Latest / Belin Memorial UMC / “Living in the Delay”
Transcript
- HARBOR 11 08 26: The scripture lesson comes to us today from Matthew chapter 25, the first 13 verses. It is known as the Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids, and Jesus is telling this parable. He's actually on the Mount of Olivet. It is part of his long discourse to his disciples toward the end of his earthly ministry. Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten women took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, five of were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a shout Look, here is the bridegroom. Come out to meet him. Then all those young women got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise, give us some of your oil for our lamps are going out. 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. 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. Later the young women came also, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he replied, Truly I tell you. Do not know you. Truly I tell you I do not know you. Keep awake, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour. This is the word of God for the people of God. You may be seated. I know it is hard to believe, and I had this conversation with a couple of you this morning, that we are rapidly approaching the end of the church year, another liturgical year, and the texts assigned to this day send us into the musings of the time in Jesus' life that things were winding down. So we're about to welcome the season of Advent, the season. Of anticipation and hope. And we are reminded again, we celebrate and we are grateful for Christ's arrival in humility, born in obscurity in Bethlehem, fully human, fully divine. And we are also grateful for Christ's current presence in our lives. We're sort of living in that in-between time. We're living in the delay because Christ has promised to come. Come again. And we proclaim that mystery of faith even in our communion liturgy. Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. So the readings today take on and they begin to ramp up a more urgent feel as we approach the end of the liturgical year. Keep awake. Well, Jesus tells us this parable. And it is only recorded in the Gospel of Matthew. It is one of his most familiar parables. But Matthew's stories that Jesus tells are often not about individuals. They're actually about community. They're about groups of people, like a bunch of bridesmaids waiting for the arrival of the bridegroom, which of course in this parable, Jesus is referring to himself. And the groups of people often don't have forever to make some decisions. They have to make preparations for the big event. And like many of Jesus' stories and parables, there are elements in there that make us uncomfortable. We trust the parable, we trust the message because we trust the giver and the teller. But a couple of the parts that you probably noticed today that could be disturbing are when the the five who did not have enough oil requested oil from the ones who had extra, and they said, no, there won't be enough for us and for you. You have to go buy some. Boy, Jesus was not promoting selfishness. There is a deeper message to that. And then toward the end of the parable, we hear that the five who were prepared were admitted with the bridegroom into the wedding banquet. The five who were not prepared showed up late because they had to go buy oil, and when they finally got there, there was no entry. I don't know you. Well, that was not meant to be harsh or exclusive. It th there was a deeper message there that some of our preparations cannot be done by someone else. We can't borrow on someone else's preparedness. And all of this was from Jesus in a parable form to teach a deeper meaning. Now The context in which Jesus is telling this is very important and will help us understand why those particular statements that he made were not as harsh as they may seem. In the first century, his hearers would have been very familiar with the practices of the day. In the first century, the standard wedding practice was for the bridesmaids as a group, community. A welcoming party. They would go out and meet the groom, and when the groom arrived, they would then take him with lamps lit to lead him into the celebration. You see, there were no limousines, there were no cell phones, there was no text, we're two miles away, get everything ready. He just showed up when he could get there. Sometimes it was when expected, sometimes it was not. But the bridegroom in this story very obviously was delayed, significantly delayed. Now remember, this is a story, it's a teaching story. So the bridesmaids were prepared. All ten of them were prepared for what they expected. They were prepared for their timeline. They were not prepared for what they got. They were not prepared for what really happened because every one of them, all ten of them, fell asleep. So as a part of his teaching, Jesus is telling this story just days before his arrest and his crucifixion. His intent was to remind his disciples again to be prepared for To be watchful. Things do not always happen on your timeline. Okay, I'm just going to watch some faces. You don't have to respond. Does everything in life turn out exactly the way you expect it to turn out? And when you expect it to turn out, and how you want it to turn out. okay. Well, we're we are all in the same boat. But Jesus wants his disciples, his followers, that includes us, to be prepared, to be ready, because he wants every one of us in the banquet with him. So for early Christians waiting for Jesus to return, that's why this was so important again at this point in his ministry, it was it was a time that was a real concern. Many thought it was Was going to happen in their lifetime. It was going to happen sooner than later. And a lot of that was based on some of the the conditions in which they lived. Many were living in very harsh circumstances. They were in persecution. They were in oppression. And they were growing weary of waiting. Okay, now this one you can answer. Is anybody in here really excited when you just have to wait? Ugh. I'm not either. I've told you going through the fast food. Well, I've been in line five minutes. I mean, you know, it But it was against that historical backdrop that Jesus is telling the story. So when we understand that, we can go deeper into the story and remember that Jesus is teaching through the parable of the ten bridesmaids. Five of them were wise, five of them were foolish. And it has been mused that. maybe instead of this parable being the parable of the ten bridesmaids, that maybe it should be the parable of, well everybody messed up. Now I don't know about you, but it makes me feel a little better and I can relate to know that everybody in there did something that was probably not exactly the way Jesus would have expected or wanted them to do this. But every one of them fell asleep and then it happened. Now all ten are sleeping, and the midnight cry comes, and it's the wake up. The time has come. The bridegroom is finally arriving, and not only is he arriving, he's here. So it's time for us to swing into