"Many are called but few are chosen" used to scare me to death as a kid. I had been called to preach at 10 but feared I would not be worthy of the call. I was scared that because I had been called that God held me up to some kind of impossible standard. Nothing I did was ever good enough. I was the first at the altar at every revival. I had to be the most spiritual. I had to be perfect. And I never was.
But let's go back to the beginning of the passage. The king invites everyone to a wedding banquet. They do not come. So he kills them. Then he invites the society's outcasts to the banquet. One does not have a wedding garment so he is killed too.
Power and violence thrown around in another parable.
Barbara Brown Taylor calls this parable one of the 'biblical tales of terror'
http://web.archive.org/web/20030211005052/http:/www.theotherside.org/archive/mar-apr00/taylor.html
She talks about the real terror of obeying God and not knowing how it will turn out. Like Jesus heading to the Cross not knowing what would come on the other side.
Ugh. I don't like this passage AT ALL. As stated before, I don't like tales of violence. I can't watch violent movies because I feel the pain of every gunshot, gutpunch, or even dogbite.
Why do we have tales of a violent God included in the Bible? This is something I intend to explore this week.
6 comments:
I am introducing your blog to the revgals meet and greet tomorrow...welcome!
Hi, Kelly, and welcome to RevGalBlogPals!
Welcome to RevGals. I look forward to reading your reflections.
Welcome to RG!
I, too, wonder about this. When the Gospel is read in my tradition, the Gospeller says, "The Gospel of the Lord" and the congregation replies: "Thanks be to God."
Sometimes I think that is a real dumb response...thanks for this horrible story we just heard!
welcome to the revgals - i can see that this will be a place i will visit often!
pax,
roberta
welcome to revgals!
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