Ash Wednesday Week | Tell Me Something Good

Wednesday

How does it feel to be personally invited to an event or a gathering?

Devotional 1

Thursday

When was the last time you extended an invitation? Could you extend an invitation to someone this week?

Devotional 2

Friday

What is God inviting you to experience, focus on, or let go of this Lenten season?

Devotional 3

Saturday

Do you believe invitation is a spiritual practice?

Devotional 4

Go deeper into All are invited

Art and poetry inspired by and "God will never stop inviting me."

Scripture

Luke 14:15-24

Parable of the wedding banquet

After Jesus had finished speaking, one of the guests said, “The greatest blessing of all is to be at the banquet in God's kingdom!” Jesus told him: A man once gave a great banquet and invited a lot of guests. When the banquet was ready, he sent a servant to tell the guests, “Everything is ready! Please come.” One guest after another started making excuses. The first one said, “I bought some land, and I've got to look it over. Please excuse me.” Another guest said, “I bought five teams of oxen, and I need to try them out. Please excuse me.” Still another guest said, “I've just now married, and I can't be there.” The servant told his master what happened, and the master became so angry he said, “Go as fast as you can to every street and alley in town! Bring in everyone who is poor or paralyzed or blind or lame.” When the servant returned, he said, “Master, I've done what you told me, and there is still plenty of room for more people.” His master then told him, “Go out along the back roads and make people come in, so my house will be full. Not one of the guests I first invited will get even a bite of my food!”

When one of those who were reclining at the table with Him heard this, he said to Him, “Blessed (happy, prosperous, to be admired) is he who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” But Jesus said to him, “A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many guests; and at the dinner hour he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, because everything is ready now.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I have purchased a piece of land and I have to go out and see it; please consider me excused.’ Another one said, ‘I have purchased five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have [recently] married a wife, and for that reason I am unable to come.’ [Deut 24:5] So the servant came back and reported this to his master. Then [his master,] the head of the household, became angry [at the rejections of his invitation] and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and the lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and the disabled and the blind and the lame.’ And the servant [after returning] said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ Then the master told the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled [with guests]. For I tell you, not one of those who were invited [and declined] will taste my dinner.’ ”

That triggered a response from one of the guests: “How fortunate the one who gets to eat dinner in God’s kingdom!” Jesus followed up. “Yes. For there was once a man who threw a great dinner party and invited many. When it was time for dinner, he sent out his servant to the invited guests, saying, ‘Come on in; the food’s on the table.’ “Then they all began to beg off, one after another making excuses. The first said, ‘I bought a piece of property and need to look it over. Send my regrets.’ “Another said, ‘I just bought five teams of oxen, and I really need to check them out. Send my regrets.’ “And yet another said, ‘I just got married and need to get home to my wife.’ “The servant went back and told the master what had happened. He was outraged and told the servant, ‘Quickly, get out into the city streets and alleys. Collect all who look like they need a square meal, all the misfits and homeless and down-and-out you can lay your hands on, and bring them here.’ “The servant reported back, ‘Master, I did what you commanded—and there’s still room.’ “The master said, ‘Then go to the country roads. Whoever you find, drag them in. I want my house full! Let me tell you, not one of those originally invited is going to get so much as a bite at my dinner party.’”

Sacred Art

There Is Still Room

Lauren Wright Pittman

Luke 14:15-24 · Digital drawing with collage

This image is meant to be viewed from the center, moving outward. The host sets a table, with arms stretched wide in welcome. Surrounding this initial invitation, the first invitees form a ring of rejection around the host—arms crossed, closed off, and distracted by their material wealth and status.…

Ash Wednesday Week

the good news is… all are invited

There Is Still Room

by Lauren Wright Pittman

Inspired by Luke 14:15-24

Digital drawing with collage

Trees, rooted in the central scene of the guestless table, break through the ring of rejection. The next layer includes four figures—with the host's same open-armed posture—extending welcome to people in neighborhoods, markets, and communal spaces. In the parable, the initial invitation is cast more broadly; everyone is welcome despite any status or condition that might typically isolate them from community. The invited reject, but the rejected are embraced. In the art, the welcoming branches of the tree bear good fruit. The invitation continues to grow and flourish despite all the worldly barriers that would keep us apart and isolated. In the final ring, a crowd is gathered around an even larger table, one that still has open seats.

It can be easy to focus on what feels negative in this text, but in order for the invitation to truly be an invitation, it cannot be coercive. There must always be the option to decline the invitation, and even that is good news. Still, the deeper good news is this: the host never stops inviting, and when all is said and done, there is still room at the table.

—Rev. Lauren Wright Pittman

Look

Look closely at all the people in the outermost ring of the image. What do you notice about the empty seats?

There Is Still Room

Lauren Wright Pittman · Luke 14:15-24

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Poetry

The Gospel According to Mrs. Farnell's Pre-K Class

by Rev. Sarah A. Speed

In Pre-K the whole class gets an invite to Tommy's birthday. He places the paper invites in our cubbies. There's a helter-skelter sticker sealing each one, proof that tiny hands did the work. So we, the members of Mrs. Farnell's Pre-K class, arrive at the park on Saturday. We arrive whether or not we've ever built a sandcastle with Tommy. We arrive whether or not we've ever shared half of our PB&J at lunch. We arrive at the park on Saturday, with pigtails and balloons, because we were invited. …

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Ash Wednesday Week

the good news is… all are invited

The Gospel According to Mrs. Farnell's Pre-K Class

by Rev. Sarah A. Speed

And together we play tag, and we eat birthday cake, and we run barefoot in the grass. Together, we sing Happy birthday to youuuuuu, so excited we can barely stand still. Together, we momentarily forget that Chloe never gets picked for Red Rover and that Quinn cried in class last week, because the park is not the playground and everyone was invited.

And when we load into our cars at the end of the day, with grass-stained knees, chocolate frosting on our faces, and the awareness of inclusion, we say to our parents, This was the best day of my life.

Poem by Rev. Sarah A. Speed | A Sanctified Art LLC | sanctifiedart.org

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