On the Way to Wonder

First Reading: Isaiah 45:1-7

 ¹Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus,
  whose right hand I have grasped
 to subdue nations before him
  and strip kings of their robes,
 to open doors before him—
  and the gates shall not be closed:
 ²I will go before you
  and level the mountains,
 I will break in pieces the doors of bronze
  and cut through the bars of iron,
 ³I will give you the treasures of darkness
  and riches hidden in secret places,
 so that you may know that it is I, the Lord,
  the God of Israel, who call you by your name.
 ⁴For the sake of my servant Jacob,
  and Israel my chosen,
 I call you by your name,
  I surname you, though you do not know me.
 ⁵I am the Lord, and there is no other;
  besides me there is no god.
  I arm you, though you do not know me,
 ⁶so that they may know, from the rising of the sun
  and from the west, that there is no one besides me;
  I am the Lord, and there is no other.
 ⁷I form light and create darkness,
  I make wealth and create woe;
  I the Lord do all these things.

Psalm: Psalm 96:1-9 [10-13]

 ¹Sing to the Lord a new song;
  sing to the Lord, all the earth.
 ²Sing to the Lord, bless the name of the Lord;
  proclaim God’s salvation from day to day.
 ³Declare God’s glory among the nations
  and God’s wonders among all peoples.
 ⁴For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised,
  more to be feared than all gods. 
 ⁵As for all the gods of the nations, they are but idols;
  but you, O Lord, have made the heavens.
 ⁶Majesty and magnificence are in your presence;
  power and splendor are in your sanctuary.
 ⁷Ascribe to the Lord, you families of the peoples,
  ascribe to the Lord honor and power.
 ⁸Ascribe to the Lord the honor due the holy name;
  bring offerings and enter the courts of the Lord. 
 ⁹Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness;
  tremble before the Lord, all the earth.
 ¹⁰Tell it out among the nations: “The Lord is king!
  The one who made the world so firm that it cannot be moved will judge the peoples with equity.”
 ¹¹Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad;
  let the sea thunder and all that is in it; let the field be joyful and all that | is therein.
 ¹²Then shall all the trees of the wood shout for joy at your coming, O Lord, for you come to judge the earth.
 ¹³You will judge the world with righteousness
  and the peoples with your truth.

Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

.¹Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,
  To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
  Grace to you and peace.

  ²We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly ³remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁴For we know, brothers and sisters beloved by God, that he has chosen you, ⁵because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of persons we proved to be among you for your sake. ⁶And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, ⁷so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. ⁸For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith in God has become known, so that we have no need to speak about it. ⁹For the people of those regions report about us what kind of welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, ¹⁰and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath that is coming.

Gospel: Matthew 22:15-22

¹⁵Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap [Jesus] in what he said. ¹⁶So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. ¹⁷Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” ¹⁸But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? ¹⁹Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. ²⁰Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” ²¹They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” ²²When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.

CHILDREN’S SERMON:  Today I am going to share one of my favorite poems by Robert Frost.  The Road Not Taken 

SERMON

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

   Let us pray:  Lord, may the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart glorify you, my rock and redeemer.  Help us as we ponder the roads we choose.

SERMON

As I write this sermon, one of the questions dominating the news in the US this week has been whether Judge Amy Coney Barrett will make a good US Supreme Court Justice.  I have periodically tuned in to the questioning and answers. The back and forth is worse than a tennis match and requires a depth of legal awareness that is beyond me.  But as I write this sermon, it seems to me the questioning of Jesus in the text is not dissimilar to our modern day situation. Jesus is in Jerusalem, the Washington DC of the Jewish world.  He is at the Temple, the center of government, and he is before leaders. He is in the public eye.  I’m guessing CNN would have loved to be there covering that interview.  Instead we have Matthew’s report.  He is the middle of reporting about that last week of Christ’s life. Can you feel the tension in the air of this story?  The last couple of Sundays we have reflected on Jesus’  parables given about the kingdom of heaven, comparing Judaism to God’s vineyard, and the leaders seem to be the bad guys.  Accountability is coming and the leader’s feathers are ruffled.  The Jewish leaders are “plotting.”

“Then” is the starting word of our text.  We have switched from parables shared by Jesus to the response by those threatened.  Pharisees and Herodians unite to question Jesus.  Both are groups within the Jewish system but Pharisees are defenders of Mosaic law (Pharisees want to be fair, you see), defending Jewish spiritual tradition, and Herodians are defenders of the Herod dynasty, involving Jewish political tradition.  It feels to me similar to the debate now among leaders with differing opinions on how the law is interpreted (I hear the word “originalists”) verses the side that pleas for impact on society by the law (how many might loose coverage if a law is reversed).  Leaders representing the application of law are in debate with ones referring to the meaning of those who wrote the law.  One thread running through the interview is the difference between meaning and impact. 

