"What Kind of Celebration?" - A Sermon

I heard a strange report on the radio Friday.  It was the financial show, and each day, depending on how the stock market goes, they either play “We’re in the Money” or “Stormy Weather,” during the opening.  On Friday, however, they came on and said, “We were tempted to play the happy music because the Dow only lost 125 points today.”

Strange celebration, isn’t it?  That’s called a celebration of RELIEF.  

There are all sorts of celebrations in our lives.  If you remember that old movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” there’s a scene where there was a run on the bank, and Jimmy Stewart and his new wife are able to save their Savings and Loan but doling out their Honeymoon money to panicked customers.  At the end of the day they have $2 left -- and they do a little dance to celebrate having survived the day.  Better yet, they put those two dollars in a safe and say, “Let’s see if we’ve got any more in the morning.”  Their modest little celebration is on HOPE.  There will be a new day, and it will be better.

There are darker celebrations, too.  When I was an exchange student in Berlin back in the 70s, one of my teachers told me about a huge rally they’d had during World War II at the Olympic Stadium.  It was a giant party, she said.  That was the rally where Josef Goebels asked them if they wanted total war to the end, and the crowd, whipped up into a frenzy, all shouted “Yes!” and “Death to the Allies!” and “No surrender!” and so on.  In was a celebration -- but of defiance and desperation mingled with hatred and fear.

Which, when you think about it, isn’t all that different from the Old Testament reading.  There’s a celebration going on there, too.  There’s a people who are fed up and frightened.  They have been following this Moses guy for who knows how long, and what have they got for it?  They’re lost.  Alive, but lost.  And now he’s up on the mountain with earthquakes and storms going on.  They want someone they can see.

So the pressure Aaron into making a golden calf so they can worship it right there.  The party they have is pure debauchery.  They had their golden calf -- something they could finally control -- and that was all that mattered.  They had given up and sunken into a mentality of “NOTHING MATTERS.”  Their celebration was one of DEFIANCE and at the same time HOPELESSNESS.

Contrast that with the wedding feast.  Weddings are celebrations of life -- and of hope that life goes on.  The strange parable we have about the wedding needs a little explanation, but in the end, it’s about chosing to be part of life.

You know that weddings -- especially royal weddings -- were huge affairs.  This story has the king inviting all the important people -- the chosen people if you will.  They refuse to come, to celebrate with the king.  Some even kill the messengers.  Think about it:  they brushed him off like he didn’t matter, and some even showed outward contempt.  This king face a crisis in his kingdom -- and his response, as Jesus tells it -- was typical.  If you kill the king’s messengers, you face death as a result.  As a side note, he’s reminding the disciples -- his messengers -- that they also will face the same treatment when they bring the gospel.

Then the king does a strange thing.  He goes out and invites pretty much everyone else -- the poor, the unworthy, the unwelcome.  He says, “this is a celebration of life, so let’s see who’ll celebrate.”  And they come.  He’s happy.  The wedding couple is presumably happy.  

Now for the twist.  There’s one guy at the wedding who is not dressed right.  Don’t think that means he’s poor and just can’t afford a good robe.  No, this is different.  Even the other poor came appropriately dressed because there was no need for finery -- only respect of the occasion.  Most of the new attendees were poor but were given time and opportunity to clean up.  Several experts suggest that the host even provided robes for those who did not have them.  By the way, wearing a wedding robe in some middle easter societies is important because they as supposed to protect the new couple from bad luck.  

The host asked him in a kindly manner why he had not robe -- addressed him as “friend,” -- but the man would not speak.  What we have in this case, then, is someone who shows up but has just as much contempt for the celebration as did those who refused to attend.  He tried to turn a celebration of life and joy into one of contempt -- maybe even protest.

But Jesus says that God’s kingdom -- which is what this wedding symbolizes after all -- is a place of joy.  Those who don’t want to come don’t have to.  Those who come but have no interest in participating in that joy -- will not be there for long.  In the celebration that is God’s kingdom, there is not room for defiance, for anger or hatred, for fear mongering. 

Celebrations are funny things, but they can be put into two large categories.

