The Robe on the Hook

On National Coming Out Day, Matthew’s Gospel gives us a troubling wedding banquet. The invitation eventually extends to everyone on the streets, yet one guest is bound and expelled for arriving without the proper clothing. I have some questions about that king. This week on Between Bread and Stone, I examine the parable alongside Christianity’s history of religious coercion, a painful chapter in my own diocese, and the extraordinary story of Matthew Shepard, a young Episcopalian whose ashes finally found a resting place at Washington National Cathedral twenty years after his murder. Along the way, I find myself imagining a robe hanging on a hook beside the banquet entrance. It isn’t in the Gospel. But I’ve been wondering what might have happened if it had been. You are welcome here. Protected Speech | Views My Own Between Bread and Stone © 2026 Stephen Brewer. All rights reserved. Podcast audio and full text may be quoted for noncommercial purposes with attribution. Gospel text from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Get full access to Drawing the Line at percival84.substack.com/subscribe