Responding to Grace, October 12, 2014

Exodus 32 Matthew 22:1-14 There are passages of the Bible, that before your read the words, you know what you are to believe. “Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, when Jesus said 'Woman why are you weeping?' Supposing him to be the gardener she said 'Sir if you have taken him show me where and I will care for the body' and he called her by name 'Mary' and she responded 'Rabbonni!'” And then there are other Scripture passages that make us wonder how to respond to the grace of God? The very nature of Grace is that Grace expects not response. If you pay for it, this is not Grace. If you expect it, if you demand, if you beg, it is not Grace. Grace is unmerited, unwarranted, and yet in response to Grace, we mirror, we act with grace ourselves. This morning I want to tell you Exodus 32 is about more than worship of Gold. Years ago, as a sermon illustration, the preacher at that time asked that everyone place their jewelry, their bracelets and rings in the offering plate, yet after the service, at least one of the rings was missing, raising people's anxiety lowering their level of trust. The first point of this passage, is the binding identification of our anxiety with things. We cannot cope with fear, with mystery, danger, so we link them, bind them to the stuff of life. Far more than a simple chip of carbon, that diamond represents the hopes and dreams we shared when first we imagined life together, different from our lives before. The people in the wilderness were not a highly educated people, they had been slaves, who hungered and thirsted, and were filled with fears. How can God transform this people into a people of faith, the people of God? A people thankful for Manna from heaven, or for the grace of freedom and enjoyment of life that come with God? The people cried out for FREEDOM and God set them free. They cried out for food and received bread. They cried out for water and received it from out of a rock. They cried out for security and God gave them faith, laws and commandments. The people were a stiff-necked people who whined and complained. How do you change a people to be thankful? The generation from 1945 until 1970 were described as the highest attending, the most practicing Church-goers in history. They were a generation born in the Depression, threatened by World War, who survived the first explosion of the Atom Bomb, and they were Thankful simply to be alive. But they could not imagine how to teach this to their children. We have become a people of Anti-institutionalism, tearing down and replacing everything that was established. Moses went atop the mountain where God provided the Commandments, and before Moses even came down, the people had already violated the first several. More than the content of the commandments, more than the worship of idols and graven images, this Chapter begins that Moses had been away and the people doubted if we would return. One of the first games we are taught as infants is peek-a-boo. We do a great deal of mirroring. Responding because we interpret what is the expected response. If the other is hidden, how do we know what we are to do, or to feel, are they even still there? Do they exist if we cannot see? I would propose that all of our fears of absence, whether we are still loved, our fears of death, the agony of Alzheimer's, all go back to this basic fear of mirroring when we cannot. So the people became impatient, that is what is beneath the surface of this wilderness: Impatience. The people wanted something, not an abstract idea, not law, but that which they could see and touch, a thing of substance, a sacrificial calf of gold. But possessing the calf as their god, the people no longer needed. Our created identity is as a people wanting, that is the spark that is to be created in the image of God. God formed us, in order that we would chose to want God. The Tower of Babel, was about a people who decided not to search any longer, not to wander, but instead to build walls and security, and towers to their own greatness. We are a people with hopes and dreams. What is there that you imagine when we have this, we have it all? When we have children? When they graduate College? When we pay off our Mortgage and own our home? When we Retire giving up what we have trained to do? When we have grandchildren? When we die? When do we possess what we most desire or fear? This morning's Biblical passages are gruesome, these are Stephen King Halloween passages of gore. Moses came down the mountain, ground up the golden calf that he makes the people swallow, then he and the Levites slaughter 3000 of the people, each man his brother, before going back to God. Jesus entered Jerusalem, went into the Temple at Jerusalem where he overturned the Moneychangers. To which the leaders asked By what Authority do you do this? Jesus asked them about John the Baptist, then told them the parable of the Vineyard workers who killed the servants of the master as well as killing the Landowner's Son and heir. Then he gave ANOTHER PARABLE. To say ANOTHER is not to describe something as being the same as what has been, but something different. There is a version of this parable in Luke and another in Thomas, which are striking because the guests invited, choose to have other things to do. One owns a farm, one a business, one has just gotten married, so cannot be bothered with the King's Son's Wedding. Instead, the King invites Prostitutes and Thieves. Often, we have interpreted the Guest without Robes as being in that Parable. This guest becomes one who even though he was common, still needed to put on the right attitude. I can recall when a neighboring pastor was consecrated as a Bishop, and I struggled with whether to participate and what I believed about a peer becoming a Bishop, but as it turned out on the day of his Consecration I was downtown at the Hospital, so decided to attend. Being a Saturday, visiting the hospital, I had not thought to bring a robe, or to wear a collar, so just walked in the door of the Cathedral, and because of my clothes instead of processing with the clergy to sit up front I was seated in the basement watching on closed circuit television. Still with that parable, we struggle, because how many of us identify ourselves as Prostitutes? How many of us are Thieves? How many of us own land? How many are married? And the landowners and married are rejected, but the thieves and prostitutes are welcomed at the Table. And actually the Guest without Clothes is not in that Parable, but this one. The Bible was not written as theoretical teaching of morals. This is not abstract philosophy. Faith, whether in the time of Moses, or Jesus, or Matthew, or Martin Luther, John Calvin, Karl Barth, or us today is dealing with real people and circumstance, and trying to find meaning and faith in life. We can all recall the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, of the Queen in Yellow, the men in Uniform, the Fascinators. One of the only occasions as filled with pomp and pageantry as a Wedding, is the Coronation of a King. During the Roman Empire, the Caesars and Mark Anthony, proposed putting puppet kings of the race of the people, who would subjugate their own people for Rome. Herod was of the House and Lineage of Royalty, but a cruel and evil man. He had come to power by assassinating members of his own family. He had the Roman Army at his command, but he wanted to be welcomed by the people, and the people of Jerusalem rejected him. As a King with an Army and a people who do not want him, Herod invaded the city and his army killed indiscriminately. Then conscripted whomever they found, that they had to worship Herod. So in this telling of the Parable, instead of the man who wore no robes being considered a sinner, this is Jesus' response to a questioning of his authority, he is quite possibly Jesus himself. Who represents not participating in what the crowd is doing. Not going along with Herod, or the Empire, but being true to himself and to God. Recognize that he is still bound hand and foot and exiled. But how different the parable becomes, when seen as a challenge to Authority, when the one who chooses to not participate acting out, is seen as Jesus. How do we respond to acts of generosity and grace? How do we mirror others? How do we chose to respond to what we know to be wrong, to go along, to challenge, or simply to not participate?