Banqueting at the end-of-term dinner with the Durrell School of Corfu … we are all invited to the heavenly banquet, but are we ready to accept the invitation? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)Patrick Comerford
Next Sunday [11 October 2020] is the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity (Proper 23).
The readings in the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) for next Sunday are in two pairings: the Continuous Readings and the Paired Readings.
The Continuous Readings: Exodus 32: 1-14; Psalm 106: 1-6, 19-23; Philippians 4: 1-9; Matthew 22: 1-14.
There is a link to the paired readings HERE.
The Paired Readings: Isaiah 25: 1-9; Psalm 23; Philippians 4: 1-9; Matthew 22: 1-14.
There is a link to the continuous readings HERE.
In addition, 11 October is the Feast of Saint Philip the Deacon. The readings for that celebration are: Acts 8: 26-40 or Isaiah 40: 27 to 41: 1; Psalm 119: 105-112; Colossians 1: 9-13 or Acts 8: 26-40; Luke 10: 1-12.
Introducing the readings:
‘For many are called, but few are chosen.’
The Gospel reading begins with a very joyful occasion – generous invitations to a lavish banquet. But it quickly moves on to difficult images: slaves who are kidnapped, mistreated and killed; cities that are burned down; a man who is bound hand and feet and thrown into outer darkness.
Many of us come across people who try to separate the ‘God of the Old Testament’ and the ‘God of the New Testament.’ But there is a challenging corrective in these readings: if there is a danger of seeing God as portrayed in the Gospel as a capricious and vengeful god, then that image is corrected in the first reading, where Moses pleads with God on behalf of the people, and reminds God of his promises, to the point that ‘the Lord changed his mind.’
The images of the wedding banquet and the wedding covenant are important ways of describing our relationship with God. When the people turn against God in the wilderness, they take off their gold rings; when people turn their backs on God, it is like refusing the invitation to the banquet that celebrates the covenantal relationship.
But God’s invitation is to all, to ‘the many,’ to ‘everyone’ (Matthew 22: 9, 14), even those on the margins and outside our own limited boundaries. ‘Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near’ (Philippians 4: 5).
Exodus 32: 1-14:
The Old Testament reading from the Book Exodus is set after Moses has received the Ten Commandments from God on Mount Sinai.
Aaron and the Israelites have been waiting from Moses to come down from Mount Sinai. Moses has been up there 40 days and 40 nights and is late, or, as one translation puts it, ‘shamefully late.’
As the people wait, they grow impatient. In response to their impatience, Aaron takes gold from the people and makes a golden calf to represent God for the people. When God sees this, he is angry with the Israelites for worshipping a false god, and is filled with wrath.
After Solomon’s death in 930 BC, Israel split into two kingdoms. To stop people visiting Jerusalem in the south, Jeroboam, king of the northern kingdom, set up two golden calves, one at each of two alternative places of worship (see I Kings 12: 28-30). The writer is not only recording history, but is also teaching that Jerusalem is the only proper place for worship.
But, as we read this story we are uncomfortable not only with the worship of false gods, but with the wrath of God. Wrath is not an emotion we are comfortable with associating with God. Instead, we tend to think of God as loving, gracious, kind and so on.
What does the wrath of God mean?
How should we respond?
What is false worship? And what is appropriate worship?
Moses is not tempted by the offer to become the founder of a new “great nation”. Instead, he stands by Israel and pleads and argues with God.
Are there going to be times when what you think is a call from God becomes a temptation that you should resist?
When have you found yourself arguing with God?
Moses responds by standing before God and testifies to God’s power and might, reminding God of his faithfulness to the Israelites in bringing them out of Egypt. As Moses speaks, God changes his mind (see verse 14).
What other examples in the Bible can you recall when God changes his mind in response to prayer?
We often speak about God being unchangeable, yet in this passage we hear a story about God’s mind being changed in interaction with Moses.
What does it mean to you that God’s mind has been changed?
Is it possible that God can, at once, be both unchangeable but yet also changed?
Have you ever been impatient with God?
