The Invitation
The Feast of God
God invites those who waste their taste on empty things to come to the feast where God Himself is the delicacy.
Come here, all of you whose taste is only waste; save your expense, and mend your fare.1 God is here prepared and dressed, and the feast—God, in whom all delicacies are.2
Invitations to the Outcast
Christ calls to those defined by sin, pain, false joy, and earthly love, offering them transformation through His blood and presence.
Come here, all of you whom wine defines—a label that does you no good—weep for what you’ve drunk wrongly, and drink this, which is blood before you drink it.✦ Come here, all of you whom pain puts on trial, bringing all your sins into view: Taste and don’t be afraid. God is here in this feast, and casts the terror onto sin.34 Come here, all of you whom joy destroys while you graze beyond your bounds: here is a joy that completely drowns your delight, just as a flood overwhelms the lowlands. Come here, all of you whose love is your dove and lifts you to the sky: here is love that still has breath even in death, and after death can never die.
The Lord's Summation
The Lord declares that He has invited all and will continue to call, because where All is, all should be.
Lord, I have invited all, And I will Still invite, still call to you: For it seems only just and right To me, Where All is, there all should be.✦✦
Read the original English
Come ye hither all, whose taste Is your waste; Save your cost, and mend your fare. God is here prepar'd and drest, And the feast, God, in whom all dainties are.
Come ye hither all, whom wine Doth define, Naming you not to your good: Weep what ye have drunk amisse, And drink this, Which before ye drink is bloud.
Come ye hither all, whom pain Doth arraigne, Bringing all your sinnes to sight: Taste and fear not: God is here In this cheer, And on sinne doth cast the fright.
Come ye hither all, whom joy Doth destroy, While ye graze without your bounds: Here is joy that drowneth quite Your delight, As a floud the lower grounds.
Come ye hither all, whose love Is your dove, And exalts you to the skie: Here is love, which having breath Ev'n in death, After death can never die.
Lord, I have invited all, And I shall Still invite, still call to thee: For it seems but just and right In my sight, Where is all, there all should be.
Scripture echoes
- ↩1Cor.11.25 — In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."
- ↩Luke.14.16-Luke.14.23;Matt.22.1-Matt.22.10 — But he said to him, 'A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many.' Luke.14.17 — And he sent his servant at the hour of the banquet to say to those who had been invited, 'Come, for it is now ready.' Luke.14.18 — And they all, with one accord, began to make excuses. The first said to him, 'I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. I ask you, have me excused.' Luke.14.19 — And another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to examine them. I ask you to excuse me.' Luke.14.20 — And another said, 'I have married a wife, and because of this I am not able to come.' Luke.14.21 — And the slave came back and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house was angry and said to his slave, 'Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the crippled and the blind and the lame.' Luke.14.22 — And the servant said, 'Lord, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.' Luke.14.23 — And the master said to the servant, 'Go out into the roads and the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled. Matt.22.1 — And Jesus answered again and spoke to them in parables, saying, Matt.22.2 — The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding feast for his son. Matt.22.3 — And he sent his servants to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were not willing to come. Matt.22.4 — Again he sent other servants, saying, 'Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.' Matt.22.5 — But they paid no attention and went off, one to his own farm, another to his business, Matt.22.6 — But the rest seized his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. Matt.22.7 — But the king was angry, and he sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Matt.22.8 — Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Matt.22.9 — Go therefore to the main roads, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding feast. Matt.22.10 — And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
- ↩1Cor.15.28;Eph.1.23 — When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to the one who subjected all things to him, so that God may be all in all. Eph.1.23 — which is his body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.
Notes
- 1 ↩Herbert's couplet puns on taste (appetite/palate) and waste (dissipation and ruin): worldly craving both wastes resources and wastes the self. 'Fare' means food/meal, not a journey's charge.
- 2 ↩Herbert identifies God as both the prepared meal ('prepar'd and drest') and the feast itself: Eucharistic double sense of host and food, not mere hospitality metaphor.
- 3 ↩Source 'cheer' means the hospitality and food of the table; in this poem's Eucharistic frame it is the offered feast (wine/blood in the adjoining stanzas), not mere good spirits.
- 4 ↩Rendered as God throwing the terror onto sin itself (so the fear does not rest on the invited sinner). 'Fright' is the dread/terror, not a startle.
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