{"id":6032,"date":"2014-10-04T21:49:32","date_gmt":"2014-10-05T01:49:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/?p=6032"},"modified":"2014-10-04T21:49:32","modified_gmt":"2014-10-05T01:49:32","slug":"the-wedding-feast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/the-wedding-feast\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wedding Feast"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Pentecost<\/a>The Wedding of the Year was just held in Venice:\u00a0 George Clooney, world\u2019s most eligible bachelor, who\u2019s twice been named Sexiest Man Alive by People Magazine (and ten years apart, to boot, 1997 and 2006) wed the stunningly beautiful Amal Alamuddin, reknowned civil rights attorney, born in Lebanon, educated at Oxford and NYU Law School, clerked for Justice Sotomayor, and at 36 has earned her silk at the London bar.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the text this week tells the story of a very different wedding, a wedding no one wanted to attend.\u00a0 A king gave a wedding banquet for his son and invited everyone of importance,<\/em> Jesus says, but they all declined to come. He sent messengers to describe the elaborate feast he was preparing, but they all said they were too busy.\u00a0 Hurt and insulted, the angry king sent out messengers to the city streets and the slum alleys, inviting anyone and everyone.\u00a0 And a huge crowd came.\u00a0 But one fellow came without cleaning up and putting on his best, and the king was furious again.\u00a0 He had that man cast out into the darkness.\u00a0 <\/em>And so it will be in the kingdom, Jesus said, for many are called but few are chosen.<\/p>\n

\"Replace<\/a>Weddings are of such importance that even in our time people will make a special effort to come.\u00a0 Invitations garner a dependable 66% acceptances, and from the rest, heartfelt apologies.\u00a0 Guests come from the far corners of the earth, sparing no expense, to join in the joy.\u00a0 And the joy of weddings is a multi-layered affirmation of life. \u00a0The generations rejoice at the prospect of new lineage, and in the memory of love they themselves lifted in their youth. \u00a0From friends there wells up of hope of a bright future. \u00a0From the couple a promise of fidelity. \u00a0And from the religious traditions, prayers for happiness, a blessing of children, a celebration of homes.<\/p>\n

Faithfulness, fruitfulness, fecundity:\u00a0 weddings are celebrations of these things.<\/p>\n

\"Pentecost<\/a>In each of the Days of Creation faithfulness, fruitfulness, and fecundity were present, and God pronounced them, on each of the Days, good:\u00a0 and so the Creation is, at heart and in expression, the marriage of God and heaven and earth.<\/p>\n

The prophets remember this marriage in their outcries against the abuses of their age, and they speak of restoration using the language of feasts: \u00a0a feast of fat things on the leas;\u00a0 \u00a0a feast where the lion will eat straw like the ox and the cow and the bear will feed together.\u00a0\u00a0 Jesus speaks of a heavenly banquet.<\/p>\n

And in this story, he speaks of a wedding feast without guests, a tragedy of love.\u00a0 After all, the words do change over the ages, the rituals vary with the millennia and the culture, but the world around, a wedding is celebrated with a feast.\u00a0 What makes a couple married?\u00a0 More than the license, and certainly more than sex, in truth, it is in this sharing of abundance with others that Faith becomes a visible grace.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Replace<\/a>Bridegroom theology is not at all a part of traditional New England religious understanding.\u00a0 Many a furrowed brow would greet the preacher who tossed out images of Christ the Bridegroom of the Church.\u00a0 And yet, wedding feasts are always well kept, the art of the wedding cake is endlessly elaborated, the grace of the Blessing is ardently invoked for each marriage.\u00a0 But the marriage of all of us to God the Creator, and our trust in the power of God\u2019s blessing to be vital for us,\u00a0has just about left our cultural thinking.\u00a0 The paired reading for Sunday, of the creation of the false idol in the Exodus, might aptly apply to our modern weddings, which are about the adoration of cakes and clothes, and the feast.<\/p>\n

\"Pentecost<\/a>In Jesus\u2019 own time, it seems to have been like this.\u00a0 They placed their hope, as we do, in our prosperity, our chances to get ahead in the economy, our strength.\u00a0 Not in the One who calls forth life, who says, Let there be . . . .<\/em> and brings forth fruitfulness from our ground.<\/p>\n

Throughout the gospels, Jesus flings out curious comments about the marriage of heaven and earth, comments which startle and remain mysterious.\u00a0\u00a0 I piped and you would not dance<\/em>, he says, I wept and you did not mourn.<\/em>\u00a0 And then there are the injunctions of the fig tree, which is fruitful as a sign, and when unfruitful, receives his curse.\u00a0 There are the wise and foolish bridesmaids at one wedding, which mysteriously occurs at night, and this puzzling royal wedding to which no one will come.\u00a0 At Cana, Jesus is irked by his mother\u2019s request, yet performs a miracle.\u00a0 At the Last Supper, he offers them the Marriage of Eternity and Time, \u00a0Life and Death, Heaven and Earth.\u00a0 Yet they are confused, and so, in truth, are we.\u00a0 And they are a bit irked that he does not produce a miracle right then.<\/p>\n

\"Pentecost<\/a>What shall we make of the anger of the king? \u00a0Will we be cast out? \u00a0 God knows, weddings are fraught with snits, smoldering feuds, broken relations. \u00a0And the prophets say we behave like that towards God. \u00a0But does God behave like that?<\/p>\n

