The Bishop of New York has addressed the issues in a pastoral letter to the diocese on Friday. Recognizing the seriousness of the situation and the understandable anxieties in which we all share Bishop Sisk goes on to say: “However such moments of crisis also have the power to elicit the very best that the human heart has to offer. It is that very best that Christians are called to offer, now and always. It is our deepest conviction that though there can be no dispute that the physical circumstances of our lives are important, yet the truth that we have been shown in Jesus is that the ultimate, the real, foundation on which our lives rest, is not on the health of our bank account but rather upon the abiding love of God. The gospel that we have heard, and have been called to proclaim, is not that the darkness is not dark, it is rather that the light of Christ will overcome it. The hope that is ours is rooted not in an unbroken chain of triumph and success but rather the cross of Christ that brings life out of death. Therefore, we need have no fear. Our identity is not defined by our bank accounts but by God's love. The ground on which we stand, the abiding love of God for us and for all creation, is solid ground. Though we may be surrounded by the tornadoes' winds we need have no fear. Though we may even be caught up in those winds, we need have no fear. The wind of the Spirit of God who sustains us is more than any of these.”

Our readings today also have much to say to us in the current crisis. Isaiah is addressing people who have suffered defeat and exile; people who know what it is to lose their homes and livelihoods; people who have been degraded by exile in a foreign place. To them the prophet speaks. His words are of God whose plans are formed of old, “faithful and sure”; of God who has conquered enemies; and has been “a shelter to the poor, a refuge to the needy in their distress, a shelter from the rainstorm and a shade from the heat.” With those important reminders the prophet paints a vision of the future which is imagined as a great feast on God's mountain at which all the faithful will be invited. “On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.” It is a vision of the Messianic Banquet, a banquet of which each eucharist is a foretaste. The passage from Isaiah always reminds me of that wonderful film released in the mid 80s, Babbette's Feast, in which the sumptuous meal prepared by the French refugee household help for the austere and ungrateful Danish Christian sisters and their pious group itself becomes the vehicle for them to rediscover their humanity, their forgotten love and their enjoyment of life itself. I always remember the end of the film when the small community which had been consumed by pettiness and misplaced piety on leaving the dinner table go out into the cold night air and begin to dance around the village well. That film captured the fundamental link between hospitality and the vision of God.

The Gospel for today from Matthew gives us a familiar parable but with a some difficult features and a even more complex conclusion. Luke's version of the first part of the parable, the king's dinner to which all are invited, focuses on those who for one reason or another cannot come (I always like the bit “I have married a wife and therefore cannot come”) Matthew's version makes the parable into much more an allegory of the fortunes of the gospel in the early church. The first two groups sent out with the invitation to the king's banquet are rejected, much as many of the Jews had rejected the prophets and Jesus. The destruction of the city following this second rejection seems to echo the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. The last invitation to all and sundry mirrors that Gentile mission described in Acts. The good news is that God, the king, does not give up on his invitation to the banquet as he does not give up on us. He keeps inviting and inviting. However Matthew adds an extra parable which is not present in Luke. And that is about the poor guy who is not dressed properly. Read in conjunction with the first part of the parable this seems hardly fair. After all he had been dragged in answer to a very general invitation. “Go therefore into the main streets and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.” Why should the ill-dressed guest be given such a hard time? And to boot thrown into outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth? The point is that this would appear to be a separate parable linked to the first part because both dealt with a wedding banquet. But the latter parable seems rather to be an illustration of the concluding saying, “for many are called but few are chosen.” This difficult parable is directed at all of us who claim to be people of faith. Entry to God's great banquet is not simply a matter of initial response but rather the result of a life fashioned on the gospel values of faith, hope and love. The danger for all people of faith is summed up in those words of Jesus, “Not everyone who says Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father.”

And that brings me to the well-known lesson from Philippians, with Paul at his best. Paul too had experienced the ups and downs of life. “I know what it is to have little, and know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can all things through him who strengthens me.”

It is that radiant faith which shines through the familiar opening verses of the passage: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.” Words all the more telling when you remember that they were written when Paul was in prison! And he continues “Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” These words exude a sense of God's abiding presence and the assurance that that gives. They mirror the gospel of hope which is central to Christian faith. It is that hope, that assurance, that sense of the presence of God, that we all need in difficult times. In a very real sense that is the purpose of worship, especially of eucharistic worship. We come today seeking the reassurance of God's word, God's presence, God's purpose and promise; we come to have our hope strengthened; we come to be fed with the spiritual food of the Body and Blood of Christ; we come to be encouraged by the fellowship of other faithful people. But we also come recognizing our need to fashion our lives according to God's way of love, truth, justice and peace. So Paul says to those Philippian Christians “Finally beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

As we come before God in this foretaste of his heavenly banquet we seek to be clothed with the appropriate robe. But even as we do so we pray, “We do not presume to come to this thy Table ,O Merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy to gather up the crumbs under thy Table. But thou art the same Lord whose property is always to have mercy.”