Tuesday, November 4, 2014

SERMON: "Are We Ready?"

Are We Ready?
Matthew 25:1-13

Everyone's familiar with David Letterman’s Top Ten lists. He shared a list one night of the top ten things you should say if you are caught sleeping at your desk.  I’m only going to share a few of them. # 10 was: “They told me at the blood bank this might happen.”  Excuse # 8 was: “Whew!  Guess I left the top off the White-Out.  You probably got here just in time!”  Excuse # 4 was: “Darn!  Why did you interrupt me?  I had almost figured out a solution to our biggest problem.”  The # 1 best thing to say if you get caught napping at your desk was: “. . . in the name of Jesus, Amen.”

The late humorist and author Lewis Grizzard was in the hospital preparing to have open-heart surgery the next morning.  His minister stopped to see him.  Grizzard confessed to his minister that he had not exactly been a paragon of virtue and asked if there were still time to repent.

The minister looked at his watch and replied, “Yes, but I’d hurry if I were you.” (1)

The passage of scripture I'm considering in this sermon blog concerns how we should approach the end, the second coming of Christ.  The point is not the knowledge of when but the wisdom of being in a state of readiness.

Before I get into the details of the story, let me note here in the beginning that the kind of waiting we are to do is not a kind of pausing of our lives – a being frozen in time like when we play the childhood game of “statues.”  Rather, it’s a waiting by living a certain kind of life. (2)

Once again Jesus used the well-known image of a wedding to illustrate his point.  Now, there are a few things we need to know about first-century Palestinian weddings in order to really grasp the message Jesus wanted to impart.

Basically, it all started with the betrothal.  During this stage the marriage contract was negotiated and signed by the parents of the bride and groom.  Now, while there are some similarities between a betrothal and our engagement period, believe me when I say that a betrothal was a whole lot more involved.  For one thing, it was much more legally binding.  The only way to end it was the legal action of divorce.

Then, came the formal religious ceremony – held in the bride’s home, sometimes even a year later.

Finally, the feast - the banquet - the reception - was held.  Now, according to some bible scholars, this happened at the groom’s house, usually at night, and it lasted about seven days.  The bride and groom didn’t go on a honeymoon.  They stayed in their new home and all the community came and greeted them and offered them their congratulations.  They were treated like a prince and princess during that week.  You see, it wasn’t only the banquet the bridesmaids missed out on, it was that whole week of festivities.

But, it’s when all this took place that we need to note.  Again, according to some bible scholars, it could happen right after the religious ceremony or it could happen weeks later.  It happened whenever the groom decided things were ready and he wanted it to.  The uncertainty of when it was going to happen was part of the excitement.  Part of the fun was also the trying on the part of the groom to catch some of the bridal party – the bridesmaids, the attendants - sleeping – not ready. (Why was that considered fun? I have no idea! It makes about as much sense as some of the things wedding parties and family and friends do today in an attempt to embarrass or make things difficult for a bride and groom on their honeymoon. The clothes in Dorothy's overnight suitcase were tied in knots and rice littered the motel floor as a result of her opening it the first time!)

Once the groom arrived where the bride was they would begin to walk down the street to their reception with the bridesmaids lighting the way with the light in their lamps.  It was considered a major faux pax for them not to be by the side of the road with their lamps lit ready to welcome the couple. (3)

Apparently when the 10 bridesmaids reached the place where they were to welcome the groom, they settled down for the wait, became drowsy, and fell asleep.  When a voice proclaimed that the groom was approaching, five (referred to as “foolish”) of them discovered that they were low on oil and had to run off to buy some.  By the time the groom’s group, including the 5 “wise” bridesmaids, got to the place of the wedding reception, the foolish ones found themselves locked out.  Their shout of “Lord, Lord, open the door” was answered with words that send a chill down my spine every time I hear or read them, “Truly I tell you, I do not know you.”

