Party On!

The scriptures referred to are Isaiah 25:1-9 and Matthew 22:1-14.

If I show you a picture of a deerstalker hat and a long curved calabash pipe, you would instantly think of Sherlock Holmes, even those two things are not strictly speaking mentioned in the original stories. Holmes has a number of pipes, notably a clay one and a long cherrywood one, but not a calabash. That was introduced by American actor William Gillette, who became rich portraying Holmes on the stage in the early 1900s. He chose the calabash because he could hold it in his teeth and speak and the audience could still see his mouth. As to the deerstalker, in the stories Holmes did have a cap he wore when in the country (but never in London, where he wore either a top hat or a bowler) in the stories but it was the original illustrator Sidney Paget who drew it as the now familiar fore and aft brimmed hunting cap. By the way, Paget used his brother as the model for Holmes so he is wholly responsible for how we picture the great detective. My point is a lot of the iconography of Sherlock Holmes does not derive directly from the author but are not too far off from the source.

On the other hand, whenever you see a one panel cartoon set in heaven, it shows people on clouds with wings and halos and sometimes harps. And I don't know where those comic conventions come from. Biblically, that is. If the people are supposed to be angels they are pictured wrongly. Angels in the Bible are described as being all eyes and flames or with 4 faces, three of them not human. There is a reason they have to tell people not to be afraid. Sometimes when they are appearing to humans they look like young men in blindingly white garments, but there is no mention of wings. If the folks in the cartoons are supposed to be dead people, then they shouldn't have wings either. Humans do not become angels, not even when they are dead, anymore than deer become moose. There are different kinds of beings. And halos are an ancient art convention used when depicting holy people in any religion, Western or Eastern. It only came into Christian art in the 4^thcentury and then only in depictions of Christ, at least at first. In addition there is nothing in the Bible indicating a heavenly preference of harps over all the other instruments mentioned.

If you want a Biblical image of the afterlife, you get it in our readings from Isaiah and Matthew. And it is a not a harp concert but a feast! In Isaiah the setting is Mount Zion, the site of the temple in Jerusalem, the symbol of the meeting of heaven and earth. The first part of the passage tells us what is not there: foreign invaders and the ruthless. The demoralized Judeans had seen the northern kingdom of Israel fall to the Assyrians and the cream of Israelite society taken into exile. Their own nation of Judah was now a vassal state to the Assyrian Empire. But there will be none of that in the coming Kingdom of God. Instead of being an outpost for ruthless occupying army, it will be a refuge for the poor and needy. There is a key Biblical contrast that comes up again and again: the merciless and those who need mercy shown them. It is obvious whom God favors.

Then God spreads a sumptuous feast for all nations, Jews and Gentiles alike. So the problem with the foreigners in the first part of the passage is not that they are aliens but that they are ruthless conquerors. God's intention is to bring all the peoples of the earth together to break bread.

And it's a good feast. Isaiah goes into a bit of detail on the quality of the food and drink: “a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.” This is not a microwaved burgers from the convenience store. This is a proper banquet.

What lets us know this is the afterlife is that it says, “And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever.” The imagery is interesting. There is a shroud over all humanity, a veil for mourning. It is death, which swallows up all life. But the God of Life will swallow up death. Death shall die.

But as we know, death and destruction has an after-effect: grief. And God will take care of that as well. Isaiah writes, “Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces...” What a touching image! God taking every face in his hands, cupping the chin and with his other hand tenderly wiping away the tears.

He will also wipe away “the disgrace of his people.....” Isaiah is probably thinking of the disgrace of the Hebrews at being a conquered nation and a disobedient one as well. But that is past. God will take it away as he will any disgrace of us, his people through Christ. Our disgrace at not living up to his command to love others. Our disgrace for being afraid to tell others the good news about Jesus. Our disgrace for prioritizing minor things over crucial issues like mercy and peace and justice. Because of his grace, our disgrace will also die.

