In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Glory be to Jesus Christ.
Glory be to God forever. The second gospel that
we've heard read today is one in the regular
cycle of the year. It's from Matthew. The first
one, of course, is because tomorrow is the Feast
of the Cross. But I want to focus our attention
on the second gospel. which is taken from chapter
22 of St. Matthew's Gospel. The marriage feast,
the marriage feast of the father and the son,
the marriage feast of the lamb. This is one of
the richest parables, in my estimation, one of
the richest parables of our Lord's. Why? Because
it avails itself of... a number of equally legitimate
interpretations. The variety of interpretations
is really fascinating. But really, it focuses
in on a couple of main ideas and themes. Clearly,
the marriage feast is given by the king, that
is, God the Father. And the marriage feast is
for his son, obviously. Jesus Christ, the marriage
feast, the mystical supper, the Lord's Supper.
So many of the fathers, a common interpretation
of this is that the marriage feast stands for
three things basically which are really connected,
interconnected. The marriage feast is the church.
The marriage feast is the Eucharist. The marriage
feast is the kingdom of heaven. One trajectory
of the fathers is that to be invited to the church,
the first people that were invited proved unworthy.
They all had excuses. This is the version of
this marriage feast in St. Luke's. This is what
St. Luke... tells us there. People all had excuses
why they wouldn't come. And then the father that's
presenting the feast has an interesting phrase
I really like that isn't in St. Matthew's. He
says, the first ones that were invited weren't
worthy. Go out to the highways and byways and
compel them. compel them to come to my feast.
So the first ones, the originally invited guests,
were the Jewish people who by and large and as
a group did not accept Jesus as the promised
Messiah. Of course, there were many who did.
But then the servants are sent out everywhere,
highways and byways, all different kinds of people,
all different nations. all different cultures,
and invited to come to this marriage feast, which
is the Church. This illustrates, obviously, the
Catholicity of the Church, that the Church is
meant for all peoples of all times, of every
culture, and of every region. But I'd focus our
attention this morning on the idea of the mutual
connection between the Church and the Eucharist
and the Kingdom. One of the recurring themes
of Father Alexander Schmemann is that the Church
is essentially Eucharistic. The Church is most
the Church when it's celebrating the Eucharist.
Another contemporary theologian, the Greek metropolitan
John Zizoulas, says that without the Eucharist,
there isn't any church. There's no church without
the Eucharist. Very strong statement. And, of
course, he said this even before this current
pandemic business and the virus. And we see how...
with our people how much they long how much they
miss the eucharist it's so central to our life
as christians this of course is all an interpret
and an anticipation of the kingdom of heaven
the church itself which is the kingdom on earth
the church which is when it is most essentially
being the church celebrating the Eucharist. And
the church, all of this is a foretaste of that
eternal banquet with God in the kingdom of heaven.
This is so clear. How do we begin the liturgy?
Blessed is the kingdom of the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit. But there's one curious element
in this parable of the marriage feast. And that
is the one fellow who happened to be there without
a wedding garment. And, of course, the fathers
find this very intriguing. How are we going to
interpret what is this wedding garment? And the
man who threw the feast, the king for his son,
comes up to him and says, Where's your wedding
garment? He was speechless. And then he says,
go, tell us the service, go, bind him hand and
foot and throw him out. Now, how many of us who
have had a wedding for our sons or daughters
would behave like this? You know, somebody comes
in and probably don't even, I had never even
noticed really what kind of clothes they were
wearing. But maybe the person who has a, you
know, some old shabby suit, you're not going
to go, him, get out of here. Or a woman who has
some dress that you think is not fancy enough
for a wedding. Go, leave. No, no. So there has
to be some interesting characteristic of what
this garment is. Something that is essential
that was lacking in this man. Notice it was essential
because when the... The king comes up to him
and says, you know, where's your wedding garment?
What? He was speechless. He knew that he was
lacking something that he should have worn to
this. So the thing that is lacking, of course,
the fathers see here. An interpretation of baptism.
In order to get into the kingdom, you have to
be baptized. You have to be clothed in that white
garment, the baptismal garment, that the early
church used for the newly baptized, that we use
here at St. Seraphim's for the newly baptized.
They also say a variation of this, which is consistent.
with the garment as a baptismal garment, that
the garment that we need to get into the kingdom
of heaven is faith and good works, good deeds.
Without our Christian faith, without putting
this faith into action by living appropriately
as Christians, we won't get into the kingdom
of heaven. I think all of this is put together
if we look at a very interesting aspect of this
wedding feast, which is found in chapter 19 of
the book of Revelation, the marriage feast of
the Lamb. And in 19, this is a vision, of course,
that St. John has of the kingdom of heaven. That's
what the apocalypse is. the book of Revelation.
At this wedding feast, they cry out, there's
a thunderous peal. Alleluia! The Lord our God,
the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult
and give him the glory, for the marriage of the
Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself
ready. The bride, of course, is the church. The
bride is us who are made ready to participate
in this marriage of the Lamb. It was granted
to her, to the bride, to be clothed with fine
linen, bright and pure. For the fine linen is
the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel
said to me, Write this, the angel said, John
is saying, the angel said to me, write this,
blessed are those who are invited to the mystical
supper of the Lamb, the marriage supper of the
Lamb. How wonderful those words are. How greatly
have we been privileged to be invited to this
mystical supper. The Church, the Eucharist, and
the kingdom of heaven. Let us, by our faith and
good deeds, prove ourselves worthy and be wearing
this wedding garment. Hallelujah. Praise the
Lord who invites us to this marriage feast. Amen.