In all of the weddings Jesus speaks of, and in the feasts he shares, there is both a shadow and a warning. \u00a0There is also a bright hope, that the outer darkness will not consume the light within, and we will all be present.\u00a0 For, fierce as the warnings are, the power of the wedding is not about death, it is about life\u2019s renewal, life\u2019s rising.\u00a0 And we are reminded to dress for the occasion . . . . wear your glad rags, for in the end, there is joy.<\/p>\n

As the Vatican Synod on the Family opens its discussions, all of this needs to be welcomed, for it is the lives of God\u2019s people. \u00a0And the life and loves of George Clooney, and his recent marriage, are emblematic of the lives of lay Catholics everywhere, whom the Church must learn to bless and acknowledge, for faith, in our age, is inscrutable in ancient doctrines, and is made visible in the adventures of open, loving lives.<\/p>\n

_____________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

Illustrations:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

1. George Clooney and Amal, Hello<\/strong><\/em> magazine cover.<\/strong> <\/em>\u00a0Google Images.<\/p>\n

2. \u00a0The Wedding at Cana. \u00a0<\/strong><\/em>17th c. \u00a0Gutenzell, Germany. \u00a0Vanderbilt Divinity School Library, Art in the Christian Tradition.<\/p>\n

3. \u00a0Wedding Cake.<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0 Baker\u2019s photo. Google Images.<\/p>\n

4. \u00a0The Wedding Feast, <\/strong><\/em>Jan Brueghel the Elder, EnWikipedia.org.<\/p>\n

5. \u00a0Wedding Cake.<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0 Baker\u2019s photo. Google Images.<\/p>\n

6. \u00a0Miracle at Cana. \u00a0<\/strong><\/em>He Qi, Nanjing, China. \u00a0Vanderbilt Divinity School Library, Art in the Christian Tradition.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Wedding of the Year was just held in Venice:\u00a0 George Clooney, world\u2019s most eligible bachelor, who\u2019s twice been named Sexiest Man Alive by People Magazine (and ten years apart, to boot, 1997 and 2006) wed the stunningly beautiful Amal Alamuddin, reknowned civil rights attorney, born in Lebanon, educated at Oxford and NYU Law School, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2483,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bites"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Wedding Feast<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Wedding of the Year was just held in Venice:\u00a0 George Clooney, world\u2019s most eligible bachelor, who\u2019s twice been named Sexiest Man Alive by People\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/the-wedding-feast\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Wedding Feast\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Wedding of the Year was just held in Venice:\u00a0 George Clooney, world\u2019s most eligible bachelor, who\u2019s twice been named Sexiest Man Alive by People\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/the-wedding-feast\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bite in the Apple\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-10-05T01:49:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/files\/2014\/10\/Pentecost-19-Clooney-wedding-e1412473835486.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nancy Rockwell\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nancy Rockwell\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/the-wedding-feast\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/the-wedding-feast\/\",\"name\":\"The Wedding Feast\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-10-05T01:49:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-10-05T01:49:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/#\/schema\/person\/2155b9333c10f2c9427da1f8ca7b4bd7\"},\"description\":\"The Wedding of the Year was just held in Venice:\u00a0 George Clooney, world\u2019s most eligible bachelor, who\u2019s twice been named Sexiest Man Alive by People\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/the-wedding-feast\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/the-wedding-feast\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/the-wedding-feast\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Wedding Feast\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/\",\"name\":\"The Bite in the Apple\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/#\/schema\/person\/2155b9333c10f2c9427da1f8ca7b4bd7\",\"name\":\"Nancy Rockwell\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e380c224f4a2068ab523185d81008ef7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e380c224f4a2068ab523185d81008ef7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Nancy Rockwell\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/author\/nrockwell\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Wedding Feast","description":"The Wedding of the Year was just held in Venice:\u00a0 George Clooney, world\u2019s most eligible bachelor, who\u2019s twice been named Sexiest Man Alive by People","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/the-wedding-feast\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Wedding Feast","og_description":"The Wedding of the Year was just held in Venice:\u00a0 George Clooney, world\u2019s most eligible bachelor, who\u2019s twice been named Sexiest Man Alive by People","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/the-wedding-feast\/","og_site_name":"The Bite in the Apple","article_published_time":"2014-10-05T01:49:32+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/files\/2014\/10\/Pentecost-19-Clooney-wedding-e1412473835486.jpg"}],"author":"Nancy Rockwell","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Nancy Rockwell","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/the-wedding-feast\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/the-wedding-feast\/","name":"The Wedding Feast","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-10-05T01:49:32+00:00","dateModified":"2014-10-05T01:49:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/#\/schema\/person\/2155b9333c10f2c9427da1f8ca7b4bd7"},"description":"The Wedding of the Year was just held in Venice:\u00a0 George Clooney, world\u2019s most eligible bachelor, who\u2019s twice been named Sexiest Man Alive by People","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/the-wedding-feast\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/the-wedding-feast\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/the-wedding-feast\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Wedding Feast"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/","name":"The Bite in the Apple","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/#\/schema\/person\/2155b9333c10f2c9427da1f8ca7b4bd7","name":"Nancy Rockwell","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e380c224f4a2068ab523185d81008ef7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e380c224f4a2068ab523185d81008ef7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Nancy Rockwell"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/author\/nrockwell\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2483"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6032\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}