Rise & Shine - October 11, 2020
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Whose Party? Whose Mountain? Who's the Hero?
Rise & Shine - October 11th
Click Here for a Copy of this Week's Discussion
Matthew 22:1-14
Once more Jesus spoke to the people in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. 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.’ But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’ 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.
“But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?’ And he was speechless. 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.’ For many are called, but few are chosen."
Commentary from Facilitator, Maggie Gough
In this week’s article we read about an effort to open discussion about Stone Mountain, a monument to Confederate leaders. We also read in our lectionary about the wedding in which everyone is invited. There is also the man who comes unprepared to be at the wedding and is thrown out. It is complex and depending on who you see as good and bad, it can change your reading of the parable dramatically. Similarly, as a nation, we wrestle with who is good and who is bad. There is a desire, by some, to disrupt narratives about who has traditionally been the hero and memorialized.
In the News
Group seeks changes at Georgia park honoring Confederacy
STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. (AP) — A grassroots group and local religious leaders held a prayer event Tuesday on Stone Mountain, calling for the removal of a Confederate flag and other reminders of the Civil War at the park boasting a massive carving of Confederate leaders.
The gathering included impassioned prayer and pleas for change at the park, which is popular with hikers and sightseers and features a huge mountainside carving of Southern secessionists Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.
Around the park, quotes from Confederate soldiers and leaders adorn benches, statues and plaques on the ground. Members of the Stone Mountain Action Coalition want those reminders gone.
“Yeah, in the 1950s and 60s, the state legislator and the governor at that time began transforming the mountain into – weaponizing the symbols of the Confederacy to demonstrate to Black people in Georgia that this was not a place” where they were welcome, said Ryan Gravel, one of several co-founders of the coalition.
Keep reading Group seeks changes at Georgia park honoring Confederacy by Ron Harris from AP News..