Jesus also speaks of a feast in today's gospel. Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to a royal wedding banquet. Wedding celebrations were the most joyous occasions in the lives of people back then. They would go on for a week and offer not only ample good food and wine but also entertainment such as music and songs and dancing and riddles. And a royal wedding would be even grander.

In accordance with the customs of the time, the king sends two invitations: one inviting people to the wedding and a second one when everything is ready. But the king's invited guests don't respond as they should. Instead of coming to the wedding celebration, they go about their business. In fact, looking at their violent reaction in regards to the king's heralds, they seem to be rebels. Perhaps they don't wish to acknowledge the king's son and heir by coming to his wedding. That and their ruthless behavior explains the king's subsequent actions.

Because those invited rebelled, they are not worthy. So the king decides to invite anyone his slaves can find, both good and bad, Jesus says. He is giving us a picture of God's grace. We all need it to enter God's kingdom, even if in the eyes of the world we seem good or bad. God's gift is available to all. You just have to accept it.

Which leads to the odd coda of this parable. The king has just brought ordinary people of every type into his banquet. Yet he asks one guy why he is not wearing a wedding robe. This confuses us but it wouldn't have done so for Jesus' original audience. Rich people often provided robes for the guests. So this guy has no excuse for not wearing one. Is he another rebel? If so, why is he there? Well, he isn't for long. He is thrown out and the celebration goes on without him.

Some commentators think the robe represents God's righteousness, which he gives to us because we can't provide our own. I think it could also be God's Spirit, because by refusing the free robe this guy really isn't getting into the spirit of the thing. It's like refusing to wear the party hat at a birthday or not wearing a costume to a Halloween party.

And there are people who want to go to heaven but aren't really in sync with the spirit of the place. Antisemites won't like it because there are going to be a lot of Jews there. White supremacists won't like the fact that people from every race and nation will be there. Self-righteous people will be appalled at all the sinners there. People who think only their denomination will make it will be upset by all the Calvinists, non-Calvinists, Pentecostals, Premillennial Tribulationists, Postmillennialists, Amillennialists, Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, snake handlers, Plymouth Brethren, Baptists, Quakers, Methodists, Presbyterians, holy rollers, and even Lutherans and Episcopalians there. Heaven will be full of heretics...at least in the eyes of others. Only those who understand the radical nature of God's grace will not be offended.

In the last of the Narnia Chronicles we see the end of that world. Everyone goes through a humble stable into the new creation, the real Narnia of which the other was a pale imitation. But one group of dwarves will not let their expectations be shattered. They are convinced that they are still in the dark, smelly stable. Even when offered the finest food by Aslan himself they think they are being fed wretched, rotten food. As Aslan says, “All will get what they want; they will not all like it though.” Perhaps hell is getting what you want when what you want is something other than or less than Jesus himself. Hell is seeking good things divorced from the source of all goodness.

For those who put all their trust and hope in Christ, what you get is union with him, an intimate relationship, roughly analogous to a marriage to the most loving, forgiving, faithful person you can imagine. Actually, even more than you can imagine. God is infinite and creative. We will never get to his limits.

And it will feel like the best party ever with all kinds of different and interesting people there. Who will turn out to be members of your family in Christ. As I've said, they will be a motley crew, with very disparate lives and quite different stories of how they came to be there but all of them will have one thing in common: all of them were found by God and all of them began the journey to become people who love God and love others as Jesus loves.

You know how when you are having a good time or reading a good story you never want it to end? The wedding feast which is heaven never will. All of the folks at the party with all of their gifts and talents will be offering songs and dances and riddles and feats of skill and marvelous tales and works of art and poetry and clever jokes and fascinating reports and amazing demonstrations of all the wondrous things that scientists and explorers have discovered in God's creation. All of the beautiful and incredible things people can dream up will be offered up to God and shared with all his beloved.

I don't know where cartoonists got their idea of heaven: clouds and wings and halos and harps and tedium. Because the Bible says it will be one long party. It will be a neverending festival of love and joy and life. Death will be no more, neither weeping nor sorrow nor pain. And if that isn't a reason to celebrate, I don't know what is.