MATTHEW 22:12A

This is the third week of reading about Jesus’ attack on the Jewish religious leaders while in Jerusalem on his way to his cross.

Jesus tells them a parable about a wedding feast where a king gives a banquet but all the invited dignitaries refuse the invitation. The king then sends his servants into the streets to bring in whomever they find, “good and bad alike.” The shorter option on this reading ends here but the longer includes a rather jarring ending: the king sees a man not dressed in a wedding garment and has him thrown out!

What? For not having a wedding garment, for not being properly adorned? Well, perhaps for not going to the effort beforehand to accept the invitation. Earlier in Matthew, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says that “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord,’ will get into the Kingdom of Heaven but the one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (MT 7:21). Let us not stop short at praising God in word but continue on to build the Kingdom of Heaven.

The Adult Religious Education program is presenting a series on The Sin and Tragedy of Racism. The first session is available as a video on our website. The last two sessions will be October 13 (note the date change!) and November 5 and 7:00 p.m. See below for more details.

By the way, this series is presented by the Religious Education Commission because the Social Justice Commission is leaderless as well as followerless. If you are interested in getting our missions right, email Father and offer to get involved.