Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: 2‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. 3He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. 4Again he sent other slaves, saying, “Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.” 5But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, 6while the rest seized his slaves, maltreated them, and killed them. 7The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. 8Then he said to his slaves, “The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.” 10Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests. ~NRSV
The wedding host would have not only provided a banquet, they would have even furnished the tux and gowns for their guests to wear. Therefore, those without the right garments were wedding crashers. Those who turned up their nose to the host.
HEAR THE Report of the servants sent to invite others. Come back with them or their excuse. {at the beginning of the service we will have volunteers go invite those who are absent or not attending anywhere to come to church}
To this day, the city and area of Cannan is a popular wedding location. There are dress shops and bakers and florist and decorators fill the shops through town. There are even a variety of appliance and home improvement stores in Cannan. Having a new or remodeled home was an important part of wedding celebrations.
Jesus tells a parable describing the relationship of God and us: it is like those who, though invited to the party found any number off reasons to not participate in the party. One of the primary vows we make to each other as a church is our commitment to participate in the life of the church.
This congregation becomes where we build our relationships, strengthen our families, and where we bring others into the family. To not PARTICIPATE in the family life is to affirm there is something more important than our faith family’s joys, struggles and life.
As we peel away the lays of the onion we call stewardship… Part of our faith-life is placing this community as a priority for/with our family.
When someone becomes hurt or disenchanted with our church we need to know about it so that we can collectively work out or differences. When someone looks at your life witness, your public actions, you are representing us all.
The RADICAL part of our Christian HOSPITALITY is that we welcome each other, even though we know the good and bad about each other. Part 1 of our Stewardship Journey is PRIORITY, Part 2 stops to look at PARTICIPATION. Be here, not there…
