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“While Waiting” · Belin Memorial UMC

• SANCTUARY 11 08 26: Please remain standing as we hear together the gospel according to Matthew. Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five of them 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. Here is the bridegroom, come and meet him. Then all those bridesmaids 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 there other bridesmaids came also, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he replied, Truly I tell you, I do not know you. Keep awake, therefore, for neither the day nor the hour. This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. My wife Sally and I are courteous guests. We regularly honor our hosts by arriving late. Some of you think that's disrespectful. It's not your fault, that's how you were raised. If you were brought up like I was, to know that there's always one more thing you can do before you leave home, then you'd understand the value of being late. And if you always have one more thing to do before your guests arrive, then you understand how being it is courteous to be late for your host. It's been a very rare and pleasant experience for Sally and me when we were ready early for our guests, and when we had time to actually relax and enjoy each other before they arrived. On one of those glorious evenings, we sat out on our front porch in rocking chairs, petting our dog Duke. It was a blissful evening until Duke spotted a cat across the street. He jumped up and was gone in an instant. So we jumped up and started chasing him. He took us through backyards of people's homes that we hardly knew. We were sprint walking like characters in those old movies where they turned the reel faster. We were whisper-yelling at him, come, come. Finally, we remembered the resources we had available to us. Treats. So Sally went back, got the treats, got the leash. Thanks to our courteous guests being late, we were back in place before they arrived. But isn't that how life goes? Even when you've done what you need to, prepared well, exhaled, something unexpected happens. And to handle it, you need resources. The unexpected events, the dog suddenly on the run disrupting the peaceful evening that happened in the lives of the early Christians, where Jesus' delay in returning. and the struggles they were facing while they waited. They wondered what to do until Jesus came back. Which has been the question for Jesus' followers ever since he ascended to be with the Father. Jesus rose from the dead, he ascended to be with the Father. For a moment the disciples stared into the sky, all struck and stuck. When two men in white robes stood before them and asked, Why do you stare there into heaven? This Jesus who had been taken up from you. will come in the same way as you saw him go. What the two men in white did not say is when this would happen. For a while people thought it would be any day, which became weeks, then years, then generations, now millennia. Which has left some people clinging to the idea that it will be any day now, while others assume not in my lifetime. Neither of which, Jesus' parable suggests, is correct. In his allegory, where Jesus is the groom and the bridesmaids are the church, he demonstrates that the foolish make no allowance for a timeline other than the one they expect. While the wise prepare for a delay, always believing that at some point the groom will come. And that, according to the parable, is the difference between the foolish and the wise. The foolish do not prepare for the delay. They do not keep adequate resources. The wise do. Other than that, the ten bridesmaids are the same. When the story starts, all ten are present and waiting for the groom. All ten have working lamps. All ten are dressed for the banquet. As the story goes on, both the wise and the foolish fall asleep while waiting. You cannot look at that group of bridesmaids and distinguish the wise from the foolish until until the groom is delayed. When something different than what they wanted to happen, what than what they expected to happen occurred, that's when you know who the wise are and the foolish are. The wise are prepared. They have the resources they need. The foolish do not. When I was an associate pastor, the church where I was serving had within a short period of time several tragic deaths. And the weight of it was taking its toll on many of us. One day, as the senior pastor was rushing out to yet another family, experiencing yet another untimely death, he said to me, They want us to manufacture faith for them while they're in crisis. But they have done nothing to cultivate their faith in the times when they were not. The five foolish bridesmaids did not anticipate that the groom might be delayed. And when his delay caused him to arrive deep into the night, they did not have the resources to sustain them until he arrived, or to be ready to welcome him properly. And Jesus puts before us the question. Do we? Jesus tells us multiple times that we will not know the time when he will return. He even tells us he did not know. But that is very different than thinking he will not return. Every time Jesus speaks about it in the Gospels, it is not if, it is when. So we wait. We wait expecting that he will in fact return. And if we are wise, we wait in ways that help us renew the resources we need to be sustained in the faith. problem was not that the bridesmaids used their oil, all ten of them did, the wise and the foolish. The problem