Tag: Proper 23A (RCL)

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost; 11 October 2020; Proper 23A (RCL); Exodus 32:1-14; Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23; Philippians 4:1-9; Matthew 22:1-14.

Leave it to Matthew to ruin a perfectly good parable. Luke also has a version of this parable (which means it was found originally in Q – not the same as anon). In Luke’s version, all of the invited guests beg off, so the host told his servants to go out into the streets and lanes and invite anyone they found, so that the feast would not go to waste. And the story ends there.

Continue reading “Treasure the true”

15 October 2017
Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 23A (RCL)
Exodus 32:1-14
Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23
Philippians 4:1-9
Matthew 22:1-14

For all his effort to find a way for Gentiles to live by the spirit of the law as they join the Christian community, and his assurance that the spirit of the law will stand unaltered, Matthew has a harsh attitude toward his fellow religionists, the Jews. This parable, read as an allegory, clearly suggests that the destruction of Jerusalem was due to the failure of the Jews (those first invited, a word very similar in Greek to “chosen” or “elect”) to come to the wedding feast of the Son. In line with the parable of the vineyard, we might call this Matthew’s sour grapes. Continue reading “What place vengeance?”