Come to the Banquet

Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time October 11, 2020 Matthew 22: 1-14 In today’s gospel we are giving a choice. We can read the long or the short form. The Short form cuts off the part of the parable where the guest is thrown out because he isn’t properly dressed. I will admit that my temptation is to skip that part. Not to save time but because I don’t like it. But I learned that sometimes the thing we like least is really thing that we really need the most. Sort of like Brussels Sprouts, we might be tempted to skip over them and go right to the ice cream but we probably shouldn’t. They have something that we need. This parable is also in Luke’s Gospel, less details and the part about the guest getting kicked out is not included. I was reading that the last part, the part that I don’t like was probably a separate parable. One that Jesus told at a different time and that Matthew put it here on purpose to make a point. These parables are like the parables that we have been hearing the past few weeks. “The Kingdom of heaven is like…” The last few weeks it has been a vineyard and we have been invited to work in the vineyard. First we were told that it doesn’t matter if you start at 5 in the morning or 5 in the evening. If you work 12 hours or 1, you will recieve the same reward. So it tells us that the in the Kingdom we will all be treated the same. Next we had the parable of the two sons, one who said yes but didn’t go to work and the other who said no but went to work. So in the Kingdom it is important to not just profess your faith, you have to do something about it too. Last week we had the folks who had been given the vineyard but they didn’t respect the servants the owner sent, killing them even the vineyard owners son. So the kingdom is something that you can lose if you don’t show your gratefulness to God. In all of these parables Jesus is making the point that the ones that we think are least likely to get into the Kingdom are the ones who in fact are getting in first. Jesus invites us to think of the Kingdom where the prositutes are sinners are first and the priests and pharisees are last. Today’s first parable I like even better. Instead of working in a vineyard, we are now invited to a banquet. I would much rather think of a heaven as a big wedding banquet where all are invited and having a good time than a field where we have to go and work in the sun and heat. Like Isaiah says in the first reading, a place of juicy rich food and pur, choice wines. The first parable, or the first part of it fits into my idea of the kingdom: A banquet rather than a vineyard. Instead of making the wine we get to drink it. Everyone is invited. The obvious guests, the priests and the holy people turned down the invitation so then everyone was invited. They went to main roads and the side roads, the big towns and the farms and everyone good and bad was invited. The hall was filled with guests. Yes, I would like to stop here. I like the Kingdom where everyone is invited, where all are welcome. I like a Kingdom that is a weather feast. I like a kingdom that is crowded where you don’t have to worry about social distancing. But like I said that isn’t the end of the story. The end of the story doesn’t seem fair to me. The servants did what they were told, they invited everyone. So if you get a last minute invitation and you don’t have a wedding garment, how is it your fault. There wasn’t time to go home and change was there? But the guy still got thrown out, so obviously there is more to the kingdom than just showing up. We need to do more than just respond to the invitation. But remember this… the servants did everything. They sent the invitations, they went out and invited, they brought people into the banquet hall but it was the king alone who threw out the guy who wasn’t properly dressed. As workers of the banquet, as people who have volunteered to help, to evangelize we don’t have to worry about excluding people. We don’t need to judge who is and who isn’t worthy. God alone is the one who will do that. So as fellow evangelizers let us continue to invite. Let us continue to tell others about the wonderful love of our God. We don’t need to choose, we just need to invite. God alone will decide who is worthy.