Pentecost XXV, Cycle A

“On Waiting Till the Last Minute”

November 10, 2002

The Rev. Dr. David M. Wendel

Saint Luke’s Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Lessons:  Amos 5:18-24;  Ps. 70;  1 Thessalonians 4:13-18;  St. Matthew 25:1-13

     It seems everything is done these days, at the last minute.  Homework is completely frantically the night before it’s due.  Post-offices stay open late on April 15, so that those who have stayed home from work and scribbled anxiously into the evening filling out tax forms, can still get their forms postmarked by midnight.  We know we have company coming, but we wait till the last minute to clean the house and make needed repairs.  Deaconess Kathy and I joke lightheartedly that no one here at Saint Luke’s ever signs up for things before the day of the activity—or the deadline arrives, and often then, our members want to know if they can still come, even though they didn’t sign up on time!  It seems to be a characteristic of our society, that no one thinks ahead, or plans ahead, or feels any need to attend to things before the very last possible minute.  Which sometimes works okay, so long as the post office will stay open late, the computer doesn’t crash when you’re typing a research paper at 2 a.m., and the church will bend the deadlines so that you can still participate.  It doesn’t work so well, when deadlines mean deadlines—when there are no late papers accepted, when you actually have to plan ahead to have things done on time.  It doesn’t work so well, when all the excuses in the world, won’t make any difference.

     We are, as you know, in the time of the church year referred to as Kingdomtide—the Sundays between All Saints Day, and Christ the King Sunday.  And you’ll find that the lessons these weeks point, urgently and decidedly to the coming of Jesus Christ, in power and glory, to separate the sheep from the goats, or to use the language of our gospel lesson, the wise from the foolish.  Now, granted, none of us particularly like those terms, those labels, whether the scriptures are talking about us as sheep or goats, or wise or foolish.  Or maybe it’s that we don’t mind those labels if we are the sheep or the wise, but we take offense at being classified, the goats, or the foolish.  And yet, Jesus is laying out before us, this morning, the reality that some of us are indeed, foolish, when it comes to preparing for the final coming of Christ the King, at the end of earthly time.  And I have to say, the way I see it, the way people tend to put off anything and everything till the last minute—there may be more fools among us than we’d like to admit!  And what does it mean to be wise, or foolish, with regard to Jesus’ second coming?

     Jesus tells a parable describing two different ways of looking at what we call, the parousia--the ultimate coming of Jesus Christ.  The situation is that of a middle-eastern wedding feast, where the bridegroom, after the wedding ceremony, brings his bride to the wedding banquet.  The bridesmaids are to wait and watch for their coming, so that when the cry goes out that the newly married couple is arriving, they can light their lamps, run to greet them, and bring them, in a parade of sorts, to the celebration.  As is often the case, with weddings, however, the bride and groom of the parable are delayed—and all of the bridesmaids fall asleep while waiting.  At midnight, when the bridegroom is coming, there is a shout, and all the bridesmaids awake and ready their lamps.  But then it is, that the foolish maids realize that they’ve not brought enough oil!  They didn’t think ahead, they didn’t plan for the fact that the bridal party might be delayed.  So, the foolish bridesmaids ran off to buy more, and in their absence, the groom arrived, and everyone went into the banquet hall, and the door was shut.  And the foolish maidens, were left out in the cold, so to speak.  The foolish, who did not think ahead and plan for the future,  missed the great coming, and the entrance, and even after knocking and pleading, were not let in.  So what does this say to us, who would like very much to be the wise, and not the foolish bridesmaids?

     It means, as Jesus says, that no one knows the day or the hour when the bridegroom will come.  This is as important for us today, as it was in the first century, when already Christians were questioning why Jesus had not yet returned.  In the early years, disciples expected Jesus would come again, quickly.  They lived their lives with a sense of urgency and readiness that comes from an approaching deadline.  But time passed, and Jesus didn’t come.  And early Christians had to remind themselves that Jesus himself said, “for you know neither the day nor the hour”.  Elsewhere, Jesus says that no one knows the day or the time, not even the Son, but only the Father.  So, together with these words, come Jesus; words urging us to be prepared and to plan ahead, BECAUSE we don’t know when He will return.  And because we don’t know, we need to be prepared at all times, ready to meet our Lord and Savior if He comes today, at noon, or tonight, at midnight, or thirty years from now.  The point is, we will be wise, NOT to wait till the last minute, and we will be wise, not to assume that His coming will be soon, or late—because there is no way of knowing.  Fools will live as if that time will never come.  Fools will live as if they have all the time in the world, saying things like, “One of these days, I’m going to get back to church.”  The wise will realize that what Jesus tells us, over and over again, is that we must be ready for His return, at any time—which means, according to this parable, that we must have enough oil to last us, whether the bridegroom comes early, or late.  So, what does it mean for us wise, to have enough oil?  What can be said, from this parable, in this regard?