Have you ever had your mind changed as a result of praying?
Psalm 106: 1-6, 19-23:
These portions of Psalm 106 continue the themes in our Exodus reading.
In the first portion of this Psalm, we move from praise and thanksgiving to petition and confession, through the full range of human emotion and the complexities of our relationship with God, relying on God’s continuing faithfulness.
In the second portion, though, we move to a confessional tone.
What spiritual practices do you have that help you balance your prayer life?
Philippians 4: 1-9:
In this reading, we meet two leaders of the Church in Philippi, Euodia and Syntyche, women who have struggled alongside Paul in the work of the Gospel. Now they differ with each other in their understanding of the way of Christ. This causes disunity in the Church. But the Apostle Paul does not deal with them harshly, nor does he accuse them of divisiveness. Instead, he urges the members of the Church in Philippi to care for one another, to stay strong and faithful even when they face hardship, and to rejoice in the Lord always.
Apart from Paul, Euodia and Syntyche, there is a fourth, unnamed ‘loyal companion’ (verse 3), sometimes named Syzygus after the Greek description of him here. He is asked to be instrumental in achieving reconciliation. And there is a fifth person, Clement, who appears nowhere else in the Pauline texts.
The idea that God keeps a ‘book of life’ or a roll of the faithful to be opened at the end of time, is also found in Exodus 32: 32, Psalm 69: 28 and Luke10: 20.
At that time, many Christians were expecting the second coming, and thought it had been delayed. Like the freed slaves in the wilderness in the Old Testament reading, they think that the returning Christ, like Moses, is delayed, perhaps even shamefully late.
Are there divisions among them that are tantamount to idolatry?
Yet Saint Paul tells them: ‘The Lord is near’ (verse 5). The Philippians should seek unity in prayer and find peace in God.
Matthew 22: 1-14:
This parable, which is the third parable about the kingdom of heaven, is particularly difficult. It tells the story of a king hosting a wedding banquet for his son. The king has invited a long list of guests, but even after being repeatedly sought out, none of these guests comes to the banquet.
To refuse to come, to refuse a king’s command, is treason; to kill his slaves amounts to insurrection. So the king sends troops to put down the rebellion.
The king then sends his slaves into the streets to find enough people to sit at the tables at the wedding banquet. The phrase translated as ‘the main streets’ (διεξόδους τῶν ὁδῶν) in verse 9, means not the main fashionable, shopping streets in a chic part of a city centre, but refers to dirty, gritty, street corners and junctions, perhaps the main junctions outside the city gates, where those who wanted to be hired as labour, those who were refused entry, those who were on margins, could be found. Other translations catch this significance when they refer to the highways and the byways.
Notice how the invitation gathers in all people, ‘both good and bad’ (verse 10).
Yet, when the king sees that a man is not dressed appropriately for the event, the king throws him into the outer darkness.
If you were to imagine yourself as one of the characters in this parable, who would you be?
And would you behave that way?
Are you the king, throwing a lavish wedding banquet?
Are you a wedding guest who has denied the generosity of the king?
Are you one of the people brought in from the streets, but not prepared for the celebration about to take place?
Where do you find Good News in this parable?
Christ’s audience would naturally associate a festive meal with the celebration of God’s people at the end of time. The wedding feast is a recurring image in the Bible of the heavenly banquet and the coming kingdom.
A grave in Kerameikós, Athens, where Pericles delivered his funeral oration (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)The few and the many
What is meant by the many and the few here?
I have read that in Western thought many is a quantity much more than the majority, while few is many less than the majority. In Eastern thought, one less than 100% would be considered few.
We could put the Greek use of ‘few’ and ‘many’ by Christ in this parable in its cultural context. Pericles, in his ‘Funeral Oration’ in Athens, according to Thucydides in his History of the Peloponnesian War, uses ‘the many,’ οἱ πολλοί (hoi polloi), in a positive way when praising the Athenian democracy. He contrasts them with ‘the few’ (οἱ ὀλίγοι, hoi oligoi), who abuse power and create an oligarchy, rule by the few. He advocates equal justice for ‘the many’, ‘the all’, before the law, against the selfish interests of the few.
