Nov. 9, 2014
Matt. 25:1-13
Prayer
This is another
difficult Jesus parable for us to understand. On the surface it seems simple
enough… it’s about a wedding, but the problem is no one in our day would do
this… However… we need to remember that Matthew’s faith community is primarily
Jewish in culture… And even as we read in the CEV bible this story seems somewhat
strange. A reason the CEV uses terms like “Girls” which tends to somewhat
neuter the story… we understand girls to be young… 5-10 years of age generally.
If we were to look at the NRSV or some other versions we word see terms like
virgin… hand-maiden… bridesmaids ushering in the groom to the wedding. We don’t
do wedding like this. Another reason Matt tends to be quite harsh on the Jewish
culture especially religious culture. So… this story from Jesus brings some
difficulty about what Jesus wants to convey.
The short answer to
this story is that Jesus is trying to help his friends come to grips with him
dying. The context of this story is set during the last week of his life and
perhaps Jesus is sensing that his disciples are quite grasping what is about to
happen. Why Jesus doesn’t flat out just tell them straight up… hey I’m going to
die… pay attention! I don’t know. So the theme about being prepared is quite
evident in this story.
However… as easy as
this sounds… I don’t think we grasp the over-all sense of what Jesus is trying
to convey to his friends.
So… I saw a couple
of other themes that seem… at least for me… seem to make sense of what Jesus
may be saying to us.
Waiting
We don’t like
waiting for much of anything in our culture. It’s uncomfortable to say the
least and the waiting Jesus implies in this story is the kind of waiting that
makes us fidgety. The kind of waiting… like sitting in a hospital waiting for
word about how surgery or a procedure went. Waiting like… are we there yet… The
kind of waiting that makes us anxious…. Like when will we get a pastor. For
Matt… the waiting is for when Jesus
returns. And…there’s a very high expectation in 1st century
Christianity that Jesus is coming back very soon. So… in this story the girls
are waiting for the groom… so the sense of waiting for Jesus to come.
Another theme here is Light.
The girls were
charged with providing light for the path of the groom. They were to be
prepared and vigilant and in the end they weren’t as they lacked oil and they
fell asleep at their watch. The light went out when the groom came. As a
response… they were shut out of the wedding. Jesus concludes the story by
telling his friends to be ready. And you kind of get the sense it go right over
they’re heads.
Waiting & Light…. What does this say for
us?
Waiting is very
uncomfortable for us. We don’t like waiting for much of anything or anyone. We’ve
been conditioned to respond immediately 24/7… we have the technology. Because
of this, I wonder if there is anything today worth waiting for.
Light also is
uncomfortable because we don’t want others to see our imperfections. To see our
inconsistencies…To see that what we say, is often not what we do. You see light
often shows our true selves. Oh… we may think we are light… shinning light, but
often we are not. Are we light by serving in a soup kitchen along side of the
guests? Are we light on the front lines of advocacy? Are we light by staying
over-night on our week at the Warming Center?
Oh… we shin brightly
when we give money, or collect food and someone comes to pick it up, or collect
gifts for needy kids.
Not that any of this
isn’t important, but our hands are pretty clean. Please forgive my sarcasm… But
our lights do shine brightly with each other. That’s a good thing… but if it’s
the only time we light up… Well…. which I believe is the point Jesus is trying
to make in this story for us.
In our 1Thess
reading they and Paul were waiting for Jesus to return. They expected it so
much that they literally quit doing most everything. They quit jobs… caring for
others… they stopped most everything. They thought… why do anything… Jesus is
coming and going to fix all.
I believe we often
think this way… Jesus is going to come and though we’ve been waiting… Jesus is
going to fix it all anyway… so what’s the point! Paul and his readers fell into
the same trap as us. In chapter 5 Paul walks his statements back from his
position and in 2Thess. He clarifies and subscribes to the understanding that
while we wait we are to be lights to the world.
Again… this is what
Jesus is alluding to as well.
Jesus says to be
ready… to use ourselves as lights in our community. That being… while we wait
we are to light the world with the love of Christ. So… as we approach the
season of Advent can we in our waiting, in our Christmas anticipation light up
our faith… light up ourselves to better serve our community? We’re getting help
my friends. You can go into any store right now and you can hear it. It’s
already being played on the radio. We are getting lots of help to be lights in
our community. Can we better demonstrate not only for each other, but our love
for the struggling, the hurting, the other in our Berkley community? Can we
demonstrate in our waiting that God is still at work in us and in this faith
community. Can we demonstrate our imperfect lives in the light of God’s grace
so that others may see the light of Christ at work within us?
Let’s not hide our
light under a bushel… let’s hold it high!
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