The reading
Matthew 25:1-13
1 "Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten
bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them
were foolish, and five were wise. 3 When the foolish took their lamps, they
took no oil with them; 4 but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. 5 As
the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. 6 But at
midnight there was a shout, "Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to
meet him.' 7 Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The
foolish said to the wise, "Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are
going out.' 9 But the wise replied, "No! there will not be enough for you
and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.' 10
And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went
with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut. 11 Later the other
bridesmaids came also, saying, "Lord, lord, open to us.' 12 But he
replied, "Truly I tell you, I do not know you.' 13 Keep awake therefore,
for you know neither the day nor the hour.
The message
Today, we have another reading about the final Judgment,
about who is in and out of the kingdom of God.
It again focuses on a wedding. In
Jesus time, weddings were a large event in the lives of the couple, their
families and in many ways the whole community or even city. It meant new relationships and connections
along with new obligations and responsibilities. They center on promises.
Now I do not want to
say I suck at doing weddings but let’s just say they are not a strong area of
expertise. I have forgotten a couple’s new last name, introducing mr and mrs and then whispering “what name” to the couple,
had a time when everyone assumed the service was over half way through and
left, I worked with a couple to meticulously find and pick 10 hymns of which
the 200 plus people there didn’t sing one word, I always find myself doing
something out of order (despite following my own plan and outline). Over my almost 10 years of ministry, I have
only had a few, what you would call “big weddings”, highly planned out events
complete with bridesmaids, a best man, ring bearer and others. Most people have preferred, smaller, less
complicated events. Big or small, there is always a great deal of confusion,
who stands where, who walks in when. Even with rehearsals and careful
instructions, the time immediately before the wedding is always packed with
complicated and complex questions, stuff I never even thought about. People seem to think all pastors get and
memorize a 1000 page manual on wedding etiquette (we don’t) Then there is the
last minute changes and adjustments.
Throughout the process I always remind people that the most important
part is that they will make their promises to each other before God and loved
ones, they will enter this next part of their lives together with prayer, love
and support.
Today is our second parable about the final judgement and
being prepared that Jesus shares right before his arrest, trial, death and
resurrection in Matthew. Last week we
had the story of the man who is not wearing the proper garment at the wedding
banquet of the king’s son. He is
questioned, remains silent and is thrown into hell.
Last week, we had to look closely at what was so bad about
the man not wearing a wedding robe. He
did not know where he was, because it was for everyone, he took this invitation
for granted, failing to realize he was at the wedding of the king’s son. We need to take a similar look at the 5
bridesmaids and what they did as well. This
week, we see a group of 5 bridemaids whose sin or crime is running out of oil
for their lamps, for not anticipating the very late arrival of the groom. For
this they are left out of the banquet, locked out of the kingdom. The role of bridemaids at the time was simple
enough. They served as attendants. They went to the bride’s house, waited for
the groom to arrive, welcomed him and then accompanied the couple to his family
house where the wedding and celebration would begin. As we often hear, they had one job to do, to
be there. When the very late groom
arrives, 5 of the maids do not have oil left.
They ask the others for help but are told, we do not have enough for you
and us. They are told go out and buy oil.
That is bad advice. Even today in
NYC it could be hard to find a light bulb at 2:30 in the morning.
I guess oil mart closed at 10 or oils are us was sold out,
for whatever reason, it takes so long for them to find the oil, the group has
already moved to the grooms house and banquet began (I assume that means it is
now day time and no one even needs the oil). The 5 bridesmaids end up being
left out of the banquet. It was not really
because the failed to have enough oil or that they did not plan for the groom
being so late. The main reason they are left out is that they got so distracted
by the unlit lamps they forgot about their only job welcoming the groom and
accompanying the couple to the wedding.
They were not the oil lamp maintaince crew or oil inventory keeper. They
were the welcomers and the escort. Really, they could have just shared the 5
lamps and went to welcome the groom anyway. If he asked “where’s the rest of
the light” you could say “well where were you 6 hours ago” or “how about thanking those awesome people who
brought extra oil, be thankful there’s still 5 working lamps”. Being there for
them, being at the banquet was way more urgent and important than having the
right amount of oil. That is what
mattered and that is what they did not do.
Like the stories I started with, it’s the main things that are remembered and
celebrated. Today’s parable of judgment calls our attention to our life
together in faith, the work of the church. Our main job is not to maintain
lamps, to run a school, provide social services, put on a show or give out
food, Our work is to share the good
news, to respond to faith with works, to tell our friends, family and neighbor
God saves them from sin and death.
No comments:
Post a Comment