Sunday 15 October 2023

Background

Methodist ministers are appointed to jobs through a process called stationing in which they are invited to visit a circuit (a group of churches) to see if they might be a good fit. I would like to offer an interpretation of this parable through the lens of the Methodist invitation process, which I have been through this summer. 

I like the language of invitation. I recently heard about a wise district chair who told a minister considering early retirement: “It’s an invitation, not a sentence!” I strive to model an invitational approach in my ministry – by which I mean that I want everyone to feel included and welcome at church, but also free to say no. To invite someone is always to risk the possibility of rejection – as the parable in today's reading illustrates.          

As with a wedding, the original invitation in the Methodist process is normally offered well in advance of the day when people are expected to turn up. All kinds of things can happen in the intervening weeks and months. Ministers are sometimes no longer able to accept the invitation they were so delighted to receive when it first came – and circuits who are ready to welcome someone can be left feeling hugely disappointed. Thankfully I am not aware that any members of the stationing committee have ever been murdered(!) but I have heard of deep frustration and even rage.

There is always round two – which is perhaps seen as the B list! Sometimes, just like the king in the parable, circuits find themselves inviting a minister they would never have considered before. Sometimes that person will actually turn out to be a better match than those on the A list, but there can also be misfits. The guest in the parable who is thrown out for not wearing a wedding robe is an example of the latter. However, it seems very unfair to exclude him when the real problem seems to be that the king hadn’t done his unconscious bias training!

To Ponder:

• When have you offered an invitation that was declined? How did that make you feel?
• What is God inviting you to be or do today?
• Who do you see as the misfits in your congregation/community?  Is that unconscious bias?

Reflect   

Read 'Love bade me welcome' by George Herbert.