"OUR SHAMING GOD" October 15, 2017

Exodus 32: 1-14 Matthew 22:1-14 We begin this morning challenging our most basic assumption leading to ANXIETY. That is that our World is finite. Humanity has been in existence for millions of years, Progressing through Manifest Destiny, so we assume EVERYTHING is THE BEST that can be,… COMPLETE… having survived… having surpassed the Enlightenment… having gotten beyond the 20th Century, it seems as though all that is left is Destruction and Judgment. September 11th ‘s attack over 15 years ago; the collapse of the Stock Market a dozen years ago, the collapse of the Housing Bubble a decade ago, Antiques Roadshow demonstrating all of our stuff is worthless, all seem to validate our anxiety over the future. The Prophet Isaiah seems to speak to this Circumstance: All flesh is grass, the Grass withers the flower fades. When in fact that is a passage about the GRACE of God, Comfort, Comfort My People says your God! Faith undercuts the limitations of Shame and anxiety with limitless Grace of God. This morning’s are the most intricately written stories in the Bible. I invite us to unpack each, considering: Maybe there were stories behind these stories, that do not mean what we have come to possess. Because these same passages have become ugly awful stories used to justify anti-Semitism, persecution and Fear of God. Assuming this is about THE GOLDEN CALF, we know Exodus 32 to be about judgment of Israel, not only for SIN, but getting caught, worshipping idols. Following the passages we read, With righteous Anger Moses commands retribution by the Sons of Levi: Neighbor kill neighbor, brother kill brother, fight to the last Man. Part of our shock at this passage is that the last thing we read of 10 Commandments, we interpreted was NOT about Law & Sin and Judgment, but about God extending through Moses through Israel: Our being in Relationship with God! The 10 Commandments we said are description of a trusting relationship with God! So, what if we recast this passage, instead of The SIN OF THE GOLDEN CALF; naming this OUR ANXIETY SHAMING GOD. The escaped slaves had been left by Moses at the base of Mt. Sinai, as the mountain was engulfed in cloud, with Lightning, thunder, trumpet blasts, earthquakes,… left in the wilderness for 40 days... When else have you heard about 40 days in wilderness? This like Jesus’, is a story of TEMPTATION. Even before receiving the Commandments, Israel violates the 1st Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods, then demand that Aaron violate the second by making for them AN IDOL to worship. There is no record here that they coveted other’s belongings, or lied or murdered. In Anxiety, they assumed the worst, and SHAMED GOD. In response to their actions, just as in Genesis, God promises to start anew: God will make of Moses a new Noah, another Abraham, to eliminate those who Shamed God and have a Genesis a New Beginning with a Righteous Son of Man. But the point of this story is two things, present in the text, we overlook. 1. Moses was able to change the mind of God! On the first day of Seminary, in a Preaching class with James Forbes, he had us read this passage, and remember, that the role of every believer is not only to pray for others, BUT ALSO to be able to plead your case and challenge God to reveal a new and different revelation. The meaning behind our Stained glass Window, is that YES, there is Predestination, God Does Have a Plan…but we each have a Free Will, Challenging God to act revealing a new different part of God’s plan. 2. AND Even when God has been SHAMED… Even when God has been rejected… Even when we chose to bow down to our own golden idols… God FORGIVES! Forgiveness is not a New Testament idea. God’s Forgiveness is as basic to our understanding of God, as the Ten Commandments on the Tablets of Stone. But remember that the first Tablets of Stone, just like the Golden Calf, were fragile, easily broken, where as the GRACE OF GOD’S FORGIVENESS is Flexible & Adaptable. Matthew combined at least three of Jesus’ Parables into “This Wedding Feast”, which while about Judgment Day, too appropriately also describes fighting at Weddings, within family, over who is Accepted, Welcome, and Shaming one another. Having performed as many as 30 wedding as year for 33 years, I have been repeatedly shocked here in this little Village, how often the Families have hired Off-Duty Police Officers to be present, because we feared, family at the Wedding could not be civil. The first, oldest Parable is similar to last week in the immediately preceding verses: God is the Landowner seeking fruits from sharecroppers. A Day of Judgment. Here, God is the Father of the Bridegroom sending out invitations to the Wedding Feast. But when people reject God’s messengers, and kill them, just as we would expect in Sodom and Gomorrah: God destroys them. Horribly, this parable has over time been used as justification for killing our enemies, Crusades, persecution of Judaism, when All of us, ALL Humanity have at times Rejected God, Shamed God. This is old Calvinist’ Pre-Destination. Evil and Sin are real, and it is hard for us to Forgive, harder for us to forgive ourselves than it is for God, as proven by the Second Parable. The Second Parable, is that after Judgment, God then seeks out those who were exiled and excluded. God acts with Grace, Compassion and Forgiveness for the Marginalized, so the First are last, and the Last are first. But, as few of us today know many Pharisees, Lepers, Prostitutes, Tax Collectors, perhaps we should apply this to the DEPRESSED, those who have Felt REJECTED, Broken. See John Calvin described that while Humanity will turn away from God, God continues to offer Grace for us. The Third Parable, is unique to Matthew, and for us today, probably the hardest. When those who were marginalized, do come to the Feast, God sees one who has not put on a Wedding Garment, and casts this one out of the Feast. I say, “the hardest for us today”, because I have repeatedly found myself and heard others beat themselves up about MULTITASKING, trying to attend a Funeral knowing I have to be leading an activity in two hours, and the Funeral runs long. You cannot serve both. You cannot be in two places at the same time Instead of the “Wedding Feast” or “The Wedding Garment” which seem to have little reference for people today, I suggest we refer to this as: “The PARABLE OF HAVING EVERYTHING, RESPONSIBLE FOR NOTHING.” Even when, especially when, Grace and Forgiveness have been extended by God, those who receive, Cannot continue to SHAME GOD, because we make Grace Worthless, shaming God all the more. This is Calvin’s DOUBLE PRE-DESTINATION.