action. We've got to go out and meeting, take the lamps, and take him into the place where he was going. That was their job. And can't you just hear some of the bridesmaids for the ones who didn't have enough oil? Look, you had one job. Bring enough oil. Just one job. And you didn't bring enough. Now we don't know why they didn't bring enough. It's a story Jesus didn't tell us. But what we know is that none of the ten wanted to be left out in the dark. It was frightening. And let's just be honest, the party on the inside just sounds so much better. It sounds like heaven. Because we know the host. We love the bridegroom. And there was no better place to be. So, why would they not be prepared to go to the greatest place ever? Well, we might ask: well, was extra fuel what we might call the sauce? It's easy to blame and it's easy to question, but we really don't know. Then there were those who brought extra oil, but they were not willing to share it. If they shared it, All would enjoy it for a very short time, but then it wouldn't last very long. Have you ever heard the expression a flash in the pan? Well, that's sort of what they would have experienced. The better question might be: got oil. All of them fell asleep, not a single one of them stayed awake. But that wasn't the point. It wasn't the staying awake that set them apart from each other. It was being prepared. It was having enough fuel to last until the bridegroom finally showed up. And what they learned was it wouldn't be on their schedule. And it might not even be as anticipated. The truth is, and Jesus knows it, that everybody falls short. Everybody messes up sooner or later. Everybody makes a mistake. Now we don't know why sometimes just like with the bridesmaids who did not prepare well. It could have been financial, it could have been memory, it could have been, well we we just don't think it's important. Jesus doesn't tell us because we, as we insert ourselves into the story, it speaks to everyone in different ways. The realism of the story is not in question. What we are after is the deeper meaning of Jesus' message, to act with wisdom when preparing for the day of the Lord for the midnight cry. It's true wisdom and true relationship that are the motive behind the preparation, not the individual tasks themselves. So I want you to hear me very clearly. I am not talking about works righteousness that are earning points that God has. A big score tally, and it's that that is not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about grace and that we all mess up, and everybody is under God's grace. The tasks are not tallied. The tasks are responses to the love and the blessings of the bridegroom, the provider. The actions, the task, the response demonstrate the presence of Christ in the world. And Jesus reminds them that God's time does not unfold on schedule around our plans. Now remember that context. This is just before Jesus would be arrested, ultimately crucified, and resurrected. The night before he was arrested. Something Jesus found very important following the meal. He went into the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. He knew his disciples were wrestling with his being arrested and crucified. They were wrestling with his no longer being with them physically, and they vehemently wanted it to be a different way. But he invited them to go into the Garden of Gethsemane with him to pray as he prayed. And guess what they did? They fell asleep. So he understands. They would have gotten that. And in this parable there is grace. So what if, while we're living in the delay, in this in-between time, what if we serve with empathy and compassion and kindness and grace in the midst of uncertainty and in the midst of not always getting it all right? You do this. You do this as a body of Christ here at Blaine Memorial. You do it with a strong witness. You show up, just like the bridesmaids. You hold on to and care for one another. So if the question is got oil, you do. You show up with the God given gifts, talents, and resources to share with others. You share with some who are struggling, some you know, some you don't, some you will never meet. But the important thing is the message that is deeper. Just like in the parable, God knows them, and God knows you. The gospel fuel that you offer in so many ways is so much brighter and stronger and endless than any fuel or light that could be permeated from a lamp. Thank you for the ways you show up tangibly. Thank you for the ways you show up spiritually and in prayer. Thank you for being who and whose you are. You are the hands and feet of Christ. You bear God's fingerprints on your very being. You are the reminders that that baby that was born in Bethlehem, who grew to a man and who died on a cross and rose again, did that for them too. Your reminders, your service, remind them that Christ is present and loves them now. Your reminders share that Christ did that for them too. You do this with compassion, and you do it in a way that is obvious that you desire to mirror the love of Christ. everywhere even when it's hard even when it's a difficult thing to do you do it readiness in jesus parable is not thank goodness is not a matter of being perpetually in a state of alert none of us can do that Some of us don't sleep a lot. I hear people say, you know, they need eight or nine hours. Some need four hours of sleep. We're all different. None of us can go 24-7 forever. But readiness is a condition of the heart. It's formed slowly over time. By the quiet daily practice of a life lived in relationship with God and with each other. There is always new life. There are always other opportunities with one another while we are living in the delay. Thank you for continuing to gather the oil. Thank you for continuing to prepare and thank you for continuing to share that with others while we await for the arrival of the bridegroom. Let us pray. Eternal God, you illumine the church with the hope of your new day. God, of the midnight cry and the long delay, we come before you acknowledging that we are a people who do not like to wait. We grow weary and we confess that when your timing does not match our urgency, we too can grow drowsy and we are grateful that you understand, know that, and you continue to receive us with grace. Kindle in us a holy readiness. Grant us wisdom to tend the lamps of our hearts daily, stoking flames of love and pouring in the oil of patience and practicing the quiet disciplines of being in relationship with you. Make us a people who are fully alive, fully present, and firmly anchored at the door, ready to welcome you whenever and however you arrive. Comfort those who are facing difficult circumstances, those who are in need of healing, those who walk through the valleys of grief. God, in your mercy, remind them and us all that you are our help and our deliverer, and that you never forsake your people. O God, sustain us by your grace and guide us into the promise of everlasting life. Into your steadfast love we entrust all for whom we pray as we join our voices together to pray the words that Jesus taught his disciples, saying, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.