Hi, this is Chris Hubs.

I don’t know why you’re listening to this, but since you are, let’s talk about grace.

This weekend, I’m going to be giving the meditation at our Sunday evening church service.

Our local Episcopal church does a Sunday night Celtic-themed service, which is nice, kind of quiet, candlelight, meditative music, and instead of a traditional sermon from the priest, there’s the opportunity for various members of the congregation or others to come in and give a short, say five to ten minute meditation on the gospel text.

I really enjoy doing this.

This is a nice sweet spot for me for being able to take a scripture text, think through it, write some short thoughts, and then get to share them in a public setting.

The attendance isn’t usually real large.

We might have 20 people there, but I enjoy the opportunity to get to do it.

So I’m on for this Sunday.

The gospel text is maybe a more challenging one.

It’s one of the later parables from the Gospel of Matthew, where Jesus talks about the kingdom of heaven being like a king putting on a wedding feast, which is an interesting one.

It’s a challenge because there is a smack not only of a feast and the excitement, but also this theme of judgment as people reject the king’s invitation, and then Jesus says they get judged for it.

One of my favorite interpreters to look to when it comes to the parables is American theologian Robert Capon.

He was an Episcopal priest 50, 75 years ago, also notably a New York Times food critic at some point.

So quite a character, but really appreciate his readings of the parables, his thoughts on them, and more generally his thoughts about grace.

And that’s where I think I’m going to go with this parable meditation this weekend.

Spoiler alert for, like, the one person who may listen to this and actually also be at that service.

But my key takeaway as I think about this in conjunction with the other parables and Jesus’ other teachings about the kingdom of heaven is that the big thing here is that the king offers this invitation to literally everyone, not just the A-list, not just the people who quote-unquote deserve it, but to everyone.

And to those who come in who may not be prepared, who may not have the right clothes, who may not have the right, might not be the nicest and the cleanest and the most popular, the offer still comes to them.

And everyone is invited to this feast and this banquet.

And that, I think, is a beautiful picture of grace.

The only people, in my reading of this, who get judged are the ones who reject the offer, the ones who refuse to engage with the king.

And I’m still not sure how I think about all of those judgment pieces, but I’m encouraged by the idea that for anyone who is willing to just hear the invitation and come, the king generously provided everything.

And if there’s a picture of the kingdom of heaven that I get behind, that I embrace, that resonates with me, that I think represents the heart of God as we read it through the scripture.

It’s that theme of complete, lavish, unmerited grace and love from the King.

So that’s what I’m going to talk about on Sunday, and I hope it’s encouraging to the people that hear it.

We’ll talk later.