         In today’s text, the two sides, Pharisees and Herodians, come together to ask Jesus a question designed to trap.  “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar?” Caesar represents the hated Roman empire that abuses all of them.  To what extent must the Jews obey a repressive, abusive regime?  This is a moral, ethical question but it is also a legal question.  We stand at the intersection of the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of this world.  Twice in the text we are told the intent of the question is “to entrap” and asked with “malice.”  Jesus even went to far as to call the questioners “hypocrits.”  Ouch! 

“Then.”  Faith lives out its reality in a world of often-murky forces and in response to difficult choices.  Our civil responses occur within the context of our religious beliefs.  Both systems bear weight on us.  I am compelled to obey the speed laws but I am also told by faith to forgive the guy who cuts me off in traffic and not give him the finger. Hmmm.  I am compelled to pay taxes but the honesty with which I respond is a matter of conscience.  Today leaders ask us to wear masks but our response is a personal choice. Clear but not so clear.  Our faith is lived in a context, in the response of “then.”  Those responses often reveal the intent of our heart.  The leaders were trying to entrap Jesus and were malicious in their question.  The answer was obvious.  We must obey the law…but….  I suspect some of the question going on to day may also come from a motive to entrap.  We are so human!  As we respond to situations, we must always check the motives of our heart and then act.

Jesus responds, “¹⁸But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites?”  Jesus does not avoid the question because it is malicious or murky, designed to trap him. He stands firm in the midst of the mess. For most it is difficult to find God in the midst of situations that challenge faith.  In the face of death, war, poverty and disease, we often throw up our hands and ponder, where is God.  How can a God of love allow the civil reality of injustice?  Our pain and discomfort blinds us to a bigger reality and we forget that we live in this civil world that is fallen and we live by a spiritual reality that is eternal.  God is working and answering our question and not afraid of our dilemmas.   Jesus does not zap the Pharisees and the Herodians but uses their duplicity as a teaching moment.

Jesus answers.  We live in two realities.  We must give to Caesar that which is Caesar’s and give to God that which is God’s.  When we burn the candle at two ends, we must not be surprised if we burn out.  If we dabble with pornography, is it a surprise there are marital problems?  If we play with fire, we get burned.  Disease kills people and our lives are in God’s hands. The kingdom of the world has truth and consequences. We live in a civil reality.

 But we must also give to God, that which is God’s. Now here comes the bind.  Our civil responsibilities are measured by works but our spiritual responsibilities are issues of loyalty and allegiance and are open to debate about our heart’s intent.  Next week we will focus on Reformation and the truth that we are saved by grace, by faith to do good works.  Our good works do not save us but are an expression of our love of God.  Giving to God is loving God with our whole heart, our whole mind, and with all our strength and loving our neighbor as ourselves. Justice is tempered with mercy.  Hate is answered with love.  Sin is met with forgiveness.  Civil rules and spiritual rules are different.

So. Let’s go back to our original scenario, the debates we are living with today in our culture.  I would not want to end this sermon leaving the impression that there is only one way, one candidate, one perspective that speaks into our quandaries today.  The answer is not Republican or Democrat, choose a judge now or wait til after the election   Fortunately good, godly people stand on both sides of the isles on these issues and we have the freedom to engage them in public debate even as Jesus engaged people who questioned him, in the Temple. 

The last line to the text today comforts me, “²When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.”  As these people engaged with Jesus, ^“’they were amazed; and they left him and went away.  Coming to Jesus diffuses some of the malice and drive to entrap the other.  Engaging with God and not just arguing our case defuses arguments and anger.  His wisdom goes beyond our reasoning.  As we go to the polls in a few days, we submit to our civil system of choosing leaders.  But as we ponder our choices we submit to a God who sees our hearts and sees what malice may be lying therein.  May we never forget “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6:12)”  Our enemy is not our neighbor.  Our prayer, people will be awed and political unrest will be avoided.  Lord have mercy on us!

