October 11, 2026 · Rev. Dr. James Olson · Philippians 4:1-9; Matthew 22:1-14
Rev. Dr. James Olson reads the parable of the wedding banquet as a warning to anyone who claims the name of Christ without living the way Jesus teaches. The sermon then turns to the announced plan to execute Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan by firing squad and broadcast it, and calls the church to speak up: not in our name.
Transcript
Our scripture. This lesson this morning. Our gospel lesson is not a comfortable one. As Jesus often does.
The story is a parable, an allegory. The king in the story represents God. The one who invites the son who goes out is Jesus. The servants are the disciples and the prophets. The king sends out invitations to come to a wedding banquet, invites the prominent people of the town. They scoff and scorn. They kill the prophets. They kill the son and God retaliates. The king sends out a second invitation. This time invites everyone, and the hall is full. But at the end, they find one man who does not have on a wedding robe, and they cast him out.
We always have to read these scripture lessons in two contexts. One is now, of course, what does this have to say to us today? But also to understand a little bit about what it says to the people who were hearing it in the first century.
Scholars think that the invitation to the banquet where the guests are, where the the, the people kill those who come to do the invitation is an allegory about the destruction of the temple in the year seventy. The people that were not responding to what God was inviting them to do. They had continually ignored the Jewish laws. They had continually ignored what was going on. And of course, the temple fell to the Romans. Jesus then adds the second part to the story where the invitation is to all, including and especially the great unwashed, disreputable masses out in the streets.
The most interesting character, though, is the man at the wedding banquet who does not have on the right clothes. He's willing to come and eat and celebrate and party, but not to follow the convention, not to honor his host by appearing appropriately. Jesus telling of this story. The man sees himself as a follower of Jesus. More than welcome to come. More than happy to come. But he does not live that way. He does not act that way. He does not dress appropriately, and so is cast out.
This story is a warning to both those who reject the way of Jesus. And to those who publicly, out loud, accept it and claim the name of Christ, but do not live in the way that Jesus teaches and do not behave as if their lives are transformed by that relationship with Jesus Christ.
It is not an easy lesson. And the job of preaching this one is never an easy one. It's one of the reasons why I stick to the lectionary, because it makes me preach about things that make us uncomfortable. Because if I stood up here every Sunday and told you only always that Jesus loves us and everything is going to be okay. You would quickly find yourselves bored with that, and I would be unfaithful to the call that I have to speak words that need to be said sometimes.
Word came this week that there is a plan to televise an execution. Now, let me preface this by saying the man, Nidal Hasan, who was the Fort Hood shooter in two thousand and nine, killed thirteen people, injured thirty nine. He was an Army medical psych major. And he was no hero. And he is no martyr. And he was rightfully convicted under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. He is now sixty years old. He is in a wheelchair as a result of injuries sustained during his capture. And it has been announced that he will be put to death publicly by firing squad on December third and that it will be televised. It is the first firing squad execution by the United States military since nineteen forty five, and the last public really public execution. The internet tells me, was the lynching of an African American man in nineteen thirty six.
And we might rightfully and fairly disagree about the death penalty in this room. It is a discussion that our country has been having since its founding. But I will tell you this the United Church of Christ, our parent denomination, has opposed the death penalty publicly and by resolution since nineteen sixty nine. It has been affirmed at General Synod a number of times. And in fact, our lobbying arm and we have a lobbying arm, has intervened in several high profile capital cases since then. This will be a despicable act and a stain on our nation if it occurs.
There are multiple issues wrapped up in this, aren't there? First is the issue of the death penalty. Who would Jesus execute? He himself was the victim of a state sponsored execution done very publicly by the Romans for very, very specific reasons. He was not the only one. The Romans had a long history of this sort of public execution.
There is racism wrapped up in this. Nidal Hasan is brown skinned. He is a Pakistani American born in Virginia. He is a United States citizen. He is a practicing lifelong Muslim.
This is to be done in public somehow. And perhaps televised, although I'm reading that, that is going to be a difficult prospect. And to what end? Vengeance. Justice. Fear. Intimidation.
There is a large swathe of America these days who are publicly cheering this. And it is coming from conservative evangelical Christian circles. And yes, I'm going to call that out from this pulpit. Who would Jesus execute in public? I will also say that this is a distraction from other things.
A Catholic bishop whose name I did not write down but I will make sure is credited appropriately said. This scripture reminds us that every person possesses a God given dignity. God created humanity in his image. I refer you to Genesis one, verse twenty seven. And even when a person has created grave crimes, that fundamental human dignity is never, never erased. The public broadcast of an execution will not heal wounds, will not restore lives, will not strengthen justice, and will not reflect the love of Christ in in Christ Jesus that we are all receivers of. It will only further coarsen and degrade our cultures. Regard for the dignity of the human person and will put to lie the falseness of faith that supports this.
My siblings, whatever you think of the death penalty. The barbarism, the cruelty of this. Is not Christian. Is not of Christ. Does not fulfill the mandate that Christ gave us to love God with all our heart and all our mind and all our soul, and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
We. In this room, within the sound of my voice. Can have an effect on this. We can pray. We can write to our lawmakers as people of faith. We can write to the public broadcast stations. As people of faith.
And we can disagree. About this or other matters that sound political. But this is not a political matter, my friends. This is a moral one. Do we, as a nation who claims to be a Christian nation, do we support this or remain silent? Because I'm just one person and we're just one church. And what effect can we have? And let this atrocity happen without standing up and saying, not in our name, not in our name as Americans and not in our name as Christians.
You'll note. That the man in this morning's gospel story, who did not have on the right clothes to be at a wedding, was not executed. It was simply thrown out.
We must be brave in these days, my friends. That when we see cruelty being perpetrated in our names, as Americans and as Christians, we say no. That when we see injustice. We speak up. And that when we see those who claim the name of Christ loudly and publicly and obviously, and then use that faith. To harm. We must be brave. We must speak up. For as our first hymn said this morning, Christ has the final word over life and death, not us. And the goal of our faith is to live, to be loved and to love. To live abundantly in Christ.
Hasan should spend the rest of his life in prison. But it should not fall to us. To take the place of God in deciding whether he lives or he dies. Amen.