I find it hard to read this parable of the wedding banquet and not think of our half-empty churches. In the story, the King has prepared a beautiful wedding feast for his son and invited all the people who used to come to his house… and now none of them will. Enraged, he says to his servants,
“The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.” Those servants went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.
Given how Jesus has been talking to the religious leaders, and how he’s been known to interact with the not-good-enough of his society – the lame, lepers, extortioners and “loose women” – it seems obvious that that’s who he means by the people on the main streets. As he tells it, these people are found, herded onto the king’s buses and brought back to populate his banquet hall. The servants aren’t choosy – they just bring everybody in.
What would it look like if we sent buses around shelters and homeless encampments and parks on Sunday mornings and invited people to come to our feasts? Are we prepared to deal with strangers, people’s disappointment and addictions, traumatic wounds and chips on their shoulders? Are we prepared to see them not as wounded strangers but as gifts, with assets and strengths we need in our congregations? We did, for a few months, see two homeless gentlemen become regulars at our 11 o’clock service, drawn initially by the lunch that followed it (ah, pre-Covid coffee hours!). They became crucifers and participated in worship for a time, until they got jobs that required them to work on Sundays. It gave me such joy to see them vested and invested, not defined or sidelined by housing status.
What would it look like if we took church out to folks living rough instead of asking them into our buildings? For a time, my congregation in Stamford did this in a “tougher” section of town. We went from bringing sandwiches and healing prayer to my telling Jesus stories (aka, preaching) on the curb as people lounged in their lawn chairs with their bottles. It was amazing - until gentrification struck and the people who hung out there were dispersed, and it faded away. But I saw what could be.
The poor and the lame are not the only people God wants at the feast. God also wants the stressed over-achievers, the multi-tasking moms, the doubters and questioners. This parable suggests that God wants everybody at God’s table. Who are we not inviting?
That is a spiritual task for today: make a list of everyone your congregation does not seem to be extending an invitation to. The ones who are being invited are by and large not coming. Who else are we to invite?
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