Sermon for 20th Sunday After Trinity, 2020

Sermon for Trinity 20

October 25, 2020

Fr. Tony Melton

How many of you have ever heard of the show “Bridezilla”? I won’t ask you if you’ve watched it because I don’t want to think less of you. I have not seen it, but I did see a highlight reel video of the worst scenes one time. It is such a sad thing to see these women, on one of the happiest days of their lives, acting like such a shrew.

I do have some sympathy for these distressed women. On any other day I’m sure they aren’t nearly as snippy as they were in those scenes. Weddings are big deal. Serious business. If they had a biblical view of marriage, they only intended to do this once, so there was pressure that it is done right the first time! There is a fear that it will all go terribly, that they’ll be humiliated, and so the fearfulness of the day swallows the cheerfulness of the day.

Today our topic is the cheerfulness and fearfulness of the Messianic Wedding. Both are proper feelings for the occasion, as we’ll see. But generally there is one without the other, or the other without the one. In the past, during the age of the Puritans, there was such a fear of God’s judgment that it blocked out the cheer of being the Bride of the Son of God. Conversely, we live in the age of celebration, where the holy presence of God is treated with such levity and moral laxity. 

I believe our Gospel and Epistle affirm both of these sentiments: cheer and fear, and the relationship between them is not so much a compromise, or tension, but a paradox. 

This morning, we will first examine the Gospel reading and see the seriousness with which God the Father treats the marriage banquet of His Son, and the way that we, the Church, are to respond to this joyous but deadly serious occasion. Then we will look at St. Paul’s words to the Ephesians in the Epistle, which accentuate the sweet cheerfulness of the Christian life, and specifically of the Liturgy itself, so that we, too, can enter into the cheerfulness of a Spirit-soaked life with the proper soberness that is required. 

You may remember the last homily I gave on the parable of the wedding feast, how the church was to be a gathering people to a world that frequently disregards the invitation of God to His Banquet. When I saw this Gospel reading come up, I thought, “Again? I just preached on that!” But actually, that was 18 weeks ago. Can you believe that? In the 2nd Sunday after Trinity, we hear the parable from Luke 14. Our Gospel today is from Matthew 22. It is much more severe in its tone, and so has a different message. In the first one, from Luke 14, the people who are originally invited to the banquet refuse for this or that reason, and so the maimed and the blind are brought in, and there is still more room, so the master of the house says to “go out into the highways and byways and compel them to come in, that my house shall be filled.” It is very evangelistic and positive. 

But Matthew 22, our passage this morning, though it has the same basic setting…yeesh! The King, who in the parable represents God the Father, invites guests, but they refuse to come, so he sends out messengers again. Most of them simply ignore the messengers again, but some of them beat and kill the King’s messengers. So the king sends an army and kills them all and burns down their city. Then he says, “Okay, go out and bring in anyone who will come, I don’t care who they are.” So the tables are filled. The King enters the hall and sees that one of guests doesn’t have on a wedding garment. He just came in his street clothes. The King is wroth! He says, “Good sir, take one of these extra wedding garments, I can see you forgot yours.” No…The King said, “Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 

Now, the Bridegroom in the story is Jesus. The messengers are the prophets, like John the Baptist. The invitees who ignored the message were typical Israelites. The men who slew the messengers were the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians. The killing of the murderers and the destruction of their city was the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. The people who were invited second are the Gentiles. And the man without the wedding garment? Well, he could be any of us. What’s the message of this parable? You’d better come to the Wedding Banquet, and you’d better come ready. This is a joyous occasion. You’d have to be an idiot to not come. But woe to him who comes underdressed, unworthily, unprepared, unrepentant. Pretty severe isn’t it. Pretty sobering. 

I have an apology to make. In researching for this homily, I came across an instruction in the Prayer Book, called a rubric, that says that I as your priest am supposed to read to you what is called the Exhortation for Holy Communion on Trinity Sunday, the 1st Sunday in Advent, and the 1st Sunday in Lent. I neglected to do it on Trinity Sunday, June 7th. I’m sorry. The Exhortation is a sobering part of the Prayer Book. It’s purpose is to exhort the Faithful to properly prepare themselves for the Eucharist, lest they receive it unworthily and eat and drink judgment on themselves. I’ll read you a portion of it.

"DEARLY beloved in the Lord, ye who mind to come to the holy Communion of the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ, must consider how Saint Paul exhorteth all persons diligently to try and examine themselves, before they presume to eat of that Bread, and drink of that Cup. For as the benefit is great, if with a true penitent heart and lively faith we receive that holy Sacrament; so is the danger great, if we receive the same unworthily.” And later, “Which being so divine and comfortable a thing to them who receive it worthily, and so dangerous to those who will presume to receive it unworthily; my duty is to exhort you, in the mean season to consider the dignity of that holy mystery, and the great peril of the unworthy receiving thereof; and so to search and examine your own consciences, and that not lightly, and after the manner of dissemblers with God; but so that ye may come holy and clean to such a heavenly Feast, in the marriage-garment required by God in holy Scripture, and be received as worthy partakers of that holy Table.”

