Making a Difference

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you on this day from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ. Amen.

I have for many years now enjoyed many and various topics of study, but none more than history and the social sciences, sociology and psychology. In fact there are just as many books on my shelf whose subject matter relates more to sociology, pop culture and the like as there are books about theology, and the Bible. I also have a few that cover all three areas, sociology, theology, and the Bible.

When I was in high school, I aspired to be a high school history and social science teacher. I was convinced that I was going to be a teacher that was adored, admired, and who more importantly made history come alive. I would work long hours between September and May and then I would spend my summers back packing in and around Europe. I was going to make a difference. I was going to impress on future generations the necessity of knowing ones past, the mistakes and the successes, so that they would make wise decisions in the future. I was going to make a difference, so that future generations could make a difference.

Alas, I did not become a high school history and social science teacher. I was able to discern early on in my college career that that was not what God was calling me to do. But before I had a sense for what God was calling me to do, I lamented over and over like many young twenty something’s, just what would I do and how would I made a difference in this world. (Pause)

Most people would agree I think that it’s a good idea to make a difference. Making a difference is the stuff of commencement addresses, strategic plans, electoral manifestos, and boardroom platitudes. But making a difference is, to say the least, an under examined conviction, wouldn’t you agree? Would any difference do? Stalin for example made a big difference, but no one is commending him for doing so. Our foreign policy over the last decade has made a difference, and it is still unclear as to whether that difference has been positive or negative. Clearly “making a difference” means more than narcissism- more than leaving one’s mark on the world in such a way that no one for centuries afterward could possibly miss it.

Often times “making a difference” is used as a code term, shorthand way of saying, “There are a whole host of class, race, and gender inequalities in the world, and there’s clearly something amiss with the climate, our oceans, the forests and the diminishment of species, though we all have our own careers and the bottom line to attend to, it’s good to pay attention and maybe give something back in a way that addresses this distressing context.” The world has a whole a lot of problems to be fixed, and while we all have a lot on our own plates, it’s good from time to time, to pitch in and fix a few of them.

Did Jesus make a difference? Well, if we take into consideration the healings, the exorcisms were perhaps a bit unfashionable and wouldn’t probably qualify and the disciple formation could count as grassroots organizing. So based solely on that and only on that, then yes, Jesus made a difference. But obviously there is more to the story then meets the eye. The difference Jesus made is a bit more dramatic wouldn’t you say? The affects of his life and death are far reaching, reaching, in fact, all the way into the future, to us, to you and to me.

The gospel writer Matthew paints the whole story of Jesus on a much larger canvas. Jesus tells them another parable. There’s going to be a wedding. The king has invited all of the important and prominent people from the community to the wedding of his son. We are told, after two separate invitations have been given via the Kings slave, those prominent and important people of the community apparently have other things planned for that day, and could care less that the king has killed the fatted calf and the oxen, that the tables have been set, and that the best and most expensive floral arrangements have been ordered. The disrespectful invitees face the likelihood of reciprocation or depending on what kind of a king this is, retribution. The King will do something that is for sure, having been shamed; he must save face.

With the patience of the king running very thin. Violence erupts. The Kings slaves are mistreated and killed by the very prominent and important people who were asked to grace his banquet hall. Now the king is enraged and his wrath is made visible as he destroys the murderers and burns down their cities. The wedding banquet is still ready, but those who were initially deemed worthy are now unworthy. But the party must go on! The king then sends his servants out to invite anyone they could find, the good and the bad. All are invited. The hospitality of the King goes unnoticed.

Except by the one thrown out of the party, out into the outer darkness, for not wearing a wedding robe. Apparently, everyone else, even Joe six pack on the street knew to wear a wedding robe, that wedding robe makes all the difference. Or rather it’s what that wedding robe signifies or means that makes all the difference.

In Holy Baptism, through the washing of water and word, you and I, among other things put on Christ. That is too say, that when those baptismal waters were washed over our heads in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we were clothed or robed in Christ Jesus, in his death and in his resurrection. With our wedding robe of Christ Jesus, securely on, we are assured that our sins are forgiven, our relationship with God restored, and the promise of eternal life is ours for the taking. And if that weren’t enough, each and every one of us are then thrust out into the world kicking and screaming, where we face head on all that the world has to offer, the good and the bad. Having been gifted with the wedding robe of Christ Jesus himself and alone, we can go and go confidently, because we are now freed to tend to our neighbor, the good ones and the bad ones, and all of our neighbors’ needs. We are freed then to make a difference in this world, because God in Christ Jesus first made a difference in us. (Pause)

So, though making a difference has a particular connotation for us Christians. Make no mistake, it doesn’t mean that God is somehow overwhelmed and we ought to give up a bit of our spare time to help God out. Remember, God has already made that difference in us and for us, for you and for me, through Christ Jesus and his cross, and daily you and I live our out baptism, dying and rising to sin and to self, daily we are remade, renewed, and refreshed, so that we might meet this world problems and all, and our neighbor and his needs, the good and the bad, head on, and make a difference, and not in the idealized sense either, making a difference in the name of Christ Jesus our Lord, who’s banquet table is open to all. Thanks be to God. Amen.