of record that keeps them from doing much more than falling back into old patterns.

But, this is where Thistlefarms comes in… Named for the thistle purposely because it can survive and grow anywhere; Thistlefarms works with these women and trains them to make bath soaps; lotions; and a whole line of items that use healing essential oils. And many of these oils they make are from plants grown by women in Rwanda who survived the genocide. Apparently, after digging-up and properly burying the remains of their loved ones, these Rwandan women sowed plants in the killing fields that would produce oils for healing.

So, there is this international cooperation, which works to help and heal women, as well as the world through love. Magdalene House clothes these women as honored guests, and Thistlefarms helps them to live into that identity.

Now, the Presiding Bishop also happened to be there, and what’s funny is that she later led us in a conversation where she talked about the baptism of Jesus. And she talked about how the heavens opened, and Jesus heard the voice of God say: “You are my beloved son (my beloved child) in whom I am well pleased…” Then she asked a room full of clergy when the last time we knew God was speaking that to us, as well…

Just take a second, and ask yourself that question… When was the last time you knew yourself to be the beloved child of God?

Well, if the question makes you feel a little squeamish, or self-deprecating; I assure you, there was a meeting room full of clergy who felt the same way—myself included. And, I’ll just say (for the record), a room full of clergy who are made to feel uncomfortable is pretty funny. We start trying to be very theological, and sort of behave like a one winged bird and fly in tiny circles…

Anyway, like my colleagues, I really wrestled with this question, and inevitably, I had to come to the conclusion that it isn’t up to me whether or not I’m considered beloved of God, or if God is well pleased with me. Because, in the end, it’s God who says it to us—and not what we say God says of us… So, whether we feel our beloved-ness; or whether we can accept our beloved-ness is NOT the point.

As the late Brennan Manning used to say, “We’re all ragamuffins begging at the door of God’s mercy.” So, if God decides to be pleased with me, or calls me beloved—well, that’s a gift. I know how raggedy I am—and God knows me even better; so, where do I get the moxie to tell God what’s what? And yet, if we have any question of whether God really thinks so much of us, we have to look to another story in Scripture—the story of Creation.

While I’m not a literalist about the Creation account, there’s no question for me that it has a deep meaning for all of us. So, we should take it seriously, even if not literally.

Anyway, there are two accounts of Creation in Genesis. One is the short version that briefly mentions each day of creation, and the other goes into some detail about the creation of humanity, and their relationship with God.

We’re told that Creation was called ‘good,’ by God, and humanity was called very good. Humanity, in the form of woman and man, had the privilege of walking with God—and everything was cool, until they wanted to have knowledge like God, and ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Well, once they judged between good and evil—everything changed…

When God showed up, Adam and Eve, (God’s kids) were nowhere to be found. In the Hebrew text, God calls out “Ayeka,” “Where are you?” And the tone is one of abandonment—God feels as lost as he supposes his children were…

As any parent can attest, when your child is right beside you in a crowded place, and then they’re suddenly not there—it’s really scary.

I would imagine there was something like that for God in that moment.

Now, we might say that God is all-knowing, so how could he not know where Adam and Eve were hiding…but, since Adam and Eve knew what they knew—realized they were naked (whatever)—they felt shame and hid because they couldn’t ‘get over it.’ So, it’s as if God had trouble recognizing them as Children of God, because they couldn’t see it in themselves anymore. The Image of God had been diminished. “Where are you,” God says.

Well, when God does find them, it becomes clear what they had done, and these two humans—these two children, try to blame everyone else rather than trying to face their mistakes. And, because they’ve broken the one law God had set for them, they are exiled from the Garden.

But, what’s interesting, is that before they’re sent away, God clothes them. And as we know from the 66 books of the Bible, and every day that we happen to brush up against grace, mercy and love (all of which comes from God); we see that God has spent every day since that break-up trying to remind us that we are beloved, and that we are God’s children…

So, here is one possibility of what could happen when King Alpha, God, opens the door to God’s open heart… We could show-up. We could show up, along with every other ragamuffin who wasn’t originally invited to the party.

And if we still have a hard time feeling and accepting that we are God’s beloved children (even after showing up); we should at least do our best to realize that it is God who clothes us in acceptance and beloved-ness (even demonstrates this through Jesus Christ). But it’s up to us then to do our best to try to live into that gift. This doesn’t mean that we’ll become arrogant about that gift—because when we really wrestle with our being beloved and accepted, I think it makes us recognize how raggedy we really are… And somehow, in that strange dance of trying to live up to our beloved-ness, we will show up; we will do the work which bears fruit for the Kingdom; and we may even get a glimpse of that Kingdom, which through the grace of God has been given to us as an inheritance.

So, today, if you haven’t asked yourself the question, you need to do now; “When was the last time I felt God saying I was a beloved child in whom God was well pleased?” And if it makes you feel squeamish—that’s a really good start (raggedy is okay). But as soon as you begin getting caught up in how terrible, or awful you think you are—if you start playing the old tapes of past mistakes—well, I would ask you to hear God ask “Ayeka?,” “Where are you?” Because the one that God has clothed; the one whom Christ has redeemed, bears the indelible Image of God. And that really is something.

What’s more, when we can do this—wrestle with this identity of beloved-ness; it allows us to better love others, and invite others to do the same soul searching. So, beloved of God, where are you? Will you show up?