19 Pentecost Year A/October 11, 2020

Isaiah 25:1-9, Psalm 23, Matthew 22:1-14

An invitation to Joy!

It is a joy to be back together with all of you for this week’s service…

I don’t know about you, but my experience of days, and weeks, and months passing by, has morphed into its own new way of keeping track of time…Yes...I have a calendar, to keep track of the passing of days and weeks, and a cell phone and others means of knowing what time it is…to make sure I show up for my appointments, meetings, church, etc… and to make sure I remember to acknowledge and celebrate people’s birthdays and anniversaries and other special occasions…but even with all of those at my disposal…my lived experience of how the passing of time is being measured in these past several months…is not usually in sync with my calendars and time-keeping devices…

Even though, it’s been only one Sunday since I last worshipped with you…it feels like sooo long ago…and it feels like so much has happened in such a short amount of time…

I know I’ve mentioned this time observation before…but, as we continue to live in this time of the pandemic, and in a season of our lives, when there is so much division, and so many uncertainties and questions and calamities that arise every day….time and what we are doing with the gift of each day…has been on my mind and my heart, a lot this week…

Since I last gathered for the Sunday service with you, I’ve been attending the diocesan convention online…we gathered on zoom, last Saturday…and had committee meetings during the week, and we gathered again this past Saturday for our second and final day of this year’s convention…

And during that short span of time, everything in between, from the emails I received and sent, to the phone conversations, to the news, to the webinars I attended, to my walks around town….all raised some questions for me about who and what we are paying attention to these days…

Are we getting dragged into only the terrible news, are we joining voices to repeat and spread news that divides us even more, are we giving in to despair, are we just going through the motions of every day…just hoping to get through one more day…just hoping that all this bad stuff would somehow magically, all come to an end…no more violence, no more pandemic, no more political unrest…no more hatred and fear… and forgetting…forgetting that there is a whole other lot of things happening in our lives, in the passing of days, that are worth paying attention to, and celebrating, and honoring, and praising….There are a whole lot of invitations to joy…that we keep passing up…

In today’s gospel reading…we are reminded of that… There was an invitation extended several times to come to the wedding banquet…come celebrate this feast, come celebrate all that I have prepared for you…and for your enjoyment…come celebrate with me and with others…come and celebrate our time together…Come…this is where you will find joy!

Jesus spent his lifetime…extending invitations to follow him, in a way of life…that would lead to a discovery of what it truly means to live into the fullness, of God’s dream for his beloved children, a life where all would be free to experience the fullness of God’s love, God’s peace, and God’s joy through us and in us…in this life and in the life to come…

But, as we saw in today’s parable, and in many of the other gospels, the people have other wants and desires, other individual priorities, other better ideas about what to do with their time…they want to follow Jesus…but on their own terms…they want to follow Jesus…but don’t necessarily want to make all the sacrifices of their own desires and interests for the well-being and joy of the other…they become tired and overwhelmed by worry and thinking things are just too hard…

They pass up a lot of invitations to joy...because they fail to notice the other…and their needs…because they fail to go to the people and the places that are asked of them, that Jesus keeps pointing out to them…to look here…pay attention to this…this is where you will find joy…this is where you will find hope and healing and reconciliation with one another…

We too, pass up a lot of invitations to joy….because we get caught up in thinking about our own needs and don’t always have the energy and time to think about others and their needs…Especially now, in this time of the pandemic and social unrest, we are needing to focus on our own well-being and mental health…Jesus doesn’t tell us to stop doing that…He invites us to think about another way, that supports us with our own needs, while at the same time, we are also focusing on the well-being and care of one another…

One of Jesus’ most important teachings reminds us that it is in that time of giving and caring about others, that we receive what we most need…that we receive signs of hope and joy through someone else…it is in that time of looking not to our own interest, but to the interest of others…that we find and experience the joy that Jesus is always inviting us to come and see…and experience….the joy that comes into our own lives, when we focus on caring about the lives of one another…

The convention theme this year was United in Christ, in the Interest of others, and was based on a passage from Paul’s letter to the Philippians…vs 4…. “Let each of you look not to your own interest, but to the interest of others…”

I was on the Bishop’s address committee….and in our report to the convention…we put together a list of 20 ways to be United in Christ, in the Interest of others…a list of some simple things that we can all do, to invite others to pay attention to the joy that is present in our lives today…by paying attention to the people in our lives…the people in our communities… it’s a list of some small things that all of us can do…in extending an invitation to joy… and receiving joy, at the same time… a win, win…for all of us…and it’s a perfect way to mark the passage of time together, in a loving way, and in a caring way, in a way that makes sure that none of us, passes up another invitation to a moment of joy…

***Share the visual of 20 ways***

(Illustrations drawn by Pastor Kaitlin Pao-Eulberg, words by the Bishops Address Committee)

IN closing today, I’ll add another one to this list - #21 – Hold the Blessing of the Pets on the front lawn of the Sitka Pioneers’ Home….

*Share photos of Pet blessing service, and play the hymn:

“The Creatures We Love”

Permission is given for free use of this hymn.

Rev Julie Platson

St Peter’s by the Sea Episcopal Church

Sitka, Alaska