Sunday, October 9, 2011

Does God Care What We Wear?

Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

Matthew 22:1-14
A man invites many to a wedding banquet, but throws out one who is "not wearing the wedding garment."

First things first: What’s up with the invitation?
                                                                                                          Jesus has been speaking to the religious leaders, several parables back-to-back about how God’s invitation to the people of Israel has been rejected by Jewish lay and leadership alike, and that some of the initially invited (ii) even killed the messengers.
                                                                                                          Why did the ii reject the invitation? They had other things to do, they put other things first. Perhaps they took the invitation for granted. The passion of the early days was gone.
                                                                                                          Therefore the King invites everybody else.  Those who formerly had no invitation (the Gentiles) are now invited.
• Twenty centuries later, we Gentiles easily forget that we’re not the initially invited. We fall into complacency and a sense of entitlement (which is not unlike the downfall of the initially invited).

• Part 2: What’s up with the wedding clothes?
If part 1 is about invitation expansion, part 2 is about invitation acceptance.
It’s not so much about a wedding party, but about dressing the part.
It’s not so much about what do your clothes look like, but what impression do you leave on people? When people look at you do they see a person transformed by God, or is there nothing visible in you that marks you as belonging to God?

Story: There was a heavyset woman who went to an exercise and diet clinic. The first thing the supervisor did was draw a silhouette on a mirror in the shape she wished to become. As she stood before the mirror, she bulged out over the silhouette. The instructor told her, “Our goal is for you to fit this shape. We recommend this routine of diet and exercise.”
  For many weeks the woman dieted and exercised. Each week she would stand in front of the mirror, but her volume, while decreasing, still overflowed. But she persevered in her recommended diet and exercise routine. Finally one day, to everyone’s delight, as she stood in front of the mirror she was conformed to the image of the silhouette.
& when she went forth, she was a woman transformed, clothed in habits of healthy living.

• Galatians 3:26-27: You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ.
                                                                                                          Pictures of [laborer, runner, doctor, dancer] (tell by clothes)
                                                                                                          Picture of Christian (tell by actions)
• Colossians 3:12-17:
As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. 13Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. 16Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. 17And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

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