Pentecost +20 Sunday – A

Pentecost +20 Sunday – A

Years A
Exodus 32:1-14 or Isaiah 25:1-9
Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23 or Psalm 23
Philippians 4:1-9
Matthew 22:1-14

Moses is delayed on the mountain: Worry. Take things into your own hands and build an alternative worship experience. Dance around a golden calf, which is what hoarded resources are good for.

Wedding guests have refused their invitations and killed the messengers: Recompense. Take things into your own hands and kill the killers. Invite any left to the wedding. A seemingly generous act finds the violence of recompense still active when someone doesn't live up to a dress code. With a finer and finer sieve are folks caught, until none will be able to stand. Many are called, but few are chosen. Few are chosen, and even these will eventually be speechless.

It is difficult to let our gentleness be shown in a wilderness setting or an example of heavenly blessing. We refuse to take the time to remember goodness and mercy all the days of our life.

= = = = = = =

glory is exchanged for grass
every day
that which is before us
is never as delightful
as that which is not
grass is greener elsewhere

grass is exchanged for grass
grass for grace
promises of G*D with us
in Moses' return
in a heavenly banquet
fall on empty ears

we hallucinate grass
until gold becomes an oasis
busy-ness an edge for advancement
getting hungrier and hungrier
settling for empty calories
unsettling the ox within us each