So you see, the Exhortation in the Prayer Book relates back to the Gospel for this Sunday, the parable of the Wedding Garment. So, if you’re tracking with me, we know that the Wedding Banquet is wonderful but serious business. Jesus has a scary warning to those who would come unprepared. The Prayer Book picks this up and exhorts us to seriously prepare ourselves for Communion. 

Let’s focus on that for a moment. First, it is important that you know that receiving Communion will always do something. It will either communicate to you Life or Death. This is what St. Paul is talking about in 1 Corthinians 11 where some were taking the supper of the Lord unworthily and were getting sick, or even dying. Yet, Jesus says that whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has life. This, to me, is the clearest sign that Communion is truly sacramental, and not just a sign. If it can make you sick by eating unworthily, then it can certainly communicate grace when taken worthily. 

And because God gives Life and Death through this Sacrament, the Prayer Book instructs us “to search and examine your own conscience, and that not lightly, and after the manner of dissemblers with God.” A dissembler is someone who hides their true motives or thoughts. A pretender. It is so easy to trick ourselves into thinking that we are truly penitent. It is so easy to dismiss our faults, or give half-repentance. To say, “I’m done with that,” but somewhere in our minds say, “until later…” To excuse ourselves at the crucial moment, when it is time to cut off the hand, or pluck out the eye, but then we pass off the blame to circumstances, or exhaustion, or legalism. If there is half-hearted repentance on anything, we should deal with it before we come to Liturgy, or during the Liturgy, or we should abstain from Communion. If there is conflict or resentment with a brother or sister in the Lord that is unresolved when you are in line for Communion, then you should break rank and file, walk over to that person, pull them out of the line, and beg for their forgiveness, then go take Communion together. We should not come to the Table unprepared, unrepentant, or as St. Paul says, “unworthily.” 

Because it requires so much work to properly prepare, many in the Church, but especially the Puritans, only gave Communion once per month or even less. This is not without some justification. It would be far better to partake of the Eucharist monthly with proper preparation, than to take it flippantly every week. However, we at Christ the King take it weekly, as the Prayer Book presupposes. This is an intense approach. It calls for weekly preparation. Some might not be up for that, and it is okay to abstain some weeks and to receive a blessing. Whatever frequency is chosen, the regular partaking of Holy Communion establishes a rhythm and a readiness where we are always ready to meet God because we are regularly preparing to meet with Him in the Liturgy. Receiving Communion is practice for the Final Judgment. Every week we get dressed for the banquet. Every week we enjoy the gifts of God from His Table. But even as the King greets His guests joyfully, He can still see if we come without our wedding garment. It is a good thing to meet God in this very real way because we so easily put off the importance of the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. Will He say, “Come, sit, eat. Well done, my faithful servant”? Or will He say, “I never knew you?” “Bind him and cast him out into darkness.” Jesus says, “Many are called, few are chosen.” Let us prepare ourselves for that day. 

Let’s go back to Bridezilla. Those ladies lost the cheerfulness in the fear and anxiety of the wedding day. They weren’t prepared. In all this talk about preparedness, and the consequence of not being prepared, let’s not lose sight of the fact that the Marriage Feast is a happy occasion. For those who had the wedding garment, it was the best party they’d ever been to! And don’t forget that the wedding garment is the righteousness that is given to us by Christ, and formed in us through the power of the Holy Spirit. You don’t have to be perfect to come to the Banquet, you have to be Faithful. You don’t have to have all your ducks in a row, you just have to have God first. You don’t have to climb a mountain, or retrieve some lotus plant, but you do have to submit yourself to Him entirely, to repent of whatever is necessary, to do whatever is necessary, to surrender. 

When our heart is given over in Faith, then we enjoy the cheerfulness of His Spirit. Paul talks about this in the Epistle: “be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” When the Apostles were filled with the Spirit in Acts 2, others thought they were drunk. What do drunk people do? They sing! Paul says to be filled with the Spirit and to sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. 

You want to know why the Church has always sung the Liturgy? We know that they did, not only because Paul mentions in several places Liturgical singing and songs, but also because Pliny the Roman historian tells us that the Christians were always singing the Liturgy. The Church sings the Liturgy because they are cheerfully filled with Holy Spirit. 

So don’t fall into the somber pit of the Puritans and forget that this is the Wedding Feast of God. And don’t be like the man who forgot His wedding garment. The application is simple. Prepare yourself, examine your conscience, commit yourself to God completely, make peace with your neighbor, renew your faith in Christ and His righteousness, and come to the Banquet. Enjoy it. Sing cheerfully, making melody in your heart to the Lord. Sing confidently, knowing that you belong to God and you belong at His table. Amen.