“Choosing Relationship” (Oct-9 2011)

“Choosing Relationship”
Exodus 32:1-14; Matthew 22:1-14 (golden calf, wedding feast)
October 9, 2011; Yr A, 28

Yuck! Who wants to hear this on a beautiful October Sunday morning? God saying, “Now let me alone so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them” (Ex 32:10). Jesus telling us a story where a King’s emissaries were murdered by those who didn’t want to come to his party, so he sent troops and burned their city! Then, some poor shmoe is tied up and tossed in the dumpster, even though he did come to the party, just because he wore the wrong clothes. Talk about fashion police having too much power….
What are we supposed to do with this? The imagery is so vivid in these two passages that some have chosen to use them as proof texts that there is a Hell complete with “outer darkness”, “weeping and gnashing of teeth”, destruction and flames and God’s “fierce wrath”. OK, fair enough. Those words are there, but I always thought that there was something a little deeper for us to chew on here than just a justification for Halloween 2.
And I don’t think that it is a matter of just coming upon a partial glass of scriptural water and choosing to see it as either half-full or half-empty. No, both of these passages in very different ways begin with a carrot, not a stick. Both are invitations to choose relationship.
Although a little diced up, the Exodus passage recounts the time that Moses is delayed coming down from the mountain. In our popularized version of the story, he brings the law down to the people and finds them reveling in drunkenness and debauchery. This is not actually what is written in the Bible. Instead, what we find is a group of scared and deflated refugees who feel that they have lost their war chief and leader, Moses. They turn to the next in line, his brother Aaron, to help them make sense of what has been happening to them, especially now that they feel lost and abandoned. What Aaron leads them to do, that is melt down their gold jewelry to make a golden calf to worship, is as pitiful as it is idolatrous.
When you think about it, most of our idolatry is pitiful. Even though we seldom worship golden calves anymore, we do manage to shift our worry and our hope onto inanimate objects, ideologies or activities. We do choose to have a better relationship with, say our IPod or our Television set, than we do with our God. We plan, spend and “fire ourselves up” for a football game. We party hearty when our team wins and we feel morose for days when they don’t. Why do such objects and activities captivate us so?
Moses led the Hebrew people out of Egypt in the name of the Creator of the Universe. They were rescued from the most powerful army on earth at the time, and they were invited to be the chosen family of God! There seems to be little logic as to how or why such a fantastic invitation would ever be turned down, let alone replaced by a cow made out of earrings and nose rings. Yet, that is what they chose instead.
Most of us in this sanctuary probably find it hard to relate to being rescued from oppression or the crushing wheels of a war chariot—but our invitation to belong to the family of God is just as fantastic as the one the ancient Hebrews received. And so our choice to choose other pursuits over God is just as illogical, and pathetic, even if it is, at the same time, so easy to do.
Janine and bought an IPad a couple of weeks ago. (The death this past week of Steve Jobs, its inventor, is a true loss. He was a gentle genius by all accounts, and he certainly changed the entire world with his inventions).
Just Friday night, I read a book, checked the weather, looked at the day’s news, and listened to music on this amazing little device. It was great fun, and I am sure that God was enjoying my enjoying it too. The problem is that, I spent three hours doing all this. As a result, this sermon didn’t get typed until yesterday. Even that is OK, but by the time I had no more time—I had a serious attitude:
“God,” I half-jokingly said, “I don’t want to be a preacher anymore, at least not today. I’d rather spend some more time playing with our new IPad”. How easy it is to take all the gold that something like an IPad offers us, and turn it into our own latter-day version of the beloved Golden Calf.
The parable of the kingdom that Jesus tells is even harsher than the story from Exodus, in my opinion. I think that is the case because it is a story, and stories can afford to be more hyperbolic and rhetorical than can the account of actual historical events. Parables don’t attempt to contain every point of view on all the truth. They make a point, sometimes rather harshly, and then they move on.
The point of this story is not that God is all about demanding people come to him or be cast into Hell; no, the point of the parable is that “there once was a King” who was both demanding and powerful, and people ignored the invitation to his son’s wedding banquet at their own peril. Further, those who ignored it and abused those who brought the invitation were replaced by others the King wanted to come. We are left at the end of the parable with a question: “Will you choose relationship to God, or not?”
It is a rather remarkable thing, when you think about it, that creatures like us have such a choice to begin with. The psalmist writes, “Who are we Lord, that you should even consider us; yet, you have made us higher than the angels!”
Animal shows always bring this home to me. If you have seen the series, “Planet Earth”, then you know just how wonderful our photographers have now gotten at capturing God’s creation. The photography and cinematography alone can leave you feeling very small in your easy chair. You have a tiny black remote control, but the Taiga Forest stretches across 2/3’rds of the world’s latitude lines, and that expanse doesn’t even start until you go across the 3000 miles of ice that lays to the south of the North Pole!
The one thing I always get from “Planet Earth” and similar shows is how many things are eaten by other things. The other day I watched as Cicada’s swarmed all over a Canadian forest and were consumed by birds, frogs, squirrels, skunks, raccoons, and even a tiny little super-cute chipmunk. They didn’t have a choice to be in relationship with each other, or (I assume) with their Creator either. What makes us more important than a cicada? The only answer of course is that God does. God makes us so much more important that God teaches us how to be in relationship with Him, and with nature, and with each other. Praise Be to God! (That I’m not a cicada).
And yet, like those who followed Moses out of Egypt and like those who made light of the King’s invitation and “went away, one to his farm, another to his business” because for them capital was their King, we also repeatedly turn down God’s invitation. The sounds of our pursuits and parallel priorities drown out the world just as completely as the sawing screech of the cicadas in summer.
“I would love to choose relationship with God”, but I have things to do first. Sunday morning will always be there, but my kids won’t.”
“Of course I believe in God, but lately I’ve been searching, and the questions it has led me to have become more important to me than staying in relationship with God, even through the doubt. I’ve lost my Moses, and so I’m turning to something more tangible”.
If you have heard these same kinds of excused on your lips, welcome to the club. I understand the modern Dads and Moms in our culture have plenty of other Sunday activities that they deem important to take their children to. I’ve been there, and I am sure that if I had not had to work on Sundays myself for most of my life, I would have faced the same dilemma.
And I hope that by now, you all know me well enough to understand that I am the last one who would ever put down those who search for truth.
The key to answering the Gospel’s call to us today is this: Take heart and do not be discouraged, afraid or too distracted by the world’s allure—God, the Creator of the Universe, invites you and I to choose relationship,--with Jesus Christ, with nature and with one another. And if you still wonder what it means to choose relationship, then listen again to the closing words of Paul to the Philippi church:
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.