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My friend, how is it that you came in here
without a wedding garment
and he was reduced to silence?
For many years, when I worked closely with our previous bishop,
I had to attend many functions at his house.
Some of these functions were formal and some were informal,
and I was forever getting which was which.
For example, I would arrive with all my clerical garb,
clerical shirt and black suit.
And then I would get to the bishop house,
he would open the door standing in his Hawaiian shirt.
And he said, “It is casual tonight.”
I would take off my jacket and take out the tab of my shirt
and I would pretend to be casual in all black
as all the guests arrive in their casual dress.
It was always awkward.
I often did it the other way round.
I would arrive in my casual shirt and sometimes even shorts.
And there he is in all his black garb saying, “It is formal!”
Grggh! I would think again!
I solved the problem by having a spare set of clothes in my car.
I was not going to get tricked again.
We all like to fit in at the social functions we go into, right?
If everyone is informal, we like to be informal.
We do not want to stand out.
Sometimes people want to stand out for a reason,
but generally we do not want to stand out and we blend in.
I am glad I did not get thrown out of the hallway
where there was grinding of teeth like in this gospel passage we hear today.
But the Gospel passage is not about social custom, right?
It is not about social awareness of our garb.
It has a way deeper message and
this passage often lost on us
because we do not know scripture very well.
Let me just break it open a little bit,
so we understand what the symbols here mean.
The wedding feast is a symbol of the kingdom of heaven
and the banquet is open to all, right?
That is the overall message.
Most of us get that part, right?
But what about the wedding garment?
This is the first key to unlocking the meaning.
We question why they expect somebody
who just came in from the main roads to have a wedding garment?
It seems a little unfair?
And then you kick them out, make a big show of it.
But what we need to understand is that
as one came into a wedding, one was given a wedding garment.
If one did not wear a wedding garment,
then one was refusing to wear what was given to them as we entered.
Everyone would have been expected to wear this garment.
The second key to this is when you hear garment
in either the New Testament or the Old Testament,
it is always symbolic of “good works.”
We often hear it in Old Testament,
we were to take on the garment of God,
that is the good works of charity and kindness,
especially to immigrants and the widows.
St. Paul picks up this imagery multiple times
and he talks about how we are called to
put on the garment of Christ;
of gentleness, kindness and forgiveness;
and above all of those put on the garment of love.
The garment is that of good works. Okay?
Now we understand that if we get into the wedding,
if we come into the wedding feast,
we are invited into the kingdom of God
and the expectation is we received this invitation free;
we did not earn it.
The emphasis then is that we must do good works.
That is the way it works.
That is all great explanation but how does that apply to us today?
How does it work for us?
We are all being invited to the table of the Lord
and none of us are here because of our worthiness, right?
It is a free offer.
We are not here at the table because
we are good and somebody else is bad.
It is open to all because we are the ones
who are being invited in from the streets.
The expectation is that we leave here
to do the good works of Christ.
The expectation is we go out from here
converted to be Christ to others.
That is what we say when we receive the body of Christ,
we receive and then become what we receive.
We become the body of Christ for others.
What does that mean for all of us?
We are all different.
We all have different gifts
with different strengths and weaknesses.
But there is a sort of a base level that starts with
the base level of good works,
of kindness, gentleness and to be forgiving and loving.
That is the expectation for all of us.
Every one of us can do that right now.
That may seem straightforward,
but most of us completely fail to do that every week.
That is only the base level that we are all expected to do;
the good works of kindness, gentleness and loving and forgiving.
But there is more expected of us,
and it depends on how much we have.
For example, if we are financially well off,
then we are expected to do more.
We are expected to do good works of charity
to those who are in need, those who do not have as much.
That is the expectation of those who are financially well off.
But those who are not financially well off and have time
then the expectation is that we use our time for good works,
to do good by serving others,
by being not just kind,
but by sacrificing our time and
giving it away to those who are in need.
So, we are all treated equal,
but equal according to the gifts that we have been given,
not equal, as in we all get the same treatment.
As that is why when somebody is not wearing a wedding garment,
is not putting on Christ and not putting it on the good works,
then they will get kicked out. Why?
Because they did not respond.
They did not respond to the generous free gift of salvation.
What does that mean for us today?
It means that when we receive here today at this Eucharist,
it is not just an optional extra to go out and to do good works.
But rather, it is a constituent element of coming here.
We are here and if we do not do good works when we leave here,
then what sort of scandal does that bring to what we do here?
Because then nothing really has happened here.
That is what others will say that nothing has transformed.
Nothing has really happened.
They went in and they came out and they are just the exact same.
You see, we must practice the good works,
and do as best we can with whatever gifts we have been given.
Today as we receive the body of Christ
and it offered as free gift of salvation to all of us,
we accept it and then promise to
put on the garment of Christ
and to do good works in his name.
My friend, how is it that you came in here
without a wedding garment
and he was reduced to silence?
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