October 15, 2017 – Philippians 4:1-9; Matthew 22:1-14
Philippians 4:1-9; Matthew 22:1-14
The God of Peace Will Be with You
Lectionary 28A – October 15, 2017
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
I’ve had it up to here with violence.
We get served up by Matthew yet another parable of violence, a story,
as commentator Debie Thomas says, that is harsh, hyperbolic, and steeped in violence.
(https://www.christiancentury.org/article/living-word/october-15-ordinary-28a-matthew-221-14-isaiah-251-9)
As I said to many of you last Sunday, I just can’t hear any more about violence,
division, and opposition – in the news I am tired of hearing about violence and I am tired of hearing about
the rhetoric of division and opposition that leads to violence.
In Matthew’s telling, Jesus carries on from last week by telling yet another violent story.
About a king who is so enraged that guests don’t accept an invitation to a wedding feast that
he goes out, sends his troops, kills them, and burns their city to the ground.
Really? Is this what the kingdom of heaven is like, Matthew?
Is this what it is like when God is ruling?
If so, pray excuse me from the banquet, Matthew, ‘cause I’m not eating what you’re serving.
The story is found in Matthew, Luke and, once again, in the Gospel of Thomas.
This means it is likely one of the first stories of Jesus to be written down.
In Matthew’s telling, both the king and the invited guests resort to violence.
In Luke’s telling, there is no violence on the part of the guests,
they just make excuses that they are too busy –
and there is no violence on the part of the host, but he does get very angry.
And in the Gospel of Thomas, which probably preserves the version most closely to
Jesus’s telling, there is no violence and no anger on anyone’s part.
A man invites guests to a feast, they make excuses why they aren’t able to come,
so the man simply invites anyone who wants to come to come.
And there is nothing at all about anyone who is dressed inappropriately being thrown out.
No violence, no anger, no dress code: just invitation and hospitality.
All are welcome, and you’re free to say no.
On this day when we think of healing, we think of our world’s need to be healed from anger.
Yes, Jesus does have a place for anger – the righteous anger against injustice and exploitation
like when he throws the moneychangers out of the temple.
But there is another type of anger, right?
The anger against those who are different, against those who don’t agree with you.
This is very very destructive.
And we are seeing the consequences of it in our world.
Today, I simply want to announce the good news that Paul announces in Philippians:
The God of peace will be with you.
Here, Paul identifies God’s very nature with peace, not with violence, and not with anger.
As a Jew, when Paul speaks of peace, he means shalom, the all-encompassing peace that
involves healing, wholeness, well-being, and safety, the very antithesis of violence.
Paul himself writes this from prison, where he possibly awaits a violent death.
Yet, he affirms that the God of peace is with him,
and that when you suffer the God of peace is with you.
The God of peace will be with you.
Can we, as another commentator points out this week, relocate God in Matthew’s story-telling,
from being the kingly perpetrator of violence
to being in solidarity with those who suffer the violence of the king?
(Kent Narum in Sundays and Seasons: Preaching, Year A, 2017 [Augsburg Fortress, 2016], 264)
Jesus, after all, dies on a cross, in solidarity with all who suffer in any way.
On the cross, Jesus suffers so much –
and is one with those who so suffer so much and so differently.
On the cross, Jesus is with those who suffer grief over a world gone wrong.
With those who suffer loneliness and the aching feeling of godforsakenness.
With those who suffer from being abandoned by their friends.
With those who suffer violence.
With those who suffer injustice.
With those who suffer pain and physical harm.
With those who suffer knowing their friends are hurting and suffering as well.
Jesus can be with you in your suffering because Jesus has been there.
Jesus knows what it is like.
God raised Jesus from the dead in order to be with all the suffering of every time and place.
Jesus is with you, right here, right now – and there is healing in that.
The God of peace will be with you, writes Paul – and God is.
Healing you of so much.
God raised Jesus from the dead to be with you.
In order to heal you . . . and invite you to a feast – a feast of love, and compassion, and mercy.
A feast of forgiveness and healing where all are welcome, even enemies.
To a table where we all may truly be one, even if we do not agree on everything.
To a table of healing.
So come.
The healing may not always be the healing we seek, but there will be healing –
and there will be the healing that you need.
And you will find peace.
So come to the healing, and come to the table.
For today Jesus invites us to a banquet where we can all eat what he’s serving.
And together, let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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