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Meditation for October 10 & 11
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It's time for your "Car Ride Questions." As we prepare for worship every week, it's good to spend some time with the upcoming readings. We call these "Car Ride Questions" but they could just as easily be "Walking the Dog Questions" or "Dinner Table Questions." Regardless, let's grow in faith by reading and talking with one another!
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This week we keep on rolling with a parable of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew.
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1 Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables: 2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servants to summon those invited to the banquet, but they didn’t want to come. 4 Again, he sent out other servants and said, ‘Tell those who are invited: See, I’ve prepared my dinner; my oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
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5 “But they paid no attention and went away, one to his own farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. 7 The king was enraged, and he sent out his troops, killed those murderers, and burned down their city.
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8 “Then he told his servants, ‘The banquet is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. 9 Go then to where the roads exit the city and invite everyone you find to the banquet.’ 10 So those servants went out on the roads and gathered everyone they found, both evil and good. The wedding banquet was filled with guests. 11 When the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed for a wedding. 12 So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless.
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13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him up hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
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14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”
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the Lord of Armies will prepare for all the peoples a feast of choice meat,
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a feast with aged wine, prime cuts of choice meat, fine vintage wine.
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he will swallow up the burial shroud,
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the shroud over all the peoples,
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the sheet covering all the nations.
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8 When he has swallowed up death once and for all,
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the Lord God will wipe away the tears
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and remove his people’s disgrace
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9 On that day it will be said,
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we have waited for him, and he has saved us.
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This is the Lord; we have waited for him.
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Let’s rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”
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After reading the text, consider these prompts:
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- What questions do you have after reading this parable? (Get specific - there are probably a lot!)
- Describe a time when you had plans for something but nothing went the way you wanted or expected. What did that feel like?
- If you read the Isaiah text - what strikes you as the biggest differences between the feast in Isaiah vs the one in Matthew?
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Drive safe and God bless your meditation this week!
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