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Comedians with Pastors Talking Bible: two Lutheran pastors, two comedians, and one lectionary reading per week. Short Take edition.

The king throws a wedding banquet, the invited guests blow him off, and the party ends up filled with whoever the servants can find on the street. Then one guest gets thrown out for the wrong clothes. Pastors Bob Schaefer and Eric Damon sit down in the old Parlor with comedians Abby Evans and Erick Williams to ask what a parable about the kingdom of heaven has to do with barking at strangers to come to your comedy show. It also asks why grace for everyone doesn't mean anything goes.

In this episode:

• The old set gets a last farewell
• Why the Parlor is closing
• A comedy show where the barking-in-the-street method brought in exactly the wrong guest
• Why people who ruin the night for everyone else (hecklers, Broadway sing-alongers) might be the best way into this parable
• The wedding garment question that nobody at the table can answer
• Reading the burned city as an explanation for the Gospel's first audience, not a threat
• Slave, servant, or intern: how to handle the translation problem
• Erick finds his name in a truck decal

"Even after the grace has extended to everybody, I'm not going to let the experience be ruined for everyone that I invited." (Pastor Eric Damon)

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Matthew 22:1–14 (NRSVue)

[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.”

Hosted by Pastor Eric Damon and Pastor Bob Schaefer.

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Music: Trickster by Phat Sounds
Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/10864-trickster
Licensed under CC BY 4.0: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Scripture quotations are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.