This parable of the King who gives a party, drags in the people off the street and then condemns one to eternal fire and brimstone because he does not have on the right clothes is a pretty strange story. When you take it apart and look at the pieces of it, it sounds very much like the plot of a very bad Stephen Segal movie: an opportunity for a lot of violence and bloodshed, but finding the meaning or the socially redemptive features are not very easy.

Maybe if we tried to tell this story with a more contemporary cast of characters and a possible time line, we might be able to get into it a little bitter. The number one mover and shaker in this whole town has a son who is talking about getting married. But he is very busy jetting back and forth all over the world, and he is not sure when he will have time to get married.

The place where they have talked about getting married has been damaged by the hurricanes, and the band they want has a couple of members who are sick, and they are not sure when they will be well enough to play, but the son and his girl friend would like to get married when they can work it in. So the number one mover and shaker just sends out invitations to all the other mover and shakers in the town and says, "Hey, get ready, I want you to know we are going to have a wedding."

Suddenly, unexpectedly the carpenters get the place repaired and the band is well, and the two people discover that they have a whole week free, and so they decide to get married. The number one shaker and mover sends out announcements that the wedding is on Saturday. But all the other movers and shakers already have things to do, places to be, business to conduct, trips they have planned, ball games to go to.

They talk among themselves about how silly Mr. Big is to think that they sit around waiting, holding open a their social calendar just on the possibility that his family might be doing something. They smile and laugh at the arrogance of such a man. Some even beat on the messenger pretty good. One pushed a messenger down the stairs and he broke his neck. Another shot one of the messengers thinking he was an intruder. It was not a pretty picture for a beginning of a wedding feast.

So by Tuesday morning the Number one mover and shaker has rounded up an armed band of mercenaries, and he sends them out to show his outrage at the snub of his family. These thugs kill the people who have refused to come to the party and destroy the business and property of these people.

But what kind of party can you have with no guests? Wednesday the messengers are sent out into the community, walking up and down main street telling the people at the Little Hotel, telling the people at the Smoking Pit, telling the people at the court house, the people at the jail, wedding on Saturday. Number One mover and Shaker is having a party, and he has already killed about forty or fifty people who said no, so you all had better come.

Saturday dawns clear and mild, and the wedding has taken place and the reception is in high gear. All of the people who were told to come have come -- the good and bad, the high and the low. The number one shaker and mover is moving through the crowd greeting his guests. And then there is that one man over there in his work clothes from Winn-Dixie. There is one man who is not dressed for a party.