Speechless at the Wedding Banquet--Dec. 6, 2013

 Who are the intruders, the ones

not dressed for your wedding feast?

Are they those who trample on the poor

while they build fine houses and

plant pleasant vineyards?

If you should ask me whether  

on this basis I am prepared to share

your banquet, wouldn't I be speechless?

There is forgiveness with you, but

does it extend even to me?

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 102; 148; 130; 16

Amos 5:1-17

Jude 1-16

Matt. 22:1-14

Selected Verses

Ps. 130:4

But there is forgiveness with you,
          so that you may be revered.

Amos 5:11

Therefore because you trample on the poor

            and take from them levies of grain,

you have built houses of hewn stone,

            but you shall not live in them;

you have planted pleasant vineyards,

            but you shall not drink their wine.

Jude 4

For certain intruders have stolen in among you…

Matt. 22:11-12

"But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man [in the wedding hall] who was not wearing a wedding robe, and he said to him, 'Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?'  And he was speechless.  …"  [Jesus to the chief priests and Pharisees]