When we celebrate the Eucharist, we remember that Christ is the victim, and that he said his blood is shed ‘for you and for many’ … you being us, the Church, the few in this parable; but the many, οἱ πολλοί (hoi polloi), refers to the masses, the multitude, the great unwashed, who are called too.
Christ dies for the many, the lumpen masses, all people, and not just for the few, the oligarchs. The many are invited to this banquet this morning. And who are we to behave like a tyrannical despot and exclude them? For if we exclude them, we are in danger of excluding Christ himself.
Some questions:
This story has elements of harshness and tragedy, and some of the responses seem out of proportion to the crime.
The first guests are those who are hostile to Christ. The one who arrives without wearing wedding robes represents those who do not count the cost in becoming disciples. The judgment on anyone who does not prepare will be at least as severe as that on those who reject Christ. The final verse is the moral of the story – a generalisation of Christ’s intent in telling the parable: ‘For many are called, but few are chosen.’
Wedding garments were provided to all comers, so refusing to wear one was not a matter of pleading poverty – it was a deliberate and direct insult to the host.
Yet is the king in the parable a paragon of virtue or a model for how Christ behaves? Christ’s condemnation of violent retaliation is clear and consistent, not only in his teaching throughout his ministry but also in his example of becoming subject to death on a cross.
I have difficulties with the traditional, exclusive claims made in many interpretations of this parable, the standard storytelling of this parable. Is Christ proclaiming that God will retaliate violently when God’s messengers are attacked?
The wedding feast is a consistent image of the messianic banquet. How often do we try to shorten and edit the guest list for the party? The task of the slaves is to gather all – ‘both good and bad.’ If it is for anyone to decide who should be ejected, that call belongs to the king.
But there is another, alternative reading of this Gospel passage. The guests have been compelled to come to the banquet, not because they have something to celebrate, but because they are in fear of the tyrant.
In this telling, Christ is the only one who speaks out and who protested against the king’s tyranny, the tyranny of the kingdoms of this world, by refusing to wear the robe, and ended up being rejected, being ejected, and being crucified on behalf of the many, on behalf of all those who are marginalised, thrown out, expelled.
For many are called to the way of the Cross, but few are chosen.
On the other hand, we might think of the person was invited by the king, but who does not change. Many are invited to Christianity, come to the banquet, but do not change, thinking that God’s grace will cover it all.
As with Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s discussions of Cheap Grace and Costly Grace, we are invited to the banquet, but we must change.
Or you might see the guest who shows up without the wedding garment as being like someone coming to a party but refusing to party. How often am I like that person? Are you?
Matthew 22: 1-14 (NRSVA):
1 Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: 2 ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. 4 Again he sent other slaves, saying, “Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.” 5 But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his slaves, maltreated them, and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. 8 Then he said to his slaves, “The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9 Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.” 10 Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11 ‘But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, 12 and he said to him, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?” And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 14 For many are called, but few are chosen.’
An icon of Saint Philip the Deacon with the Ethiopian Eunuch, by Ann Chapin (2008)Some extra notes on Saint Philip the Deacon:
Saint Philip the Apostle is remembered alongside Saint James on 1 May. But who is Saint Philip the Deacon, who is celebrated on 11 October? And, are they one and the same person, or two different people?
For a Jewish family to call their son Philip in those days might have been risqué – if not scandalous. The Greek name Philip (Φίλιππος) means ‘one who loves horses.’ But it is not as simple as that. The name represents much more.
Philip of Macedon (d. 336 BC) was the father of Alexander the Great. A century later, Philip V (Φίλιππος Ε΄) of Macedon (221 to 179 BC) was an attractive and charismatic young man and a dashing and courageous warrior, and the inevitable comparisons with Alexander the Great gave him the nickname ‘beloved of all Greece’ (ἐρώμενος τῶν Ἑλλήνων).
