God is abundance. So gracious and overflowing in all goodness that
we can only call it love; creative love,
sustaining love, and saving love.
In all his fullness, God and his
kingdom is beyond our understanding or even full appreciation.
And we can never describe it
adequately, it is always more, greater in every aspect.
Certainly greater than of my words or
any words for the Word of God was before all, is all, and in the fullness of
time be all.
Because of our human condition, Isaiah
calls it a veil over the nations, we have distanced ourselves from God, we are
out of touch with the devine, out of right relationship with God, who loves us,
and we are unable (at least in this life) to fully know Him.
We have only our limited minds, imaginations
and inadequate words to talk about God and our experience with Him.
Jesus knew this, though he knew God,
and so he used parables, to help us understand the truth.
How often did he use the phrase
"the kingdom of God is like"
The Kingdom of God is like a great Kings
wedding banquet.
In the first reading Isaiah gives us a
hint of God’s feast. He tells
Israel that on the Lord's mountain (where God dwells and rules as king) there
will be for all people a feast of rich food and choice wines, not only rich and
choice, but juicy and pure. It is better than the best.
And this pure and choice feast will be
the wiping away tears, ending oppression and destroying death. It certainly
includes; protecting all human life, giving priority to the poor and
vulnerable, It will insure peace for all peoples.
God's great feast is also inclusive as
he gathers all people together and together (as one) they will rejoice and be
glad for God has kept his saving promise.
And this rejoicing and gladness at the
banquet table sounds like the responsaorial psalm
"The Lord is my Shepard I shall
not want . . . You spread your table before me"
We shall not want, we shall have our fill,
(in Christ) for God’s abundant grace is life giving and life
renewing and enlivens our human nature to reach beyond its limitations.
St Paul says
"I can do all things in him who strengthens
me"
Not some things or the things I am good
at or things I think are important or worthy,
God strengthens all things undertaken
for his glory and the good of others.
God's grace reaches out to all who
reach out to him and He is always generous and merciful .
"My God “ Paul says “will
fully supply whatever you need"
So we have God who is generous beyond
measure and his kingdom which is likened to a wedding banquet full of good and
choice things, yet we know many turn their back to God's invitation? Many who do not think the offer is good
enough?
Not good enough to give up grasping
worldliness, self-centered concerns, and rivalries, not worth the sacrifices
it's obtaining might entail.
We know still others who believe God is
a fanciful lie, a children's story that no adult could base a life on. This is
human folly and the question we hear throughout scripture and most directly in
Jesus' parables is "why would you not want to be at God's wedding
banquet"?
So back to the parable.
The king sends out his servants (twice) to
invite the lucky guests to the great wedding feast.
Some ignored the King's requests; some
had more important things to do, some thought their time was more precious than
the Kings.
The King’s servants doing the kings bidding
were abused and seriously mistreated.
We heard last week that the owner of
the vineyard (another likeness to the kingdom of God) sent his son, to bring
about justice - they killed him instead.
Sounds familiar doesn't it.
The hard hearted and prideful turned
their backs to their rightful king.
In just anger the king declares
"The feast is ready, but those
invited are not worthy to come. Go out, therefore and invite whomever you find"
Go out to the darkest corners of the
city, go to the forgotten places and bring every one back the King commands.
We see this redeeming generosity echoed
in Jesus who had table fellowship with tax collectors, prostitutes, and
sinners, all those marginalized by the smug and the self-righteous.
In their blindness they could not see
that Jesus was showing them what God's kingdom looked like.
By now the king's banquet hall was full
with the good and the bad, every walk of life, every kind of person including
the least desirable crowded around the great banquet table, to share in the
Kings many gifts and pleasures.
Then comes an unsettling twist.
"The king comes and he sees a man
who had come without a wedding garment.
The king addresses the guest "my
friend" he says "how is it you have come without a wedding
garment?"
The guest (who most likely had never
spoken to a king or better still, think of standing before the Lord yourself), had
no answer and in anger the king had the guest thrown out (of the light) into
the darkness.
Now, we could say it was unfair for the
guest to be tossed out. After all it was
an unexpected, last minute invite. How
was the guest to know? Did the guest even have a wedding garment? Besides, he
came when the others, more deserving invitees had not even bothered to show up.
Whatever the wedding garments
represents it does make clear that we must be ready and prepared for this most
marvelous invite.
The point is - what gets us to the
feast will not keep us there. Being invited is a good thing, but remaining at
table is better. There seems to be in this parable, the laying out of the
ongoing dynamics of salvation; gift, choice, and mission.
God's gift (His invitation) starting
with faith and ending in salvation, is made clear in the life, death, and resurrection
of his son Jesus. It is free, it is generously given and certainly it is unmerited
on our part.
We start by saying accepting the Kings
invitation to the abundant gift of new life here and now (to be lived out in
discipleship) and eternal life (in praise and glory) in God’s
kingdom to come.
Yet, we must be clothed and in our
right mind (as the gospel song tells us)
So we can stand before the King,
grateful, humble and with a pure and undivided heart.
These are our wedding garment made new
by God’s grace.
Remember, It doesn’t
end with the invite or just showing up. We must live out our acceptance to
God's invitation with more than baptism, conformation and mass attendance. These just get you the invite and the invite
is just the beginning.
At the wedding feast we are honored
guests, delighted and joyful, but we are also the obedient servants doing our
part in inviting others to join us, showing people, by our lives, what it means
to sit at the table of the Lord.
We are both undeserving sinner and
newly formed prophet.
We are invited early or late. We arrive
on time or as the meal is being served or even as desert is offered.
It
doesn't matter, but the quality of the heart does matters,
"for many are invited, but few are
chosen"
