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This is down and dirty.
We heard the Gibbon’s read Matthew’s
allegorizing of a parable
and now I want to give you
what may be an earlier version of it.
The Gospel of Thomas,
not one of the canonical four
but some claim as early if not earlier than Mark,
has a more straight-forward story than Matthew.
It also sounds more like what we might imagine
from a prophet like Jesus.
Here’s Thomas’ shorter, simpler version of the same story:
“A person was receiving guests. When he had prepared the dinner, he sent his slave to invite the guests. The slave went to the first and said to that one, “My master invites you.” That one said, “Some merchants owe me money; they are coming to me tonight. I have to go and give them instructions. Please excuse me from dinner.”
The slave went to another and said to that one, “My master has invited you.” That one said to the slave, “I have bought a house, and I have been called away for a day. I shall have no time.”
The slave went to another and said that one, “My master invites you.” That one said to the slave, “My friend is to be married, and I am to arrange the banquet. I shall not be able to come. Please excuse me from dinner.”
The slave went to another and said to that one, “My master invites you.” That one said to the slave, “I have bought an estate, and I am going to collect the rent. I shall not be able to come. Please excuse me.”
The slave returned and said to his master, “Those whom you invited to dinner have asked to be excused.” The master said to his slave, “Go out on the streets and bring back whomever you find to have dinner.”
Now Matthew allegorized this story
and added horrendous details to it,
so that his version basically says:
“You Jews
who are not with us Jesus-following Jews
have rejected God
so God has rejected you
and given the Covenant to us.”
And then he says,
”…and God does not love you either.”
But in both Luke’s and Thomas’ versions
of the same story,
the ending is much different.
God has specifically invited
a great many people to the table
and when there is still room at the banquet,
God invites everyone that can be found
to come to the party.
That’s all – that is the whole story.
The stories we tell matter.
Thomas’ version is a powerful story
in its own right:
There is no shortage of seats at the table of God
so please join the feast.
It is a story of abundance,
not scarcity
and it is a story of inclusion
not exclusion.
I talked last week about Matthew’s motivations
and the struggle going on in the synagogue
with the early Jesus-followers
and Rome’s special religious exemption for Jews.
Matthew’s version of this parable
is more evidence of that tragic dynamic.
But Thomas’ version of the story
has none of that backdrop and
may point to something closer
to what Jesus would have told
if indeed, he told this story.
His story, simply put,
is about the stunning abundance
and radical inclusiveness
of God’s love.
The stories we tell matter.
That centering reading for today puts a loud speaker on this:
”(My mother) told me stories about living and stories about dying. And in all those stories she told me who I was, who I was supposed to be, whom I came from, and who would follow me. In this way she taught me the meaning of the words she said, that all life is a circle and everything has a place within it. That’s what she said and what she showed me in the things she did and the way she lives.” From “Where I come From” by Paula Gunn Allen
But so much of the story we have told
is about the scarcity of God’s love.
I mean really, think about it.
Christians tell a story
about how God can’t seem to forgive us
if we don’t get sprinkled with water,
and how God can’t quite seem to love us
if we don’t believe the right things,
and how God can’t even accept us
if we don’t know Jesus
or proclaim him as a the biggest and bestest.
Really?
God’s love is less generous
than most human parents have
toward their own offspring?
Heck, I know people who love their dogs
more generously than that
even though the dang thing
won’t do even one trick.
The stories we tell matter.
When it is a candidate for president
telling his or her story –
or telling their version of the national story –
it matters what they tell.
For us too, as individuals, it matters
what story we tell about ourselves.
Even a church community,
it matters what story we tell
about who we are, what we do,
and how we got to be the way we are.
So I would encourage us to give some thought
to the stories we tell,
and in particular the story of God we tell.
You hear me regularly de-construct
the biblical stories we read,
like I’ve done with Matthew recently.
That is because the stories we tell
become part of our story, and
when we tell stories about a god
too small to love as boundlessly
as in Thomas’ story,
we become smaller too.
So, my friends, I invite us
to spend some time with our stories –
the ones we tell about God,
the ones we tell about ourselves,
the ones we tell about each other –
and to consider
what the stories we tell
create in and around us.
Stories are powerful
and we need to respect their potency.
Thank you for worshiping with us today,
I hope the experience
has contributed in some way
to your growth or wellness or healing –
each of which we say,
here at Trinity Place,
is part of our story.
Peace be with you.
VIDEO VERSION
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