The following sermon was delivered by the Reverend John W. Howe, Rector of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia. The title is The Wedding Banquet, and the scripture reference is Matthew chapter 22, verses 1 through 14. 

It's often said that a parable makes one point. That's the particular distinctive of parables, is that they make one point. And so if you try to push a parable too far, you end up missing the point.

You might contrast a parable with an allegory. An allegory is a different form of literature, a different form of story, in which every single element has a symbolic meaning. And it's a great delight to sort of take it apart and figure out who all the characters are and what all the symbols are in that particular story.

That's not the case with a parable. A parable makes one point, and you might compare it to one facet of a diamond. You see the light from one point of view, but then you've got to turn the diamond and catch another facet and another facet.

And that's what begins to happen as you work your way through the teaching of Jesus, and you get one parable catching this aspect of the light, and then you turn it a little bit and you get another parable and another parable, And you begin to see all of the different facets of his teaching. If you try to push it too far, you're in trouble. He tells the story of the unjust servant.

How he was forgiven a tremendous debt of some ten million dollars. Turns right around and refuses to forgive the debt of someone else who owed him a measly twenty dollars. And when his master hears about this, he rises up in anger and claps the unjust servant into jail.

And the last line of the parable is, and he will stay there until he pays the uttermost farthing. Well, you don't stop and ask, how in the world is he going to pay the uttermost farthing if he stays in jail? See, that's an interesting question.

Chuck Colson would undoubtedly want to discuss it with you. but that would miss the point. Parables make one point.

And yet, having said that, it's interesting to me to see how frequently in Jesus' teaching he makes his point and the parable would seem to be over and then there's a little O'Henry ending on it. And it has another whole point. It's sort of like the pendulum is swinging, and you're right in the path, and it just barely misses you, and you say, whew, and then whap, it gets you from behind.

I think, for instance, of the prodigal son. It's so obvious, it's so clear, it's so beautiful. The boy has been a wastrel and a spendthrift.

He's taken his father's inheritance, and he's gone, and he's used it up in very short order on riotous living. And finally, he's reduced to eating in a pigsty. And he says, the servants back home get better treatment than I'm getting.

I'm going to go back and apologize and ask my father's forgiveness. Maybe he'll let me be a servant in his house. And of course, he comes and the father doesn't even wait for him to get home.

He runs to him, embraces him, gets the best robe for his back, shoes for his feet, ring for his hand, Go kill the fatted calf. My son who was lost has been found. He was as dead and he's alive again.

We've got to celebrate. And you can probably find yourself in that parable that you and I have in one way or another walked away from our Father and wasted what He's given to us and yet He would welcome us back. Come home.

Come home without condemnation. Let me wipe the slate clean. Let's start over.

Let's have a party together. But it's just possible that that doesn't get you because you haven't been a wastrel and a spendthrift and you haven't gone out in sensual living. And it's just possible that there's something of the elder brother in you who says, I've been home all this time.

I've been a good boy, see? How come this rotten brother of mine is getting the party? And it whaps you from behind.

Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan. And the point is so obvious. It's more important to bind up the wounds of the afflicted than it is to get to the prayer meeting.

I'm sure that the priest and the Levite were on their way to a prayer and praise service. It's more important to bind up the wounds of the afflicted than even to come and worship. and then there's a zinger because you've got to stop and remember that the story was told to answer the question and who is my neighbor whom I'm supposed to love as myself and Jesus says who proved himself neighbor the Samaritan is my neighbor not just the guy lying in the ditch but the Samaritan who stopped to help him is my neighbor you mean the Samaritan that guy of a different race different culture different religion he's my neighbor how many of you know that a lot of people find it easier to love the guy in the ditch who needs my help than the Samaritan who needs to help me and I need to let him little O. Henry twist there the workers in the vineyard we were studying a few weeks ago again the point is so obvious even the guy who responds to the call of God in the last few moments before quitting time receives the full blessing of God's mercy just as if he'd been out there during the heat of the day God's grace is forgiveness.

Even deathbed conversion. He'll extend all of that. But then there's a little twist on the end.

There are some of you who have borne the heat of the day, who have belonged to the Lord Jesus for the long haul, and don't you for one moment think that you've earned His favor because of it. So we come to this morning's story. The parable of the wedding banquet.