Philip was also a common name in the Seleucid dynasty, which inherited the eastern portion of Alexander’s Empire. The Seleucid Empire, based in Babylon and then in Antioch, was a major centre of Hellenistic culture that maintained the dominance of Greek culture, customs and politics.
Antiochus IV Epiphanes imposed aggressive Hellenising and deeply anti-Jewish policies that provoked the Maccabean revolt in Judea. A century later, two of the last four Seleucid rulers, before their kingdom fell to the Romans, were Philip I and his son Philip II.
So the name Philip would be associated with a family that had been fully Hellenised and that was opposed to the Maccabees and the Hasmoneans.
At the time of Christ, we find the confusing figure of Herod I or Herod Philip I, the husband of Herodias and father of Salome; and Herod the Great’s son, Philip the Tetrarch or Herod Philip II, who married Salome and who gave his name to Caesarea Philippi (Καισαρεία Φιλίππεια), in the Golan Heights.
Philip the Apostle is very much a Hellenised Jew, perhaps from a non-practising Jewish family in Bethsaida, which was part of the territory of the Tetrarch Philip II. He may represent the very antithesis of Nathanael, the guileless Jews waiting for the expected Messiah
Yet Philip the Greek seeks out Nathanael the Jew (see John 1: 43-46), just as Andrew, with a Greek name, seeks out Simon, his brother with the Hebrew name (see John 1: 40-42). At the very beginning of Christ’s mission, the barriers between Hebrew and Greek, Jew and Gentile, are already broken down. And their calling, Andrew and Simon, Philip and Nathanael, shows how although we are called both individually and in community.
Did Philip join Jesus at the wedding in Cana (see John 2: 1-11)? Probably, although we cannot know with certainty.
Saint Philip figures most prominently in Saint John’s Gospel. Christ asks Philip about feeding the 5,000. Later, Philip is a link to Greek speakers when they approach Philip and say: ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’ Philip advises Andrew and together these two tell Jesus of this request (see John 12: 21-26). At the Last Supper, Philip’s question (John 14: 8) leads to the great Farwell Discourse (John 14: 9 – John 17: 26).
Is Philip the Apostle the same person as Philip the Deacon, who appears several times in the Acts of the Apostle?
Philip the Deacon was one of the seven deacons chosen to care for the poor of the community in Jerusalem (Acts 6: 1-6). Tradition says it is said he was one of the Seventy sent out in the Gospel reading (Luke 10: 1-12). But he is first named in Acts (see Acts 6: 5), where he is one of ‘the seven’ – including Stephen, the first martyr – who are chosen to wait on tables and to minister to the needs of the poor, marginalised, Greek-speaking widows in the Church in Jerusalem.
After Saint Stephen is martyred, and a large part of the Church is forced to flee Jerusalem, Saint Philip goes to ‘the city of Samaria’ (Acts 8: 5) – perhaps Sychar, the city of the Samaritan woman at the well, one of the greatest missionaries in the New Testament. There, his preaching and his healing bring ‘great joy.’ He baptises men and women, even converting the amazing Simon Magus, and has such an impact that the Church in Jerusalem sends Peter and John to join him (see Acts 8: 5-25).
In the wilderness, on the road between Jerusalem and Gaza, Philip meets the eunuch from the court of the Ethiopian queen, teaches him, and baptises him (Acts 8: 26-39). Greek culture gives Philip access to such an important and powerful courtier, and opens the way to a major missionary initiative, for under Jewish law a eunuch was excluded from the community of faith.
Philip is then ‘snatched away’ by the Spirit and ‘found himself at Azotus’ (Ashdod), then ‘passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea’ (Acts 8: 39-40).
Some years later, the Apostle Paul and his companions, on their way to Jerusalem, stay in Caearea Maritima for several days with Philip, who is described as ‘the evangelist’ (Acts 21: 8-10). This term is found again only twice in the New Testament: in Ephesians 4: 11, when Saint Paul is talking about the gifts given in ministry (apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers); and in II Timothy 4: 5, where he tells Timothy to ‘always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry full.’
