Sermon
at St. John’s Parish Church, West Grimstead, Wiltshire, – Sunday 12th
October 2014
Exodus 32:1-14; Phillipians
4:1-9; Matthew 22:1-14
May
I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and may these words be a
blessing to all who hear them. Amen
“DISTRACTION” AND
“DISCERNMENT”
Like
last Sunday, each of today’s readings blends in nicely with the others and a
clear message, I think, comes from a study of these scriptures and one word
springs to mind – the danger of being distracted from God’s call. Let’s just remind ourselves what is being
said in each.
In
our first reading we hear of Moses’s delay in returning to the people of the
exodus with the covenants and design for the tabernacle which God had given to
him at the summit of Mount Sinai. With
impatience they turn to Moses’s brother, Aaron, and demand that the one true
and living god, Yahweh or Jehovah should be replaced by a god of their own
making using gold from the the same golden earrings with which they were
expected to cover the ark of the covenant. This god was to be a golden calf
(symbolic of the use of real calves which were sliced in two to seal ancient
covenants in the past) and which they themselves would have some control. We
see that act, in hindsight, as a blatant blasphemy – the breach of the second
commandment which we looked at last week – the two timing of God, the
worshipping of another false god or idol. In terms of black and white, as Tom
Wright puts it, it is clearly wrong. But if we look at it in shades of grey,
maybe we can better understand what is going on here. A dispute has, in fact,
arisen as to whether the tribes of the exodus are God’s chosen people or those
of Moses. The people have been led out
of slavery in Egypt, yes, but there they did have plenty to eat and drink and
life was pretty predictable. Since Moses
has led them they have been wandering around not entirely sure where they are
going or why. They have come to the
conclusion that Moses himself may be acting as a god and if he, as their
leader, goes off to commune with the real living god there is a vacuum which
must be filled. They need a god to trust
in to give them some reasoning as to why they are there in the first place.
It
actually seems as though God, Yahweh, himself is acknowledging this to be the
case because in verse 7 he says to Moses ”Go down at once! YOUR people whom you brought out of the land
of Egypt have acted perversely. In other words, they are not my people but
yours and you need to bring them back on to the straight and narrow in order
that they can once again be God’s chosen people. In fact, at first, God, wants to destroy them – “my wrath may burn
hot against them and I may consume them but will make Moses’s a great nation” –
just as he had promised Abraham. Following this exchange, and Moses imploring
Yahweh to accompany the people rather than simply sending angels, the
relationship between Yahweh, Moses and the People is never quite the same and whilst
the people return to being chosen of God yet they are tainted with the darkness
– the unfaithfulness – shown by their blasphemy.
In
our Gospel reading, we are again confronted by distractions. Here the King has prepared a sumptuous
wedding feast for his son but for some reason the guests are reluctant to
attend. They have other distractions to
attend to – the distractions of everyday life it seems – those quite familiar
to all of us here – farming, business meetings, etc. Again, as in our first reading, people chosen
to take part in the feast and like those chosen people in the Exodus, they
rebelled and refused to come.
The
King, a representation of God in the parable, is even more insulted when his
slaves, an allegory on the prophets, are ignored and in fact killed by those
same invitees. They not only reject the
offer of attendance but act violently towards the King’s messengers. Clearly he
was an unpopular man in this parable.
The
King destroys them, just as God would have destroyed those of the Exodus if
Moses had not intervened and invited anyone they could find in the streets,
both good and bad we are told.
Theologians have debated on this point and some think that the good and
the bad gathered together represent Jews and Gentiles and that the destruction
of the homes of those invitees who refused to attend represent the destruction
of the Temple and the birth of the Christian church. I think that is a nice idea but I believe
that the message is far more reaching than that and is to remind us all that,
like those people who made the golden calf, we disobey the call of God at our
peril. Neither distractions nor a deliberate ignoring of the call will be
expected by God.
