Getting together for dinner is a tradition old as dirt! No surprise, then, that Heaven/ the Kingdom of God is imaged often as a Great Banquet to which the spiritually-led are invited. Teachers and preachers need to be extremely careful to avoid excluding those still struggling with the God-life: texts for this weekend could well be unfortunately divisive, especially in those traditions which gleefully proclaim that God loves them better than the rest of us imperfect sinners.
We begin with Isaiah’s psalm of God’s Justice (25:1-9). As Jerusalem is being assailed by alien forces, the prophet dares speak of the feast which the Lord of Hosts prepares for all peoples, the finest food and wine. As Yahweh has been in the past– a refuge to the poor and needy, a shelter from the storm and shade from burning heat –so shall the Lord destroy the shroud of the peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations, and will swallow up death forever. “It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for [God], so that [God] might save us.” Looks as though JOY is on the menu!
Paul’s final words to the Philippians (4:1-9) elaborate upon this Joy: “do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” This from a guy in prison, probably under a sentence of death, to a congregation where at least two of the women are sniping at each other… So what side dishes can we pick from this menu? Things that are true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing to God; “whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise…” Nathan Eddy opines that “Joy is a discipline of perception, not an emotion dependent on circumstances….By per-ceiving and rejoicing in a living, unexpected presence in the world even in difficult situations, one let go of being one’s own savior.” (FEEDING on the WORD, A 4:161)
Matthew’s Gospel remembers Jesus’ parable of the Wedding Banquet, yet another of his final warnings to the Temple officers and rulers (22:1-14). Walk gently here: I think it’s about God’s invitation to the lowly-born as substitutes for those who shoulda known better but still diluted the faith. Yet some will lift up a capricious king who willingly destroys those who won’t fit in; still others will crow that “I’m OK, bad as I am–and you’re not!” The bottom line is that the banquet hall was filled with guests of a prodigiously generous king. Is Joy on the menu?
One thread that runs through all these readings is that they all stemmed from crisis mode of the authors: Isaiah of Jerusalem wrote of hopeful joy even as the enemy was at the gates; St. Paul wrote from imprisonment; and Jesus spoke realizing that he’d be dead within a few days. I pray that in your own daily troubles that you also will have a Banquet to look forward to! “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice!”
God Bless Us, Every One Horace Brown King
My thoughts about Scriptures assigned to the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this spot on Facebook; or at horacebrownking.com.
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