“Wear a Party Dress, Not a Judge’s Robe” Oct. 15, 2023
“Wear a Party Dress, Not
a Judge’s Robes”
Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23
Philippians 4:1-14
Matthew 22:1-14
“The Creator knows each one’s sacred worth and beauty,
the venomous snake, the innocent mosquito.
Even the hurtful ones belong.
At the feast, one who isn’t dressed to celebrate,
not ready to dine with “those people,”
or feeling unworthy to wear your finest,
will miss out.
Wear a party dress, not a judge’s robe.”
These are the wise words of Steve Garness Holmes as he addresses, in his own unique way, the parable of the wedding feast invitation. I’ve always held this little piece to be valuable whenever I find myself overthinking or overanalyzing the teachings of Jesus on the Kingdom of God. “The creator knows each one’s sacred worth and beauty,” Mr. Holmes tells us, “the venomous snake, the innocent mosquito.” I guess you might say that the one thing we know for certain about the Kingdom is that everyone is invited; and that means everyone. But here’s the thing, if we’re not ready to dine with” those” people. We are going to miss out. And if for whatever reason we don’t feel good enough or worthy to come to the Kingdom with our game face on and wearing the best duds that we own, we’re going to miss out again. “Wear a party dress, not a judge’s robe.”
You know, the parables we have talked about from Matthew 20 through 22 over the last few Sundays have been challenging at best. We have the landowner Who paid a full day’s wages to everyone no matter how long they worked. And then the vineyard owner whose servants and son were killed by greedy sharecroppers, and now a king who wants his banquet hall filled — but who exacts a seemingly random penalty against a guest who happened to be wearing the wrong clothes. I mean, what the heck is going on here? All I can think to say is that it’s best to remember that parables are not so much intended to teach a short but effective lesson. (that would be an allegory) but they are, rather, designed to upset our thinking and cause us to question. This parable certainly succeeds in that regard! You might say that the parables of Jesus are meant to scramble our preconceived notions of how things are in order that we might come to understand different ways of doing things. I read a quote from the actor, woody Harrelson the other day. He said, ” you know, I have spent a lot of time reading the Bible, but I’m done with it. It seems to me that all the Bible does is tell me what to do.” That’s kind of a shame, don’t you think? I mean, here’s a man who was invited to the greatest banquet of all time, but he turned it down because he couldn’t give up his judges robes.
If you think about it, the history of Christianity is filled with folks who were and determined to spoil the party. There are even denominations today that passionately preach the theology of guilt and shame and self loathing. Theirs is a God who breathes fire and can’t wait to punish us for any Small infraction. Small wonder that churches send out invitations but few people show up. “Wear a party dress, not a judges robe.”
When we lived in Montana, I was actively involved in the walk to Emmaus organization, mostly as a music leader. I even compiled a songbook for these events that I believe it’s still being used today. But you know how it goes: if you hang around long enough and do a decent job, sooner or later someone is going to ask you to be on a committee. For me, it was the position on the board of music director. I figured that’s what I was doing anyway, so this was just a title. What I didn’t realize is that being on the board meant that I had to go to board meetings. That might not have been so bad except for the fact that now I was a board member, I was expected to offer input and advice on matters such as policy and staffing and that sort of stuff, which was not really my thing. I was the singer and guitar player, but I figured what the heck, if I can be of some help then I should do this.
Now, one of the things the board was focusing upon was an effort to bring in folks from other denominations besides United Methodists, especially in the clergy department. I recall a particular meeting when a pastor from a local non- denominational Church was up for review. He had expressed a genuine interest in the Walk to Emmaus program and even though I had never met the man, he seemed solid. He was well liked and his congregation was thriving. It looked like we had found a perfect candidate until one of the board members spoke up.
“Does any of you know that he doesn’t believe in hell?” he said. There was some low mumbling and head shaking around the room. “Well, it’s true.” He explained. “He preaches it from the pulpit every chance he gets. He went on to say, “Now I don’t know about the rest of you, but as far as I’m concerned, we don’t need this sort of progressive theology.”
“It will only cause confusion and might take away from what we are trying to accomplish here.” And so the conversation continued around the room and to my surprise it looked like it would be a unanimous decision: this pastor who professed his disbelief in the concept of hell and eternal damnation; and for that reason only , this guy would not be welcome.
When it was my turn to speak, however, I didn’t know what to say at first. I was the new guy And just the guitar player at that, so I had my doubts that anything I said would be taken seriously.
“I don’t know.” I addressed the room, “but it seems to me that hell is nothing more than missing out. To miss out on the joy and the peace and community that comes from a life in Christ – that, to me, would be the worst.”
I’ve often wished that I had defended this person I had never met with a little more clarity; with a little more purpose. But like I said, I was the new guy. I hadn’t yet earned my stripes, as they say, but I would like to think that that moment shaped my theology in some small way. Our God didn’t come to live amongst us so that we might wallow in guilt and in shame and that we might constantly live in fear of eternal damnation. If these are the foundation of our faith, then we’re missing out.
You know, I’m always going to have issues with some of the writings in scripture. Matthews continual use of the phrase “there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” is one of them. But you know what? That’s OK. I’m not about to lay awake at night worrying that this could become my fate, especially when I consider that we’ve been invited to the greatest party of all time. So let’s look sharp. Let’s look sharp and leave the judges robes at home. Amen and Shalom
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