Description
This week’s readings are full of people responding to God in very different ways. Some are anxious and impatient and reach for something they can control. Some receive an unexpected invitation and some refuse it. Others discover joy in difficult circumstances. Running through them is the possibility that in turning towards God and receiving what God offers, we can then becoming people through whom welcome, hope and joy are shared with others.
In Exodus 32:1–14, the people of Israel are waiting at Mount Sinai. Moses has been gone for a long time, and they do not know what is happening. Their response to uncertainty is deeply human! They reach for something tangible, something they can see and perhaps control, and create the golden calf. The Foil Calf activity invites us to ask what we reach for when we are anxious, impatient or uncertain: security, success, money, busyness, technology, reputation, control, or something else.
Yet the story does not end with human failure. Moses intercedes for the people, boldly appealing to God’s covenant promises, and (incredibly) God changes God’s mind. The relationship between God and God’s people is not abandoned. There remains the possibility of reconciliation and of turning again towards God, because that is what God chooses for God and for us. The activity embodies this movement as participants first shape their foil into something representing what they reach for, then crush or flatten it as an act of letting go.
Matthew 22:1–14 gives us another difficult story, this time using the image of a wedding feast. We continue in our confrontation with the religious leaders. This story is also told in Luke’s gospel, but Matthew’s is more difficult, including violence and the troubling final scene of the guest without a wedding robe. An intergenerational engagement might soften some of these details and also need not attempt to resolve every difficult detail. The Invitation activity instead draws attention to one striking movement within the parable: a feast has been prepared, invitations go out, some refuse them, and eventually the invitation reaches people who were not expecting to receive one.
The congregation experiences this physically as invitations move around the worship space, opening questions about what it feels like to be invited and what it might mean that unexpected people find themselves included.
But receiving an invitation also raises a question for the Church: who are we making room for? The Table Has Room activity seeks to turn Jesus’ image outwards. Churches can describe themselves as welcoming while still maintaining many visible and invisible barriers to belonging. Through stations built around an empty chair, an invitation, bread and fruit, and an open door, the congregation prays for people who are lonely, excluded or in need, and for the Church itself to become more attentive to who is missing.
Finally, Philippians 4:1–9 offers another way of imagining a life turned towards God. Paul writers to the Philippians to “rejoice in the Lord always” – quite incredible considering he writes to them from prison or some kind of confinement. This is not shallow optimism or a denial of difficult circumstances. It is a joy grounded in Christ rather than dependent upon the state of current circumstances. Chalking the Joy then takes that joy beyond the gathered congregation, as people leave messages of love, peace and hope for strangers who may encounter them later.
Across these readings there is an invited movement from anxiety towards trust, from invitation towards welcome, and from receiving towards sharing. When we are uncertain, what will we reach for? When God makes room for us, will we be ready to receive God’s invitation? And if we know ourselves welcomed, reconciled and held by God, how might our lives and churches make that welcome visible to others?
The four activities invite the congregation to let go of what falsely promises security; experience the surprise of being invited; notice who is still missing from the table; and carry the joy and hope we receive beyond the walls of the church.
What might change when we turn towards God — and make room for others to share in what we have received?
