Let Thy Garments Be White

THE TWENTIETH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

Our perfection in holiness is the great enterprise of Trinity-Tide, which is the longest season of the Christian year spanning from Pentecost to Advent, some twenty plus weeks, emphasizing the purgation of sin, the decluttering of the soul for the light of God's Spirit to illuminate our hearts and minds. To walk in union with Christ, imitating him in thought, word, and deed. Soberly working out our salvation in Christ, our sanctification, to become like the perfect man Jesus, full of righteousness and truth.

With discipline and rigor, we practice the Holy Habits of daily prayer and contemplation. We observe the fasts and feasts, serve our parish and give time, talent, and treasure for the sake of the Gospel. This is the ordered life; this is prayer book spirituality. This rule of life is a tried and true way to cultivate godly virtue. In fact, I'm convinced that the Prayer Book life is the only firewall of defense against modernity's assault on the soul. I know that the ancient rule of spirituality, which we have inherited as Anglicans, and all of its collected wisdom, is a tried and trusted way to grow in holiness and virtue. 

Prayer Book spirituality is a daily endeavor that demands our openness to the operations of the Holy Spirit, who works and wills in us that we might work for righteousness and will holy living. Sin builds a wall between the Holy Spirit and the soul, impeding the flow of Divine grace into our lives. The labor of sanctification must be enabled by grace if we are to move nearer to perfection and, at the same time, into a deeper relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. 

To be united with him without any obstacle or impediment. Isn't this what we long for? To walk again in the garden? A bride within the arms of her Beloved? To one day be raised from the dead a spiritual body and united with Christ in glory forever and ever. Glory: that's where the day-to-day Christian life is heading. Glory is the end of sanctification; for then, we will be perfect as he is perfect. Glory: the attaining of eternal beatitude.

In the parable of The Wedding Banquet, Jesus intends to move focus away from the daily spiritual life and transports us to the end of the age, to the joyous Marriage celebration of the Lamb. But, in this parable, our Lord's main focus isn't on the joy and happiness of this future celebration. Note that his emphasis- and it is a strong word- is upon judgment. By a parable, we learn that judgment will ultimately befall any who reject the King's invitation. But there's more. We also learn that judgment will come upon those who, having accepted the invitation, refuse to live their lives according to the calling they have received. 

You see, the spiritual life is filled with incredible tension between the present and the future; the tension between today and that great future day when the Lord has promised to return, his Second Advent, when (as we profess in the Creeds) He will come again to judge both the living and the dead. This present moment of the spiritual life, the "now," can never be lived divorced from the promise that Christ will come again, for no one knows the hour or the day of his return. But first, let us turn attention to those who finally reject the King's invitation to the wedding banquet.

"JESUS said, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his Son, and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding, and they would not come. Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise."

First, take careful notice of how persistent, gracious, and patient the King is! He's even prepared the finest food for his guests! And yet they would not come; in fact, they actively and willfully chose not to attend. Through a parable, Jesus is speaking of the generation of Israelites who missed the day of their visitation, who rejected Him as their Messiah without any regard. And there are many today to whom the invitation comes, and yet, they willfully chose to disregard the King's summon. The reason why sinners reject the call to come to Christ isn't that they cannot, but because they will not! Speaking of disbelieving Israel, Jesus said, "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life (Jn 5:40). 

Not only did those who were invited refuse to come, they violently took the King's servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. Did you catch that? They killed the King's messengers. In wrath and fury, the King sent his armies and destroyed the murderers and burned their city. Desolation. Destruction. God's judgment fell upon those who willfully rejected Him, who not only rejected his hospitality and goodness but proved to be at enmity with him by killing his servants. So very tragic and so very sad. And here's the truth: the wrath of men towards God will, in the end, be crushed Him. Pray for the lost. Pray fervently and earnestly for the salvation of all who disregard or flat out reject the divine call to life; the call of the King to come to the marriage feast of his only begotten Son! Their end is eternal torment in the lake of fire. God be merciful unto them as Thou hast been most merciful unto me! 

