Wardrobe Malfunction | August 20, 2015

 August 20, 2015

Have you ever showed up to an event in the wrong outfit? I’ve seen a woman in stiletto heals at Disneyland before and one time a man at the gym was wearing jeans and a button down shirt while pumping iron. Another time after mass I hugged one of my teens that was still wearing a wet bathing suit straight from the beach. In California we can get away with pretty much wearing whatever we want to things because our culture is laid back, however, in other places there are rules to dressing appropriately based on the season and the type of event. Today’s gospel seems to be about a wardrobe malfunction on the surface but it goes deeper than that.

Remember parables are stories that make one doubt the real meaning so one will think even harder about it. Weddings in the Middle East were a seven-day event. Imagine having to pay for seven days of festivities for the whole village. This story tells us again that God invites us all to the banquet. The king in the story summoned all the “invited” guests to come party for seven days but they refused the invitation. Don’t you just hate when people don’t RSVP? How much food do I buy? How much wine? So he sends out his servants a second time to those “invited” this time with the menu for the feast so as to draw them in via their stomachs. I am guilty of wondering what food is going to be served at the parties I’ve been invited to and I find this to be a darn good strategy on the king’s part. It says only some ignored the invite and the rest killed the king’s servants. WTH? Was this a foreshadowing of the martyrdom of the Apostles? The king was pissed needless-to-say and destroyed those that did this to his servants. Don’t mess with the king!

The king said, “The feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy to come.” To me it sounds like he’s talking about the religious leaders here who were the ones with all the education, scripture, and liturgical practices but were still missing the deeper message of God and definitely of the Messiah. So the king says, “Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.” Yay!! That means us!! Get your dancing shoes on because the DJ is playing the Electric Slide! The servants gathered “all” that they found “bad and good alike and the hall was filled.”

The Apostolic church has been highly successful in gathering people for the feast, good and bad. What do we wear to the party? This is the twist in the story. In the Middle East, if you are hosting a wedding, you provide the proper wedding garment for each one of your guests, similar to how Yakima’s are supplied in Jewish temples for those that don’t have one. Remember that this story is about a king who would definitely follow this protocol. So all were invited and accepted the garment offered them to enter the wedding in the proper fashion (pun intended) except for one man. When the king noticed the man he said, “My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?” The man was “reduced to silence” because the answer was “your servants gave me the garment but I refused to put it on.” How often do we know the right thing to do and we deliberately choose the wrong? How often do we defy the rules that we think are pointless? How often do we refuse God’s unconditional love? How often to we disrobe God’s generosity and ignore his invitation to the table? 

To be “silenced” in the Middle East is to be shamed and shame is the worst possible thing that can come to you and/or your family. Jesus’ audience would have known this and that is why this parable is so scandalous for them. It is shameful to refuse someone’s hospitality let alone a king’s. We don’t place quite the same emphasis on such things and so this parable might not resonate the way it should for us. The consequences for refusing the king’s hospitality and generosity was to tie his hands and feet together and throw him outside of the community where there would be “wailing and grinding of teeth” (a reference to hell).  The consequences of sin are grave. We need to not make light of that. Sin is a deliberate turn away from God who not only invites us, tells us what’s on the menu, and gives us the right garment to wear making it as easy as possible to enjoy the party, but does so more than once!

Our human nature and pride tend to cloud our good judgment and keep us from receiving the free gift of grace that God wants to constantly clothe us in. May we decide today to accept the invitation and to wear the garment of God’s love that is freely given so that we can get out there on the dance floor and celebrate the king’s son on his wedding day! (Oh, and by the way, we are the bride!) For many are invited but few choose to participate and that is a major wardrobe malfunction. 

Gospel MT 22:1-14

Jesus again in reply spoke to the chief priests and the elders of the people in parables
saying, “The Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king
who gave a wedding feast for his son.
He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast,
but they refused to come.
A second time he sent other servants, saying,
‘Tell those invited: “Behold, I have prepared my banquet,
my calves and fattened cattle are killed,
and everything is ready; come to the feast.”’
Some ignored the invitation and went away,
one to his farm, another to his business.
The rest laid hold of his servants,
mistreated them, and killed them.
The king was enraged and sent his troops,
destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.
Then the king said to his servants, ‘The feast is ready,
but those who were invited were not worthy to come.
Go out, therefore, into the main roads
and invite to the feast whomever you find.’
The servants went out into the streets
and gathered all they found, bad and good alike,
and the hall was filled with guests.
But when the king came in to meet the guests
he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment.
He said to him, ‘My friend, how is it
that you came in here without a wedding garment?’
But he was reduced to silence.
Then the king said to his attendants, ‘Bind his hands and feet,
and cast him into the darkness outside,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’
Many are invited, but few are chosen.”