by Rev. Dr John Evans
Philippians 4:1-9
Matthew 22:1-14
Do you remember, or know of the term wowser?
They are people who particularly frown on others having a good time: no dancing, no fun no parties; they would be most upset if someone, somewhere were having a good time. A term actually thought to be an acronym – we only want social evils remedied. They were killjoys – a telling description of their approach.
And I say this because today I actually want to speak about joy. Joy, celebration is a critical, essential part of being a Christian, of being a worshipping congregation, of living life to the full. Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice – said Paul. And it is an important part of life.
I am deliberately seeking an antidote to the gloom and doom of our life. Just at this current time we all seem to be driven by gloom and fear. Until about three months ago the abiding fear of many in our land was fear of people who are different, fear of different religions, fear of terrorism – briefly it became environmental fear – certainly when petrol hit $1.75, now it is fear of economic collapse and financial ruin. We now have a full-blown global economic crisis and it is exercising everyone’s minds enormously.
And fear – it is true, is a powerful motivator.
My message, however, is that surely the promise of hope and joy should draw us forward, rather than being pushed from behind with fear: panicked and traumatised by life itself. I firmly believe it is God’s will that we, the 6.5 to 7 billion of us, should all be able to live a good, joyous life on this one small planet, in peace and harmony and respecting the world around us. That is God’s will for us – a vision of hope. In the current circumstances, it looks very sadly remote.
I guess many of you, like me, were required, perhaps forced, to have piano lessons.
‘It would be good for you, John,’ I can still hear my mother saying. We may have been able to start those piano lessons by a sense of obligation – even a sense of excitement that you might one day play the piano – but unless there is joy in undertaking those lessons, or practising those scales, you are not going to keep at them. Fear – fear of failure, fear of being punished, fear of not being able to watch TV if you did not practise, might keep you at it for a while, sometimes for a long while – but it is not going to energise your life and get you to enjoy playing the piano.
Joy motivates us, it also saves us from taking ourselves too seriously. . . a feature I hope we don’t lose as Australians. Our joyousness can stop us from being stuffy bores . . . concerned only for self and the serious business of keeping up with the Joneses. In celebration and joy, the high and mighty regain their balance and the weak and lowly receive new stature. Joy of life, and joy in our worship is important, especially at this time – and today a theme among the many from our readings is this importance of joy.
In Matthew’s gospel the fullness of God’s life, the kingdom of heaven, is likened to a king inviting us all to the marriage feast of his son – a great occasion of celebration and joy. The feast, a heavenly banquet, has always been a sign of God’s love and joy – we even speak of holy communion as being a foretaste of that heavenly banquet. So the king invites people to share in this joy. And what happens? They cannot come – they don’t come, they refuse. They have their farms to attend to; their own business to deal with. Some even object to being disturbed and set on the kings servants who were sent to invite them to the banquet. Why – why give up a free feed? Were they so self absorbed in their own life that they could not join in the joy of the kings son’s wedding; did they think they knew another way?
To Jesus’ hearers, he was obviously addressing those religious leaders, the strict keepers of the law – like the pharisees, who would not be a part of a new way of enjoying life – this kingdom of heaven of which Jesus spoke. They had their own concerns; different priorities. And so others were invited; and it did not really matter who they were. There was no fear here, they did not have to be religious types who came – the good and the bad alike, the bible says – were invited to this celebration to enjoy life. This was the kingdom of heaven.
Challenging isn’t it. What is important for God – is that all, that is the rich, the poor, the in-crowd and the outcast, the good and the bad alike – may enjoy life with his son. Joy, not fear, should motivate us. However, lest you think this might be some broad invitation to romp in sin and gay abandonment, Jesus tells another parable about this same wedding feast. The scene changes slightly – we are now in the kingdom of heaven – we are with this rag tag group of God’s children.
The King goes to meet the guests, and he finds one who is not attired correctly. Perhaps they just had on shorts and thongs. On seeing the man without his wedding garment on, the king orders him to be bound hand and foot and cast into outer darkness where he will weep and gnash his teeth. Now, like any male, I have often been accused of not having much clothes sense, but Jean has never actually seen fit to bind me hand and foot and cast me into outer darkness. Well I hope not. We obviously have a rather sensitive and touchy host here – all because the guest; who most probably was just swept up off the street, did not wear the right clothes.
What can it mean?
I think the key to understanding this parable is to ask, what should have this person worn? If it wasn’t the purple striped tie, green shirt, brown cardigan and white trousers, what was it he should have worn?
The guests had been invited to a new way of living; they had been invited to a celebration of life and a way of living which will change them. They had been invited to a life of joy in the presence of God. The guests were invited to share in this celebration of life with God. They were invited to new, or renewed, priorities. The guests were expected to put on a new mode of existence, a new way of living – to put on new clothes, and leave the old ones behind. There were new baptismal robes. As the apostle Paul sometimes says, people are to put on Christ – to put on the robe of righteousness.
The joy, the celebration which is open to all because of God’s love shown to us in Christ, is there if we come and respond to the open invitation. But in responding to the invitation we also are to come with new lives, lives which will show our obedience to Christ. If we do not accept this we do not put on our wedding garment – then we are cast into outer darkness – or perhaps we cast ourselves out.
Remember my ill-fated piano lessons.
When we start learning something, there is not instant joy. In fact, it is usually pretty awful. There is no instant sense of achievement that one can play the piano, or use a fairway wood, or drive a car, or speak French. There is rather, much practice. Much frustration. But in the end there will come the sense of mastery, joy and pleasure because you have worked at it. You have obeyed the principles of your pursuit and you can do it.
Isn’t it similar in life? Joy comes through our obedience to Christ – our discipleship. Our loving of others as ourselves; our life of service, our love of God. What are the words of the old hymn: ‘Trust and obey, for there is no other way, but to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.’ Our joy needs that garment of a changed life. Another way of expressing this, I believe, is Jesus is saying that joy is not something that you hold out for, like you might do for your annual vacation, so that you may anaethetise the pain of another working year. People, many people, live in such a way, there is no joy in their work, in their home life, in their daily life, and so every so often they get their “fix” of happiness, joy – as they think it, and have a fling . . . like taking some transfusion. A sort of get happy quick. . . . In fact this is most probably what is happening around us – as so many today want such a transfusion to by-pass the anxiety and worry, the fear of the daily life.
Jesus does not bypass the ordinariness of life. God’s way of joy is by redeeming and sanctifying the ordinary junctures of life – even the illness, the sadness, and dare I say it, economic downturn. When there is love and compassion and spirit of service in a family or a group of people; when there is a sense of hope, that life is not meaningless and that one day God will be all in all – then there is a reason to celebrate. Joy is found in this humble, quiet obedience.
As Paul says repeatedly in his conclusion to his letter to the Philippians – and remember he was imprisoned there in Philippi, he suffered many beatings, he wore the scars of his discipleship on his body – ‘Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice!’
As he says in those beautiful words,
Finally my friends, keep your minds on whatever is pure, right, holy, friendly and proper. Don’t ever stop thinking about what is truly worthwhile and worthy of praise. . . And God who gives peace, will be with you.
