Brief synopsis of the readings: Isaiah describes how God will prepare a banquet of choice wines and rich foods. Mourning will end and death will be destroyed. The God that we hoped would save us will save us. In Matthew’s Gospel we see Jesus telling another parable. The king put on a wedding for his son but the invited guests refused to show up. When pressed by the king’s servants the guests killed the servants. Enraged, the king ordered the death of those guests and directed his servants to invite others. These guests came but the king noticed one of them was not properly dressed for a wedding. The king ordered him thrown out of the wedding. “Many are invited but few are chosen.”

If nothing else this Gospel will speak eloquently to anyone who has planned a wedding, whether it is the bride and groom, the bride’s parents, or the wedding coordinator. What is advertised as the best day in the couples’ lives comes only after negotiating the guest list, listening to bands of varying talents, finding the reception venue, and, well I could go on and on. So imagine if, after all this, nobody showed up at the wedding. I can easily see violence looking like a reasonable response to this. So why didn’t the first group show up? After all, this wasn’t just the father of the groom, it was the king. I can’t imagine getting a better offer than going to a wedding hosted by the king; but at least for this group they must have had what they thought was a better offer.

Last week I spoke about how readings toward the end of the year become more apocalyptic and these readings do continue that. Its message does not lack for clarity: don’t be part of the first group. If the king thinks enough of you to invite you to a wedding feast, go and be grateful. I suspect it wasn’t that the first group didn’t recognize the importance of the king but instead they thought they were important enough to the king that they could take him for granted. The parable tells us that one went to his farm and another to his business.

Frankly I see a fair amount of this today, but not where you may think. In the quest to be a good parent I’ve often found that the parents who worry about this probably shouldn’t while those who should worry rarely do. In the same way belief in Christianity should center our life, not just add to it. If you’re concerned with how well you are following Christ you can probably relax. On the other hand, longtime readers will know that I have little patience for followers of the “prosperity gospel.” They hold that God will reward faith with earthly wealth and the existence of wealth is proof of God’s blessing.

These are the people I suspect the king is angry with. For them the king wasn’t their leader or the person they had sworn loyalty to. For them the king was just another commodity, just another way to get what they want. Faith is simply a means to an end. Followers of this prosperity gospel include clergy but is hardly limited.

True disciples invite others to join us through attraction. They were the ones who attended the wedding banquet. They weren’t the king’s first choice but when invited they came.

And for the first group? Well, they use threats and bullying. If they treat the king with this level of contempt we can only imagine how they treat those of lower status. They believe that their status makes them impervious to losing their wealth or status and it also makes them impervious to criticism.

I’m certain I don’t need to share my own list. We have politicians who claim to be pro life because of their opposition to abortion but are nearly bloodthirsty in their support of capital punishment. Podcasters who drive ratings by describing a conspiracy on the “war on Christmas” but defend their beliefs that immigrants are murderers and rapists. Friends and neighbors who ensure we see the cross around their necks and pristine looking Bibles in their coffee tables while buying up substandard properties and making a fortune from people who can’t afford anything else.

We know virtually nothing about the people who were found “in the main roads” and were invited. Likely this was the best offer they could imagine receiving. And likely they were also subjects of the king. And we have to assume they spent the rest of their lives feeling even more loyalty and obedience to the king for their good fortune.

We also don’t know how the second group viewed the first group. It is, alas, a common reaction to react with glee. I’ve spoken about this before but for all the warnings we receive about what happens to those who aren’t faithful, we rarely see it actually happen. We wander into dangerous territory when we believe that part of our blessing includes seeing the suffering of others. Many years ago I had a painful conversation with a woman who believed that married couples who used artificial birth control committed a mortal sin. I asked her how she would feel if she was granted salvation in heaven but had to share it with those who used birth control. I’m not certain I’ve ever seen anyone get so angry so fast. She has since died and if I’m right I hope she’s taking it better now.

Finally we see a puzzling end to the Gospel when the king sees a wedding guest who wasn’t properly dressed. At face value it appears unfair: if he was invited from the main roads he was probably wearing what he had on and hadn’t expected to be at a wedding. I wasn’t able to find a clear answer to this; perhaps wedding garments were provided and this person tried to slip in. Or it symbolized someone who wanted to enjoy the wedding without fully committing. In other Scripture passages there is a metaphor that accepting Christ was seen as putting on the garment of Christ and this person wasn’t fully committed.

At the end of the day this parable reminds us that discipleship is not simply one part of who we are but is instead the center of who we are. As one of my seminary professors remarked: never forget who you are and whose you are.