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Weekly Devotional

October 13, 2008
 

Matthew 22:1-14     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.  ³ He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come.  ⁴ Again 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.'  ⁵ But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business,  ⁶ while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them.  ⁷ The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.         ⁸ Then he said to his slaves, 'The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy.  ⁹ Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.'  ¹⁰ Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.         ¹¹ "But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe,  ¹² and he said to him, 'Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?' And he was speechless.  ¹³ Then the king said to the attendants, 'Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'  ¹⁴ For many are called, but few are chosen."

        For some reason, I cannot get our Gospel text for yesterday out of my head.  It seems that this text seems to reverberate in my head alongside the meaning of the Eucharist.  At the same time, I keep going back to the Installation Service of our Bishop this past Saturday.  Although the sermon text for Saturday was different, the preacher had a few things about this text that he said.  The preacher was The Rev. Mark Hanson, presiding Bishop of the ELCA.  He told the following story:

            A young pastor was called to serve a three point parish in rural North Dakota soon after graduating seminary.  One of the things he really wanted to do was to make a move to celebrating Holy Communion every Sunday, but he knew there was some opposition to this move.  So the young man asked around and found out that a woman named Doris was the so called “leader” of the opposition. 

            One Sunday the pastor was invited to her house to eat dinner.  It seems that Doris had been cooking for two whole days, preparing everything perfectly for the young man.  She asked that he say grace, and then they sat down to eat.  The young pastor filled his plate full of food, and continually praised Doris for all the work she had done. 

Before taking the first bite, he excused himself.  On the way out the door, Doris asked if he had a pastoral emergency.  He simply replied “no.”  She followed him into the yard, and asked if it was her cooking and if he was feeling sick. Again, he replied “no”.  Being persistent as she was, Doris followed him to his car, and asked if she had offended him in some way.  The pastor opened the car door, looked at Doris and said: “You have spent a long time and worked hard preparing this wonderful feast. I am sorry that I cannot partake.  I have decided not to.”  Before driving off, he rolled down his window and said to Doris “I am sure that you now know how Jesus feels when we don’t celebrate the Eucharist every week.”  From that point on, all three congregations celebrated communion every week, and Doris was one of the pastor’s main supporters in the decision.

    God has prepared a great feast for us.  Not only has God worked hard, but God has literally spilled his blood so that we might enjoy the feast.  So I once again invite you all to come to the table every week, and to enjoy what God has prepared for each and every single one of you.

In our prayers this week: 

Alma, Ann, Norm, Jane, Doris’ mom, Gail’s mom

God’s Peace,

Pastor Judson