14th Sunday after Pentecost

(Matt. 22:1-14)

In the Gospel reading for this 14th Sunday after Pentecost, we hear the Lord’s parable of the wedding feast. A king arranged a marriage for his son. He prepared a great feast and sent his servants out to invite all of their friends and family. But what happened? Those invited were too busy and had endless excuses to not attend. When the king heard this, he struck out at these negligent people and instead went out into the highways to invite anyone who they happened to come upon. He clothed them in wedding garments and brought them into the feast.

This parable was spoken by our Lord immediately after having given the parable of the vineyard that we heard last Sunday – and in many ways it serves to further illustrate and illuminate the same point: our Lord was making it very clear to His chosen people and to the Scribes and Pharisees that were representing the Jewish nation, that they were being called by God to enter into His feast and that they had been and were continuing to be in danger of ignoring this call. Christ forewarned His people of this in the early days of Holy Week… as a last call to repentance before the terrible deeds of the arrest, trial, and crucifixion took place.

The Gospel of John tells us, ‘He came to His own, and His own received Him not.’ Indeed, having been rejected by His own people, the Gospel was spread to the Gentiles – those people along the highways and byways – and these were brought in to the wedding feast of the Gospel of our Lord.

This parable of the invitation to the wedding feast is one which should convict our own hearts as well… Isn’t it true that Christ calls us each week to His most glorious wedding feast – the Divine Liturgy? How do we respond to this generous invitation? Are we like the foolish guests who make excuses, are we too preoccupied by our ‘busy-ness’ and worldly cares, do we convince ourselves that we cannot possibly afford to take a couple hours out of our busy schedule? Do we not realize that stepping off that treadmill for a few hours, to be with God, to receive His blessing… that this grace will actually refresh us and make us better prepared to deal with those stresses of our life?

And this is true not just of our weekly invitation to the Great Feast of the Resurrection, we are called to the feast of Communion with God, of relationship with Him in prayer, each and every day. Do we make time for God? Do we understand and value how precious this invitation to be with God really is?

Daily prayer and attendance at church are so often distorted in our minds to be obligations rather than privilege and blessing.

We make the time of prayer something to get accomplished, to check off our list - rattling through the rule of morning and evening prayer in order to just get them done, to fulfill our obligation, to ward off having to once again confess missing our daily prayers.

Do we understand that Christ is there?... standing at the door of our hearts and knocking, patiently waiting to come in and be with us? The time of prayer is given to us as a time to open that door of our heart to invite Christ in that we may enter into that Communion of Love with Him.

Avoiding prayer, or just rattling through the prescribed prayers without letting those words penetrate into our heart – these approaches will not unlock that door of our heart.

Brothers and sisters in Christ! Jesus Christ stands at the door of our heart and calls to us. He is patient, but if we refuse to open that door He will not break it down. We are invited to His feast, but if we choose not to partake, we will ultimately be passed over and He will seek others who will appreciate and take part in His glorious feast.

May this not be so with us! Let us not come to God in fear… let us not come to God out of obligation… let us come to God in faith and love! Our Heavenly King has prepared everything for us and He wishes to have us join Him at His feast.

Let us come forward to Him in gratitude and love. Let us come to the services of His Holy Church with joy… being diligent to arrive on time not because we HAVE TO, but because we GET TO! What greater thing than this should take priority in our lives?

Let us draw toward our loving God in prayer… a prayer of intimate joy, of repentance, of praise and gratitude, asking of Him what we need, turning to Him in our sorrows, and building that experience of the presence of God which is a treasure that cannot be taken away.

May God grant us the wisdom and the humility to put on the wedding garment of purity and to enter into the joy of His feast!