"Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet." Matthew 22:9
We are continuing our stewardship theme this month. This parable pushes the question further. It is not just what we give, but how freely we share what's already been given to us.
A king prepares a lavish wedding banquet for his son. Nothing is held back, everything ready. But those first invited are too busy with their own farms and business to come. So the king sends his servants out into the streets to gather anyone they can find, good and bad alike, until the hall is full.
There's something striking here about abundance. The king doesn't scale back the feast when the guests fail to come, he simply widens the invitation. The banquet was never in short supply; only the willingness to receive it.
In Ventura, October is harvest season. Citrus groves throughout our county are heavy with fruit. Organizations like Food Share, the county's largest hunger-relief organization, work with thousands of volunteers to distribute over 21 million pounds of food each year to neighbors facing food insecurity. It's a fitting local echo of this parable. A table is meant to be full, and an invitation that goes out wider than we'd think to send it ourselves.
So this week, stewardship doesn't have to stay abstract. It might look like a shift sorting produce, a bag of groceries dropped at a local pantry, or simply noticing who around you has been left off the guest list and then widening the circle to include them.
Who is God inviting you to welcome to the table this week? If this isn't the week your feet can hit the ground, that's alright, make a commitment now to do it sometime in the next six weeks, and let this be the moment you set it in motion.
Peace to you in the process, Pastor Erin
