Creator's council President, Lloyd Cushman, ended today's reflection with the Seneca quote after relating a brief summary of Creator's shared history since he became council president. He talked about the changes in the office, the people who assumed responsibility for needed solutions to keep Creator on an even keel with the choppy seas we encountered.
Today's reading was Ephesians 4: 25-28:
So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil.Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up,b as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear.
Lloyd quoted from, and expounded on, this passage from Ephesians. The verses read like Seneca. I can see where Lloyd found his reflection's theme. Here are aphorisms on how to live life well and virtuously. Often that is what many of us to look to church for - the best ways to traditionally live an upright life.
The Revised Standard Lectionary reading is Matthew 22:1-14, which offers another perspective to consider. This is often called The Parable of the Wedding Banquet:
Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
“Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
“But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and 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 wedding clothes. He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.
“Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
“For many are invited, but few are chosen.”
When I consider this parable and Creator as a church I come away with a very different perspective on what a church can emphasize regarding Jesus and the message of the New Testament.
Within the world of this parable, the problem with the fellow without the wedding garb is not that he is not taking things seriously enough. No, his problem is a failure to party. The kingdom of heaven is God's wedding banquet, after all, and what is needed is to get with the program. The kingdom music is playing, and it’s time to get up on the dance floor.
That is why I am drawn to the illustration on the left. With a party going on, the Jesus figure is addressing the serious, solemn fellow with the scroll. in the backround there is also someone banishing people at the door with pages in his hand. He appears to be using the Good News to show people the door. Scripture should not be about draining the life of the party out of life. Instead, scripture at its best can perhaps offer a recipe for some of the food that could be offered at the banquet to enhance everyone's experience that may taste that particular dish.
Creator knows how to do that well.
No comments:
Post a Comment