The Glory of Grace

Text: Matthew 22:1-14

Focus: Grace

Function: To give people a sense of assurance of salvation.

Form: GOK

Intro: Like many of you, I come from a fairly religious family. My dad was a preacher all of his life. My eldest brother was a preacher, two of my nieces, two of my nephews are preachers. And, we cover a variety of churches from Brethren, to Methodist, to Nazarene to Orthodox.

My niece, married to an orthodox priest, posed this question on Facebook this week: "what is the prophecy about the red heifer?"

I remember hearing something about it in the 60's.

In Numbers 19:1-10, we read that the dedication of the temple must take place with the sacrifice of a red cow. And in the 60's, when I was young and listening a lot to different people's interpretation of how end times prophecy would unfold some people's interpretation of end times prophecies was that a new temple will be built in Jerusalem That was necessary to fulfill the prophecy that the Antichrist will descrate the temple. No temple, no Antichrist, was the logic.

And this one person was telling us how much closer this was to be fulfilled by talking about the red heifer.

He said that there are no red heifers anymore. I don't know if that is true. But he pointed to a scientific article about breeding a red heifer. If they succeeded, then the temple could be built, then dedicated and finally, it could be desecrated and the Lord will return.

I refuse to get caught up in the debates about the end times.

But it got me to thinking about this morning's text.

Especially the last verse: "Many are called, but few are chosen."

Or, the man who attended the wedding feast who was not dressed properly.

These two verses were part of my own spiritual journey. They were a significant part. And end time prophecy filled part of this.

I remember Annual Conference in Pittsburgh and we had a good ol' fashioned Hymn sing with the blood atonement songs.

I like: "Are you washed in the blood of the lamb." It moves me.

But there is this line in there, partly from today's text: "when the bridegroom cometh, will your robes be white?"

The questions: "Who is chosen? Whose robes are the right kind of robes? Who is properly dressed for the wedding feast?" foster doubt. They can also foster fear.

When I read these questions, a sort of insecurity comes back to me. And I hate to admit it, but fear was part of my spiritual birth.

It happened to my dad as well. And this story of his illustrates it well:

In 1943, my dad had a religious experience. He came home from school and the people who were supposed to be home were inexplicably gone. In panic, he called his grandmother, a godly woman, and was relieved when she answered the phone because he knew that if the rapture happened, she would be the first to go.

So he was thrilled when she answered the phone and she questioned him. He told her his fear and then she said: "Eddie, what sin is in your life that you are not sure you are going?"

Mine is similar. Although I trusted in Christ in 1961, In 1967, right after the 7 days war in Israel, my two older brothers came home from youth group fired up about the end times. They came to my twin brother and me convinced that we were not ready.

I saw their panic and I doubted. I didn't want to miss it, so I too, had a religious experience that night.

Now, the first thing I do before I preach any text is pray about it and make the decision based on the answer to this question: "What is the focus of the passage?"

And overwhelmingly, to me, this is a passage about grace.

Once understand the point, again I pray and I decide on a particular function for the sermon. Hopefully, that keeps me focused.

So, today, the function is to give people an assurance of grace.

But I make two promises to you about every sermon I attempt to preach here:

1). I will never willingly, or knowingly, preach a sermon to you that will frighten you into God's family and 2). Never will I intend to manipulate anyone through shame."

When someone asks me if I believe in the devil, my answer is this: "I believe in his power to shame people."

Satan is the accuser of the Brethren.

He is the one who places doubt in our minds that maybe somehow something is lacking in us. Something that is a sort of feeling of angst, an "ought to" that we are missing that keeps us from God's love.

The Bible says: God is love. There is and should be a period right there!

The Bible also says that nothing can separate us from God's love.

That same chapter says that there is NO CONDEMNATION FOR THOSE IN CHRIST JESUS. Again, there is and should always be a period there.

So, instead of manipulating you with fear about whether or not your robes are the proper shade of white, whether or not you are chosen let me assure that this is a parable about grace. It is.

Look. This passage is about God's unconditional invitation to anyone who would come into His family.

Fear and shame is not the way God calls us to Himself.

My dad was a great man. In a denomination that preached hell fire and brimstone, by daddy always preached the great love of God. And it was clear that he loved God. His faith was attractional. His joy was his strength.

When I was a young man, I rejected Christianity and dabbled in the occult.

I did some bad things.

I wanted to a Savior, but I didn't want a Lord.

The idea of giving myself, giving my life, over to God didn't set well with me. I wanted my life on my terms. But, I could not deny the reality of my dad's faith.

Dad was a good man. No matter how far from the fold I strayed, I could never ever deny God's love because of my dad's love for me.

When I came back to Christ, I felt sorry for the way I had rejected dad.

So, for two years, every time the family got together, I kept breaking into tears and begging his forgiveness.

Finally, dad got upset and questioned if I believed that he loved me. Why didn't I accept his forgiveness and love? Why did I keep dragging my own shame up?

Well, I was attending a church that kept dragging up my shame as well. My pastor kept telling us that maybe we too suffered from the dilemma that we were at the wedding feast and we were not dressed appropriately.

And that IS NOT the point of this parable.

The point of the story is the amazing example of inclusion to those who ended up at the feast.

Those who were invited to come were to self involved to be bothered.

They didn't understand what they were missing.

So, the master calls anyone, everyone, no matter who they are to come to the table.

Is it about the Jews?

No, it is about the self-righteous and proud. Or those who cannot be bothered with the community of love that God's kingdom gives.

That is the story. The ones who thought they should be "in" were not. God's family is bigger than those hearing the parable could imagine.

The passage is about joining God's family through grace.

The emphasis is on who is invited.

And the point is everyone. Especially, those who did not gauge themselves to be worthy, or important enough.

It is a wide and open door to salvation.

So what addendum to the story about the wedding garments?

Well, it symbolizes that inclusion is by grace and no other way. No other way.

We do not earn salvation by birth, class, race, gender or any other means. Salvation is God's free gift.

Although we do not know exactly what is meant by garments that are not suitable for the occasion, we can only surmise that it means we understand the importance or the significance of the event.

I performed a wedding two weeks ago in West Virginia.

We had a blast.

I got to wear my tuxedo, Kathy has a matching color gown. We dressed up and put on the Ritz in honor of the occasion.

So, again, what is meant: Many are called but few are chosen?

Dressing like that was a way to honor the occasion. It was out of respect.

Respect the gift, that is the point.

One commentator says this: "This pithy saying (...few are chosen) serves as a warning.... ...Most translations treat it literally, but in its original Aramaic it takes a slightly different meaning.

The phase is an Aramaic idiom that needs help in translation.

"Everyone is invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb, but not everyone gets a seat at the table - not everyone gets to be one of God's new people. There is one way in: Through God's grace and mercy."

I want to keep this in context. Since the metaphor of the feast is the open invitation rejected by those who thought they were "in."

Then the open invitation is accepted by those that no one would have guessed were coming.

And the man not dressed properly didn't honor the glory of the invitation.

He treated it lightly.

The emphasis in the context is the openness of invitation, the unconditional nature of God's grace.

And those who reject love, or grace are not in.

But the important thing for us to remember is that the Kingdom of God is also known as the Family of God.

Yes, I didn't feel like I wanted a Lord to direct my life. But I understand something much greater now. The Lord of life is also the perfect loving parent, just like my dad was.

And the invitation is not an invitation to escape the wrath of final judgment, it is not an invitation to fear the wrath of a Omnipotent, and sometimes mis-described as an arbitrary bully, no. The invitation is a seat at the table in the family of God with people that we would not have expected to be there.

And that means it is big enough for sinners just like me.