Disoriented

Pentecost XVII                                                          October 9, 2011
Matthew 22:1-14

I find much of the whirlwind of life that surrounds us to be disorienting. Life is fast-paced and things that once anchored us don't seem to have staying power. I see relationships as more compromised and more fragile and the future less certain. It is disorienting.

Disorientation is the context in which we hear the lessons today ...and the lessons intend to breathe life into us. They mean to give us a new orientation.

I hope that you will look for two things in these lessons:

  • Read this parable into your lives as Jesus suggests that some things in your lives may have to die so that you can live.
  • We are living in a time that invites us more deeply into faith as we reorient a life with Christ at the center.
In the parable, the King invites guests to join him in celebrating the marriage of his Son.
  • It is a joyous event and the king has killed more than one fatted calf and made a lot of potato salad and deviled eggs...not to mention the caviar and exotic pastries and he has set aside gallons of the best wine.
  • All of his friends are invited - the members of his church, business partners, golf club friends. They are all invited, no one is excluded.
For some unknown reason they all have returned the invitation as Sorry, I cannot come. In fact some are downright hostile to the hand-delivered invitation, even to the point of seizing the king's servants and killing them.

If that ever became a model for a response to a wedding invitation it would surely impact the way we do weddings today.

But, let me share a thought:
  • What if the killing here is not a literal event? Parables are rich in metaphor that point to another reality. I mean what if they didn't actually take the servants' life but rather they rejected the king. Killing is to not take a relationship with the King seriously as important to life.
  • They rejected the way that the King sees life...his perspective, What if killing is a rejection of our relationship with God...or at the least a stifling.
The king sends out troops who now kill their values, distractions and the things that they have chosen to be the center of their lives. He rejects them and the relationship is declared dead. He says "you remember my invitation - the one you rejected...big mistake...huge."

So the parable serves as an opportunity to examine our lives and to ask if this is what we intend. Do we want to replace our primary relationship in Christ with another relationship...for instance our relationship to our financial resources and how we use them, accumulate them?

Have we stifled the place of Jesus at the heart of life? If we have - why? And where will it take us? How do I get to the place that the Philippians directs us to today?
  • Rejoice in the Lord, always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
God intends to reorient our disoriented lives - with Christ at the Center and, in the process, give us a sense of peace that the world cannot take away.

Two stories of how important it is to have Christ at the Center....

One evening, I was awakened by a call from the Coroner of our county. He was a member of the church I served. He asked if so and so was a member of the church - and the 18 year-old was a member, just graduated from high school.
  • He had been killed in a motorcycle accident - on his way home from a beer party.
  • Would I meet the sheriff and go to the young man's home to tell his parents of his death?
  • When I stood on the front steps of that home with the sheriff at 1:30 a.m. and the lights went on - the father looked at us, the sheriff and the Pastor, and he knew where this was going. It was awful!
  • The mother and father were absolutely distraught...as you would expect them to be.
  • But it was much worse. They simply could not receive a word of hope from the gospel - from the promises given in our baptism. In fact they became hostile in hearing scripture or in prayer.
  • They could not accept prayers - or even visits where faith is shared.
  • They said there is no God if God could let this happen. We did have a funeral at church but that was the last time they attended church.
  • They were inconsolable.
Actually, Christ had been absent from their center long before that June evening and now the God who they rejected was not there because they did not want Jesus in any form. It was heart breaking. Eventually, their lives disintegrated - their marriage, their home. It was one of those slow-motion tragedies. They were totally disoriented and the one who pursues us with life was killed in their hearts.

Years before that event, a family I had known from my internship years in Minot lost two of their three daughters within three years, both from brain related diseases.
  • As an Intern I had been at their home for dinner many times.
  • They were at the heart of our church faith community.
  • The family lived with Christ at the center and now as I visited them for the past decade whenever I went to Minot - working for Luther Seminary - I could hear and feel their sadness for Suzie and Ruth but also hear their peace and hope that these two daughters are held in Christ's arms and that was the most important thing to embrace.
  • They continue, now in their mid-eighties, to give an incredible testimony of faith in the Minot community. When families experience the loss of a child, they are among the first at the home to hold them in Christ.
Matthew ends the parable with the odd addition of the man who is invited with all who are brought in from the hyways and byways. You see everyone is invited by this King to attend the marriage feast. This King is in hot pursuit of us and he won't be denied his passion to have everyone at the feast.

But this man is rejected for not having the proper attire, he didn't have respect for the king. He just wanted the food.

Five years ago I was asked to coach a couple with their finances. They had a large debt and no plan. They were preparing for vocation as pastors but this part of life was clearly separated from their commitment to faith.
  • I suggested that this become more congruent - talking the talk and to walking the walk.
  • We agreed on a way of budgeting that reflected a faith commitment. One of the things was to work toward a tithe and write that check first.
  • At the end of a year, they not only had their checkbook under control but they had money left over. She said you can't be generous without planning everything else in the budget around that goal.
  • He observed that they had actually been functional atheists, not honoring God at the center of life. And now, everything had changed.
These are not easy times, and some of our most important values and concerns are under pressure. But we also have a great opportunity to orient our lives with Christ at the center and that is a life-giving gift.

I can't say it better than Paul did in his letter to the Philippians:

Finally, 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. Keep on doing them, the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

AMEN

Rev. Glenn Taibl, Pastor
Lutheran Church of the Cross, Nisswa, Minnesota
  
 

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