Today I availed myself of the Government's 'Eat Out to Help Out' scheme. Walking around a sparsely populated city block I say a mainly empty cafe and took up the offer of the half priced lunch. I would have eaten anyway, which seems to me to point up the ludicrous nature of the scheme - but if you're a tax payer - thanks!! It was nice.
My table had a QR code. This was how I was to register for the NHS Test and Trace scheme. As a diligent enforcer in our church, I felt i ought to co-operate, even though it was hardly prominent. But I'm not great with QR codes, so after a few complications on my phone I gave up and enjoyed my sandwiches anyway. As far as I could tell I was the only person in the Cafe even trying to use the code.
That's how we like it. An important regulation - qualification - that we can choose to ignore. In the end, it's my decision.
Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son . . .
“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
“But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.
“Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
“For many are invited, but few are chosen.”
My hunch is that, in the minds of very many people Jesus, the Gospel, salvation, being born again, believing all figure like the Kingdom of Heaven's QR Code. Maybe we should attend to him/them but in the end, let's wing it - 'after all my great grandad went to Church' (actually mine didn't as far as I know).
The question arises whether God's judgment and final entry into Heaven's Kingdom will operate with the laxity of the cafe I visited - or indeed the Government's own enforcement. If so, a great deal of sin is going to be part of that kingdom and eternity looks very uninviting for us all. But as Jesus' parable points out, God's Kingdom will ultimately require the right clothes - it is a Wedding Banquet, not a Cafe. Being dressed right is the only way in, and the only way to be dressed right is to put on the new clothes the King has provided, Jesus, the Gospel, salvation, being born again, believing.
