You call everyone to dinner. Then you call again. They come eventually, but slowly, and not really. Someone is finishing something, someone is still talking about their day, and someone sits down with a mind clearly elsewhere. The food is on the table, but nobody is quite there. It's a small hurt, but a real one. You didn't ask for much, only that they be here. That's the first half of Sunday's Gospel (Matthew 22:1-14), and it's uncomfortable. A king prepares a wedding feast for his son. The invited guests "would not come." He sends servants again: everything is ready, come. But they "made light of it." One goes to his farm, another to his business. Some seize the servants and kill them, and the king answers with violence. It's tempting to skim past that. Let's not. Jesus is saying that ignoring God's invitation is not harmless. But notice who these guests are. Most aren't enemies of the king. They're busy. A farm and a b...