     The first thing that can, and must be said, is that your oil, is your responsibility.  When this text has been read in the past, invariably, someone comes up to me and says, “I never understood those bridesmaids.  Why couldn’t the maids who had plenty of oil, share with those who hadn’t enough?”  The reason, in this parable, is that it is a parable, about the coming of the kingdom.  It’s not a parable about real life, although it’s a real-life situation.  In real-life, maybe the wise bridesmaids would’ve shared with those who were foolish and unprepared.  But what Jesus is trying to tell us is that this is YOUR responsibility!  Having enough oil, being ready for the coming of the bridegroom, Jesus, whenever he comes, is up to you—and something you must do.  You can’t leave it to your spouse, your parents, your pastor, your friend.  You, in your heart, in your soul, in your life, must have what it will take for you to be watching and waiting for your Lord’s return, whether he comes at daybreak, or at midnight.  And you must do it now.  When Jesus comes, there will be no extensions or grace-periods.  For in fact, this is the grace-period.  This is the time God is giving us to prepare, to make ready for Jesus’ coming.  And those who are foolish—those who lives their lives like Jesus may never come, will be caught unprepared, and may just find themselves, locked out…because at the last minute, they went looking for oil.  The first thing that can and must be said about this “oil”, is that it is your oil, and it is your responsibility.  And now is the time to be looking for replenishment…now, not when you see the clouds open, and Jesus descending in a phalanx of angels.

     The second thing that must be said, or asked, is, “what is this ‘oil’ Jesus is talking about?”  Again, let us remind ourselves that in this parable, Jesus is using a real-life situation, speaking in real-life terms, about spiritual things.  Which means that although in the parable, the bridesmaids go out to buy more oil, which is what would happen in real-life, the truth about spiritual things is, they can’t be bought!  In other words, you can’t go to a store to replenish this “oil” Jesus is talking about.  No matter how much money you have, it can’t be purchased.  So how then do we replenish our supply—and once again, what is it we’re talking about?  The oil of preparedness, is those spiritual gifts, given to us by God, to keep us awake, and waiting, and watching for Jesus’ return.  There are lots of spiritual gifts, but St. Paul says in I Corinthians, the primary three are, “faith, hope and love”.   And I think they may very well be the oil that we will need to be prepared and ready.  I think they may very well be the spiritual gifts that need to be replenished in us, again and again, so that we don’t run dry, and are unprepared when Jesus comes.  Faith, hope and love.  Faith, which is trust that Jesus IS coming again.  Hope, which keeps us going until he comes.  Love—love from God and love for God, which keeps us pure and chaste, as we, in love, wait for our Lord to return.  Faith, hope and love, these are the chief spiritual gifts, and we can think of them as the oil of preparedness—the oil that keeps burning inside us, so that we don’t become lazy, lukewarm Christians, unconcerned about Jesus’ parousia.  The oil that Jesus says, must be replenished, so that it not run out, if the bridegroom is delayed.  The oil that, if it runs out, may prevent us from entering the kingdom.  Faith, hope, and love.  The oil that is replenished in us, every time we come to receive God’s gifts of Word and Sacrament.  That is replenished in us every time we open the Holy Scriptures, and are immersed in God’s Word.  That is replenished in us every time we gather with the community of believers, in the name of Jesus, in the power of the Spirit.  Faith, hope and love, are the oil for our lamps, that is being replenished—in you, and me, right now, so that we’ll have enough, at least, till next Sunday, when our supply can be replenished, again.  So that, we’ll be ready, we’ll be prepared, whenever our Lord, the bridegroom, comes again, in power and glory.  So, that, when we see our Lord coming through the clouds, we won’t be then, at the last minute, running around trying to find more oil!

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.