I found my invitation to the Royal Wedding on Google:)

If this were the last week of your life, how would you spend it? This question always comes to mind as I read in awe the events of the last week of Jesus’ life. Part of it he spent answering malicious questions from people wanting to kill him. Not only did he answer them, he did so with complete and utter perfection, and mostly he used stories to make his point — which was, to sum it up shortly, “God is God, and you are not.”

Prince William of England is marrying Catherine Middleton on April 29, 2011. If you were invited to this royal wedding, would you turn down the invitation? In Matthew 22, Jesus tells the story of the Wedding Banquet, which is utterly befuddling without some understanding of Middle Eastern weddings. Eugene Peterson explains that when a marriage is announced, people stop what they’re doing and go. It would be unfathomable not to go, which is what makes this story so attention-grabbing to its original hearers. NO ONE would NOT go to the wedding feast.

Read this amazing story in Matthew 22:1-14.

Here is the question Peterson asks us to consider about how we respond to God’s invitation:

“We make the judgment on ourselves. God has invited us to come to him and has prepared a feast for us to share. And we take it lightly. We make excuses. Or we’re so far out of touch with reality that we actually scoff at or even destroy the messengers who deliver the invitation. God is the reality with whom we have to deal. Life is the banquet he has prepared. How many of our actions are a refusal to come to him and a rejection of his presence with us?” Eugene Peterson, Conversations

Lord, you invite me to come to you, to quit trying to carry my own burden of sin, to lay it all at your feet as a filthy offering that you have transformed into righteousness through the blood of Jesus Christ, your only son. But the good news is even more amazing…you have invited me to party with you over this ridiculously good news! I’ll admit, Lord, in my worldly way of thinking, this story makes no sense to me. You are an AWE-SUM God, the sum of awe. Forgive me for my waywardness, and keep me close to you, celebrating the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ! In the name of your ever-astonishing son, Jesus Christ, Amen!