Tuesday, October 14, 2014

28th Sunday Ordinary Time A


Image: Show Me Your Glory  © Jan Richardson

October 12, 2014



Tables spread with mouth-watering morsels, guests gathered in the perfect ambiance, lots of noise, laughter and fun.
We know a party when we see one. But we also know that not all parties are the same.
Like the towels in the guest bathroom that are there to be admired but never touched, some parties focus more on display than on people.
Other parties are known more for who is not invited than who is.
Some parties are held to celebrate, others to commiserate.
As diverse as parties can be, they all have one thing in common: their purpose and tone are set by the host.

In the parables of Matthew 22, the King has gone to great trouble preparing a wedding feast for his son, slaughtering enough oxen and fatted calves to feed several hundred people.
He sends out invitations and then twice reminds the guests to attend.
Not only do the guests refuse, but some of them seize his messengers and kill them.
In response, the king sends his troops to burn their city.
Then he sends out another invitation requesting that all persons -- the "good" and the "bad" -- be invited to the banquet.
The hall is filled, and the party begins.
This is one of several parables of judgment spoken by Jesus against the chief priests and Pharisees during the last week of his life.
Taking the parable is an allegory, we can see that the king is God, the wedding feast the messianic banquet.
The messengers who are killed represent the prophets and early Christian missionaries, and the invitation to the "bad" and "good" is the church's outreach to both gentiles and Jews.
Seen in this way, the parable becomes a radical invitation.
The table is spread for all to come.
Those gathered in the streets have no reason or right to be there -- except that a gracious king invites them.
Jesus is issuing the invitation for all to join him as God's guests in a banquet feast called the kingdom of heaven.

Life in the kingdom is a party where God is the host and all of us rave received a royal invitation.
Yet some of us come unprepared, as a second parable reminds us.
One guest is improperly dressed, and is thrown out of the banquet -- quite a contrast to the inclusive tone of the previous parable.
To wear a wedding garment is to know the significance of the occasion, to allow God's gracious invitation to change our lives, and to live accordingly.
The dinner guest has received a gift from the king -- the invitation to a joyous, elaborate feast -- to which he has not responded appropriately.
When we receive a gift such as salvation or forgiveness, we are called to lives of penitent joyfulness.


All are invited to feast at the table, but not every response is acceptable.
We are called to repent in preparation or the party, not because we have to but because we know we are entering into the presence of a gracious, forgiving God.
We will be left out if we think hat God's love carries with it no desire or response from us.
Though we are often tempted to play the host, these parables together confirm that we reed God to be the host -- not only for the grace-filled invitation to the banquet, but also for the expectation of holy living that God presumes of those a attendance.
Grace is amazing, but so is God's desire for our response.


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