Marriage Feast, Matthew 22

Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

glory to Jesus Christ. Today has been designated

by the Holy Synod of the Bishops of the Orthodox

Church in America as the Sanctity of Life Sunday.

And I'm going to read to you a portion of the

letter from Metropolitan Ticon. A few words about

the gospel. You heard this parable of the wedding

back in, I guess it was September or so. But

the church gives it to us again. One for a very

practical reason. Lent is very late this year.

And so this gospel is one of those that would

be chosen to fill in till we get to those other

readings. Zacchaeus, prodigal son. publican and

pharisee those are coming those are coming the

other reason is I think has to do with just simply

God's providence after Christmas and theophany

we need a reminder about what the wedding feast

of the sun is all about I was at a wedding last

Sunday in Lovely parish, Rochester Hills, St.

Mark of Ephesus. They celebrated their feast

day on Friday. Too bad this gospel wasn't read

last week. It's interesting. The kingdom of God

is compared to a king who gave a marriage feast

for his son. That's how it starts out. And who's

Jesus speaking to? He's speaking to the Pharisees

and it says just before this verse, the Pharisees

perceived he was speaking about them and they

were very upset about the way Jesus was referring

to them. The kingdom of heaven is compared to

a king who gave a marriage feast for his son.

And after that verse, that noble and wonderful,

a joyful description of what the kingdom of heaven

is like. Everything goes wrong with the characters

in the story. Did you notice? Did you notice

that the men that are sent, of course, these

men represent the prophets and the apostles.

They're sent to remind the guests that have been

invited from the beginning. They're treated terribly.

They're beaten and some are killed. Everything's

going wrong. And the father of the son sends

his own armies and wipes out the villagers completely.

He's angry. The father seems capricious, petty,

vindictive. And then a man is brought into the

wedding that wasn't part of the original guest

list. Because you heard, bring in everybody,

bring in everyone. And he is supplied a wedding

garment, which he does not put on. And he's tossed

out, bound hand and foot. But these are words

of the Savior. This parable is the word of the

Savior, Jesus Christ. So obviously we need to

understand what he means. Because we know the

Father is not petty and vindictive and violent.

This parable is about salvation history, isn't

it? He's talking to the Pharisees who feel they

don't need anything else. It reveals this parable,

the rejection to God's invitation through the

prophets and the apostles. Think back, the vineyard

parable was just before this. Just before this.

And again, what happens in that vineyard parable?

Jesus tells the parable and the representatives

of the parable owner. are killed. Then he sends

his son and he's killed. And so Jesus asks the

Pharisees, he asks his listeners, what do you

think should happen to those people that did

this terrible thing? Do you remember what they

said? They should be punished severely and killed.

So the story is given to you and to me right

now. here today by the church so that we might

examine our own response to God's continual invitation

to us. How? We could be here all day to speak

about the wonderful things God has done for us,

his dominion, his presence in our heart, how

we neglect it, how we... Not just neglect it,

but turn our back on it. So many distractions

we have. Who can say otherwise? Can any of us

say that we have answered God definitively in

our life? This is a parable, finally, I guess,

since it's about the kingdom of heaven, about

the judgment. It's about the judgment. What's

the meaning of this feast that the Lord, God,

holds his marriage feast. St. Gregory the Great

says that the Father Almighty, the true and living

God, made a marriage feast for his son, Jesus

Christ, which means that he united him to the

church. He united him to us. The marriage of

a woman and a man, complementary beings, are

just a dim reflection. It says, St. Paul in Ephesians,

a holy mystery, hoping to give us a little bit

of understanding of the magnificence of the intimacy

of the deep love, the chamber in the heart where

we meet Christ. And everyone's invited to this

feast. No one is left out. No one. We all need

to know. Can we go through our life? Think. if

we go through our life not knowing who our creator

is and what he has given us and what is our destiny,

this is tragic, to not know his divine love,

to not receive the wedding garment, which is

what? The man was thrown out. He was in the feast,

just like we're here. We're all here. What's

the wedding garment? Is it just the baptismal

garment? No, it's not that, because we're all

here. It's love. St. Gregory the Great of Rome

says it's love. The wedding garment is love without

hypocrisy. We don't come to church and appear

like something. We are truly, we must be revelations

of God's love to the world. That's the garment

that St. Gregory of Rome says. It's agape love.