First Reading: Isaiah 25:1-9

 ¹O Lord, you are my God;
  I will exalt you, I will praise your name;
 for you have done wonderful things,
  plans formed of old, faithful and sure.
 ²For you have made the city a heap,
  the fortified city a ruin;
 the palace of aliens is a city no more,
  it will never be rebuilt.
 ³Therefore strong peoples will glorify you;
  cities of ruthless nations will fear you.
 ⁴For you have been a refuge to the poor,
  a refuge to the needy in their distress,
  a shelter from the rainstorm and a shade from the heat.
 When the blast of the ruthless was like a winter rainstorm,
  ⁵the noise of aliens like heat in a dry place,
 you subdued the heat with the shade of clouds;
  the song of the ruthless was stilled.
⁶On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
  a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines,
  of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.
 ⁷And he will destroy on this mountain
  the shroud that is cast over all peoples,
  the sheet that is spread over all nations;
  ⁸he will swallow up death forever.
 Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces,
  and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth,
  for the Lord has spoken.
 ⁹It will be said on that day,
  Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us.
  This is the Lord for whom we have waited;
  let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

Psalm: Psalm 23

 ¹The Lord| is my shepherd;
  I shall not be in want.
 ²The Lord makes me lie down in green pastures
  and leads me beside still waters.
 ³You restore my soul, O Lord,
  and guide me along right pathways for your name’s sake.
 ⁴Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil;
  for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 
 ⁵You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
  you anoint my head with oil, and my cup is running over.
 ⁶Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
  and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. 

Second Reading: Philippians 4:1-9

¹My brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.

  ²I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. ³Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life.
  ⁴Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. ⁵Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. ⁶Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

  ⁸Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, 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. ⁹Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

Gospel: Matthew 22:1-14

¹Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: ²“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. ³He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. ⁴Again he sent other slaves, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.’ ⁵But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, ⁶while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. ⁷The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. ⁸Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. ⁹Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’ ¹⁰Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.
  ¹¹“But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, ¹²and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?’ And he was speechless. ¹³Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ ¹⁴For many are called, but few are chosen.”

CHILDREN’S SERMON: Do you remember some of those pithy little sayings your mother used to say when she wanted to teach you.  I can still hear my mother saying,  “A stitch in time saves nine,”  “The early bird catches the worm,” and “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.”  I would end with “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.”  What did she want me to learn?  Show respect for others and to those I  might work for but necessarily agree with. This was a  guideline on how to behave when I was dependent.  It applies to our text today.

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, my rock and redeemer.

SERMON

According to the Jewish Wedding Guide, one of the holiest days of a person’s life is the wedding day.  The wedding banquet is full of symbolism and meaning.

         “The dawning wedding day heralds the happiest and holiest day of    one’s life. This day is considered a personal Yom Kippur for the       groom and bride, for on this day all their past mistakes are forgiven   as they merge into a new, complete soul.” 

For those who have never married this may sound a bit superlative, over the top and perhaps you refer back to your baptism when a similar union happened between you and God.  Or perhaps the memories of the dreams of the wedding day are tinged with memories of the pain of divorce.  This is a parable that teaches us about the kingdom of heaven.

         In today’s text, according to Matthew, Jesus has entered Jerusalem and is the last week of his life.  His time is limited and he does not mince words.  “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to…”  We have gone from a parable about a distant landowner who seeks to settle with his vineyard and his tenants, to a wedding banquet that symbolizes a union, a commitment of relationship, a culmination of a journey and it involves community.  The wedding banquet is the bringing together of two flawed people to become one and start clean, forgiven, a new start.  Our modern age carries a more individualistic idea of fulfillment but let’s ponder the story. 

         In Jewish tradition, the parents write a contract a year earlier, making the commitment. Mary was betrothed to Joseph and the bride is expected to live another year with her parents having no relations with men.  At the end of the year, the groom comes when he has prepared housing, when she has remained committed, and the wedding banquet takes place.  The community rejoices with the couple and a new start is begun.

         As with all Jesus’ parables there is a problem.  The king announces the banquet for the wedding of his son by sending out his slaves but people do not respond.  They turn down the invite.  How can that be?  In 1994 we were stationed in Nairobi for 6 months and my husband worked in the Bishop’s office learning the job from the man he would replace after furlough.  One day a letter arrived at our apartment with a blue and gold strip across the corner of it.  Returnee was State House.   When my husband came home I showed it to him and asked what it was about.  We opened it and it was an invitation to a party at State House with the President of Kenya.  It was an invitation to the White House to dine with the President.  Questions flew – who?  Me, the daughter of a US Postal inspector?  What do I wear?  Oh my gosh, our rattle-trap car would never do to drive up to the White House!  My husband assured me it had nothing to do with me but his job, a routine invite, but indeed it was an invite to the White House. 