At that time, Philip ‘had four unmarried daughters who had the gift of prophesy’ (Acts 21: 9), one of those gifts Saint Paul tells the church in Ephesus about (see Ephesians 2: 20, 3: 5, 4: 11). So, Philip’s ministry supports the ministry of the apostles, but is also passed on to a future generation. He is a figure of both innovation and of continuity.
Tradition says Saint Philip later lived in Tralles (Τραλλεῖς, present-day Aydin, near Ephesus and Smyrna) in Asia Minor, where he was a bishop. But, nevertheless, his ministry as a deacon became the foundation for all his other paths in ministry.
Saint Philip is at the heart of the missionary movement of the Church out from Jerusalem, both north and south, in other words all directions, extending the Church first to marginalised Greek-speaking Jewish widows, then to Samaritans, who were half-way between being Jews and Gentiles, and then to those proselytes who were kept at arm’s length from the community of faith, then to Gentiles, the nations throughout the Eastern Mediterranean.
‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus’ … a carving of Saint Philip on the pulpit in Saint Philip’s Church, Leicester (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)Liturgical Resources:
Liturgical Colour: Green (Ordinary Time, Year A); or Red (Saint Philip the Deacon)
The Collect of the Day (Trinity XVIII):
Almighty and everlasting God:
Increase in us your gift of faith
that, forsaking what lies behind,
we may run the way of your commandments
and win the crown of everlasting joy;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Collect of the Day (Saint Philip the Deacon):
Lord God,
your Spirit guided Philip the deacon
to show how ancient prophecies are fulfilled in Jesus Christ:
Open our minds to understand the Scriptures,
and deepen our faith in him;
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
The Collect of the Word (Trinity XVIII):
Saving and healing God,
you have promised
that those who have died with Christ shall live with him:
grant us grace to be continually thankful for all you have done for us,
and in that thankfulness to be eager to serve and live for others,
so that we and all your children may rejoice in your salvation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Post Communion Prayer (Trinity XVIII):
All praise and thanks, O Christ,
for this sacred banquet,
in which by faith we receive you,
the memory of your passion is renewed,
our lives are filled with grace,
and a pledge of future glory given,
to feast at that table where you reign
with all your saints for ever.
Post Communion Prayer (Saint Philip the Deacon):
We thank you, Lord, for calling and using
people with different gifts to build your kingdom.
May we, who are strengthened by this sacrament,
like Philip and his family rejoice to serve you
by the witness of our lives and homes;
though Jesus Christ our Lord.
Suggested Hymns:
Exodus 32: 1-14:
584: Jesus calls us! O’er the tumult
637: O for a closer walk with God
Psalm 106: 1-6, 19-23:
353: Give to our God immortal praise
30: Let us with a gladsome mind
634: Love divine, all loves excelling
45: Praise, O praise our God and King
20: The King of love my shepherd is
Philippians 4: 1-9:
349: Fill thou my life, O Lord my God
225: In the cross of Christ I glory
16: Like a mighty river flowing
636: May the mind of Christ my Saviour
505: Peace be to this congregation
507: Put peace into each other’s hands
539: Rejoice, O land, in God thy might
281: Rejoice, the Lord is King!
71: Saviour, again to thy dear name we raise
627: What a friend we have in Jesus
Matthew 22: 1-14:
406: Christians, lift your hearts and voices
408: Come, risen Lord, and deign to be our guest
418: Here, O my Lord, I see thee face to face
421: I come with joy, a child of God
587: Just as I am without one plea
433: My God, your table here is spread
445: Soul, array thyself with gladness
20: The King of love my shepherd is
448: The trumpets sound, the angels sing
529: Thy hand, O God, has guided
451: We come as guests invited
145: You servants of the Lord
Note: Bishop Edward Darling makes no suggestions in Sing to the Word (2000) for hymns for the readings for Saint Philip the Deacon.
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
The hymns suggestions are provided in Sing to the Word (2000), edited by Bishop Edward Darling. The hymn numbers refer to the Church of Ireland’s Church Hymnal (5th edition, Oxford: OUP, 2000)
Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.
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