This is another one of those parables that causes me to cringe.  Some of the things in it make me uncomfortable.  I tend to like the parables Jesus told that reveal God as this gracious, arms wide-open, always inviting, loving king.  I like the stories that call me to task for excluding others, that challenge my image of who’s going to be included.  You know the ones I’m talking about: like the prodigal son story, where the wild and crazy and selfish child runs away with his inheritance and blows it all only to return to his party-throwing dad – like the vineyard scene one where all the hired help get the same pay even though they worked different lengths of time – like the parables that tell us about God’s grace and the wonderful kingdom God has prepared for even those we don’t think deserve it.  I like the parables that provide comfort and hope for all of us.

But this one: with 5 bridesmaids refusing to help their sisters who are short on oil – with its tightly shut door keeping some from enjoying the party – with its seeming lack of grace – its seeming lack of sympathy symbolized by the bridegroom’s words to the oil-deficient bridesmaids – what do we make of this one?  How do we deal with this one with all else we believe to be important and to be true about a gracious God and an inclusive kingdom?

Again, we need to remember that a parable has only one purpose – one central idea or teaching that it is trying to convey.  Everything else in the parable is an attempt to illuminate that one point.  The primary purpose Jesus told this parable for was to contrast the result of being ready and not being ready – it was and is to challenge believers to be prepared despite the lack of knowledge about when Christ is going to come again.

So, when we read about the five “wise” bridesmaids refusing to supply some of their extra oil to the five “foolish” bridesmaids we need to ask “why?” in light of this central purpose of the parable.  We know why according to the real life situation: the wedding party could not continue on their way if they had no lit lamps.  The wedding would be ruined.  It was the responsibility of the bridesmaids to provide light.  They dared not risk sharing their oil with the irresponsible ones or they would have failed to fulfill the role they were asked to.

The lack of charity is not to be paid attention to.  The intent of it is not to contradict everything else we have been taught about the appropriateness of helping persons in need.  This is not a parable about caring for one another.  It’s a parable about the importance of being ready.  Thus the point of the bridesmaids’ response, interpreted in light of this central purpose, is to reveal that when it comes to the journey of faith, there are simply some things we can’t do for one another – some things we can’t receive from one another – some things we have to develop, come to, decide, accept, on our own.

We cannot live off of the faith of another: we can encourage – we can draw strength from – we can learn from – but, in the final analysis, our faith has to be our own.  We are responsible for our own obedience.  It simply is not possible to be ready for Christ’s return – eternal life – because of a spouse’s or a parent’s or a brother’s or a sister’s faith.  There has to come a time in every one of our lives when we make our own affirmation of faith – we decide for ourselves to follow Christ – when we no longer believe or live it out because someone else is living it out.  There comes a day in our lives when we do good because it’s our response in faith – when we act based on our own beliefs about being a follower of Jesus Christ’s – when we practice spiritual disciplines because we want to strengthen our relationship with God and not because others have told us we ought to.

The oil in our lives is not something we get so much of and then we store it away and only wait – ignoring that which produced the oil in our lives in the first place.  We store up oil in our lives so we can use it while we are waiting.  It’s an ongoing process.  We obtain it – we find it – we get turned on to its presence in our lives when we make a part of our lives some of the spiritual disciplines.  Sharing and living by faith – praying for others – reading and studying the scriptures – obeying the teachings of Christ – ministering to and with God’s people are all spiritual disciplines which help keep us full with the oil that symbolizes our being ready.  Just as the bridesmaids’ duty in the Palestinian wedding was to be ready to begin the procession upon the arrival of the groom, so the duty of the Christian is to live one’s entire life prepared to give an accounting to Christ at any moment.  It is both the doing and the being – the receiving and the giving – the growing and the sowing – the loving and the serving - that marks our readiness.

And so, the question we ask ourselves and our churches is: “Are we ready?”  Are we using the opportunities and the resources God provides us to ready ourselves?  Are we making the most out of that which God has given us or are we wasting our time trying to figure out when it’s all going to come down?

Parables about Christ’s return are not intended to produce in us fear about what’s going to happen when Christ returns.  The purpose of the parables about Christ’s return are to instruct us about how we are to go about living our lives until his return.  It’s about being ready – about being prepared – about actively waiting.


1.  Rev. Johnny Dean, “The Scariest Sound in the World,” www.sermons.com.
2.  Emphasis, “On High Alert,” November/December, 2005, p. 12.
3.  Arland Hultgren, The Parables of Jesus: A Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 2000), 170-171.

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