The king's son is getting married and the king wants to throw the biggest bash in the history of the kingdom. And all the invited guests favored with an engraved invitation. Do you remember Prince Charles' wedding?

Do you know how valuable those invitations were? All the people that got those engraved invitations for one reason or another said, sorry, I can't come. I've just bought a field I've just bought a cow I've just married a wife I've got to stay home and tend to business I cannot come and the king says there is going to be a party go out get whoever you can find did you catch that as many as you can find he says and his servants go out and they compel them to come in rich, poor, black, white Jew, Gentile old, young, male, female, servants, harlots, tax collectors, and it says very specifically, both bad and good.

It's an interesting interchange here. The king says, the wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go out and get anybody you can find bad or good.

What does it mean to be worthy? it means to be willing to come and accept the king's invitation it's not a matter of having earned it in some other way they proved their unworthiness by their unwillingness to come and lo and behold even prostitutes were worthy if they were willing to come and the story stands with such obvious clarity and such a beautiful invitation that would have made a fine parable all by itself. I don't care who you are.

I don't care what you've done. I don't care if you're not welcome at anybody else's table anywhere in the world. You are welcome at this table.

Come. Come. Receive it.

I often say this is not the table of the Episcopal Church. This is the table of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you love Him and if you belong to Him, or if you want to, come come you're worthy by virtue of your coming come some folks from Episcopal backgrounds sometimes say you know I just can't relate to these television preachers I can't relate to the Billy Graham kind of fellow who gives altar calls do you realize that we have an altar call three times every Sunday that's what it is we're saying come Come as an expression of giving your life back to this king who is throwing this banquet.

That would have made a fine parable. But then the O'Henry ending. The king looks out into this incredible multitude of guests and his eyes fix on one fellow who has no wedding garment.

And he rushes over to him, interrupts the party, it stops dead, comes to him and says, how in the world did you get in here without a wedding garment? And the man is speechless. And he says, throw him out.

Now you've got to understand that protocol demanded that the host would provide the garment. It wasn't that this guy had to go out and couldn't afford a garment and couldn't find one. Poor fellow is interrupted in the middle of whatever he was doing and by king's edict is told to come to the wedding party and he doesn't have the proper clothing.

That's not it at all. It was the king's responsibility to give him the wedding garment and there it was at the door. You don't come in without the garment.

This guy made the first step absolutely correctly. He wanted to come and join the party. But he didn't come the right way.

What's that wedding garment? that's a garment that was purchased with the king's own money that's a garment that belonged to the king himself it's a garment that nobody could earn it's a garment that's given as a gift it's a garment that clothes us in an appropriate way to come into the king's presence and I'd like to suggest to you that that's the garment that Jesus Christ washed in His own blood that's a garment of righteousness and He says I would enclose you with my own righteousness I would cover you with not only forgiveness but with righteousness not of your own doing but of my purchase for you put on my coat and let it cover your shame and your nakedness do you understand that there's no other way to come into the king's banquet hall the first thing you've got to be willing to come you've got to want to come you've got to hear the invitation and respond to it you've got to hear the altar call and say yes I come but you've got to come in his garment and no one else's. We change the image. Do you remember the soldiers at the foot of the cross gambling?

For what? For the royal robe of the one who hung there on that cross. It was put on him in mockery, but it was nonetheless a royal robe.

And they didn't tear it up and distribute it. They gambled for it, which fulfilled prophecy. you're not gambling at the foot of the cross but you are nonetheless there and Jesus would say to you I've taken off my kingly garment and you are its recipient if you would put it on bear in mind that it's cost me my life put on my garment and come to the party.

Let's bow our heads together. Lord Jesus, it's just possible that there is someone among us who is hearing that invitation for the very first time. Or perhaps hearing it in a way that they've never heard it before.

We ask You to move in their minds and hearts to say, yes, Lord Jesus, thank You for loving me. Thank You for dying for me. I would come to Your party.

I would receive the gift of Your new life. I would let You clothe me with righteousness. O Lamb of God, I come.

Father all of us whether newcomers or those who have come week after week day after day year after year we would remind ourselves of the incalculable cost of that wedding garment and we would remind ourselves that we've done nothing to earn it we accept it as your gift we come not by virtue of our own righteousness, but by virtue of Your love and mercy. And we too say, O Lamb of God, I come. Just as I am without one plea, but that Your blood was shed for me.

O Lamb of God, I come. Amen.