Creekside Church Sermon of October 24, 1999 "The Peril of Forgetting Your Tux" Matthew 22:1-14	Rev. David Bibbee
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Awhile back I performed a wedding ceremony for a young man from my first church. It was a big wedding which took place at a posh country club north of Chicago. Every detail for the weekend was strictly first class. For the rehearsal party there was a dinner cruise on Lake Geneva in Wisconsin. Before we go anywhere, Twig wants to know what she should wear. She places a premium on being properly dressed. I asked the groom about the attire and he said, "Dress casually." I did not take into account the fact that the interpretation of casual varies from person to person. To me, causal means jeans and a sport shirt. "Are you sure jeans will be okay?" Twig asked. "No problem," I assured her. When we arrived, her first words were, "We're underdressed!"

We were the only ones in jeans. Their definition of casual was blazers and dresses. I'll admit we did stand out a little. Twig didn't care for my suggestion that we blend in with the caterers. It turned out to be a wonderful evening anyway, but she won't let me forget it. To hear her tell it, it sounds as though we were among the Rockefellers dressed like the Clampetts.

Today we will consider what it means to be properly attired. We will be guided in our reflection by looking to a parable which Jesus told his critics. The Kingdom is like a King who gave a marriage party for his son. Fancy engraved invitations were sent to a select group of guests. But when the King sent servants to tell the guests to come, no one responded. Not one. Said they made other plans. It's no little thing to snub the King. Their excuses didn't impress him. He sent his servants a second time to fetch the guests. "The steer is on the pit, the cake's being iced. Come, it won't be a party without you!" Well, this time they not only declined the invitation...they killed the messengers! So the King sent his army to "take care" of everyone on the guest list, and then he went back to preparations for the feast.

This King was determined to have a party. He sent more servants into the streets to invite anyone they could find. Good or bad, it didn't matter who. The great hall was filled with guests. Everyone stood as the trumpets heralded the King's entrance, and as he looked over the crowd his gaze locked on a man who was the only one not in a tux. His dress didn't fit the occasion. As I studied this parable I thought, "How was he supposed to find a tux on such short notice?" But somehow everyone else managed to get appropriately dressed, but this man never bothered to change. The King said, "Friend, how did you get in here without a tux?" He didn't respond. He probably thought to himself, "Hey, you should be glad I'm here, unlike your first guests. My presence is more valuable than my attire." So the King ordered the man hog-tied and thrown out into the night..."and this," Jesus said, "is what the Kingdom of God is like."

Apparently God's invitations are serious business. How we come into God's house, and God's presence, and how we do God's work is not something to be taken lightly.

Over the years we have become noticeably casual on Sunday morning. When I grew up, a necktie was standard Sunday issue for men. Now the slant is toward the casual and comfortable. I find it interesting that while white worshippers are attired more informally these days, it is not the case in African-American churches. Each Sunday they dress like royalty because they believe they are in the presence of royalty. Some may not have many resources, but they know about the Principle Resource of life, and they come to worship dressed in a way that reflects the significance of the One they gather to worship.

To come before the Ancient of Days and the Judge of History is an awesome thing. We haven't been invited to a tea party to engage in informal chatter. The King has invited us to a feast. It's the only invitation he will bother to send. Whether we come or how we come is no little thing. It's about ultimate realities. It's about life and death. And all this talk about appropriate attire is about far more than the cut of cloth we wear each Sunday. It's about our attitudes, our spirit, and how we conduct our lives.

In our desire to have a God who is loving and caring and is approachable, we can go too far and reduce God to a spiritual buddy; a pleasant sort of chap who takes me as I am and doesn't burden me with rigorous demands. We forget that fear and awe are appropriate responses to God.

I know why those invited first didn't come to the party. They knew something about the King. You couldn't just show up and sneak out of his parties without something being asked of you. After "Mr. Take Me As I Am" was tossed out, I imagine the rest of the guests were nervous and fearful of using the wrong fork or slurping their soup, less they also be tossed into the dark with him.