It's sacrificial love, he says. It's patient

and forgiving love. Love for all. This is what

the creator, our God himself, for God has. For

God so loved the world that he gave his only

begotten son for us. And to refuse that invitation,

to refuse the wedding garment, Means to bind

ourselves up in our sins and suffer loss of God

because we don't know him. The violence in the

story, and there's plenty of it, that's for sure,

in this parable is there to forcefully symbolize,

to relate to us the tragic, painful, epic loss.

That we would suffer if we don't know God. To

not know his majesty. To not know his providence.

To not know his peace and truth and life and

love. To not know the way. That's worse than

all the violence that could be done. It's a revelation

of ourself, really. The father doesn't have to

bind. anybody up and throw them out. Listen to

what our Lord says. If anyone hears my words

and does not keep them, I do not judge him. For

I did not come to judge the world, but to save

the world. The one who rejects me and does not

receive my words has a judge. The judge is the

word that I have spoken will judge him. on the

last day. St. Cyril of Jerusalem wrote that we

will be judged out of our own conscience. And

we will not object. It's not going to be for

the accuracy of my Orthodox theology. That's

important. But it's not going to be about that.

It will be for every idle word I say. For every

deed that lacks love. I have plenty of love for

myself, and you know, brothers and sisters, we

can love all kinds of things that are terribly

bad for us. But to the love of God is the first

thing. Saint Cyril of Jerusalem says that on

the Day of Judgment, in relation to this wedding

garment, we will be clothed with our sins or

our righteous deeds. There it is. So let's focus

now on turning away from whatever rejection to

God that we have made, whatever ignorance towards

him we have. When Christ and we are united, this

is what I want to tell you. This is from St.

Nikolai of Zizia. He says, Heaven had earlier

seemed as though closed with iron bars to mankind,

and men's souls, whereas miserable brides shut

in a dank prison. Now heaven is open wide. God

himself has appeared on earth. Angels have come

down to earth. Christmas? The dead have been

seen alive, and man's dignity has been raised

up to God. Oh, how sweet the food! How abundant

the table! Come! Instead of accepting the wedding

invitation, the blinded souls in their gloomy

prison committed a most terrible crime, killing

the Savior in their own souls, their bridegroom.

But not even this exhausted God's patience. God

turned the crime into the deepest source of sweetness

and joy, the body and blood of the crucified

Lord, incomparably sweeter than fatlings and

oats. Goats and sheep and oxen are brought to

the king's table. Come and communicate of the

sweetness that is the envy of the angels. The

grace -filled streams of the Holy Spirit, the

almighty and life -giving spirit are wide open.

All things are ready. All things. All that is

necessary for the defiled bride. That's us. To

be purified. For the hungry to be fed, the wounded

to be healed, the naked to be clothed, the bewitched

brought to their senses, the drunken sobered,

the dead raised. Here is the baptism with water.

Here is the baptism with fire and the spirit.

Here is the ease with fasting. Here are the wings

of prayer. Here is oil. Here are bread and wine.

Here is the royal priesthood to be the guide.

Here is the church of holiness and love. All

these gifts are brought by the bridegroom to

his bride. That's us. And he places them all

on the king's table. Come then. Come to the wedding.

Our metropolitan, his letter, completely comes

to this also. He says as we mark the Sanctity

of Life Sunday this year, there's much discussion

about the right to life. Of course we Orthodox

Christians believe that certain rights, the right

to life among them, should be respected, enshrined

in law, protected by civil authority. But human

life is something even more precious than a mere

right. It is a divine gift. Lo, children are

a heritage from the Lord. The fruit of the womb

are rewards, says the psalmist. We are called

to recognize every human life, from conception

to natural death, as a gift of the Lord. This

means protecting the unborn, but in a broader

sense, this means helping our broken society

and broken world to view our fellow human beings

not as mere mouths to feed or potential threats

or problems to be solved or subjects to be controlled,

but as blessings from above. The unborn are a

blessing. Children are a blessing. The elderly

are a blessing. The difficult people in our lives

are a blessing. Even our enemies, perhaps especially

our enemies, are a blessing. Moreover, we speak

of the sanctity of life for two reasons. Because

life comes from the Lord and because it should

be offered back to the Lord through service to

him and to others, resulting in sanctity, holiness.

if we understand that we are merely servants

doing as we have been bidden, and if we recognize

that the greatest and holiest is the one who

became a servant of all through his incarnation,

Christmas, his ministry, his passion, and rising,

then we are in the best position of all to treat

each human being as a blessing. We will have

the garment of love, not in an abstract sense,

but in the sense of someone whom we are privileged

to serve. Yours in Christ. Ticon, Archbishop

of Washington, Metropolitan of all America and

Canada. May the Lord God grant him many years.