We have had the pleasant privilege of officiating at a few wonderful marriages this summer, and each one is special and unique. One of the biggest issues the couple deals with in the marriage planning appears to have almost nothing to do with the celebration. It involves who to invite! Have you ever turned down an invite to attend someone's marriage? It feels like a straightforward decision however it can have an incredible spiritual impact!
In Matthew 22:2-14, that is precisely what happened. First, let us share an “updated” version! It all starts with, “The dominion of heaven is like :
A CEO Facebooked, Tweeted, and e-mailed wedding invitations for his boy, then sent his staff to re-invite those he had approached on the web. That seems a little redundant, but that is what he did. Regardless of the personally delivered 2nd invitation, the guests declined to come.
So the Boss invited the guests a 3rd time. He instructed the staff to tell the possible guests that Emeril Agassi was preparing the meal and that it'd be wonderful.
He reminded the guests that he had 2 big-screen TVs, Wii games they could play, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, 3 saunas, four hot tubs, lots of hor d overs, and enough drinks for everybody.
But the prospective guests still ignored the invitation.
Some of the guests said they were too tied up. They'd other things worth doing. Others were so irritated at the invite that they went postal and killed the CEO’s staff. So the CEO employed the Russian mafia and had all of the guests executed who were responsible for killing his staff.
The CEO told his remaining staff to email, Tweet, Skype, and Facebook as many folks as they could and ask them to his son’s wedding. It didn’t matter who the people were. He just wanted folks in seats at the wedding.
But when the CEO came in to see the guests, he spotted one of the guests wasn't wearing the right black tie attire. So he approached the man and questioned why he was not correctly dressed. The man was both shocked and speechless. Without further ado the CEO had the man handcuffed and thrown out of the banquet hall.
For many are invited, but few are selected.
Wow! That'd be a marriage to recollect! The thing is, this story, like many Bible stories, is not meant to be taken literally. Whenever a Biblical account seems unusual or convoluted, you can bet your lottery ticket it is a signal to have a look for its deeper religious truth.
Look at how this story begins: “The kingdom of heaven is like” and then the following 13 verses are crammed with impoliteness, violence, and murder. That is not the type of heaven we envision. How ’bout you? Look, we've all been brought up in traditional non secular practices. We're all refugees from inserted theology. That's why we're drawn to this search for deeper Truth. We know there is more to the Bible than the Bible we grew up with.
Killing your guests because they refused to come to your wedding. Please! And that's what the kingdom of heaven is like? We don't think so! In its literal version, this story is selling fear, self-righteous murder, and violence. In its literal version it reads like a breaking reports segment on CNN.
Here’s another, more sane view, from a Spiritual viewpoint. This unearthly picture should clear this story up wonderfully :
- The dominion of heaven represents the process of becoming one with the Christ Presence within us.
- The Manager or king, as the scripture reads, is God, the Unending One, Divine Mind, the First Cause, or whatever name you use to describe the One Reality that's All That Is.
- The wedding invite is the call to marry our human self with our Christ Self (the 2 shall be one – human self and divine self).
- The marriage party is the Unlimited, Omnipresent Substance which is readily available to us each-consecutive-moment-of-now.
- The servants(staff) are spiritual thoughts, concepts, and divine inclinations.
- The slaughtering and murder represent our neglect, refusal, disinterest in, and failure to apply truth elements.
- Inviting anybody and everybody designates our eagerness and openness to modify old habits and belief systems.
- The person improperly dressed represents our try to understand. Non secular truths with a material consciousness.
- Binding the man’s feet and hands and tossing him into the darkness implies that we can't do the work we have come here to do as long as we remain in the dark about our true nature.
In a nutshell, this story has this to say to us:
Becoming conscious of our built-in divinity is like this: The first thing we have to get is that the allness of God is in the eachness of us. We must notice that we have total and complete access to phenomenal abundance, unless we choose to reject our inbred divinity and neglect to apply truth elements.
When we fail to apply Truth guidelines, we cuff our spiritual growth and remain ignorant of our amazing Christ potential. We remain in the dark.
But if we agree the divine invite to be the best Christ we will be able to be, we are going to be ready to have anything we want on the party table – things like health, inner strength, happiness, compassion, inner peace, unconditional love, self-esteem, wisdom, joy, unlimited prosperity.
Every one of those “delicious dishes” can be yours. But you’ve got to show up at the marriage. You need to accept the divine invitation. You've got to enter the party hall prepared to accept your good.
In her book Dare to Believe, May Rowland, Director of Silent Unity for over 55 years said: “I recollected from the thoughts of Charles Fillmore that Jesus Christ made a rent in the materialistic consciousness and showed us the way back to God, thus shortening the evolutionary period of our spiritual development by millions of years.”
You, too , can rent the veil of materialism and take your place at the feast table of peace, abundance, and prosperity.
Think what a world we could create, imagine what your life might be, if each one of us married our human self with our Christ Self, our True Self!
We could live happily for ever. Why don't you begin right now?
The Authors: Blend a flair for the dramatic, a deep understanding of metaphysics mixed with the thoughts of Jesus, together with a zest for ministry, and you have described Revs. Bil & Cher Holton, the dynamic couple that serve as co-ministers for Unity Non secular Life Center, Durham, NC. Where they teach simple techniques to enhance spiritual awakening and spiritual enlightenment
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