         The king in this parable offers a wedding invitation to come to his house and the people refuse.  Perhaps it is a scam – can the king have a son without a wife?  Perhaps the people saw themselves as unworthy and that the invite went to the wrong address.  Perhaps the king is a Democrat and they are a Republican.  Perhaps the people truly had other demands on their life that seemed to need immediate attention – health, finances, family duties.  The invitation did not fit their agenda.  One writer suggested that the king was known to be strict and like the man who hid his one talent, these folks were scared and hid from the king.  For whatever reason, the people who were first invited refused to come to the banquet.

         But there is a second type of refusal.  The king is furious and determined to have people at his banquet so sends out a second wave of invitations.  One man is invited to the banquet, goes, but insists on doing it his way.  He does not have on the wedding robe that is given at the door.  How did he sneak past the slaves?  Perhaps he is like the people who cry “Lord, Lord,” but to whom Jesus says, “I never knew you.”  They talk the talk and say the right words, go to the right places, but their hearts are far from God.  They want the feast but they do not love the feast giver.  This man is thrown out.

         The parable seems clear that the kingdom of God is composed of people who want to be in relationship with the king and live under his reign and those who are not interested in his banquet or want to do it their way.  We might whine that it seems very severe but as far as I know, I must pay the entrance fee to get into Disneyworld, I must register to vote and be an American, and I must pay into an insurance program if I want them to help with bills.  Relationships have boundaries and guidelines, that’s basic to our understanding of how systems work.  When those rules show favoritism and exclude segments of society we object.

         So how do we understand this challenging parable and find grace:  One very Lutheran way to look at Scripture is to ask oneself what I am being told about law versus gospel.   Law and Gospel are always in tension even as God’s sovereignty and people’s free will are in tension.  Law is the aspect of the passage that drives us to repentance, drives us to Jesus.  As I face Scripture I realize my short comings and my need for grace.  I have not loved God with my whole heart, mind and soul and I have not loved my neighbor as myself.  We started service confessing this as we come into God’s presence today.  Gospel reveals the grace and goodness of God and gives me hope.  My sins are forgiven.

         Let’s start with law.  Where am I convicted by this parable? 

Relationships are not one-way affairs!  Just because I am invited does not mean I have to go.  RSVP is often at the bottom.  An invite is not a court order.  God will not force us to live in his kingdom if we don’t want to.  So, if relationships are two way, I must ask myself, “Is my cell phone charged?”  Am I fulfilling my end of the deal?

         Rejection hurts.  We are not talking about an impersonal “Force” like in Star Wars but we are talking about a God in whose image we are created, a being with emotions, with thoughts, with expectations. He is outraged when his servants are hurt or when we refuse his goodness.  Is there some aspect of God’s personality that I take for granted?

         Actions have consequences.  God is not Santa Claus.  Few of us have received coal in our stockings and we somehow think God’s love ignores our shortcomings.  We trust God will understand our limitations.  God somehow becomes a cosmic teddy bear that will do good to us in the end. This parable shatters those cozy ideas of God that soften our fear of an angry judge.  God does expect us to RSVP and show up and respect his representatives.  God is not a neutral Force.  And God is not Santa Claus.  The parable confronts me with my sinful tendency to take God for granted and expect his goodness.  I am called to repent of my self-centeredness and turn to God-centeredness.

         Enough for law.  Where do I find Gospel, the good news, the hope for living life?

         The king does not show favoritism but invites all.  I do not see any indication that some are chosen and others are not invited based on some standard known only to the king.  All are invited but the choice to respond is upon us.  But I must point out that I am saved by the King’s grace, not by my cleverness to accept the invitation..  I love to say that when I am old, when I am sick, when I am blinded by Alzheimers or mental illness, God hold’s on to me because he is faithful, not because I have a great abundance of faith.  He is faithful.  HE is the king.  The good and the bad are invited.  Those who started work early in the day and those that came at the last minute.

         Do you notice that the king is not defeated in his goal by the resistant townspeople nor our arrogance.  The banquet is prepared!

         God sees and cares that his servants are mistreated.  It is easy to whine when we are down and think God is busy over somewhere else and does not see the injustices of life.  This parable talks about a king who sends servants, cares how his servants are treated and who will execute justice some day.  Mercy is a gift, not an expectation to be assumed.

         The last line of the parable is Gospel, I think.  “Many are called but few ae chosen.”  We are a chosen people.  None of us will run for President, I don’t think, but all of us are “chosen.”  That’s a pretty big word.  God invites us to his banquet.  God provides all the food.  It’s not a pitch-in or left overs.  God provides just the right outfit for us to wear.  And God himself comes to the banquet to meet with us.  Wow!  The banquet is the start of a whole new stage of life when we are whole with God.  Our past faults are forgiven.  We are invited to a wedding banquet.  Let us rejoice and share the invitation.