Missing God's party

This morning I was reading Matthew 22:1-15, the parable of the wedding feast:

"The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. And he sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling to come. Again he sent out other slaves saying, 'Tell those who have been invited, "Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened livestock are {all} butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast."' But they paid no attention and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business, and the rest seized his slaves and mistreated them and killed them. But the king was enraged, and he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and set their city on fire. Then he said to his slaves, 'The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main highways, and as many as you find {there,} invite to the wedding feast.' Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered together all they found, both evil and good; and the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests."

I'm always struck by the beginning of the parable, where those upright citizens who are originally invited reject their king and he is forced to invite everyone, both good and bad. It sends shivers of glee up and down my spine to think of Jesus' audience and how offensive that could be to them and any of us today who find ourselves in their religious shoes. However, I'm always troubled by the end of the parable where the king throws a man out for not wearing wedding clothes.

"But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed in wedding clothes, and he said to him, 'Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?' And the man was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, 'Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'"

I feel sorry for the poor bloke, you know? But I think there's something important here as well. I think it's important that we understand that God's grace comes on God's terms. We want to party 'til dawn with the King of Kings but we don't want to let him actually be king if it means giving up our right to choose what we do, what we believe, who we treat how, and all that.

How many of God's little parties will I miss in this life because I won't come to God on his own terms--because I want him to bless what I'm doing instead of accepting his "party clothes"? I want to give, but be sure I get credit. I want to serve people, but don't make me change my attitudes toward them. I want to pray and follow God's voice, but only insofar as it doesn't cut into my day or my comfort level too much. And in the end, how many of us may miss the Big Party because we didn't want to come dressed in the righteousness of Christ (that these party clothes are a free gift is the common interpretation, which I agree with and won't take time to argue). We didn't want to come as a forgiven sinner but as a religious bigshot with plenty of notches on our good-works gun.

Lord, help us not to miss your party because we're too busy and self-absorbed or because we're too stubborn and only come on our own terms. Lord, help me, especially.

Mark