Tag: welcome

Wedding

Then he said to his servants, ‘The feast is ready,
but those who were invited were not worthy to come.
Go out, therefore, into the main roads
and invite to the feast whomever you find.’
The servants went out into the streets
and gathered all they found, bad and good alike,
and the hall was filled with guests.

Matthew 22:1-10
The king has called his servants,
sent missives out:
The world shall cease its turning,
the stars burn out.

This shall be how the world ends:
not with a bang—
ah, no, but with a wedding
for Christ our king!

And look, the invitation:
It has your name.
Cast off your hesitation;
prepare the way!

Go not about your business:
There is no time!
The groom is all impatience
to drink new wine.

Put on your snow-white garment,
your wedding gown;
the firstfruits of the harvest,
your bridal crown.

Get up!  Come to the wedding!
Come to the feast!
Christ has made all things ready:
Sit down and eat.

Parable of the Great Banquet by Brunswick Monogrammist (circa 1525), location: National Museum, Warsaw By Brunswick Monogrammist – cyfrowe.mnw.art.pl, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23207722

Come, Sojourners and Strangers

Mashing up Ephesians 2, Psalm 87, and a few other things:

Come, sojourners and strangers
who pass through Zion's gate,
and sit down at the table:
Our welcome here awaits.

For Christ has torn the heavens
to sink into our deaths;
he gives himself, unleavened,
to us as broken bread.

Sit down to all he gives you,
for he prepared this feast.
Sit down to him, he bids you,
and let him wash your feet.

Then, baptized in his dying,
we rise into his life
and he, the grace supplying,
takes us to be his bride.

And we who had been outcasts
are honored at this feast.
Christ lays himself in our hands
and tells us, Take and eat.

We are exiles no longer
but citizens in him
who makes our shelter stronger
and comes to dwell within.

Marriage at Cana, 1561, By Jacopo Tintoretto – Web Gallery of Art:   Image  Info about artwork, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15542127