Putting on the New Clothing of God's Feast

Beloved in Christ,

There’s a lot in the parable Jesus tells in this Sunday’s gospel lesson that makes us want to stand up, cheer him on, dance around, and shout hallelujah. A king prepares to throw an epic wedding feast. The usual, important people are invited, but they blow him off. They aren’t interested. So, he instructs his staff to go out into the street and invite everyone they can find, both the good and the bad. All are welcome, no exceptions. We love it.

But once the party is rolling, the king notices an open invite person who doesn’t meet the dress code for the party, so he is thrown out into the outer darkness, complete with weeping and teeth gnashing. What gives?

God invites all of us, regardless of who we are, what we have done, how we have messed up, or what has been done to us, to the great feast that is God’s perfect reign. But when we really reckon with the full depth of a love like that, it will change us. Accepting the invitation demands that we put on a new identity. The party of God’s all-inclusive love is not, it turns out, a casual affair. Healing the world with love is serious business, it’s a real thing God is doing. If we are to fully participate, we have to place God at the center of our selves and our lives.

Discipleship, our core diocesan priority, is about putting on the wedding robes for the feast of love that is God’s kingdom. Discipleship is about practicing what Jesus taught, doing what Jesus did, steeping ourselves in the story of what God is doing in Jesus, so that we take on a whole new appearance in the world. We put on the new clothing of God’s feast in a world that is starving for love so that we show up everywhere looking like gentleness, waging peace, scattering mercy, and pointing to the cross. We dress the part so that all the scattered, lonely, pushed aside, weary, and heartbroken children of God in the world see a glimpse of the feast that is  always promised to everyone, and that even now is coming into the world.

Grace and Peace,

The Right Rev. Craig Loya