The
parable of the wedding feast gets even more complicated. The king notices that
one of those who was gathered up from the streets, whom, presumably had never
been expected to attend the wedding feast in the first place, is
inappropriately dressed, and is not wearing a wedding robe. This would have been the height of discourtesy
– a little bit like turning up at a black tie do in jeans and a teeshirt. The
man had been called to attend the wedding feast, after those previously invited
had refused to come, and therefore it would have been expected that those
fortuitous enough to be chosen a second time would have taken the time and
extended the courtesy of robing themselves properly. The king orders the
perpetrator to be bound and thrown out of the party and Jesus ends his parable
with the words – “Many are called but few are chosen”.
What
exactly is he trying to say here? Some
theologians think the lack of the wedding robe is a separate parable but I like
to think that here Jesus is simply saying whatever situation we find ourselves
in we must be prepared for God’s call and if we are not prepared then we will
not be chosen. I do feel sorry for the
person in this story – he might have been homeless or could ill afford a robe
but if he really wishes to attend the feast he should make the effort to
acknowledge the invitation from the king.
This
part of the parable reminds me of a story from my early days as a
solicitor. I was asked to attend the
County Court in Bury, Lancashire and it was not until I arrived at court that
morning, all the way from London, did I find that the hearing was to be in open
court and that I should be suitably robed when I went before the judge. I watched feeling rather helpless as another
advocate, like myself, had been caught out by finding the this morning’s hearing
were not in private chambers, as usual, but in open court. He decided to risk it and began addressing
the judge in just his business suit. “Mr. Smith” the judge glowered rather
ponderously at our man over his half moon spectacles, “I am really sorry but I
simply cannot hear you”. “Oh”, shouted
the young advocate, “Is that any better your Lordship” . “I am sorry I cannot
hear you” repeated the judge. For a
third time the young advocate addressed the judge, rather frustratingly “CAN
YOU HEAR ME NOW” the advocate screamed at the top of his voice. “Mr. Smith”,
then explained the judge “I cannot hear you because you are improperly dressed
before me in an open court” (no robe or tabs). With this I hastily ran out the
court, to the robing room, borrowed some tabs and the ushers gown and hoped the
judge didn’t notice that I was not wearing my proper solicitors’ robes – which
incidentally later got borrowed and never returned by my secretary for a vicars
and Tarts Party! The moral of that
parable of my own was – when going to court, when you are called on make sure
you have the correct dress.
Paul
in our second reading writes something which I have always held very dear to my
heart – he says, towards the end of our piece of scripture – “Whatever is true, whatever is honourable,
whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is
commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of
praise, think about these things”.
In
each of these readings we see the effects of true discernment on the one hand –
knowing when we are called and the value of that call to God - and of
distraction on the other – allowing other things to move us away from what God
is trying to do for us and the preparations we must make.
Paul,
in writing to the Church in Philippi, was well aware of the distraction of that
city – but clearly was pleased in which the way the church had, so far, kept
itself faithful to the message of the gospel and this letter shows Paul’s great
desire to go back there and extols the virtue of the church encouraging it to
remain faithful to the gospel and not rely too heavily on the observance of the
law.
The
message is simple, I think. We should at
all times concentrate our lives on serving God through Jesus Christ and the
Holy Spirit – listening and being ready to for the call when it comes to
minister to his people. Not to be
distracted, as we so often do by the everyday things of our Earthly life. It’s a tall order I know. We frequently make excuses not to do things –
especially in relation to our personal faith – putting them off or telling
ourselves we are too busy. We sometimes
find replacement gods like the golden calf – because we can’t wait for God,
Yahweh, to call us or guide us.
Let’s
not be like those people with Aaron, lets not be like those people of Philippi
who were distracted and lets not be like those who either turned down the
opportunity to to go the feast or when we were called weren’t ready. By following the two commandments left to us
by Jesus, and by following the rule set out by Paul – “Whatever is true, honourable, commendable etc. – think on these
things”.
If
we follow those rules we will be walking alongside Jesus and the true Christian
way.
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