The Joy of the Wedding Feast October 11, 2020, Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Matthew 22:1-14 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to…” said Jesus in a lot of His parables. Ever since then, groups of Christians have tried to build that kingdom of heaven by forming closed, self- contained communities, from ancient monasteries and abbeys to more recent communal experiments. One of the better ones was the Amana Colonies in Iowa. They began in Germany in the 1700’s. They were Protestants, who thought of their leaders as “prophets.” They emigrated to New York state in 1842, but the nearby city of Buffalo was thought to be a bad influence. So, they purchased land in Iowa, and between 1854 and 1864, about 2,000 of them moved to Iowa. There, they lived in seven villages, which they named the Amana Colonies. Individuals did not own the land. All of them owned the land, the buildings, the farms, and the businesses jointly. All worked. Each person was paid an annual sum of money based on the kind of work he or she did. All ate for free. They produced their own food. All meals were prepared and eaten together in large dining halls. But mealtime was not considered a social occasion, so conversation at the table was discouraged. They insisted on governing themselves, and they insisted on having their own schools. They gathered for worship eleven times per week, but they sang no hymns nor did they use musical instruments. Sex, marriage, and childbearing were highly discouraged. When couples did want to marry, the marriage had to be approved by the elders. Weddings were rather solemn affairs. Their lives were highly organized and rigidly structured. They were separated from the bad influences of the world, highly religious, like-minded, hard-working, living in their own bubble. To folks who seek first the kingdom of God, the Amana way of life may seem somewhat attractive. I mean, those Amana folks were strong, not weak. Their way of life was a strong one, a self-sufficient one, not a weak way to live at all. If you lived in the Amana Colonies, you never had to worry about eating alone. Much of the tension between rich and poor was removed. Widows and orphans were looked after. The word amana is Hebrew for “remain faithful.” To folks who seek first the kingdom of God, the Amana way of life certainly seemed to be faithfully maintaining and faithfully protecting the Christian way of life. And so the first thing that strikes us in this kingdom parable about the wedding feast is that the kingdom of God does not center around a way of life. The kingdom of God centers around a person. It centers around the King. Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king…” “A king who gave a wedding feast for his son…” How can we just gloss over that? God wants to prepare a feast for us. God wants us to be His guests. This very fact that God would invite us to His table is a miracle. This is not an order to report for duty. It is an invitation to a party. As one hymnwriter put it, it is an invitation to “come and be glad.” We may think of the Christian way of life as being a rather solemn affair. That’s not the picture Jesus draws for us in this parable. He pictures the kingdom of God as an invitation to a wedding reception, a wedding feast, that centers around the King. What could be more joyful than that? So, the second thing about this parable that strikes us is the refusal of the invited guests. They refuse the invitation of the king. And the king responds with violence. This is where we preachers typically pivot toward the Pharisees and the other leaders who refused Jesus as Messiah and the violent destruction of the Temple forty years later. But if we make that pivot, then we risk losing track of the ground we just covered. Yes, many refuse our King’s joyful invitation. But aren’t we the servants in the parable? Aren’t you and I those who serve the King? Aren’t we the servants who are sent out into the world to hand out the invitations, to lift high the cross? Are we sent out into the world so that we can cluster together and hide from the world, or have we been sent to proclaim with words and deeds that there is a King who invites all to a joyful wedding feast? Yeah, we say, but aren’t some of these servants in the parable treated shamefully or even killed? Yes, they are. Ours is not an easy task. It never has been. Yet, now is not the time for proclaimers of the wedding joy to separate from the world with glum and sour faces. As someone has said, “There must be something festive and happy in our whole Christian life. Otherwise, people will not believe that we are the messengers of the King. If we go about our lives looking as if we’re trying to pass a kidney stone, then instead of looking like we’re going to meet the King we’ll look like we just came from the sheriff who has auctioned off our sins and now we’re sorry we cannot get them back again” (Thielicke). If the world out there prefers to treat Christ shamefully, if folks pivot toward violence or wealth or self-sufficiency or power or hate, well, our King has no prejudices. He would have pivot towards the poor, the disabled, the poor naked wretches whom nobody takes seriously. There’s a place for them, too, at the King’s table. For here’s the most striking thing of all in this parable: the King shall appear. As Jesus says in the parable, “…the king came in to look at the wedding guests…” This was what the angels announced when they said, “Behold I bring good news of great joy, for to you today is born in the royal city of King David a Savior….” The King appeared through the sending of His Son. That’s when the wedding began! The remarriage of God to humankind. The reconciliation of the marriage that was broken in the Garden of Eden. The restoring of Eden, of God’s kingdom, to sinners, to poor naked wretches, to the good and the bad, began through Christ’s death and resurrection. And now as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, that many have clothed yourselves with Christ. You have washed your filthy robes in the blood of the Lamb. You now wear the wedding clothes of the King’s wedding feast. And that’s nothing to be glum or sour about. What bride ever thought it was a solemn chore to put on her bridal gown? If she adorns herself in joyful expectation of seeing the look on her beloved’s face, how much more joyful is our repentant preparation for the coming wedding feast and our proclamation in word and deed that it is coming! Our King is coming! We joyfully look forward to seeing the look on His face! It all centers on Him. The Christian life centers on the King. So, the Christian life is not about hiding out and trying to protect any particular interpretation of the Christian way of life. We are not of the world, but we are in the world. That does not get easier. A glum and sour outlook seems justified. But the greatest mystery of the world is that the King is waiting for us and for those who will yet recognize our joy at being His messengers. Our King is waiting! His table is set. His wine has been poured out for us, for those near and far, for the good and the bad. So, come, and be glad.