This was no somber affair. It was a party, but not one you could come to dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and behaving in a flippant manner. There is nothing casual or laid back about the life to which we are called. God offers what won't be found anywhere else. It's called life. And all other attempts to find it outside God's design end up in something less than life. Listen to how David Redding puts it:

Only God has the facilities to feast us properly. Other god's prove false. Hitch your wagon to the stars, but stars grow cold. You can love flesh, but flesh decays. You can love your husbands and wives, but spouses won't hold up divinely. You adore your homes, but homes break up. To decline the invitation is to ask for death.

This isn't something God does to us. We do it to ourselves. Every day of our lives God issues an invitation and we are free to accept or not.

At the Taizé community in France, the words on the altar are different from those we are accustomed to seeing on altars in most churches. We expect to see, "In Remembrance of Me." At Taizé it says, "Friend, why are you here?" I wish we would put this sign in a prominent place such that when we enter this sanctuary it would be the first thing to grasp our attention. Friend, why are you here? I wish we would ponder this question each Sunday before we do whatever it is we are accustomed to doing.

The first guests to the Kings were party were flippant and casual about the Kingdom by not coming. This other man was flippant by coming in a way which said, "The Kingdom isn't worthy my taking the trouble to come properly attired." And how do we come without a tux? By being one way on Sunday and something different the rest of the time. By claiming the grace of forgiveness, but continuing in the sinful behavior. By coming with some resentment or judgment to be reinforced rather than challenged. By showing up minus any expectation that the King himself will show up. We come without a tux when our offering in the plate is more a gratuity than a gift of gratitude. By coming to church, as someone put it, "with a face and manner that's not you, but is what is expected of you". We come without a tux when we give the appearance of being in ministry, when in reality we mainly hold committee meetings and appoint special task forces, trying to convince ourselves and God that this is enough.

Friends, why are you here? Is it to have an encounter with the King? I have a suspicion that for some of us the answer is no. This is why we try to keep it casual, light-hearted, and superficial. This way we won't be confronted by the claims of God's Kingdom. Deep down we realize that the business God invites us to is serious and ultimate. With spiritual attire we wear, we declare whether we are taking the King's invitation casually or carefully, attired with the clothing of expectancy, humility and respect.

When we stand before the King, the tacky suit of pretense we wear is stripped away and our real selves revealed. Our desires may be snatched from our hands and we will be given a cross instead. There will be jobs waiting for us. There will be works of love to be done with our names on it. God has gone to great lengths to invite you, and what he invites you to is the only way and the only work which matters.

To be properly attired doesn't mean we all will look like Lee Markley or Shelly Randall. We would look marvelous, but the King is looking for a different kind of garment, woven with a fabric of reverence, awe, humility, expectancy and respect.

Let me tell you now about Jan Karski. Jan was born in Poland and is now a citizen of the United States. We wouldn't know anything about him had he not been discovered by Elie Wiesel, the Nobel Prize winning author of books and studies of the Holocaust. Karski was a courier for the Polish underground from 1939 to 1942. He was imprisoned by the Germans and the Soviets, and managed to escape from both. He was then ordered back to Poland to the Belzec Concentration Camp to see if the rumors about the Jews were true. They were, and he told the leaders of the allied nations. He came to this country to tell President Roosevelt who listened politely but made no comment. Justice Frankfurter, who was Jewish didn't believe him. Karski gave lectures around the country and wrote a book about the Holocaust in 1944, but then disappeared until Wiesel found him.

A documentary film was made about Karski, and during an interview with the film's director, he asked Karski why, after all these years he broke his silence. "For two reason," he said. "First there is a whole generation that doesn't know about the Holocaust and what prejudice and hatred and evil can do if it isn't opposed. Second, I did it because I believe there will be a last judgment and God will say to me, 'Karski, I gave you a soul. Your body is gone but your soul is mine. What did you do with your soul?' and I will have to answer him."

Our soul is what we will wear to the banquet. When the King appears, the soul will be the only clothing we have. Let's be sure we have something nice to wear.

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