Matthew 25:1-13
November 12, 2017
32nd
Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)
William G. Carter
One
summer, my sister returned from church camp with a new song. She tried to teach
it to us, but my mom already knew it from her own former days at camp, a generation before. In any case,
it's a song that you may know. It goes like this:
Give
me oil for my lamp, keep me burning, burning, burning,
Give
me oil for my lamp, I pray;
Give
me oil for my lamp, keep me burning, burning, burning,
Keep
me burning to the break of day.
When
you're a teenager, the song suggests resources for your energy level. You want
oil for your lamp so you can stay up all night, And when you gain access to the
family car keys, you want gas for your tank, too. You hope you’ll never run out of either one.
Maybe
that's why the very next verse goes on to say, “Give me umption for my
gumption, help me function, function, function.”
It
wasn't until later that I learned the song was based on the Bible story we
heard a minute ago. "Once upon a time," Jesus tells us, "there
were ten bridesmaids waiting for a party to start. Five were wise and had
enough fuel to get them through a crisis, and five were foolish enough to run
out of oil."
Anybody
who learns the difference between the five wise and the five foolish will know what
to ask for: “Give me oil for my lamp,
keep me burning, burning, burning.” All things considered, that's a pretty good
thing to ask for.
Many
of the parables of Jesus have a surprising twist in the plot. But this is not
one of them. In other parables, there's a strange turn of events that reveals a
new shift or perspective. But in a parable like this one, what you see is what
you get. The plot simply runs its course.
Those
who are wise continue to be wise. Those who are not, do not. There is no change
in character, no conversion of attitude. So when the crisis comes, all are
exposed for what they are: wise or foolish.
This
is how the Gospel of Matthew views the judgment of God. t is a crucial moment
when all things are revealed and the truth is known about everybody. In that
moment, there will be no more excuses, no more half-truths, no more grading on the curve. Instead all
things will be revealed as they really are.
In
the story we heard a few minutes ago, a bridegroom takes his sweet old time to
arrive at a party, a party that was held partially in his honor. That's the
event which exposes the truth
Now
we don’t know much about wedding customs of first-century Palestine. But we
know enough to realize we can't blame those ten bridesmaids for sleeping. Before the wedding party could start, the
bridegroom went door to door in the village, talking to friends, shaking hands,
kissing babies, and receiving congratulations.
It's
curious that the story never mentions the bride. Maybe she went with him. Or
maybe she didn't.
In
any case, the bridesmaids stood watch for the new husband. When the groom came
into view, somebody would shout. Everybody would cheer. Then he would enter the
family home, and the party would begin, more or less on time.
However
the bridegroom in this story was running a little bit late. Maybe he had a lot
of friends, a lot of hands to shake and babies to kiss, or a lot of places to
go and people to see and gifts to receive.
Maybe
he's like a friend of mine who recently got married sometime back. “It was
going to be a small, intimate service,” he said, and then they invited 350 people.
It took him forever to finish working the crowd. Some of us were yawning and
nodding off by the time the party got rolling. Who could blame us? It had
nothing to do with our character. We were simply tired.
When
the writer of Matthew reported this story, I'll bet people in his church understood
what he meant. A lot of them had begun to fall asleep. Matthew's Gospel was
written about the year 80 A.D. It was 50 years after the death and resurrection
of Jesus, 50 years after he promised to return. Jesus was nowhere in
sight.
So
where was he? Why didn't he come as he said he would? Obviously the Bridegroom
was delayed. He has people to see and places to go. If he isn't here yet, he
must be busy. The party will have to wait. In fact, the last time anybody
checked, we're still waiting for the party to start.
This
parable gives us a picture of what it's like to live under the dominion of God.
The kingdom of God is like a group of people who are waiting for a party to
begin. Some of them keep their wits about them. Others are just plain silly. The
invitation is issued to both kinds of people, regardless of whether they are wise
or foolish.
It
takes an eternity for the banquet to begin, so everybody eventually falls
asleep. Don’t miss that detail: everybody
falls asleep! Yet in the crucial moment, the bridegroom arrives, and everybody
wakes wake up. I do believe it says they all wake up. But only the wise ones have
what it takes to get in the door of that party.
In
the most recent Star Wars movie, the final scene is filmed on some tiny islands
off the coast of Ireland. Long before Luke Skywalker hid out there, those
islands, the Skellig islands, were the location of an ancient Christian monastery.
They are about eight miles offshore. You land there, tie up your boat, and
climb up 700 feet of cliffs.
An
order of Christian monks built the place and lived there for 700 years. One
day, the entire climbed into their boats and rowed away, never to return. One
of my friends toured there, and she scratched her head when she heard the tale.
