The Rev. Dr. Kenneth H. Saunders III
Greeneville, TN
The 20th Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 23A)
October 11, 2026
Isaiah 25:1-9
Psalm 23
Philippians 4:1-9
Matthew 22:1-14
Over the past several weeks, we have been hearing some powerful lessons from the Gospel according to Matthew. If you have been paying attention, you may have noticed that Jesus seems to be making the same point over and over again.
We are called to be the Church. We are called to live lives of faith and obedience, to forgive, to love our neighbors, and to be a living witness to what we believe. In other words, Jesus is not simply interested in what we say we believe. He is interested in how we live. And apparently, this is something he thinks we need to hear more than once!
Today, Jesus tells us another parable. This time, it is about a king… a king who throws a wedding banquet for his son. Now, a royal wedding was quite an occasion. There would be fine food, beautiful decorations, important guests, and probably a seating chart complicated enough to require a committee meeting.
But when the invitations go out, the guests refuse to come. The king sends out his servants again. The feast is ready... The table is prepared... Everything is waiting. But the guests have other things to do. Some ignore the invitation. Others return to their farms and businesses. And some even mistreat the messengers.
So the king does something remarkable and something considered quite scandalous in his time. He sends his servants into the streets to invite everyone they can find… everyone... the good and the bad, the respectable and the not-so-respectable. And the banquet hall is filled. The invitation that some reject is received by others. This is scandalous because common riffraff off the streets are not invited and not welcome at wedding banquets.
Now, let's talk about that wedding garment a bit, because it is important, and it's a rather puzzling part of this Gospel. The king has invited people straight off the streets, and then one guest is confronted for not wearing the proper garment. Jesus doesn't explain exactly what the garment represents. But I think we can hear an important message in this image.
The wedding garment was provided by the King, and all guests were expected to wear it; otherwise, it would be disrespectful to the King. The wedding garment is not about wearing the right clothes to church. So, you don't have to rush home this afternoon and check your closet to make sure you have the proper outfit for the kingdom of heaven. We have enough trouble deciding what to wear on Sunday mornings without adding eternal consequences to the decision!
The garment is NOT something we put on to earn God's love or secure our salvation. The invitation has already been given. The guests are welcomed by grace. The wedding garment represents the new life that grows out of our response to God's grace.
In many baptisms (especially in the early church), the newly baptized wear a white garment as a sign of this new life. A candle reminds us to let the light of Christ shine in the world. And then we are welcomed to the table, where we receive the bread and wine, the body and blood of Christ, to nourish us on our journey of faith.
God's invitation is not a one-time event. God keeps inviting us. Sunday after Sunday, day after day, through the people we meet, the needs we encounter, and the opportunities we have to share God's love. But there is a difference between receiving an invitation and responding to it.
We live in a world where invitations come in all kinds of forms. Some we eagerly accept. Others we put off. Some we forget about entirely. And some we leave sitting in our inbox until the event has passed because we somehow convinced ourselves we would get around to answering them eventually.
I think that we sometimes do the same thing with God. We intend to pray more... We intend to forgive that person... We intend to reach out to someone who is lonely... We intend to become more involved in the life of the Church... We all mean well. But sometimes our good intentions never quite make it into our calendars… or to our lives.
And Jesus reminds us that the invitation to God's kingdom is not simply an invitation to attend a religious event. It is an invitation to live differently. It is an invitation to put on the garment of our baptism and allow God's grace to shape who we are.
Think about the invitation… Think about our baptismal promises. We promise to seek and serve Christ in all persons, to love our neighbors as ourselves, to strive for justice and peace, and to respect the dignity of every human being. Those are not simply words we recite during a baptism. They describe the life we are called to live.
By following through with these promises, we are learning to wear the garment of Christ... a garment woven out of compassion, humility, mercy, forgiveness, generosity, and love. It shows up when we forgive someone who has hurt us. When we welcome someone who feels like an outsider. It’s there when we stand up for someone whose dignity is being ignored. Or when we choose kindness over cruelty or reconciliation over resentment.
We won’t always get it right. None of us does. Because we're all works in progress, and thank God that God's grace is patient with us.
There is a difference between stumbling as we try to follow Jesus and deciding that the invitation makes no difference in how we live. Grace welcomes us as we are, but it also calls us toward the people God is creating us to be. And that is where the rubber meets the road.
Because our world has become increasingly divided, angry, and suspicious of anyone who thinks differently… we have become very good at turning our disagreements into personal attacks, our differences into divisions, and our neighbors into enemies. We spend a lot of time deciding who is wrong,
who is to blame, and who doesn't belong. But the kingdom of God operates by a different set of rules.
