Weddings!

I love weddings.  I have encountered the occasional person who doesn’t, but generally speaking, weddings are pretty awesome.  The fun, the food, the joy, the celebration!  However, like a lot of big family occasions that mark major life transitions, they can also bring up a lot of emotions and feelings.  The things that make you think and feel.  I also believe that embracing the occasion of joy can overshadow any negative sticky family dynamics.  A wedding can be deep when you get past the “party.” 

            I tell couples getting married and families planning funerals (yes, funerals) that the most common image for heaven in the Bible is a wedding banquet.  I look back on my wedding and it hit me like a ton of bricks that the NEXT time all those people will be together at the SAME time—people that I love like my grandmom, my great-aunt Mary, and now my father-in-law, my mom…—will be heaven.  Like a wedding, the joy of being with loved ones in God’s presence, at God’s invitation, I believe, resolves and makes whole everything that is broken.

            And the invitation!  Back in Jesus’ day, getting invited or not reflected social standing more than today.  Think about the choices of who you invite to a small wedding versus a big wedding.  That can be tough.  This Sunday, Jesus tells a parable about a Wedding Banquet a king throws for his son, but the invitees blow it off (Matthew 22:1-14).  There’s some judgment there!  So the King tells his slaves to work hard to invite everyone, “both the good and the bad” (vs. 10).  That’s what I hear the loudest.  God’s invitation to everyone.  The “deserving” made light of it, so God brings in the “undeserving.”  That’s GRACE. 

            How do you respond appropriately?  This is the banquet of Christ.  I think about humility and putting on my “Sunday best” clothes, behaving in a way that shows gratitude and respect.  There’s something about gratitude that is humbling when we let go of ourselves in the presence of the gift.  Joy takes us out of ourselves—just look at a little child on the dance floor at a wedding reception!  You’re invited!

Peace,

Pr. Christian