2 Corinthians 1: 21-2:4 & St. Matthew 22: 1 - 14

Stories are one of the ways that we preserve our culture; they help remind us of who we are, where we came from, and what the world is like.  Sometimes these stories are histories:  accounts passed down so that we know what happened and framed is such a way that we understand the deeper meaning.  Two examples of this kind of story are found on the northern and southern walls of our temple nave (Baptism of Christ and the Baptism of Rus’-Ukraine).

Other examples include descriptions of how the ancestors of this parish fought, suffered, and died for freedom and Orthodoxy: about the Cossacks.; about the Brotherhoods; and about the founders of this parish who, after so many setbacks, finally found a place where they could enjoy both of these things (Orthodoxy and freedom) here in America.  We need these stories, and I share them whenever I can, whether it be here, at our seminary in South Bound Brook, at Heritage Days, or through our weekly podcast.

But there is another kind of story that is also important.  These stories are not factual accounts of historical events, but stories that have been created to teach us fundamental truths.  They give us the concepts we need to better understand reality; they stretch our imaginations so that we can fill our minds with more of God’s wonder and love; and they wake us from our dangerous stupor so that we can see things as they really are.

Last week, God used the parable of the vineyard owner to help us understand who He was, who His prophets were, who Jesus Christ was, and why it was proper and fitting to give back to Him whatever He asked.   The reason He had to use a parable to do this was that we had created and built a religion around a false God who did not ask any more from us than we wanted to give.  This false religion had to be exposed so that we could stop making fools of ourselves (or worse), and the best way to get at it was through a parable.

This week, God continues this general theme with his story of the king who threw a wedding feast for his son. 

To be invited to a king’s wedding feast was a big deal; a great honor; the best place to be; the chance to pay your respect to the king and his heir (and have a good time doing it).  It was the kind of thing that people would arrange their calendars around.  Anyone hearing this story would have shared the king’s outrage when they heard how people ignored his invitation and killed his messengers.  In real life, no one would ever show such disrespect to their king.

But that is the whole point of the parable: in real life, they did.  The Jews rejected Christ and they disrespected His Father.  But this isn’t a lesson about men who lived and died two thousand years ago:  don’t forget the rule of thumb of interpreting scripture.  We are the Jews.  Don’t direct the outrage this story elicits towards them: we deserve it ourselves. 

God has invited us to the Greatest and Eternal Feast – one that He prepared not through the roasting of grain-fed cattle, but through the sacrifice of His Only-Begotten Son.  And what do we do?  Do we arrange our calendars around it, or do we go about our business as usual ?   If we ignore the King, we won’t just miss the banquet: our city – the place where we worship the false God we have created (you know: the one who isn’t really worthy of our sacrifice or respect) will be destroyed.  And it should be destroyed, because it is a lie.

We must listen to these parables and open our eyes:  God is real.  The Banquet is real.  The invitation is real.  And It is the best invitation ever, one that no one (no earthly emperor, CEO, or Hollywood actor) could ever gain on merit, but that we all have been given on grace.  The angels themselves marvel at this invitation and celebrate our good fortune.

Everyone is called.  But who will come?