Sermon November 6, 2011

Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25

Psalm 78:1-7

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Matthew 25:1-13

“Ready to Shine”

When I was in high school, I wasn't very challenged by my classes, but when I went to college that changed. Suddenly, I had to do homework to understand how to solve problems, work out solutions to complex questions and I had to study to be able to think in such a way that I could take tests and pass them. I had to work to be prepared for classes and tests in a way that I had never experienced before in my school work. But I also played the piano—and for the piano I had to practice, though I never did it as much as I could have and should have. But for recitals and contests, I couldn't be unprepared. I tried it. It didn't work and I was terrified for years to perform in public. I still don't like it.

So, I'm an ideal model of the unprepared in many ways. But I don't really think that God wants us to be practiced, polished and perfect—like my piano teacher might have liked. Instead, our preparation for living in God's realm—the kingdom of heaven in Matthew's gospel—focuses our lives on how we live and with whom we are connected.

To understand the story of the five foolish bridesmaids and the five wise bridesmaids, consider the image of oil in this parable. In Bible times, oil was associated with anointing and indicated the presence of God’s Spirit with a person. Oil also was a metaphor for God’s presence in a person’s life, as demonstrated in her or his acts of love and mercy.

Because oil was used to indicate God's presence with a person, it was often used to anoint in special times of dedication. The oil, in this case, represented God's abundance blessing on those who would be acting for God with God's people. In several places, oil anointed kings, as in David, and priests in descriptions in the law and some of the prophets. But it also was used in metaphor or symbol to designate prophets—as God's blessing poured out and flowing over a person. Oil was blessing because in that time, fat was hard to come by—we live in very different times. Oil pressed from olives and other seeds or fruits was difficult to produce—and calories were precious—we live in very different times.

So there is blessing and abundant richness in the oil of this story—oil representing the presence of God and the richness that brings to a community, a family and to individuals.

Just as oil meant God's blessing of another person—when a king, priest, prophet or other person was chosen for a special purpose—it also could be conveyed through the chosen people to others. God's blessing was like oil because it could be shared, like the chosen people were a conduit, a vessel—they were agents of God's blessing.

If God brought justice and mercy to Israel, by their anointing or by the anointing of leaders, then Israel—and the church of Jesus Christ—also bring blessing. And always being ready for the presence and return of Christ meant also having that conduit of God's blessing flowing through one's life and the life of the community.

Matthew’s community was waiting for Christ’s imminent return. And the texts from Matthew that we read today and will read in the next few weeks are texts meant to unveil the realm that God was revealing in Jesus Christ, known in Matthew's gospel as the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven isn't just a far off place, however, it is the realm of being where God dwells—perhaps beyond time, space and place.

For some, today's scripture of the foolish bridesmaids who aren't prepared, seem heavy warnings of damnation. The bridesmaids who aren't ready when the bridegroom arrives are locked out of the wedding party—and the bridesmaids who have enough oil are welcomed in.

Five of the young women had sense enough, as one commentator puts it, not to be "ready for the groom but...ready for the groom's delay." If the bridesmaids, both foolish and wise (or prudent), are the church today, how ready are we followers of Jesus for his return? What does ready, or having "enough oil," look like almost two thousand years after Jesus died and rose again, promising to return one day, but not saying when? "The wise ones in the church are those who are prepared for the delay; who hold on to the faith deep into the night; who, even though they see no bridegroom coming, still hope and serve and pray and wait for the promised victory of God" (Thomas Long, Matthew, Westminster Bible Companion).

There is certainly a taste of great anticipation in this parable of the bridesmaids—a wedding was a place of joy, a party where relationships could be made and renewed—and yet in this text the journey of life happens while the bridesmaids wait. Faithfulness, wisdom, responsibility is what happens in the mean time—as we've been waiting two thousand and some years.

Another writer looks at the closed door as a very real warning—the way a parable ends either leaves us with the blessing of God's presence or the curse of God's distance. Fred Craddock describes two types of parables, "those that offer a surprise of grace at the end...and those that follow the direct course from cause to effect as surely as the harvest comes from what is sown. [In this case,] There are no gifts and parties. Together the two types present justice and grace, either of which becomes distorted without the other" (Preaching through the Christian Year A). We often need to hear about grace, but we also need to hear regularly about justice.

If the oil represents God's blessing and God's gifts or anointing to do the work of God—if God's work means carrying out the revelation of God through Jesus Christ—then we are blessed, we are filled, we are shining and full of God's light when we do what Jesus was doing. Jesus told us how to live according to the values and vision of the Reign of God, and loving God and our neighbor sums it up. Loving God will inevitably lead us to worship God rather than idolize the false gods of modern culture amassing material goods and trust in national strength to name only two. Loving our neighbor will lead us to greater compassion and a firm commitment to justice, to making this a different and better world for all of God's children. This kind of living isn't sitting around and waiting; it's active and fully engaged in the present moment, even as we trust in a future that is in God's hands, even if the timing of that future is unknown to us.¹

If we are too busy reading novels and looking for signs of the end, we may miss the ways God is still speaking to us today, in this meantime. We might not do God's will, working for the healing of the world, caring for the good earth we were given, offering our own gifts in the transformation of an unjust society, reaching out in compassion to a world that is physically and spiritually hungry. However much we may be anxious about a dramatic end time, our faith reminds us of how often the Bible says, "Do not fear," and then challenges us to work here, on earth, for the bright day of God's reign in its fullness, which is glimpsed in every act, every moment of compassion, sharing, and justice. Even as we trust that we will be with God one day, in glory, we taste the sweet goodness of generosity and love right here, right now, through ministries of sharing the abundance with which we are blessed. "In the meantime," we are ready to shine with love, and justice, and joy.

Faithfulness is not easy. In fact, for those who suffer it may be difficult not to long for Jesus to return right now and make all things right (more about this in two weeks, when we study Matthew 25:31-46). But we might also approach these stories with gratitude (which is always in order) for the wisdom they offer and the prudence they encourage.

This way of living [means that] "Every person must come to terms with living in the world, the place given by God for his children, over time. For modern Christians, that includes care of the earth and making peace for the sake of future generations. It is necessary to plan for the long haul, remain faithful, be wise, and stay strong" (The Lectionary Commentary).² Such faithfulness makes it possible to "lie down to sleep in this confidence, rather than being kept away by panicky last-minute anxiety." But such faithfulness requires endurance: "Many can do this for a short while; but when the kingdom is delayed, the problems arise. Being a peacemaker for a day is not as demanding as being a peacemaker year after year when the hostility breaks out again and again, and the bridegroom is delayed" (Matthew, The New Interpreter's Bible).

However much we may fear a dramatic end, [we can remember] that our faith sees "the end" not as the end, but as "the doorway to the new – the new age, the new creation." We can trust, as Paul says in today's reading from 1 Thessalonians, that "we will be with the Lord forever" (4:17b). This, for us and for all creation, is "finally good news" (The Lectionary Commentary).

So we prepare by connecting with God and worshiping God on a regular basis. We prepare by loving God and doing God's will. We prepare by loving our neighbors and doing justice and mercy for those around us. We prepare by promoting and sharing the teachings of Jesus, as he said, he lived to free the prisoner, heal the sick, bring sight to the blind and proclaim the year of God's favor, God's grace. And though he died when his work was rejected, God's resurrection and life in him and in all of us means that the work continues now and until the end of the age.

To God's everlasting and complete grace, mercy and justice. Amen.

1http://www.ucc.org/worship/samuel/november-6-2011-thirty-second.html (Kathryn Matthews Huey)

2Ibid, Arland J. Hultgren