Matthew
25:1-13
I
Thessalonians 4:13-18
Does
the gospel sound like good news today?
The kingdom of heaven, Jesus says, is like ten bridesmaids who go out to
light the way for a bridegroom upon his arrival. All ten bridesmaids bring their lamps for the
task. Five of the ten even decide to
bring along some extra oil which turns out to be a good decision because
there’s a problem, the bridegroom is late.
And I mean really late. So late
that those young women can’t keep their eyes open and end up falling asleep in
the midst of their vigil. Until at
midnight the cry goes out, Look! Here is
the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.
The bridesmaids startled out of their sleep and hurry to get ready. You can imagine them straightening their
clothes, adjusting their hair, trimming their wicks - and then the panic that
comes when five of them discover they don’t have enough oil. The wait has gone on so much longer than
expected that their lamps are flickering and just about to go out. It seems as if the only choice is to leave
their post to go and buy more oil - which they do - but by the time they return
the bridegroom has already arrived. The
party is in full swing. The door is
shut. And Jesus ends this story with the
five bridesmaids shut out and turned away.
Is
that how God’s kingdom works? Is it
really true that blessed are the well-prepared for only they will be let into
the kingdom of heaven? If so, I’m
sunk. Thank God that is not the
case. We already know from Jesus
himself that the God who is love closes the door on no one - everyone, the outcast, the sinner, even the
foolish are always invited, and sometimes especially invited, into God’s
celebration. This story’s purpose is
not to extol the virtues of planning ahead, but to turn our attention on the
delayed return of the expected one and what the bridesmaids do in
response.
Because
what does one do when the wait is unpredictable or when things don’t go as
planned? That’s the challenge in any
situation - what to do when life does not go as expected. The five foolish bridesmaids and the oil in
their lamps would have been just fine if the groom had arrived within the
generally accepted amount of time.
Likewise, we’re just fine and our faith is able to remain secure when
life goes along in a reasonably predictable way. Now we’re wise enough to know that there are
always bumps in the road. That’s okay,
we can handle that. The problem comes
when the bumps turn into something more like a broadside that we get into
trouble. For the bridesmaids it was the
unexpected delay of the bridegroom that prompted a crisis. For us it may be a job loss or a diagnosis, a
broken relationship or an unexpected death - anything that doesn’t fit our
general expectation of how life should go, that’s when our oil can run low and
the light of our faith grow dim. Because
everyone walks around with an idea in their head about life and how we think it
should be and then there is life and how it actually is. When those two don’t match up that’s often
when we struggle.
And
that’s what’s going on in our reading from I Thessalonians today. Those new believers are struggling in their
faith because the life of faith they expect is not the life of faith that
actually is. They know that Jesus died
on the cross, was raised from the dead and ascended into heaven just about
twenty years earlier and it was generally accepted that Jesus would be coming
back shortly. But years have passed and
people are dying. People the
Thessalonians loved and cared about had already died before Jesus’ return and
they are full of questions. How can this
be? What is going to happen to them to
those that have died? Are they eternally
lost because their timing was off?
Now
without diving into the particulars about Christ’s return - the cry, the call,
the trumpet and the clouds - which by the way, is not to be taken as a literal
description of Jesus’ second coming - the most important thing that Paul is
trying to get across is the message that God has not forgotten the
Thessalonians. They are not forgotten
nor the ones they love. Even though
things are not going as the Thessalonians thought they should, God can still be
trusted. And that God revealed in Christ
has always been and will always be with them even when things do not go as
planned.
Two
thousand years later our particular concerns are likely very different from the
ones the Thessalonians wrestled with, but the crux of the issue remains the
same. What are we to hold onto when life
does not go as expected? What are we to
believe when God is not doing what we think should be done? The answer is timeless. Hear this, God has not forgotten any one of
us and we are not abandoned - even when what we think life should be does not
match up with how life actually is. When
things do not go as planned and when the oil in our lamps may be running
desperately low, even then, the love of God in Christ is at work - in our
lives, in the lives of those we love, and in the world.
At
the conclusion of the bridesmaids’ story, Jesus admonishes his listeners to Keep awake.
This, however, is not a call to a life of insomnia. Even the bridesmaids who are called wise fall
asleep. Nor is this a story intended to
encourage us to stockpile things so we are ready for all the unexpected things of
life. As easy as it is to draw a line
between the wise bridesmaids and the extra flask of oil that is not really what
made them wise in the end. Although the
extra oil was a good practical move, the most significant difference between
the two groups of bridesmaids was that one stuck around while the other did
not. What ultimately made five of the
bridesmaids foolish is that they left the scene. They became so distracted by what they lacked
that it prevented them from keeping awake to what really mattered - the coming
of the bridegroom.
For
keeping awake is staying open to God’s presence, to God’s love, to God’s coming
into in our lives and into the world in all circumstances. Keeping awake is recognizing that whether
it’s a delayed bridegroom or something else unexpected or unwelcomed that,
nonetheless, we have not been forgotten by God.
I
wonder how would the story have turned out if the foolish bridesmaids chose not
to run for more oil but instead opted to wait even with flickering or
extinguished lights? What would have
happened if they had kept their focus on the bridegroom, stayed awake to that
coming and, if necessary, wait in the darkness for his arrival? I don’t know what a bridegroom of the day
would have done, but I do know what our God does in such situations. Our God, our bridegroom, always comes into
our darkness with his light that shines for all. This is the message of good news of the
gospel today. Blessed are those when
life does not go as expected, when the wait is long, when the oil runs low and
the light grows dim - blessed are those for their lives will shine in the
Kingdom of Heaven with the brightness of their God.
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