October 11, 2026 | Word Out!
Download the Bulletin from October 11, 2026
READINGS
First Reading: Isaiah 25:1-9
1 O Lord, you are my God;
I will exalt you; I will praise your name,
for you have done wonderful things,
plans formed of old, faithful and sure.
2 For you have made the city a heap,
the fortified city a ruin;
the palace of foreigners is a city no more;
it will never be rebuilt.
3 Therefore strong peoples will glorify you;
cities of ruthless nations will fear you.
4 For you have been a refuge to the poor,
a refuge to the needy in their distress,
a shelter from the rainstorm and a shade from the heat.
When the blast of the ruthless was like a winter rainstorm,
5 the noise of foreigners like heat in a dry place,
you subdued the heat with the shade of clouds;
the song of the ruthless was stilled.
6 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.
7 And he will destroy on this mountain
the shroud that is cast over all peoples,
the covering that is spread over all nations;
8 he will swallow up death forever.
Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces,
and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken.
9 It will be said on that day,
“See, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us.
This is the Lord for whom we have waited;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
Second Reading: Philippians 4:1-9
1 My brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.
2 I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. 3 Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my coworkers, whose names are in the book of life.
4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5 Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, brothers and sisters, 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. 9 As for the things that you have learned and received and heard and noticed in me, do them, and the God of peace will be with you.
Gospel: Matthew 22:1-14
1 Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: 2 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. 4 Again he sent other slaves, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.’ 5 But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. 8 Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9 Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’ 10 Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad, so the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, 12 and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?’ And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 For many are called, but few are chosen.”
SERMON— Guest Pastor John Michael Barich
Oh boy, the last several weeks, the parables have been challenging, and when I see a reading like this, it’s challenging for me to say, “the Gospel of the Lord;” the good news, oh, I say, these are the words of Jesus.
Well, we’ve seen it before, as Jesus is in conversation with other religious leaders, that they are pretty prone to protect the received traditions of theirs against infringement. They wager that past revelations are more reliable than present experience, and any talk that God is revising the ancient covenants is rejected, so they’ll just stick to Abraham and Moses.
The new claims of Jesus sound suspect and suspicious. All the major events were back then, and this story of a wedding banquet suggests that God is doing something new. But they’re going to hold on to the past, and such holding on does not permit them the desire of participating.
A special moment has arrived. An unparalleled event in the history of God’s people is now unfolding. God is inviting all people to partake in the fullness of joy, the time when the Son, Jesus, will marry.
Here’s a little asterisk to this pastor’s biographical information, about my experience with marriage. My parents divorced when I was 16 in high school. I also was divorced after 14 years of marriage.
I’ve done a lot of premarital counseling, and other kinds of couples counseling along the way, and I guess when I look back, the number one piece of advice I gave was “get an accountant.” This pastor and this text is not here this morning before us to reinforce any kind of passivity or dependence or submission or anything detrimental to women.
It was my privilege to officiate at a wedding recently in Newcastle.
The beautiful couple in their 20s came together with family and friends to celebrate their love and the love of God that they now share between each other. One spouse was from Wisconsin and is a fan of the Green Bay Packers and Leinenkugels. (If you know, you know.) The other, Filipino, came from far away as Florida and New Zealand. So, this was a special time, a special feast. And the invitations went out all over and people responded by showing up in their best to honor and bless them with their presence and to eat and dance and enjoy the open bar.
But the ones invited in today’s gospel go about their day as if nothing important is happening and ignore the invitation. They attempt murder, but their violence rebounds back on them and their destructiveness becomes in turn their experience of being destroyed. They’re out of the way; but the feast is ready and the feast will go on.
What began as a select guest list becomes an indiscriminate one. The main roads bear universal traffic and it’s there the servants are sent. Whomever they find are invited.
There’s no ethnic, no gender, no age, no religious or health requirement. The wedding of the son has become a beggar’s feast, a gathering of those who hear and accept the invitation. But this is a new and different kind of invitation.
They were not invited to witness a wedding. They were invited to be married to the Son!
They were not invited to observe. They were invited to participate. Clothes for the wedding are needed, and eagerness for a new life partner. And the wedding garment signals a readiness to receive and be united, transformed.
They are invited to the intimacy, uniqueness, and full sharing of their spousal relationship. And as they are united with Jesus, they will bear children: acts of mercy, compassion, and love in the world.
But those who come unwilling to be wed to the Son experience the opposite. Instead of being within the wedding feast of light, they are outside in darkness. Instead of eating with their hands and dancing with their feet, they are bound hand and foot. Instead of laughing and singing, they weep and gnash their teeth.
They are not only excluded from the community; they live in bitter regret. Their own failures torment them.
Each child, each Christian is chosen as a bride of Christ, invited to be filled with the revelation of God and to be gifted by God’s love.
Jesus’ parable is concerned with the inclusiveness of his bride, the Church. And so the invitation is generous and it is broad: God so loves the whole world that we will be changed.
Baptism washes and dresses us, and the Eucharist we celebrate again today is not our banquet; it’s the marriage supper of the Lamb. And God wants us there, as what God has made us to be, in spite of the mess we’ve made of ourselves or our relationships. This gospel is an open invitation to the marriage supper of the Lamb that goes through the waters of baptism.
God is giving us the new and holy identity that God offers to all. And so, now you and I wear the wedding garment, the righteousness of Christ—and you don’t get an invitation like that one every day.
So come—you are wanted—and rejoice in the new identity you receive by coming to this banquet today!
Amen.