fall clothes

Fall is beautiful, may be my favorite season.  The colors of decay, the warm oranges and pinks of late afternoon suns, the bright October moon, harvest time.  We picked apples at an orchard in NY last week.  Drank freshly pressed cider, ate warm apple cider donuts. Farming was always fun in the fall—driving hay rides out to our pumpkin patch, watching the kids pick out their pumpkin.  Football is back.  Baseball has ended, apparently for the season, since the Phillies lost this week.  I guess there will be more baseball, maybe even a world series, but not here. I love fall clothes; sweat shirts and jeans.  I have these two new heavy flannel shirts.  

The only thing I don’t love about fall is when I have to lug all of the plastic totes and hangers out of the attic and basement to switch over warm weather clothes to cold weather clothes.  I guess if we had larger closets we wouldn’t have to do this, but we don’t.  So we break out the bins of sweaters and turtle necks, jackets, and gloves.  It’s a project that my wife largely undertakes on behalf of herself and the three boys.  I’m not trustworthy in that department.  Ot sure if that shirt belongs to Luke yet, or Jonah, if those pants fit Luke or Elijah.  Luke’s the middle man—inheritor of Jonah’s clothes, giver of Eli’s clothes. Trouble happens when Eli grows into Luke’s clothes before Luke grows into Jonah’s. Nevermind, the constant need to clothe the eldest with new clothes as he outgrows the old.  He doesn’t really have a fall/winter bucket.  But he’ll need fall/winter clothes.  As for me, I keep my transfer clthig down toa single bucket. If it doesn’t fit, its gone.   So, next week, I will part with some summer shirts.  And I will likely cast off some fall/winter clothes that don’t fit anymore.  Not growing up, but getting bigger has an effect one’s clothes. We are changing over clothes at Peter’s Porch in an effort to provide appropriate clothes for the coming cold season.  We will get rid of all of the summer clothes, trusting that we will receive a supply to be ready for the spring and summer.       

This becomes donation time, too.  Rooting out old clothes or clothes that are tattered or worn. Mending of clothing is not as popular as donating and buying new.  We receive donations here that have tags on them and things that seem barely worn; and we receive clothes in poor condition that we do not keep.  I don’t typically hang on to clothes that are old or tattered—except my Susquehanna University sweatshirt that I’ve had since my senior year of High School.   It has actually been thrown out and rescued! Some clothes preserve memories.  What you were wearing on a certain occasion sticks with you.  Cherie’s wedding gown will likely never be work again.  But we will not part with it.   

In the parable Jesus tells the ending is about clothes or the lack of them.  Inappropriate dress leads to a man being bound and cast off into outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  What is going on there?  The first part of the parable sounds like its cousin in the gospel of Luke---clearly a parable about God’s effort to include the irreligious, the marginalized, and the poor in God’s Kingdom.  The first part is also an indictment on those who have been invited, but do not care to come.  Jesus means the religious leaders.  He claims that God’s grace party is like a banquet, a feast, and the invited guests don’t seem to get it.  They blow off the party.  I think Jesus’ ministry, His movement, was joyous, and fun, and exciting---like a banquet.  I imagine music and dancing and playful children.  Even the moments where jesus deals with the hungry and the sick are not solemn, but joyous occasions.  Are we joyous in our religious habits?  Do we love to worship at the weekly feast?  We have heard about God’s expansive and inclusive grace---all are welcome to the table, all are welcome to worship and serve the Lord of life.  All are welcome to take part in the festival of love that the Christian community is meant to be.  It is a shame when the invitation is ignored or rejected on account of other matters.  But I mostly wonder about the man in the end of the parable.  Its shocking.  Because he is worse off than the ones who ignored the invitation.  Better not to come at all than to come and not be dressed right.  Does that sound weird to you?  Is this why people dressed in their Sunday best, to look right for the feast? I don’t know, maybe.  Maybe if you’re wearing jeans and a tshirt, you’re out.  Maybe a tie and a dress are necessary  That is, if we take this literally.  Let’s not though.

Let’s just say that the clothing stands for something other than actual clothing—just as the wedding feast stands for something else---like the gathering of the faithful, both now and at the end of the age.  So what do the clothes stand for?  What do they mean?  How can the Kingdom of God and the Christian community be both radically inclusive of the forgotten, the poor, the good and the bad; and then also exclude someone for lacking something ?  They did not have wedding clothes. What does that mean?  IN Matthew’s gospel, it means that they were not baptized.  They were not clothed with Christ.  And so they were invited guests, but they were not dressed accordingly.  Its like being on the wedding party without the tux or gown.  That is what being part of the gathered community and not becoming baptized meant. But why was the ritual of baptism so important?  It is the sign of the forgiveness of sins,of cleansing and of regeneration.  On the other side of baptism, one was supposed to live a different kind of life.  One was supposed to live out the Sermon on the Mount.  One was supposed to become a missionary, an apostle, a disciple of Jesus.  One was supposed to live faithfully; confessing the Lordship of Jesus; dying to one’s self, one’s ego, one’s cravings and lusts and urges.  Christianity s radically inclusive, with high expectations of the baptized.  We carry the cross.  We serve the poorest, the sickest, and the weakest. We love all people, breaking down barriers of misunderstanding and hatred.  We pray daily.  We worship weekly.  We give freely.  We seek compassionate justice.  For Matthew there is a right way to live, a rule of life one lives in submission to Christ.  But his yoke is easy and his burden is light.  There is joy in the Christian life.  Even though there may be suffering, trials, and grief.  Being clothed with Christ is the way to the Father’s heart.  Come to the banquet, enjoy the feast.  You have been invited, called, and chosen.  You are the baptized.  And if you are not yet baptized you are welcome to become part of God’s community of grace and peace.  Shed those old, worn out clothes.  New clothes are waiting for you!  Amen.