BE READY

November 9, 2014

Pentecost 22

Joshua 24:14-15

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Matthew 25:1-13

(prayer)

We have come to the final three Sundays of the church year. November 30th is the first Sunday in the season of Advent, which is the beginning of the ecclesial calendar. Over these next three weeks, we will be reading through a key section of the gospel of Matthew: chapter 25.  Three parable stories that all centre on an attitude that Jesus' followers will want to have for living in ways that are consistent for the way God would like things to be.  They are all stories that aim to help us sort out choices - each section of Matthew 25, talks about the benefits of wise choices and the folly of foolish ones.

Although, sometimes these passages are read with a focus on the negative, they are all intended to centre around the positive - these three stories were told in the early church to express how life would look the world worked exactly as God desires.  The kingdom of heaven/God is like this...  With God as our sovereign, it would be like this...

Today, a parable of lamp bearing bridesmaids.
Next week, we will hear a parable of some servants' investments; and on the last Sunday of the year, a parable of sheep and goats.

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The realm of God will be like this:

Ten bridesmaids are waiting for the groom to arrive so they can escort him into the wedding feast.
But the groom was delayed: so much so that the bridesmaids' lamps became low on oil.  Now, five of these maids were smart enough to bring extra oil. They talked about sharing the extra oil amongst ten lamps instead of five, but then everyone might run out before the night was over.  So, five of the bridesmaids had to leave and go get more lamp oil.  Wouldn't you know it, while they were gone, the groom arrived. He and the five wise bridesmaids went into the wedding banquet and (presumably) had a great time.  When the other five returned, they rushed to the banquet site, but found the gates locked and no one there to let them in. They missed out on the party.  The realm of God is like that!

God's vision is that of a joyful celebration - honouring the relationships we forge.

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This parable is wonderfully allegorical about the early church.  The original audience of Matthew's gospel read this story some 45 years after Jesus' life time.  They were what we might call a second-generation church - most, if not all of them, had no living memory of Jesus.  And they were losing (to old age) the elders with that first-hand experience.

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Do you remember the Seinfeld episode when the gang all went to Joe Mayo's party?  Every guest was given a job: Elaine was in charge of the coats, Jerry was to protect the stereo speakers from having drinks placed on them, Jerry's girlfriend was to keep Jerry from playing the music.  Well, the ten bridesmaids were entrusted with a valuable task at their party - they were to light the way for the groom, so that the groom would be able to join all the guests and the celebration could achieve its greatest potential - a celebration that included those bridesmaids.

Although the bridesmaids parable ends with the tag line: "you do know the day or the hour, therefore keep awake", the problem for the five foolish ones was not that they were drowsy (the wise ones slept too); it was not that they did know when they needed to be ready (the wise ones didn't know exactly when the groom would arrive, either).  The problem was that did not take the necessary steps to be ready, long before their task was needed.

In the allegory of this story, the oil represents faith.  Within Hebrew tradition, 'oil' often was a metaphor for righteousness or faithful, good deeds.  I can't get credit for someone else's good deeds. If you have faith, it is not possible to just give some of it for me.  I need to develop my own faith.  And living out that faith is something only I can do.  The metaphoric oil is non-transferable.

What is transferable is the light!

You may be able to help spark my faith, even re-ignite it when it grows dim, but I need my own oil.

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When we lit Rhaya's baptism candle today, we did not take wax and wick from the Christ candle.  Her baptism candle has its own fuel - the Christ Candle gave it the spark it needed to glow brightly.

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A message of this parable is this: having an active faith, now, provides us with the faithful fuel we need to fully experience the joy of God in the time to come.  What we do now (how we live now) will help us be ready as we move into a mysterious future. 

That is what Matthew wanted his second generation church to know.  They had evolved to the point where they could no longer bask in the direct glow of the faith of their forebearers; they needed to find new fuel for their time and place.

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This coming Tuesday is Remembrance Day.  November 11th has been chosen for this recognition because it signals the end of war.  The sad irony of history is that when the Great War ended (with the signing of the armistice agreement on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, 96 years ago), no one at the time knew that a lack of lasting peace would result in the renaming of that conflict as only the first world war.  Some of the Great War veterans even found themselves back in uniform during another great war only a couple of decades later.

Although there were no doubt exceptions, I would hazard a guess that the vast majority of veterans are glad when peace comes and they have no desire to make war anymore.

By in large, the rank and file military members of the first and second world wars were not professional soldiers - they felt it was time for war - they left farms, factories and home towns during the war, and returned when peace was declared.  They were not ready and waiting for the ‘next’ war.

 I believe the boots-on-the-ground soldiers, even in our day, once they have experienced the reality of combat up close, that they long for the end of war.  When peace comes, they want that peace to last: for themselves, AND for the next generation.

Even for those who have known a time that they believed was for war, when it is time for peace, they do not long for more war. 

They tell us the stories of their experiences - lest we forget.

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If only the far-from-the front generals and the munitions manufactures felt that way too, our world might actually know real peace.

You see to those behind wars (far from the front lines, Peace is not profitable - it does not distinguish military careers. Arms makers need war (somewhere) to remain a going concern.

Can you imagine how hard it would be for some countries and wannabe states to wage war and terror, if they had to produce their own instruments of war?

I’m sure, in retrospect that we all can appreciate the sad reality that Al Qaeda (who planned the 9-11 attacks) grew from the Afghan mujahideen fighters who were funded and supplied by the US when they were fighting the USSR invaders in the 1980s.

It is also true that the lastest terrorist group of note (ISIS) owe some of their origins to Sadaam Hussien's army, who for many years were supported by western arms manufacturers during the Iran-Iraq war (also in the 1980s).

The old adage:  the enemy of my enemy is my friend, is seldom true in the long run.

What if the standards of warfare insisted that if you wanted your arms to be used in what you might view as a just war, only your own soldiers could use them.  What if we weren't able to simply sell weapons to a third party and let them take all the risks on the battlefield while we merely advised or trained, but, if instead, we had to risk our own sons and daughters, do you think Prime Ministers and Presidents would be so quick to authorized deployments or lawmakers would allow the munitions industry to choose its own clients?

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We say "Lest We Forget" not so that we remember how to wage war, but so to remember that the goal is for war to end.  Lest we forget!

When there has been a time for war, we learn the real value in that time of peace.

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Like the church that Matthew wrote to who were losing the first hand experiences of Jesus, we are losing to age, those with the experience of World War - the WW1 generation is gone, the WW2 generation is only for a little while longer.  We need to hear their story that peace is the goal, before we forget and wage war again.

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The bridesmaids' oil is a reminder to nurture and grow our faith all along the paths of our life, because when we need to rely on it, we want it to shine brightly so that we know we are not alone.

Faith in action for me is:

·       love not hate,

·       peace not war!

Everything I have come to know about Jesus tells me that.

We don’t want to be left out of that!

Let us be ready, lest we forget!

Let us pray:

God of all time and this time, when I’m tired of waiting for your realm to be here, kindle the flame of faith into action. Remind me of the life-giving choice that peace, mercy, and hope bring into life. Amen.

#169MV "When Hands Reach Out”