G. Archer Frierson
Austin Seminary Board of Trustees
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Advent Devotional for December 6
• Matthew 22:1-14
The parable of the wedding feast is joyously beautiful. It is also terrifying. It tells of a King with boundless love: a King who welcomes everyone, good and bad, to the table. It also tells of a King who condemns: a King who throws the unprepared guest into darkness. How shall we read the parable this Advent season? God is coming. Shall we rejoice in the coming of this God of grace or shall we fear the coming of this God of judgment?
Perhaps the purpose of the parable is not to tell us what we ought to feel, but to awaken us to how we do, in fact, feel. When you read of the wedding feast, what seizes you? Do you rejoice in the vision of radical hospitality? Do you balk at the welcoming of the “bad”? Do you worry about your own invitation status? Do you fret at the impossibility of preparing for an unexpectedly large crowd? Do you long for the redemption of the man thrown out? Perhaps our responses offer us clues as to whether or not we have donned our wedding clothes. Which responses pull us into relationship with the King, and which leave us trapped in our own doubts, biases, and expectations?
For the passage certainly does not bend to our expectations. Nor does it conform easily to our agendas. We cannot explain why a more exclusive group of invitees precedes the radical openness of the second invitation. We cannot explain why the ruler welcomes the bad, only to then punish the one in the wrong clothes. Perhaps the warning of the passage is on some level this: if we demand that God’s arrival look exactly as we think it should, we shall surely miss it.
So may we remember this year that Christmas is shocking. And as we are warmed by the familiar glow of stars, shepherds, angels, and the little baby in the manger, may we reawaken to their strangeness. And may we expectantly await not the god of our expectations, but God ... who is sure to exceed or subvert them all.
Ms. Jean Corbitt
Senior student from Conway, Arkansas
For the glory of God and to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary is a seminary in the Presbyterian-Reformed tradition whose mission is to educate and equip individuals for the ordained Christian ministry and other forms of Christian service and leadership; to employ its resources in the service of the church; to promote and engage in critical theological thought and research; and to be a winsome and exemplary community of God's people.We hope that you are preparing the way for the Lord in your life as you read these meditations and prayers. And, we hope this Advent season is a meaningful one for you. Please know that Austin Seminary’s dedicated, diverse, and loving community of faith is not complete without you. Did you know?
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