What Keeps You From Rejoicing?

A Reflection for XIX Pentecost                     All Saints’ Church, Southern Shores, N.C. October 15, 1017                                            Thomas E. Wilson, Rector

Exodus 32:1-14   Philippians 4:1-9            Matthew 22:1-14     Psalm 23

Question: What keeps you from rejoicing?

Matthew continues his remembrances of Jesus in today’s Gospel lesson with “Once more Jesus spoke to the people with parables” -  except that what follows is not a parable but an allegory.

A parable is a story where the point is in the surprise in the story which tells us something about God, as in the case of the Parable of the Prodigal Son where the Father forgives the sinner before he asks, or the Parable of the Lost Sheep where the Shepherd does not stop searching until the lost sheep is found. An allegory, on the other hand, is a story where the point of the story is in the details of the characters and events stand in for the message. Allegories are teaching tools that serve to convey a moral message with standard rewards and punishments, as in this story. 

When Luke, speaking to a Gentile community, tells this story, it is a parable and there is  no killing of the messengers by those who refuse to attend the banquet, no slaughter of the ones who do not show up, no burning down of the cities, no person not wearing the right wedding garment, no weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. The message of Luke’s Parable is that there is more than enough room for all sorts and conditions of people, and Jesus is God’s party. The one word summation would be “Rejoice!”

For Matthew, speaking to a Jewish community, the point of the story is the rehashing of the history of the people of Israel who killed the prophets and were then taken into exile and their cities destroyed. He makes the point that the same fate awaits those who do not respond to the Prophet Jesus’ invitation to join the Christian community. The message to the community addressed by Matthew is “This invitation by God the Father of the Bridegroom Jesus must be accepted right now, or there is hell to pay.” The one word summation would be “Beware!”

The Bible is not A Book but it is a Library of Books that has been gathered together, and sometimes, as in all libraries, the books don’t always agree, but God has been big enough to handle paradox. In the case of the story that Jesus tells about a wedding feast, the shape of the story is about making commitments, and both Luke and Matthew remember the story but they remember it in different ways and for different purposes. 

We are in the process of the Stewardship Pledge Campaign and we can see the different presenters telling their stories of commitment in vastly different ways. My joy is that the stories of commitment are all different and yet at the core, the paradox has a living coherence.  One of the things I did last week was to work with people who want to be preachers in different places in the Diocese. I assigned them the lessons for last week, and each of them approached the same lessons in a different way. So who chose the right way? And, of course, the answer is “Yes”.  I reminded them that at the core of all of the different ways of preaching they chose had to be God’s love. As Paul reminds us all in the first letter to the Church in Corinth: “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.”

We turn again to Paul in the second lesson for today from Paul’s letter to the Philippians where he uses noun and verb variations of the word, chara “joy” or chairo “rejoice” fifteen times - four chapters, fifteen times. Paul writes this letter from jail. Here is another paradox - Paul is in jail and yet he writes with joy as the center of his message. He sings: “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice.” He sings of joy in the middle of the paradox because he knows, as he says, that “the God of peace” is with him. 

Paul is like the Psalmist for today who is in the valley of the shadow of death.  His enemies are in front of him, and yet in this place of peril, he finds that he is able to enter the Peace that passes all understanding because he knows that God is with him at all times. Joy does not come from the outer circumstances of life, joy comes from the inclinations of the heart of our soul, the center of our being. Therefore there is no real excuse not to rejoice. In the Wedding Feast Parable both in Matthew and in Luke, the invited people have their own agendas of grabbing after things and think they have no time for joy.

For me, joy comes when I slow down in a busy life and notice all that there is I do not usually notice and look upon with awe.

Joy is noticing that my neighbors are people just like I am, and we are both blessed when we share our joy.

Joy is seeing that the little child I knew as a baby is growing up.

Joy is the sound from my office window out on the playground.

Joy is the sound of music well played.

Joy is the sweat expelled working on a project to make the world a better place.

Joy is seeing time spent and dinner shared with someone who is going through a rough time.

Joy is when I have been ministered unto when I have gone through rough times in my life.

Joy is visiting a person who is dying and thinking on how the world has been blessed by them.

Joy is the touch of a living lover or the memory of a loved one who is long since dead.

Joy is seeing the moon and stars and marveling at the hand that made them.

Joy is the sharing of a meal.

Joy is joining as a witness to promises and commitments made in baptisms, weddings, pledges, and projects.

Joy is breathing deeply and entering into listening for God.

Joy is watching a movie, seeing a play, attending a concert, reading a book, seeing an piece of art and admiring the talent and skill of the artists, the musicians, the actors, the directors, the artisans and the sheer courage it took to try.

Joy is . . .life itself and a choice we make.

Rejoice

Aware I‘m wanting to always rejoice

but I see lives slipping through fingers

joining as sadness of my losses lingers,

I'd like to just stop to give pity a voice.

Seductive shadows smirk straight faced

about how all our enemies who we share

and how I ought to join the fight to dare

give my full approval with all due haste

boycotting the wedding feast invitations

where two hearts join in grateful hope

giving a vision to a much wider scope

having glasses lift bubbling  libations

participating in the  new future to leave

past behind, beginning dreams to weave.