is the foolish used theirs without cultivating renewed resources. When you don't know for sure how long someone will be away, when you don't know for sure what will happen while they are, then you for sure need to cultivate resources for the waiting. How much better? Never easy, still completely tragic, but better when an event strikes a family and they do not have to grieve as those who do not have hope. Instead, having invested their time of waiting into nourishing their prayer life, learning Scripture's promises, cultivating gratitude in their lives, caring for others in their times of need, training their eyes to look for God's good work in the world, wrestling with what it means when bad things happen to good people, learning from those whose faith has sustained them through their challenges. Worshiping and studying and meditating on a faith that tells us that God is with us through the valley of the shadow of death and pursues us with goodness and mercy. That Jesus promises to be with us always to the ends of the age and goes to prepare a place for us in his Father's house. That God works all things together for good and nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. When that is not new news. Because those are not new practices, then people going through hardship are better able to remain people of faith. They are better resourced for when the unexpected arises. Those practices also help us to remain faithful even between the times of hardship, the times when things are going pretty well. They help us live out our faith, help us to act justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly while we are waiting. which is how we can sleep as soundly as we might. Did notice that? The five bridesmaids slept. Even though they were excited for the groom's arrival, they were able to sleep because they were not nervous about when he would come or how he would be when he did. They had done what needed to be done, to have the resources to wait. They were doing what the groom would want them to be doing when he showed up. They found that sweet spot of anticipating his return. Of preparing well for it, and of having the resources they needed so they could rest easily while they waited. That's what we want to give you here at Blaine Memorial United Methodist Church. We cannot cultivate the faith within you, but we strive to give you the means by which it can be cultivated. We want you to have the spiritual resources we all need when life presents challenges and opportunities while we wait for the Lord. So we pray together and for each other. We study God's word and we support one another. We serve God and neighbor. We worship for God and each other. We give to God and order to help God and others so that others may grow in their faith, devotion and trust. While we wait, we do these things so we won't be scrambling to find our faith resources after it's too late to employ them. Is what we're about day after day, week after week, year after year. It happened this past Monday when 36 teams asked 143 golfers plus whatever I am. When we enjoyed a beautiful day out on the golf course and netted over $18,000 to help local nonprofits and ministries accomplish their missions. It happened Thursday when staff and volunteers helped us honor veterans with a meaningful program and luncheon. Just a couple of examples of annual events that help us help our neighbors. But what's more impressive, what's more necessary, are the ongoing ones, the weekend and home. Weak out ones, the ministry with youth and children and adults, the classes, the r the gatherings, all of that which adds together to give people the foundational resources they need to have the faith they need when they need it. Here's an example. At the tournament, a golfer walked up to me and thanked me for the BCLC, our preschool. His daughter had been in it this summer. His two and a half year old daughter was in it this summer. Now they live in another state. She's in a non-faith based school now. He was walking with her the other day, and she looked up and said to him, God made those trees. He said, That's right, but. How'd you know that? And she named the teacher from the BCLC who this summer told her that. pebbles, the stones, the boulders, whatever they are, however they get thrown. We don't know how deep or how wide the ripples will go, but we do know that this church provides opportunities for it to happen in our lives and in the lives of others. And those who take advantage of that will be like the bridesmaids who have their faith resources at the ready while they're waiting for their Lord the groom to return. Today is Commitment Sunday. And some of you have already participated by returning your estimate of giving cards, and we thank you for that. Some of you will be courteously late with those. And that is just fine. But we do want you to return them because it's a way for us to prepare better. If you need a card, there's some available to you in the back. If you brought yours today as an act of worship, We invite you to place your cards in the offering plate as it passes by. Just as every offering is an act of thanksgiving for the God who provides, an act of obedience to God that we will share, and an act of trust that God will continue to give us what we need, to bless us to be a blessing. So is offering our commitment. We will receive God's tithes, your offerings, and our commitment cards together today. Grateful for how each helps us to help one another and others while we are waiting for our Lord.