14th Sunday after Pentecost 2020 Fr. James Jorgenson

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and

of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Glory be to Jesus Christ.

Glory be to God forever. The second gospel that

we've heard read today is one in the regular

cycle of the year. It's from Matthew. The first

one, of course, is because tomorrow is the Feast

of the Cross. But I want to focus our attention

on the second gospel. which is taken from chapter

22 of St. Matthew's Gospel. The marriage feast,

the marriage feast of the father and the son,

the marriage feast of the lamb. This is one of

the richest parables, in my estimation, one of

the richest parables of our Lord's. Why? Because

it avails itself of... a number of equally legitimate

interpretations. The variety of interpretations

is really fascinating. But really, it focuses

in on a couple of main ideas and themes. Clearly,

the marriage feast is given by the king, that

is, God the Father. And the marriage feast is

for his son, obviously. Jesus Christ, the marriage

feast, the mystical supper, the Lord's Supper.

So many of the fathers, a common interpretation

of this is that the marriage feast stands for

three things basically which are really connected,

interconnected. The marriage feast is the church.

The marriage feast is the Eucharist. The marriage

feast is the kingdom of heaven. One trajectory

of the fathers is that to be invited to the church,

the first people that were invited proved unworthy.

They all had excuses. This is the version of

this marriage feast in St. Luke's. This is what

St. Luke... tells us there. People all had excuses

why they wouldn't come. And then the father that's

presenting the feast has an interesting phrase

I really like that isn't in St. Matthew's. He

says, the first ones that were invited weren't

worthy. Go out to the highways and byways and

compel them. compel them to come to my feast.

So the first ones, the originally invited guests,

were the Jewish people who by and large and as

a group did not accept Jesus as the promised

Messiah. Of course, there were many who did.

But then the servants are sent out everywhere,

highways and byways, all different kinds of people,

all different nations. all different cultures,

and invited to come to this marriage feast, which

is the Church. This illustrates, obviously, the

Catholicity of the Church, that the Church is

meant for all peoples of all times, of every

culture, and of every region. But I'd focus our

attention this morning on the idea of the mutual

connection between the Church and the Eucharist

and the Kingdom. One of the recurring themes

of Father Alexander Schmemann is that the Church

is essentially Eucharistic. The Church is most

the Church when it's celebrating the Eucharist.

Another contemporary theologian, the Greek metropolitan

John Zizoulas, says that without the Eucharist,

there isn't any church. There's no church without

the Eucharist. Very strong statement. And, of

course, he said this even before this current

pandemic business and the virus. And we see how...

with our people how much they long how much they

miss the eucharist it's so central to our life

as christians this of course is all an interpret

and an anticipation of the kingdom of heaven

the church itself which is the kingdom on earth

the church which is when it is most essentially

being the church celebrating the Eucharist. And

the church, all of this is a foretaste of that

eternal banquet with God in the kingdom of heaven.

This is so clear. How do we begin the liturgy?

Blessed is the kingdom of the Father, Son, and

Holy Spirit. But there's one curious element

in this parable of the marriage feast. And that

is the one fellow who happened to be there without

a wedding garment. And, of course, the fathers

find this very intriguing. How are we going to

interpret what is this wedding garment? And the

man who threw the feast, the king for his son,

comes up to him and says, Where's your wedding

garment? He was speechless. And then he says,

go, tell us the service, go, bind him hand and

foot and throw him out. Now, how many of us who

have had a wedding for our sons or daughters

would behave like this? You know, somebody comes

in and probably don't even, I had never even

noticed really what kind of clothes they were

wearing. But maybe the person who has a, you

know, some old shabby suit, you're not going

to go, him, get out of here. Or a woman who has

some dress that you think is not fancy enough

for a wedding. Go, leave. No, no. So there has

to be some interesting characteristic of what

this garment is. Something that is essential

that was lacking in this man. Notice it was essential

because when the... The king comes up to him

and says, you know, where's your wedding garment?

What? He was speechless. He knew that he was

lacking something that he should have worn to

this. So the thing that is lacking, of course,

the fathers see here. An interpretation of baptism.

In order to get into the kingdom, you have to

be baptized. You have to be clothed in that white

garment, the baptismal garment, that the early

church used for the newly baptized, that we use

here at St. Seraphim's for the newly baptized.

They also say a variation of this, which is consistent.

with the garment as a baptismal garment, that

the garment that we need to get into the kingdom

of heaven is faith and good works, good deeds.

Without our Christian faith, without putting

this faith into action by living appropriately

as Christians, we won't get into the kingdom

of heaven. I think all of this is put together

if we look at a very interesting aspect of this

wedding feast, which is found in chapter 19 of

the book of Revelation, the marriage feast of

the Lamb. And in 19, this is a vision, of course,

that St. John has of the kingdom of heaven. That's

what the apocalypse is. the book of Revelation.

At this wedding feast, they cry out, there's

a thunderous peal. Alleluia! The Lord our God,

the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult

and give him the glory, for the marriage of the

Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself

ready. The bride, of course, is the church. The

bride is us who are made ready to participate

in this marriage of the Lamb. It was granted

to her, to the bride, to be clothed with fine

linen, bright and pure. For the fine linen is

the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel

said to me, Write this, the angel said, John

is saying, the angel said to me, write this,

blessed are those who are invited to the mystical

supper of the Lamb, the marriage supper of the

Lamb. How wonderful those words are. How greatly

have we been privileged to be invited to this

mystical supper. The Church, the Eucharist, and

the kingdom of heaven. Let us, by our faith and

good deeds, prove ourselves worthy and be wearing

this wedding garment. Hallelujah. Praise the

Lord who invites us to this marriage feast. Amen.