Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Church Episcopal
November 12, 2017
27 Proper A
Caldwell,
Don’s and my younger son, is getting married on Saturday so the past year has
been filled with talk of the bride and groom, bridesmaids and groomsmen. There have been dress fittings, tuxedo
rentals, hotel reservations, the selection of wedding and reception venues,
food and wine tastings, invitation lists, and on and on. I am quite sure that the preparation for a
wedding can take exactly as long as one has, so this one has taken exactly 13
months. I trust, and keep telling the
bride, that all of the preparations will pay off. Their big day will come and all of the details
will have been tended to. Nothing will
distract them as family and friends arrive from all over the country to help
celebrate their marriage and their new life together.
A
new life together is really what all the wedding preparations are about, after
all. Whether simple, elaborate, or
somewhere in between, all of the attention to detail ultimately creates an
experience that points to the love two people have for each other, and their
commitment to build a new life together.
In the case of Christian marriage, the commitment is also to make the
world a better place together and to be a sign of God’s love for the world.
So,
I already had weddings on the mind when I read the parable of the wise and
foolish bridesmaids this week. I have
all kinds of problems with this parable.
For starters, didn’t Jesus say, just a few chapters back, “Take no bag
for the journey, or extra shirt, or sandals or a staff?” Wouldn’t extra oil also go on this list? Perhaps the bridesmaids who took no oil with
them trusted that the bridegroom would show up on time and were trying to
travel light, like Jesus instructed. And
what about the so-called wise bridesmaids who would not share what they had
with those without enough oil? Are they
to be commended for their selfish behavior?
I recall a story that occurs 6 times in the four gospels where a few
fish and loaves were turned into food for a great crowd of people. There is
also the story in 1st and 2nd Maccabees where one day’s
worth of oil lasted for 8 days. So,
wouldn’t there be reason to believe that if the 5 bridesmaids with oil shared,
there would be enough for all? All of
these parables or stories are about abundance and this morning’s parable seems
to be about scarcity. Then, of course
there is the rude behavior of the bridegroom who shut out those who arrived
late, and the admonition to keep awake, as if all 10 bridesmaids had not been
asleep when the bridegroom was announced.
So,
what on earth is this parable trying to tell us? What is the real difference between the wise
and the foolish bridesmaids?
A
pressing concern for the church in the mid to late first century was the delay
in Jesus’ return. The early Christians
expected Jesus to return immediately as he seemed to have promised. In the reading from 1 Thessalonians, the
oldest writing in the New Testament, the Christians are deeply concerned about
what will happen to those who die before Jesus’ return. Will they, too, be among those who are
gathered up by Jesus or will they have missed the boat? Paul’s answer is that the faithful who have died
will be raised when Jesus returns. When
Matthew was written some 30 or 40 years later, the waiting was growing old and
Christians were getting complacent. The
urgency to watch and wait for Jesus was dying.
On the one hand, Matthew writes to encourage the weary Christians that
Jesus really will come. On the other
hand, Matthew’s encouragement is wrapped in a package that is a bit hard to
swallow, as Jesus will reject those who are not ready.
So
here we are two millennia later and Jesus has still not returned. What are we
to do with this parable in 2017? The
message to keep awake and maintain constant vigilance wears thin 2000 years
later. But the real question that the
parable addresses is how to live in the time between Jesus’ resurrection and
ascension, and Jesus’ return. The
answer for the first century Christians was to keep awake, because Jesus would
return any day now. I think our question
as 21st century Christians is the same, although the answer might be
different. How are we to live in the
post-resurrection, pre-return world?
I wonder what would
have happened if the bridesmaids without oil for their lamps had stayed rather
than leaving to go off in search of oil.
Suppose the five had trusted that oil would be provided, or that the oil
would not be needed, or that the other five would be convinced to share. Had all 10 bridesmaids trusted in God’s
abundance and the 5 without oil had stayed, all 10 would have been present when
the bridegroom arrived, and might well have been admitted to the wedding
banquet before the doors closed.
Who
knows why Jesus’ return has been delayed?
I certainly do not. But what I do
know is that our baptismal covenant calls us to seek and serve Christ in all
people now. We are called to keep
ourselves from being distracted by scarcity and running off after whatever we
think we need because that distraction keeps us from recognizing Christ’s
presence in our midst here and now. We
are called to treat all people as honored guests at the wedding banquet that
celebrates the new life God provides for all of us, the hope for the future,
and God’s love poured out for all. The
world is starving for that banquet. Perhaps
staying focused on the work of seeking and serving Christ in all people is our
way of keeping awake with our lamps full of oil so we are ready whenever and
however Christ arrives. For all that I
do not know, I am convinced that if we cannot recognize and serve Jesus in our
fellow humans now, we will never be ready to recognize Jesus in the fullness of
time when he does return.
Amen.
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