Prepared to Wait

Matthew 25: 1-13, NT page 28 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 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 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 the 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 you know neither the day nor the hour. Sermon My mother once heard a comedian talk about what you should do if you’ve placed your order at McDonald’s and the cash registers malfunction. “It doesn’t matter how hungry you are,” this comedian said. “If the power goes out and the kids behind the counter have to make change for themselves without the help of a computer – turn around and get out of there as fast as you can.” She told me about this bit when I was in middle school with easy access to a calculator. I think it was an attempt to encourage me to never forget how to add and subtract and make other calculations on my own. She was thinking about those times when the battery would die or the power would go out – those times of unexpected technical failure, but those were times that I was not nearly as concerned about as I was with finishing my homework as quickly as possible so I could watch TV. And too often I’m still that same middle school-er. Two weeks ago Frank Dale climbed into our church van, joining Elijah Hedrick, Kyle Hanners, Jillian Baxter, her friend Bonnie, and me carrying a paper map of the state of Tennessee. “This, young people, is a map,” he said. “You may have never seen one before, but this is something that will give you direction without electricity or cell phone coverage.” I shoved the map into the glove compartment because I was sure that we wouldn’t need it, but four hours later on our way to Harlan, Kentucky my phone that was giving us turn by turn instructions stopped working because the cell phone signal was too spotty driving through the mountains. Then I had a use for Frank’s map, and I was thankful he was wise and not foolish. There were 10 bridesmaids, 5 foolish and 5 wise, and you would never have been able to tell the difference between a foolish bridesmaid and a wise bridesmaid had the wedding started on time. Both the foolish and the wise had oil enough for the wedding, they both functioned perfectly under normal circumstances. In the same way that you can’t tell the difference between the one who can make change in his head and the one who can’t when the special cash registers are working the way they’re supposed to – in the same way that we would have gotten to Harlan, Kentucky just fine without a map had the cell phone coverage been what it is on this side of those mountains – you never would have been able to tell the wise from the foolish had the bridegroom showed up on time but he didn’t. And that is the point that Jesus is making in this parable from the Gospel of Matthew – some are wise and some are foolish and the difference between the two is that the wise are ready for everything to not work out as expected. The reality is, if you depend on a calculator to add and subtract, 99 percent of the time you’ll be just fine, but that one percent of the time you’ll be in trouble. The reality is, if we had depended on my cell phone for directions, then on 99 percent of trips we would have made it to our destination and back without any issue, but had we depended on my cell phone that last trip we might still be driving around the Appalachians. That’s what Jesus is talking about in this parable. He’s asking: Will you have oil in your lamp on that one night – not the typical night when you read a book for five minutes and fall asleep quickly in the security of a safe home with your family. Jesus is asking – if the student who sits next to you in Spanish Class gets diagnosed with non-Hodgkin Lymphoma will you have any idea what to do? Jesus isn’t worried about the day when the sun is shining and the birds are singing their song and your neighbors wave to you as you climb into your car on the way to church – Jesus wants to know if you have enough oil in your lamp to make it even when the guy next store won’t talk to you because the leaves from your big oak tree fall in his swimming pool. He already knows that if everything goes according to plan you’ll be just fine, that if things keep going the way that they’re going, if tomorrow is just like today, if your health holds up, your job keeps paying you, he knows that you’ll be there if the creek doesn’t rise, but let me tell you something that’s certain – the creek will rise, the tragedy will happen, and despite all that some will make it and some will not because some will have enough oil in their lamp to make it through – but what about you? Do you have enough oil in your lamp to make it through the whole night? Today is a special Sunday for our church. (In the late service our congregation’s children will lead the worship service. They’ll hand out bulletins, they’ll pass the offering plates, read scripture, say prayers, confess their sins, and will remind us of forgiveness – and it’s true that they’ll have their whole lives to do this kind of thing if they want to, but this church teaches these children today because no one knows the time nor the hour – no one can predict the day or the night when they’ll need the kind of oil that some have and some don’t, the kind that a parent can’t pour out into her son’s lamp no matter how much she wants to. There are some valleys that we all have to walk through. Some dark valleys that nobody else can walk for you, some dark nights that soccer practice and piano and hours of homework just can’t prepare you for. There are nights in this life that you’ll toss and turn through, when you’ll question and worry and cry, and the only way you’ll make it through is if you know who to turn to, if you know who to trust in, if you know how to pray. Those wise bridesmaids knew that he was coming, like a thief in the night, and their faith in him was like a flask of oil that kept their lamp burning even during that dark night when what was not supposed to happen did. Do you have enough oil to keep that lamp burning? In a world where everyone is pulled in too many directions, where there’s so much to prepare for a not enough time to prepare – I’m calling you to fill up that flask of oil. To learn how to pray now, because there’s no way of knowing when you’ll really need those prayers to be heard. To worship our God in a Spirit of grace and truth today, because there will come a night when your soul calls out for something but you won’t know where to turn unless you’ve been filled up by peace that surpasses all understanding once before. To learn how to sing, to learn where to turn for answers, to learn how to be made new and how to pick back up after you’ve fallen, to learn who to reach out for when the world shakes under your feet. There is no way of knowing when you’ll need the oil that a church can nurture in you, but know that you will need it, and when you do, will you have enough? The bridegroom is coming – don’t you worry about that, but make sure that you’ve made his acquaintance before that day so he will call you by name and invite you into the banquet. The bridegroom is coming, but when he does, will your lamp be timed and burning? Amen.