Invitations! Over the last few weeks we have had a number of parables that speak about invitations: the vineyard owner inviting people to work at 9 a.m., noon - 3 p.m. and then the father inviting his two sons to go to work in the vineyard and now this parable about an invitation to a wedding. We have an average of 30 weddings here every year. The one common complaint I hear from brides and grooms is the number of people who are invited as guests who respond by NOT responding - they wait and wait for a reply but none comes. That is true in our faith lives as well. Now today’s parable might seem a bit far fetched. Who would be so crazy as to turn down an invitation to a royal wedding? But people can be very foolish. There is in us a streak that not only refuses the good, but cannot even recognize it. God is continually calling us, as individuals and as a community, to a deeper and more authentic life. But this precious invitation is like the seed that fell among the thorns. It gets choked. There are many invitations that come to us that so often get pushed aside.

Think of how often we ignore or decline invitations: there is that letter I know I should write, but just now I’m not in the mood. There is that sick person I know I should visit, but right now my favorite program is on TV. I know I need to pray, but I just don’t seem to be able to find time for it. I know I should be more charitable towards...so many...but I just can’t summon up the will to make the effort. I know that dishonesty is wrong, but I tell myself that everybody does it and what I do is minor compared to what others are up to. I know I don’t do my job as well as I should, but why should I break my back when others aren’t pulling their weight? I know I drink too moo much but I’m under a lot of pressure these days. I know I should spend more time with my children, but I need that overtime money. One could go on and on. Each of us, if we got down to it, could draw up quite a long list of things which we know, in our heart of hearts, we should do, or should not do, but which we refuse to look at. And we have no shortage of excuses.

The excuses that kept the invite guests from attending the wedding feast, weren’t all bad. In fact, in most cases they were perfectly good ones; one man wanted to attend to his land; another to his business; and so on. But this is precisely what makes them so dangerous. We don’t see them as posing a threat.

The greatest danger facing us is not that we might abandon God and turn to evil, but rather we might just ignore God’s invitation. To ignore God’s invitation altogether is the worst form of refusal. It implies indifference. God does not compel us. God invites. A command cannot be easily ignored, but an invitation can. Advertisers can’t compel us to buy a certain product, but they resort to all kinds of gimmicks to try to persuade and cajole us into buying it. God does not act like that. God has too much respect for our freedom.

God invites and the invitation to this banquet is something that we have not earned. God invites us to this feast - a feast that stands for the fullness of life. The invitation is a call to intimacy with God, and to a deeper and more authentic personal life. It is also a call to community. Banquets are not for one - banquets for many and so this invitation from God is to community with others. We are to abandon our isolationism, our exclusivism, our self-sufficiency and be willing to share with others - we are in this together - we are called to love and care for one another as brothers and sisters.

The biggest frustration in planning a banquet is the non-response - the apathy - the indifference. The invitation has been extended to each of us - God is waiting.