Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Weddings and Anniversaries



                There is a story I heard a while back about how to handle someone who is hurting you in a relationship. It goes something like this: Imagine that you have just put new carpet in your home. You are very proud of this carpet and so you invite someone over to see it. When your guest arrives, it has been raining and his boots are covered in mud. You invite him in and he tracks mud throughout your house. You kindly ask him to take the boots off, but he refuses.  When he leaves, you spend hours cleaning the floor until the carpet is looks new again. A week later you invite this guest back to your home and once again, he wears a pair of muddy boots. You can either allow him to track mud throughout your life, or you can tell him that he needs to take off his shoes. Now he may say, “I can’t, my feet will get cold!” or “These are new shoes!” but he cannot come inside until he removes his shoes. “It’s cold out here!” he may say, “It’s raining now, please let me in!” but he cannot come into your life until he removes the part of himself that is hurting you. Most people understand this story and its meaning pretty quickly and I was reminded of it this morning after reading Matthew 22.
                At the beginning of this chapter, Jesus tells a story about a king who is having a wedding party for his son. The guest who were invited to the wedding (the Jews) did not come. Since the invited guest refused to come, the king invited people from outside the city. This wedding was a huge deal! Back in that time, weddings involved the whole community and could go on for an entire week, and this was not just any wedding but the wedding of a king’s son! Everyone who was invited from outside the city would have been honored to come and rushed to get ready so that they may attended (though they had plenty of time to get ready since the celebration was going to last for a week anyway). When the king came down to look at the guest, he saw someone dressed inappropriately. When he asked him about it, the man was speechless and then was thrown into the “outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
                In this story, Jesus is saying that God has invited everyone to be a part of His kingdom, but that does not give us the right to show Him disrespect. Many are invited to be in a relationship with God, but if you track mud into His life, He will throw you out. This is one of my favorite parables because it very clearly paints a picture of what happens to those who come to church every Sunday and yet do not respect God in their daily lives.  It is humbling to those of us who think to ourselves that we are secretly God’s favorite because of all the good things we do. We were not the intended guest of the wonderful celebration we are able to be a part of, but by the Lord’s generosity, we are able to participate in the wedding of the King’s son.
                How would my life look different if I took time to reflect on the great honor I have been given to participate in the promises God has given us? Would I want to share this promise with more people if I really understood that I do not deserve it? Would I live my life with more respect toward God if I really understood that He has every right to take the honor of His salvation away from me?
                God, please help me not to be proud in my own eyes, but to remember what an honor it is to know You. Help me to share Your message with anyone else I may meet because I know that I am no more deserving of Your love than anyone else. Thank You for giving me the privilege of knowing and loving You. Amen.

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