Joshua 24: 1-3a, 14-25 (NIV)
Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges and officials of Israel, and they presented themselves before God. Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods. But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the Euphrates and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants. “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Then the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods! It was the Lord our God himself who brought us and our parents up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. And the Lord drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God.” Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.” But the people said to Joshua, “No! We will serve the Lord.” Then Joshua said, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the Lord.” “Yes, we are witnesses,” they replied. “Now then,” said Joshua, “throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.” And the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord our God and obey him.” On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people, and there at Shechem he reaffirmed for them decrees and laws.
Matthew 25:1-13 (NIV)
“At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’ “Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’ “ ‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’ “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. “Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’ “But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’ “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.
Earlier this week I did an online search for material related to this morning's Gospel passage, hoping to find some commentaries on this passage that would help me in writing this sermon. I found several excellent commentaries about this and several other readings from the last three chapters in Matthew where, like in this one, Jesus tries to prepare his disciples for his second coming. But I also quickly found, as I searched for material on Jesus' second coming, a good dozen different websites where I could buy a bumper sticker for my car that says "Jesus is Coming--Look Busy!" Now, I like a good Bible joke as much as the next person, so that's not what bothers me about these bumper stickers. It's that there's a lot of people out there that really don't take the idea that Christ will come again all that seriously. The phrase itself has started to lose its meaning.
Even two thousand years ago, Jesus realized we'd have some trouble with that one. That's why we find him where we do this morning, coaching his disciples on what will happen and how to be prepared. But it's not that Jesus will come back someday that's so hard for us to handle. It's when. It's that we don't know when Jesus is coming, and we have no idea how long the wait is going to be.
But this abstract notion of waiting indefinitely for the end times is way too vague to have any meaning to anybody, so Jesus helps us out by telling some relatable stories, some parables, about what it will be like when he comes back. This is one of them.
It's a story about a wedding. We've all been to one of those, so we know what they're like. And we know what it's like to get ready for one. We know about the months of preparation you might need to plan even a simple wedding. We know about all the details that need to be attended to. We know that feeling you have when you're getting ready for either your own wedding, or the wedding of a family member or a close friend. That combination of excitement and anxiety that translates to a whole lot of nerves.
Jesus knew about all that, too. For the purpose of this parable, what he appeals to the most is the anxiety a lot of us can relate to of what happens when you're planning a wedding and something goes wrong.
Gosh, I've never been to a wedding where nothing went wrong. Something always goes wrong, and it's very stressful. At my wedding, the organist forgot his music. At my sister's wedding, the vendors started squabbling with each other after the ceremony. At the wending of a friend of mine, she tripped while she was walking down the aisle.
At this wedding, half the bridesmaids neglected to bring oil for their lamps. See, Jesus' friends and neighbors were very poor, and they didn't get to go to a lot of parties. They couldn't afford them. So weddings were a big, big deal. They weren't just a one-day event, either. The festivities of a wedding spanned over several days.
Jesus is telling us about a wedding that's just about to start. The bridesmaids are waiting for the groom, lamps in hand. This community had a very special tradition where a procession of bridesmaids, all carrying torches to light up the night sky, would lead the groom from his house to the bride's. The groom would make a grand entrance, go meet his bride, and then the whole wedding party would go to the banquet.
The bridesmaids are all dressed and ready to go, lamps in hand. But, as happens at some weddings, the groom is running late. So, no big deal, they go to sleep and wait for him, leaving their lamps running. Finally, there's an announcement: he's ready! Half the bridesmaids take the oil they have in their flask, re-light their lamps, and they're all ready to go. The other half let out a big collective uh oh--they didn't bring any oil. They had enough residual oil to light their wicks for just a few minutes, and now that's all used up. They can't light their lamps.
Now, this is the point where the five wise bridesmaids might look kind of mean. The five oil-less bridesmaids turn to them and ask to use some of their oil. The wise bridesmaids say, No, go get your own.
Keeping in mind that Jesus commends the actions of these five young women, you have to wonder what the message is here. Aren't we supposed to share? Aren't we supposed to help others in need? How is this Christ-like? These bridesmaids sound selfish.
Well, turns out they're not selfish, just reasonable. They can't part with any of their oil because they need it. If they tried to share their oil, then all ten of them will be processing with dead lamps. They're better off just going ahead with the procession with only five bridesmaids.
And they do. The other five bridesmaids scramble to find some oil of their own in the middle of the night, and miss the procession. They run over to the banquet, and plead to be allowed to join the party, but no dice. They had one job, and they blew it. They can't make up for their absence during the most important part of the wedding, and if they couldn't do the one thing that was asked of them, their presence is no longer desirable.
Jesus warns us, keep watch. Because we don't know when Jesus is coming back, keep watch. But what does that mean?
The key is to be like the five wise bridesmaids. They weren't in a state of hyper vigilance, on the lookout for the groom. They nodded off and went to sleep with everyone else. But when the groom came, they were ready. And they didn't have to do all that much, either. They had one job, and they were prepared to do that one job.
The truth is, the idea of Jesus coming back sounds a bit abstract. What does that really mean? When is that going to happen? What will that look like when it happens? How will we know Jesus has come back?
We don't need to worry about any of that. We just need to be like the five wise bridesmaids. We have one job, and we need to be prepared to do that one job.
We can chuckle when we see someone driving down the street with a bumper sticker on their car that says "Jesus is Coming, Look Busy". But we also have a question we should be asking ourselves: if Jesus walked in here today in cognito (so we didn't know it was him), what would he think of our church? Would he be pleased? Would he be disappointed? Would he think we were doing the right things? What would he want to change about our way of doing ministry to make it reflect his mission?
We have just one job: to carry out Jesus' ministry, here in our local church. And if we reflect his image to the world, then we're doing our job, but if we don't, then we're like those five unprepared bridesmaids, standing next to our extinguished lamps with no oil.
Whether Jesus comes again in our lifetime, or a hundred years from now, or ten thousand years from now, if we have a Church that reflects him, then we will be ready to meet him whenever he arrives.
Amen.
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