Standing on Grace

October 13, 2002

Exodus 32:1-14/ Matthew 22:1-14

It doesn’t take long does it? It doesn’t take long for the Hebrew children to throw away their God and move on. It doesn’t take long for the Israelites to determine that their God is not as beneficent as they thought. It doesn’t take long before they have abandoned God for the calf made of gold.

Because of it God’s wrath burns against his chosen people. God wants to do them in but Moses intervenes and God changes God’s mind. No reason is given for this. It seems quite incongruent that a person could be more sympathetic and more merciful than God but Moses is and because of it he saves his people. Perhaps Moses understands better than God what it is to be human. Maybe Moses understands better than God how difficult it is to keep faith alive. Maybe Moses understands better than God the great comfort there is in certainty and how truly tempting it is.

Is there a person alive who would not take certainty over faith?

Moses had not been gone long. And if you read those chapters in Exodus you will find the reason for his absence. He is not only collecting the Ten Commandments but perhaps the whole law. God was blessing Moses and the people of Israel with God’s law. This is nothing less than perhaps the best event in the history of Judaism. If you understand the reverence given to God’s law in Judaism and you understand that this law given by God is what set them apart from their neighbors and you realize the place that the law had in ancient Hebrew society then you start to understand how important this moment was to Israel.

But as Aaron and the leaders and the people waited for Moses to return it wasn’t enough that he was coming with the very blessing of God. It wasn’t enough that God was giving them sacred instruction. It wasn’t enough that they were living with a wonderful promise of a homeland, a way of life, and a great nation ordained by God. It wasn’t enough compared to the certainty of a god they could see and worship and know. It is easy enough for all human beings to give up on long term rewards for short term comfort. We do it all the time. The Hebrew children couldn’t wait so they made the golden calf.

What seemed like the absence of God and abandonment by Moses was really the very blessing of God being created just for them. But they didn’t believe that they could be so blessed.

Believing you are blessed is essential if you are going to be happy. Jesus understood this. I am sure you are familiar with what he said early in his ministry. In his speaking he seems to have had a formula where he began his talks with telling everyone how blessed they were. And if I read it right he would include the most unblessed people in his list. This formula which he probably used all the time when he was preaching is reported to us in the section in the Gospel of Matthew known as the Sermon on the Mount. You remember these familiar words. “Blessed are the meek; Blessed are those who morn; Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you.” In Jesus’ mind there was not anyone who was not blessed.

It is a powerful thought but it is hard to believe. The Israelites out in the desert following Moses didn’t believe it and they were miserable. The irony was that they were even more blessed than they could imagine. Moses was up receiving the law and when he found out what happened he did not condemn them. Moses who had nothing but trouble from this bunch intervened before God for them. They bemoaned their plight constantly while blessing was all the time working for them. If they had understood the blessing that was at work for them through God and through Moses I am not sure they would have acted the way they did. The question was not were they blessed, the question was did the understand it and did they appreciate it. If they had they would not have been so lost.

But how hard it is to believe in our blessings. The story read from the Gospel of Matthew that Jesus tells is instructive. It points out how much we need to perceive and understand our every blessing.

It is a story about a marriage feast given by a king. Now a marriage feast was a big deal in those days. It was a much bigger deal than today. And if royalty was involved well it could be heavenly. In fact Jesus starts this story by saying that “The Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who gave a marriage feast for his son.” (Matt 22:2) With the king involved it would have been spectacular indeed. There would be processions from the bride’s house to the groom’s house with many attendants and much fanfare. The whole glorious lot would arrive at the party together where there would be food and drink and games and merriment. It would go on for days. In this case maybe a week. No one would work, a holiday would be declared, and if it were a wedding at the best time of year it would come after the harvest so that all could relax and enjoy the plenty.

The king in the story graciously invites a multitude to the party. And that is where the trouble starts. The first group refuses. They had no interest in this party. It is hard to believe that anyone would refuse such an invitation. But it is said that they had other more important things to do.

After a rather ugly incident the king invites others who were not invited the first time. Presumably, the second group accepts the invitation as you would think all of us might. They go to the party. And the wedding takes place. But that is only the beginning of the story.

At the banquet hall the king finally arrives. And then makes a bee line toward one of the guests. And the king says, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?” (Matthew 22:12) It is rather and absurd question when you think about it. This guy, whoever he may be, and we are given no details about who he is but we are told that the king picks him out. All we know is that he was one who was a part of the second wave of guests. That means that he was not on the first list. That means that he could have had no inkling that morning when he got up that he might be going to a wedding feast that day. But when he gets there he is asked point blank how come he isn’t wearing the right clothes. How could he be dressed for a wedding he had only heard that day? I am sure that he was dressed for work and that is how he shows up at the wedding because no one knew until he or she was invited that he or she would be at a wedding that day.

What do you make of that?

Always wear your Sunday best? Maybe?

But I don’t think the issue is about clothes. I don’t think there are many important moral lessons that have to do with how you dress. And remember Jesus said right up top that this story was about the kingdom. So I think we need to look a little deeper than the fashion aspect of the story.

It seems to me that the most important detail of the story is that the man cannot answer the question. But it is a question with a completely obvious answer. “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?” (Matthew 22:12) The king invited him. He accepted the invitation. But the man doesn’t answer he remains speechless. And with that he is banished to the outer darkness.

If you don’t know how blessed you are you are lost. It is like being banished the outer darkness.

God has given you your life. God has given you this earth. God brings the sun up every day. The rich earth that sustains our lives, the joy and the love and the friendships that surround us, even the challenges and the struggles are the way that God has blessed us. But if you don’t receive it as a gift and live unto God with humble thanksgiving you don’t understand what you have been given. And worse than that by not appreciating the many blessings of God you can make life out to be a terrible and dark event.

This life is better than that and God has given you all the capacity for faith to make it the feast which God intends. It is up to us to answer the question, “Friend how is it you are here at this feast of blessing?” In your answer you hold your very life. In Christ Jesus. Amen.