At God's banquet, the invitation goes out to people we might not have invited ourselves. People we don't know. People we don't understand. People that we disagree with. People who, if we were arranging the seating chart, might find themselves at the far end of the table. We need to realize, God invites them, too.
The Church is called to bear witness to that kind of hospitality, God's hospitality. We are not the gatekeepers of God's grace. We are the people who have received it. And because we've received it, we are called to share it.
I was reminded of a story I heard some years ago about a young priest right out of seminary who had just been called to serve a small country church. The congregation was delighted. They had a new priest, a fresh face, and someone who had spent several years studying Scripture and theology.
On his first Sunday, the priest preached a wonderful sermon. It was thoughtful, inspiring, and very well received. Everyone was delighted. The following Sunday, he preached exactly the same sermon. People thought, well, perhaps it was a simple mistake, or maybe he was just making sure everyone had heard it the first time. Even the best of us occasionally find ourselves thinking about lunch during a sermon.
But on the third Sunday, he preached the same sermon again. By the fourth Sunday, the congregation began to wonder whether their new priest had run out of material. So the vestry approached him after worship. They told him how happy they were that he had come to serve them, but they had one small concern. He had preached the same sermon four Sundays in a row! The priest smiled and said, "I'll change my sermon when y’all start listening and living the one I preached!"
Now, in my years of helping form new clergy, I wouldn't recommend that approach to every new priest. It might not be the best way to begin a relationship with the vestry. But perhaps I think there is a little truth in that story.
Maybe we have been hearing these lessons from Matthew repeatedly because we NEED to hear them repeatedly. We can hear a message without allowing it to change us. We can listen to a sermon about forgiveness and still carry a grudge. We can hear about loving our neighbors and still treat certain people as though they are beyond the reach of God's love. We can gather at the Lord's Table, receive the bread and wine, and then walk back into the world as though nothing has happened. We can accept the invitation without ever putting on the garment.
So what difference does God's invitation make in the way we live? Does the love we receive at this table make us more loving? Does the forgiveness we receive make us more willing to forgive? Does the grace we experience make us more gracious toward others? Does the hope we proclaim help us become people who bring hope to a world that so desperately needs it?
The world does not need a church that simply repeats the words of Jesus. The world needs to see what those words look like when they take flesh in ordinary human lives. The world needs Christians who listen before judging, forgive rather than retaliate, welcome rather than exclude, and serve rather than demand to be served.
It needs people who can disagree without dehumanizing one another... who can speak the truth without cruelty... and who can stand firm in their convictions without losing sight of the dignity of those with whom they disagree. That is how we bear witness to Christ.
Not by going around quoting Scripture at people and instilling fear until they surrender. Not by assuming that if we win every argument, we will somehow win the world for Jesus. We bear witness to Christ by living lives shaped by his love. And when we get it right, people notice. They begin to wonder where our hope comes from; they may wonder why we forgive when it would be easier to hold a grudge, or why we keep showing up for people who cannot repay us.
Then we have an opportunity to tell them about Jesus and share the invitation we have received. Of course, we won’t always get it right. We will stumble. We will fall short of our baptismal promises. Sometimes our garment of grace will get tangled up in our pride, our impatience, and our desire to be right. But God's invitation doesn’t depend on our perfection.
God knows who we are. God knows our weaknesses, our failures, our doubts, and our fears. And God invites us anyway. But the same grace that welcomes us also calls us to grow. The same love that embraces us challenges us to become more loving. And when we fail, because we will... we can turn again to the One who has promised never to abandon us. Jesus, who is with us always, even to the end of the ages.
So, my friends, the table is set. The invitation has been extended. The feast is prepared. We have been welcomed into the household of God. The question is not whether we are good enough to receive it. Because God's grace has already made room for us. The question is whether we will allow the love of Christ to shape our lives.
Will we put on the garment of our baptism and live as people raised to new life? Will we carry the hospitality of God's table into our homes, our workplaces, our schools, our community, and the wider world? Will we make room for the people God is inviting, even when they are not the people we expected to find at the banquet? And when someone encounters us, will they catch a glimpse of the Christ who has welcomed us?
That is our calling. That is our response to the grace we’ve been so freely given. So let us respond to the invitation once again. Let us put on the garment of our baptism. Let us seek and serve Christ in all persons, love our neighbors as ourselves, strive for justice and peace, and respect the dignity of every human being. And let us live in such a way that others will discover that there is plenty good room at God's table.
For the invitation has been given. The feast is waiting. And by the grace of God, there is plenty good room for us all.
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