Oswald Golter was a missionary in northern China during the 1940s. After ten years service he was returning home. His ship stopped in India, and while waiting for a boat home he found a group of refugees living in a warehouse on the pier. Unwanted by anyone else the refugees were stranded there. Golter went to visit them. As it was Christmas-time wished them a merry Christmas and asked them what they would like for Christmas.

“We’re not Christians,” they said. “We don’t believe in Christmas.”

“I know,” said the missionary, “but what do you want for Christmas?” They described some German pastries they were particularly fond of, and so Oswald Golter cashed in his ticket, used the money to buy baskets and baskets of the pastries, took them to the refugees, and wished them a merry Christmas.

When he later repeated the incident to a class, a student said, “But sir, why did you do that for them? They weren’t Christians. They don’t even believe in Jesus.”

“I know,” he replied, “but I do!”

Most people like being invited to attend a party, and would greet an invitation with joy: especially if it were a wedding. There will be lots to eat and drink, music, dancing, everything you could want at a celebration. In this morning’s Gospel reading this is the image Jesus uses to introduce his Parable of the Wedding Feast. We can all sympathise with the king in the parable. He has every right to be annoyed. He has invited people, provided them with clothing, and they are either too busy to bother to come or mistreat those whom he sends to invite them.

The Good News of the Christian Faith, which this parable embodies, is one of generous hospitality: God is generous towards us, and so we are expected to be generous to one another. In this morning’s gospel, Jesus has gone to Jerusalem. He has cleansed the Temple, he has healed the sick and the lame, and is preaching about the love of God. In his parable we see salvation history condensed into a paragraph. And we see how God sent the prophets to invite people to God’s feast. However, most of the people are too busy, too concerned with matters of this world, so they ignore the prophets. Some of the prophets are killed, the city, Jerusalem, is destroyed, and still folk do not come. So God’s invitation is widened: all are welcome. 

If we turn to our own day, the invitation is still made, but many people are unready or unwilling to come to God’s banquet. They are too busy, their lives are too full. Going to a Eucharist on a Sunday morning is seen as one choice among many, with most people preferring to read the paper, wash the car, or spend time with their nearest and dearest. Lest we think that we are somehow better for being here, we can ask ourselves how committed we are We could all of us, I suspect, do more for the sake of the gospel.

In the parable the king stands for God. His servants are the prophets who are ignored, and then abused and killed. Finally all are invited, so that the Wedding Feast for the King’s Son is full. Then something strange happens:

“But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless.” (Mt 22:11-12)

People going to a wedding would be provided with a wedding garment, they were generally made from linen. These served both to show the generosity of the host, and also to stress a radical equality among the wedding guests. It didn’t matter who you were, or how rich or poor, all were dressed in the same clothes. So what does the wedding garment mean? Honestly, we don’t know, but a best guess is either baptism, or love, gentleness, and generosity. The point is that without being clothed with love of God and neighbour, the guest cannot be there. God is generous, but God makes demands of us, and expects us to live out our faith for all to see.

In the first reading from the prophet Isaiah we have a vision of the Messianic banquet, to which all people are invited:

‘On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined,’ (Isa 25:6)

These words find their fulfilment in the Eucharist, which Christ instituted on the night before He died. We have come together today to do what Christ did, and this is the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. May we come to it dressed in the garment of love. Oswald Golter, the missionary on his way back home wanted to celebrate the Incarnation, the Birth of Jesus with other people. It didn’t matter that they were not believers! What was important was that what happened in Bethlehem: a demonstration of God’s love. So Oswald’s response was to be loving in return, to show refugees, on the very margins of society, that they were loved and valued too. Our faith leads us to love people, to will their good, to celebrate with them. When we live out our faith, and put it into action in our lives, theory becomes reality. 

God expects us to put our faith into action in order to demonstrate and proclaim the Kingdom of God. So let us come to the Lord clothed with love, filled with His Spirit, transformed by the Eucharist. Let us also invite others to join in the worship of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. To whom be ascribed all glory, dominion, and power, now and forever. Amen.