Matthew 22:1-14
When anyone announces that they are gay, they know full well the risk involved. Their family may abandon them, friends may turn their backs. At the same time you can find you have a new family, an expanded family and people that you least expected come to your side, holding you up, even elevating you.
When I came out I was truly blessed, my family was very supportive and loving. They may not have fully understood, but they were loving and supportive. I think in part because they knew I was still the same decent person. I did however form a bond with many new people who intimately understood what it is to be gay, to have to come out. The gay community such as I knew it , welcomed me and I felt a kinship with many new people.
When my husband and I knew we wished to spend our lives together and before the thought of marriage being legal even crossed our minds, we decided to have our own small commitment ceremony. We were the only two present except for George and Sniffy (our cats). When we wished to have a small gathering of those friends who had been supportive we extended invitations. In a twist that this passage mirrors, one such person called at the last minute and said the day had gotten away from them. I don't think they realized how big a deal it was to us or that they were even invited. Someone we felt a kinship with was extended an invitation and that invitation was dismissed.
How much more challenging it must be for God when we are offered salvation, love and eternal happiness and we too turn our backs. It may not be God in himself but a neighbor or friend that we dismiss and in so doing we are rejecting God. I believe God still feels the sadness of our daily casual abandonments. A tear is shed by our God that loves us so much and who feels a kinship with us because he is our creator, becasue he knows the full depths of being human as Jesus and because he died on the cross for us.
What have we done lately to accept the invitation to love? Do we routinely accept an invitation to the feast?
Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. 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.” But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his slaves, maltreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then he said to his slaves, “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 slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.
‘But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, and he said to him, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?” And he was speechless. 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.” For many are called, but few are chosen.’
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