The Call.7

Then the King turned to his servant. "The wedding is ready,” he said, “but those who were invited were not worthy to attend. Go then, to those whom you meet on street corners and highways, and invite them in to the wedding."

The servants did as the king commanded them. They went to the street corners of the city, and out along the highways, and invited everyone they encountered, both the good and the bad, until the wedding hall was filled with guests.

That evening, the king was greatly displeased to see one at the table eating without the wedding garment that had been provided. 

He asked: "How is it that you came in to the feast without your wedding garment?" 

But the man could give no excuse.

Then the king said to his servants: "Bind this man and have him removed."

---Jesus

I asked the wedding congregation to pull a dollar bill out of their pockets and hold them in the air.  "In the last twenty years has this dollar increased or decreased in value?"  Chuckles filled the air as the majority agreed that it has significantly decreased.  One man flatly stated "It's worth about 20 cents!"

Then I asked "In the last twenty years, has the value of marriage increased or decreased in our society?"  Sighing instead of chuckling, the folks realized my point.

Devalued to the point that anyone feels emboldened to call any living arrangement marriage, no matter how historically incompatible with nature's law and nature's God.

The King's call was an invitation to restoration of the Kingdom values embodied in the Son of his Love.  It is the King's prerogative to call his subjects to account for how closely they live out those values or how far they've strayed.  The preparation of the calves is a reminder that the people will be called to remember the terms of the covenant of the Kingdom.   And in remembering, renew their commitment to live them out...voluntarily, from the heart.

The truth of the matter is that we will live by some code of conduct.  In ancient days, as  Toqueville points out, king's were the sole source of power and authority.  And yet, even if they were ruthlessly evil they were limited in their ability to monitor the day to day activities of the people.

"Although the entire government of the empire was concentrated in the hands of the emperor alone, and although he remained, in time of need, the sole arbiter of all things, the details of social and of individual existence ordinarily escaped his attention altogether."  

Today, however, with technological advances, the ruling class has the ability to "subject the state's subjects to a uniform set of regulations."  Obamacare alone has over 700 references to the regulatory power of the Secretary of Health & Human Services. By fiat, for example, Kathleen Sebelius mandated the Catholic church provide contraceptives to its employees.  In today's America, even children are being forced to obtain permits to run a lemonade stand!

These "uniform set of regulations" are, in deed, our "uniforms" with which we are to clothe ourselves to pay homage to our ruling elite!

In Jesus' parable of the banquet, He reminds us that we will be clothed: 

• in the rags of our own self-will
• in the "uniforms" of a ruling class
• or in the "robes of righteousness" the King offers to all who voluntarily give Him their hearts.

Choose wisely...

(references to Toqueville and Obamacare from Mark Steyn's book, After America)