But what of the second guest who accepted the King's invitation but was found to be without the proper wedding garment? How did this man get in? And what is the marriage garment? "Then saith the King to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage." So, the King's servants went out and gathered together as many as they found both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests. Understand that the phrase "they gathered together as many as they found both bad and good' literally means they 'synegagon' in the Greek, or they 'synagogued' together, suggesting the assembling of the Church, the ecclesia of God. From this, we understand that in this portion of the parable, Jesus is speaking to us, His Church. Notice that Jesus says that both the good and the bad were invited and attended the dinner banquet, which preceded the wedding ceremony. Once again, see how gratuitous the Gospel is, how non-discriminating and full of grace, distinctly open to good and bad, outcasts and outsiders, the nobody's and the failures, the unimpressive and inconsequential. 

Time and time again, Scripture reveals the tender heart of our Lord towards all people; no litmus test or prerequisites: the invitation of grace is offered to everyone, and all are welcome. Whoever accepted the invitation, whether good or bad, was received as a guest. Here we are reminded of the wheat and the tares how they grow together. Speaking allegorically of the Church, Jesus taught that both good and bad will grow together (in fact, the one is often mistaken for the other!) and, in His words, they are to "grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, "Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn" (Mt 13:30).

They will grow until harvest time or the end of the season. And then the Lord will return, the King will come as he does in our parable. "And when the King came to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding-garment: and he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding-garment? Then said the King to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen."

Without the appropriate wedding robe, the man stood out like a sore thumb, unable to escape the King's eye. This man lacked the necessary garment to move from the banquet meal into the wedding ceremony of the Son; although he ate and drank in the house of the King, he would not be a part of the blessed nuptial union about to take place. So what of this garment? What is Jesus speaking of? 

The garment pertains to matters of the heart, for if it were an external garment, the King would certainly have seen it. Beloved, the garment in Matthew's Gospel is holiness. It is to be clothed, by grace, in Christ. It is not passive, imputed righteousness, but an active pursuit of doing God's will; it is the evidence of repentance shown in loving obedience to the Lord: active faith, fervent in charity and covenant fidelity. It is a life given in service to Christ because it loves and desires to please the heavenly bride-groom above all else!

Or, as St. Paul says, it is putting on Christ, faith worked out in love. And we're not talking about dreary legalism either, some drab garment woven from futile attempts to merit God's grace! All who are invited are called by grace, not by any merit of their own. But neither is it faith alone, but a beautiful tapestry woven of both faith and works, a lively faith evidenced by holy works. 

St. Chrysostom writes, "And having been called we are to adorn our bodies and souls with the finest linens and jewels of humble obedience and righteousness as becoming of guests of the King." St James puts it this way, show me your faith, and I'll show you my works. For faith without works is a dead and useless faith.

According to Jesus, Christian life is lived between the cross and resurrection in the past and against the future chair of judgment: all under His present command to follow Him. And here is Jesus' point: our Christian duty isn't over once we've accepted the Gospel. On the contrary, it's just begun. My friends, please know that there will be a Divine review, a day when everyone, both good and bad, will be examined by the King.

So, let us take to heart St. Paul's exhortation from today's epistle, "See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs; singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all the things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." 

Here, St. Paul offers a wonderful example of what it looks like to dawn the garment of Christ: by submitting ourselves to one another in the fear of God. What a beautiful picture of people living in pursuit of holiness; of a church that speaks lovingly, sings joyfully, and offers collective thanks to God! My friends, let your garment always be white (Eccles 9:9). Pursue holiness while you have today and prepare yourselves to experience in the holy eucharist a foretaste of the future joy awaiting all those who have been clothed in the garment of Christ, any, who willingly accept the invitation of the King to "Come! Come unto the marriage; all has been made ready; come and enter into the joy of your Lord!" Amen+