Maureen O’Brien reflects on what she felt the Lord showed her about the Parable of the Wedding Banquet in Matthew 22

I sat on my bed and read this scripture and reflected on what it was saying. The King came in to see his guests. He noticed one not wearing wedding clothes. “Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?” The man was speechless. (struck dumb) Then the king told the attendants, “Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

I found myself saying, “Jesus, I must have one huge blockage in me! You see I know the mercy of God. I know his mercy in my life. I find this so hard that He would order the attendants to tie the man hand and foot and throw him outside.” I lay down to sleep and I heard Jesus say to me, “Everyone has the choice, they can either accept me or reject me.” I thought on these words and answered “Oh I see Lord; the greatest gift that God has given us “Free Will” can be our biggest detriment. “Jesus, how was He different? He must have thought He was the same as He sat with the others.”

I was concerned that what I had written about this was the truth, I had always thought “Was the man in darkness, when the others were in light? Or “Was he in sin?” I said, “Jesus you know what I have written and it is so important that I write the truth. Is this right?” Jesus answered “He was in filthy rags” There was a pause, and then Jesus said, “Will you preach on this?” “Yes Lord! Yes” Send me! Then Jesus added “Preach to the converted!”

The following morning, “He was in filthy rags” was still with me. I looked in my Bible and read Isaiah 64:6 “All of us have become like one that is unclean, all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.” I wonder why the Lord would say, “Will you preach on this?” then add. “Preach to the converted.” We know that when we accept Jesus as Lord we exchange our filthy rags for His Robe of Righteousness. A total free gift! Is this what the Lord wants all to know?

Peggy from Wales tells us how a word from John’s gospel became very important during an ecumenical retreat some years ago.

God… children born, not of natural descent, nor of human decision, or of a husband’s will, but born of God.
(John 1:12-13) (NIV)

Eleven years ago we had a guided prayer retreat for a fortnight at our parish. It involved an ecumenical prayer team. Individual team members met with a parishioner every 3 days for a 15-20 minutes Lectio Divina prayer session who then gave that parishioner a Scripture piece to meditate on until the next session. I prayed to have a female team member but was given John, a lovely gentle elderly Church of Wales member. On the last but one session when he asked me “how did it

go?” meaning the “prayer homework” he had given me the previous meeting, I had to tell him that the piece he had given me, which was Isaiah’s “I have carved you on my hand… I will not forget you.” had upset me greatly and I didn’t understand why as I had always loved that piece. He said immediately to leave that piece alone for the time being and he gave me this:- “yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of

When I prayed over this at home the words jumped out of the page into my heart and I soaked up the Gospel of John, counting all the promises that Jesus made about Himself and about His Father. This was the ?rst time that I had actually felt the love that the Father had for me individually as His child. (Thanks be to the Spirit of God for using that gentle man to be an instrument of His Word for my healing – and thanks be to God for ecumenism.)

Bruce McKenzie reflects on the challenge in the Scriptures and the words of inspiration he finds in them.

Our Christian life is a journey, a spiritual exploration in which we see ourselves as we really are – one moment inspired by God feeling compelled to take on any challenge, and the next turning our backs on God and letting our own sel?shness have its way. Should we despair? Certainly not. God doesn’t expect us to be perfect. He would be out of a job if we were. His love is always there to redeem us when we get it wrong and gradually we know once again that He is looking after us and keeping us on track.

There are many words of Jesus that inspire me. “The Parable of the Talents” which reminds us that to whom much is given much is expected. And on judging others “Let he who is perfect cast the ?rst stone.” Then there’s “the Story of the Prodigal son” which shows how the love of the father for his unworthy son transcends all the conventional bitterness normally felt by one who is betrayed. Jesus’ thinking is so far ahead of ours. When He tells us to love our neighbour we can accept that, but who would have expected him to ask us to love our enemies? And yet if we could, what peace there would be in the world.

So all we need to do is carry out what Jesus taught us. Use our God given talents, don’t judge our neighbours, and love one another. But what do we do when we meet a beggar in the street? Do we use our talents to speak to him and try to understand him? Or do we judge him to be an alcoholic or drug addict? If so we can certainly justify not giving him our money – he would waste it on drugs. So we walk past him and get on with our own little lives. But what would Jesus want us to do? Talk to the man? Show compassion? Love one of our fellow beings?