Coronavirus Reflection no. 15

I am finding that one of the most confusing things about the gradual easing of lockdown is trying to get my head around the rules surrounding who I can socialise with! Today (if it wasn’t raining!) it seems that I can invite up to five people to sit outside in my garden at a two metre distance and I can choose just one person who lives alone to come into my house to form a ‘support bubble’, as long as they don’t belong to another ‘support bubble’. From next weekend I understand that I can visit friends or family at home and even stay the night as long as I follow the new one-metre-plus rule and take safety precautions, and neither I nor they belong to another ‘support bubble’. What is more, from July 4th thirty people can be invited to a wedding but only a tiny fraction of them will be allowed to the reception if it’s indoors, possibly a few more if it’s outdoors. All of these rules present the problem of who to choose to invite!

Luckily Jesus tells us that in God’s kingdom there is no such problem – everyone is invited. He compares the kingdom to a banquet which a man gave (Luke 14:15-24), sending out his slaves to call the guests, and when they made their excuses, to invite everyone they could find on the highways and byways so the banquet was filled; there were to be no empty seats. Yet even with all humanity invited, there is still space at the table and God longs for more to come to the party.

It’s wonderful to think that we are all invited to feast in God’s kingdom. And of course it is up to us if we accept the invitation.

God bless

Revd Sue