For this Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost, we continue our journey with Jesus and his disciples through the Gospel of Matthew and respond to Jesus’ call to discipleship. In today’s reading from Isaiah, we are given a vision of the great feast to come, when God will wipe away death forever. In Matthew, Jesus shares with us another kingdom parable, which is about a great banquet, where those invited do not come, so the invitation is extended to others. In our liturgy God spreads a table before us. With great joy we feast at the table of the Lord, and we go forth to share the wonderful invitation with others hungering and thirsting for the abundant life of God and rejoice in the peace of God which surpasses all understanding. In what ways have you experienced Jesus’s invitation to God’s banquet?