Here is what she wrote, as she reflected on the strange disappearance:
No one knows why they left, but it seems
entirely possible to me that they just got tired of waiting. Seven hundred
years is a long time to watch the horizon for the coming of the Lord. It is a
long time to say your prayers and keep your fasts and live in disciplined
community with one another, especially when word reaches you that those on the
mainland have made some changes. They are eating better and sleeping later than
you are. They have decided they can be in the world a little more without being
of it, especially since it looks like they are in for a longer wait than anyone
had expected.[1]
"Once
upon a time, there were ten bridesmaids waiting for the wedding reception to
begin." Why would we consider five of these bridesmaids wise?
·
It
wasn't their expectation of the bridegroom: all ten of them expected him to
arrive.
·
It
had nothing to do with staying awake: no, the parable says all ten of them fell
asleep.
·
It
wasn't the fact that they woke up when the bridegroom was announced: again, all
ten of them woke up.
·
No,
there was only one thing that distinguished between who was wise and who was
foolish: namely, whether or not they were ready for the long delay.
The
bridegroom took his sweet, old time to get to the party. The ones who were wise
were prepared to endure a long wait. They had enough oil to keep their lamps
burning, burning, burning.
As
another preacher says,
The wise ones in the church are those
who are prepared for the delay, who hold onto the faith deep into the night,
who, even though they see no bridegroom coming, still serve and hope and pray
and wait for the promised victory of God. [2]
It
raises a good question for you and me: do we have enough resources for our
faith to keep burning over the long haul?
I’ve
been here long enough to see this is a town where a lot of people pass through.
They come and go. On the face of it, they are mobile. People here keep moving.
But is there any sense in which they are rooted? That they are connected to
something deep and grounded? That they belong to something larger than
themselves? Or are they merely consuming their way through the suburbs? If so,
it’s awfully easy to run out of fuel.
In
a town like this, where there’s a good measure of affluence, there are many
people who just keep spending, and think that’s going to give them happiness.
It can become a shallow existence, and can lull a lot of people to sleep. I’ve
met plenty of folks who simply grew tired of chasing after one thing after
another, so they retreat
Or
maybe there’s something we support, something we really believe in, some
initiative that promises to improve human lives, so we sink some time and
energy into making it happen. And it does happen – at least for a while. But
then it might run out of gas, or dwindle in energy, or lose its luster because
it’s familiar. So the temptation is to back off to avoid further disappointment,
to play it safe, and to nurse our wounds.
For
a church like ours, we have to sink our roots into what is eternally important,
and not merely chase after the latest fad or the quickest fix. Last month, when
we were celebrating the anniversary of the Reformation, somebody questioned why
we weren’t pursuing something more fresh, hip, or new. My response: “We are
working on a business plan that’s 500 years old. Most of the newer start-up
groups will last only as long as their founding pastor.” In a suburb where a lot of faces change and
businesses come and go, it's up to us to stand for something eternal and
long-lasting.
I’m
talking about a faith that intends to stick at it for the long haul. In the
chaotic decade of the 1960’s, with the war in Viet Nam lingering on abroad, and
the civil rights struggle revealing the dry rot at home, the Presbyterians put
a statement of what they believed to be true. The closing paragraph has always
moved my soul. It goes like this:
Already God’s reign is present as a
ferment in the world, stirring (human) hope and preparing the world to receive
its ultimate judgment and redemption. With an urgency born of this hope, the
church applies itself to present tasks and strives for a better world. It does
not identify limited progress with the kingdom of God on earth, nor does it
despair in the face of disappointment and defeat. In steadfast hope, the church
looks beyond all partial achievement to the final triumph of God.[3]
So
we pray, for the strength to keep going is always a gift from God, and not merely
one of our own exhaustible resources. And we read the Bible, to sharpen our
vision for what God desires for heaven and earth, trying to align ourselves
with those purposes in what we do and say. And we keep gathering for worship
every week, to wean ourselves from the empty promises of the world and to trade
them in for the real promises of the Gospel. And we support one another as a
Christian community, because it’s all too possible for any of us to lose sight
of what’s important and to lose energy in pursuing it.
Give
me oil for my lamp, keep me burning, burning, burning,
Keep
me burning to the break of day.
That’s
our prayer, that’s our hope, and that’s ultimately our joy. We want to see
Christ the Bridegroom. We want to welcome him every time he comes into our
midst, and to be ready to embrace the moment when he comes for the last time. And
through the work of our hands and hearts, we want his work to continue, ever reconciling
this wounded world to the healing power of his grace.
Christ’s
saving of the world will be no quick fix. We need to plan for enough fuel to
keep burning for the long haul.
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