They can be celebrations of despair or frustration -- like the people of Israel or those Germans in World War II.  Or they can be celebrations of hope and life like the wedding feast -- or like Jimmy Stewart.  

Which leaves us with one question.  What kind of celebration does your life trend toward?  Of course, we always have a bit of both in our lives, but we’re talking trends.  Which way do you lean?  I’ll give you a hint about where this church’s direction.  In a few minutes, we’re going to CELEBRATE the Eucharist.  In case anyone needs a reminder, it’s called “The Great Thanksgiving.”  Amen.

Rocks and Thorns

This may be an appropriate parable for getting ready for VBS which is Operation Creation….  After all, we're talking about taking care of the earth and what grows in it.

But you know, it's not easy, is it?  We've been filled with doubts -- will we pull it off?  Will we have enough students?  And assuming we get the students and pull off a great week, will those kids learn anything?   In short, will all this work be wasted?  

That's one of the questions that plagues us all, isn't it?  What's the point of doing whatever I'm doing?  It's not going to make a difference.  

Well, this parable Jesus told is just right for us, but not because it's about farming.  Rather because it's a message of hope.  A message that says, relax, it'll be all right.

Shall we look at it for a moment?

Jesus describes the old form of farming called broadcasting where you prepare the soil basically -- but then you walk through the field and scatter seeds with your hand, litterally casting them in a broad arc.  It's a given that you'll lose a huge percentage of the seed.  But you will generally get enough to grow to help you make it to the next year.

Which is exactly what Jesus is telling his followers. 

But if we put it in VBS terms, it might look like this.  Sometimes you send out invitations to attend, but they either don't respond or tell you they can't go because of other commitments like vacation or other camps.  Then some say, "that sounds good, we want to go," but they never turn in their registrations.  Some will even come for the first day and disappear.  

Then you get to those who DO arrive.  Some of them get the snacks, play the games and go home having had a nice week.  Others go home and talk about it with their folks.  But one or two might have something change inside -- something we might never see but that could inspire that child to become the next Presiding Bishop or Nobel prize winning earth scientist.  

The funny thing about this parable is that sometimes we are the soil, and sometimes we are the sower.  Sometimes we're the VBS student and sometimes we're the staff, if you will.

When you're the soil that Jesus talks about -- what does that mean?  Well, I know for myself, sometimes I can't hear God talking to me -- in any way shape or form.  Sometimes I see others talking about God and it goes right over my head -- it just doesn't make sense.  Other times -- like when we're getting ready for Towel Camp or VBS or when we're talking about Buildings and Grounds or the budget, I'm WAY too preoccupied and worried to hear God.  

But there are times when God gets through to me, and I hear, and wonderful things happen in my life -- and maybe even through me.  Like, every now and then, I preach a sermon and someone comes up to me and says, "That was exactly what I needed to hear to make it through another day."  It's not huge, but it's enough.

Maybe your life is like that, too.  Maybe sometimes you're the soil, and you hear God, but it might not make sense, or you're too worried or scared to let the radical news that God loves you really sink in.  Rocks and Thorns everywhere.  But notice this:  Jesus never condemns the soil.  Not the rocks, not the thorns, not the path.  And of course, not the good soil.  He simply lays it out there.  What Jesus understands, and we forget, is that people are not static.  Sometimes they are rocky soil, and sometimes they are good.  What we forget is that the seeds aren't cast just once -- but many times over the course of our lives, so that even if we aren't receptive at one point, we might well be at another point.  Even if we've been followers and fallen away, it might be that at another point, we will be ready again.

And sometimes, sometimes, maybe that word touches something in you -- and you see.  And you know.  And you grow in God's love.

It's times like that when you switch from being soil to being sower.  And when you do, Jesus says, don't worry about results.  Don't condemn the soil, either.   Never look at someone and say, "I tried that person before, and they're not interested."  You never know.  

Going back to VBS, I can assure you that God is touching it -- I can feel it.  But what the results will be, I have no idea.  Maybe all our seeds will fall on rocks and thorns.  But maybe, just maybe, we'll see thirty or sixty or a hundred fold growth.