"Tight lines" is a blessing fishermen offer each other, a wish for lines taut with the weight of good fish. May God grant that the lines written here be taut with His blessings.
Thursday, 09 October 2008 | |||
|
Party Clothes | |||
|
Appropriate dress does not seem to be near the issue that it
was when I was younger. I and most of my pastor friends have abandoned
coat and tie as standard clothing for our profession, even on Sunday
mornings. Attendance at the opera or symphony used to require dressing
up, but my wife lets me go without a tie these days. Weddings still often
call for formal attire both for wedding party and guests, but I did an
outdoor wedding this summer in which the men wore khaki shorts, white
shirts and pink polka dot ties. The guests came in whatever they pleased,
from suits to jeans and T-shirts. So there's an even larger cultural gap
than there was a few years ago for our understanding of verses 11-14 in
Matthew
22:1-14
..
There's also an interpretive gap in understanding the king's decision to cast out the man who came without wedding clothes. There's a fairly large scholarly tradition maintaining that there is evidence that first century hosts provided banquet garments for guests (Cf. Capon in The Parables of Judgment, Blomberg in The New American Commentary and Gundry in Matthew). Thus the man's failure to be properly attired is akin to the rejection of the invitation in the first part of the parable, a rejection of freely provided grace. However, Snodgrass in Stories with Intents and Carson in The Expositor's Bible Commentary say that the evidence for hosts providing banquet garments in the first century is skimpy at best. Biblical examples, II Kings 10:22 and the father's provision for the prodigal son in Luke 15:22, simply don't match up with the situation in the wedding banquet parable. So if it's not a provided garment of grace that's expected, is it then a requirement for righteousness or good works? In Revelation 19:8, the explanation of the "fine linen" in which the saints are dressed is that it "stands for the righteous acts of the saints." It's always tricky to read the meaning of imagery from one part of Scripture into similar imagery in another part. The Bible is not a code book or theological dictionary, with single, rigid meanings behind each word, phrase or picture. A lion symbolizes Christ in Revelation 5:5 and symbolizes Satan in I Peter 5:8. Klyne Snodgrass argues that we must simply regard the need wedding garment as some sort of preparation for the day of judgment. Once we accept the offer of grace, we are expected to change, to prepare to meet our Lord. Klyne says, "limitless grace. . . brings with it limitless demand." The man who has no garment represents those who take grace for granted, who see it as cheap, who make no response to grace received by a transformation of their lives. It's a tough parable! | |||
|
Profile |
I am the pastor of Valley Covenant Church in Eugene, Oregon. I love to flyfish and hike along the beautiful rivers in our area. I welcome your comments as I share sermon work in progress and occasional other thoughts.
Thank you for visiting this blog. I invite you also to visit my web page.
|
Blog Posts |
Archives |
|
|
SurgeMail - Blog Server Software |
Windows Mail Server Software |
UseNet News Server Software