All dressed up...

A sermon preached at Faith Episcopal Church, October 9, 2005.

One of my life-mottos has always been “Overdress, whenever possible.” Not that I haven’t taken frequent and full advantage of “Southern California casual” to wear jeans to the office but I love to dress up. I love to have reasons to dress up. While my “Sunday-go-to-meetin’” clothes are somewhat proscribed by my profession, I always feel that going to church is one opportunity to make a statement that coming before God should be worth the effort. As a kid, it was always dresses and black paten leather shoes. Nostalgia for those days identifies me as a throw-back but maybe that style will come around again and I’ll be retro!

It really surprised me that people don’t even dress up in Paris. While you see gorgeous evening wear in the shop windows – there really isn’t much occasion to wear them. One event to which I was invited was an American law firm’s 150^th anniversary celebration. The Paris office was doing it up right – they had rented museum for the evening, champagne, foie gras, cigars on the veranda, live music, the whole deal. It was quite a soiree. I chose to wear a sexy little black dress with a perfectly Parisian fitted jacket, black suede pumps and tasteful jewelry. Boy did I look great! Boy did I stick out! Many of the women were young associates of the firm and they had come straight from work in skirts and blouses. To me the elegant evening and effort that the firm had put in called for effort on my part – it was my way of respecting the occasion. I’m glad I did it.

Today’s gospel reading is all about accepting invitations and putting on the right clothes. It’s a fairly harsh parable because on the surface reading it has people pulled in off the street for a party and then some poor schmo is told that he’s not dressed right! Well, that would appear to me to be bad manners on the part of the host. But unless we are only willing to see this merely as a confusing story, we will know that God is the host. Let’s look in a little closer detail.

First this parable comes right on the heels of last week’s parable of the violent tenants who killed the emissaries and eventually the son of the vineyard’s owner. Here the same thing happens again over an invitation to a wedding banquet. We have an enraged king and then a war and then a destroyed city. Finally the wedding hall is filled with guest brought in from the streets, both good and bad.

This is a parable of judgment – served up on a very broad platter. Those who ignored the invitation – presumably those who chose not to recognize and celebrate Jesus as the bridegroom suffer God’s wrath by having their city burned. Now Matthew’s community would certainly connect the dots of this story to the destruction of Jerusalem. This passage in the Gospel is used to date it to at least after the year 70 ce when the city was indeed destroyed by Rome. But from there we have a banquet hall filled with a raggedy bunch of folks – good and bad – that’s how Matthew was describing his church. So, the broad strokes of judgment are also meant for Christians, not just for those who didn’t go for Jesus.

The dangerous part of this parable is to think (as has happened in the history of Christianity) that it is judgment on all Jews. It is not – it is for those who have always ignored the invitation to relationship with God and killed the messengers because they didn’t want to hear the message. Righteous people – those living in such a way that is pleasing to God – were not the target of wrath. Even this can lead to dangerous, smug “we’ve got the truth” thinking so the parable finishes with the plot twist. Even if you came to the banquet, if you haven’t put on your righteous robes, don’t think that you can fool God.

Every Sunday, we pray the Collect for Purity. “Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known and from whom no secrets are hid.” God knows what you are wearing and what’s hanging in your closet. And you still get invited to the banquet. The relationship that you chose to have with God is revealed in your choice of garments.

This parable of judgment meant very specific things to its first audience. We are not that first audience so we have to work with this a little bit to see what it means. I hear in this a parable of coherence. It’s not about identifying those within a community that don’t measure up but about all the parts of yourself – the community within your skin. Does your dress match your heart? Do your actions live up to your words? When you heard your invitation to God’s banquet, it was for all of you. It was for the broken parts, the immature and undeveloped parts, the parts that haven’t yet learned how to forgive, particularly the parts that are frightened of being recognized.

The parts of you that are uncertain, that question and doubt find themselves in good company. At the Anglican table, doubt and questions are all the rage. But dressing them up like something they’re not will not fool God. After all, the banquet isn’t a masquerade party. But choosing new clothing and then living up to it – that “clothes make the man” sort of thing is work worthy of the Host.

The best dressed people are those who wear the garments of humility, not trying to force a fashion on others. If we come in the best we have, always prepared to shed old garments and trade them in for new ones that fit our healed and redeemed selves we will not be displeasing to God. The garments of authenticity that say, I’m here and I’m trying. I’m not wearing clothes that fit someone else, but the ones that are genuinely mine.

One easy to overlook idea in this parable about dressing right is that all the other people pulled in off the street – good and bad were acceptably clad to God. God is obviously not looking for perfection, but our willingness to show up humbly. What if we showed up all the time as if life were the wedding banquet? It’s what we pray – make the banquet happen here as it already happens in your hall. Amazing things occur when you look at everyone around you as fellow guests at God’s party. Know that they are also welcome – the things that make them different from us make it a great party.

Trying to describe the banquet – or Heaven or God’s realm – however you call it, helps us to identify those places and situations in need of transformation. I attended the diocesan Peace and Justice Conference yesterday and speaker talked about what we know about God’s banquet. It’s a gathering of peace, and shared blessing, respect, wholeness, trust – all the good things. It’s a good thing to ask – what do I bring to this – how do I prepare for it? What surprises will I find? And of course, what’s the dress code - what am I supposed to wear?