Proper 27
Amos 5:18-24; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Matthew 25:1-13
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I.
How many of you like to procrastinate?
Here’s the thing: even if your motto is “Be prepared” it is seldom the case that you are prepared for the right thing at the right time.
That means you can either exhaust yourself, trying to prepare for every contingency, or adopt a more prudent course of action: focus on doing what you can do and leave the rest to take care of itself.
In general, that’s good advice and results in things like balanced checkbooks, paid-off mortgages, and money saved for retirement.
But it can do nothing about that cancer diagnosis which comes after a lifetime of healthy eating and regular gym workouts.
With whom do you identify in today’s gospel reading from Matthew? Do you identify with the foolish bridesmaids, or do you consider yourselves one of the smart ones?
II.
Here’s the thing. This parable isn’t about being prepared in a material sense.
In truth, this is a parable about spiritual preparation. It’s about waking up spiritually.
Jesus says:
“Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”
Jesus is speaking to His Church about the state of the Church at the time of His Second Coming.
The bridesmaids all share one thing in common. They’ve been invited to a marriage feast.
However, only half of them are ready to go.
The other half, called “foolish,” perhaps never took the invitation seriously. They thought it was just another party, another night out on the town, not the end of the world.
They don’t make the necessary provisions.
When they realize too late that their lamps are dying, they foolishly think they can go buy more oil.
But it’s midnight. The market isn’t open. Yet they go anyway and compound their foolishness.
The message is obvious.
Do not put off getting right with God. Do not neglect the practice of your faith. Otherwise, when you need it, you will find you do not have it.
You will risk hearing the bridegroom say:
“Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.”
Jesus gives us the means to know Him through His holy word. That word is the Bible, from the first page to the last: from the “In the beginning…” of Genesis, to the “In the beginning of John…” to the last verses of the Book of Revelation.
If we do not study the Bible, we will not know Jesus and He will not know us, or, at least, not in the way we want Him to.
He will know us as one who is spiritually asleep, rather than spiritually awake, as only the Word of God can make us.
Jesus makes this clear in John 6:63:
“The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”
David writes in Psalm 17:15:
“As for me, I shall behold Your face in righteousness;
I will be satisfied with Your likeness when I awake.”
That satisfaction in a holy and just God can only come after we’ve spent our lives studying His word.
In other words, by growing in wisdom — God’s wisdom — just like the wise bridesmaids must have done.
III.
I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time “letting go and letting God.”
It’s true that I have faith. It’s true that I give my troubles to God in prayer. It’s true that I go to His Word and find comfort there.
For instance, these are some of my favorite verses in which I find comfort.
James 5:7:
“Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains.”
Joel 2:25:
“I will restore to you the years
that the swarming locust has eaten,
the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter,
my great army, which I sent among you.”
(I preached a few weeks ago about how it is a comfort to know that even our troubles come from God.)
And Romans 8:28:
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
These are words of comfort when we read them with faith.
But I find that no sooner do I read them, and I begin to worry about the details.
“Give me some of your oil, for my lamp is going out,” I shout, to no one in particular.
Of course, that’s merely a metaphor for me — once again — having fallen asleep spiritually.
I am mature enough in my Christian faith to know by now that no amount of oil from the marketplace will keep my faith alive.
Faith, after all, is a free gift that comes from God.
Why do I keep thinking that I have to buy it?
IV.
In 2 Cor. 5:7 Paul writes:
“For we walk by faith, not by sight.”
This past week I went on a retreat in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Darkness, silence, and a higher elevation contributed to several wonderful nights of sleep.
But I found I had to get up more than once, during the night.
Did I walk then by faith and not by sight?
Of course not. I grabbed my iPhone and turned on the flashlight to keep myself from stubbing my toe.
So, what does Paul mean?
He means that when God has promised to do something, He will do it, even when the evidence for it or the likelihood of it seems thin.
Jesus has promised that He will return. He has not told us when. There are many foolish people who do not take the prospect of Christ’s return seriously.
This parable warns us that only some members of the visible Church will be ready to receive Jesus and go into the banquet with Him when He returns.
It is the faithful Church and only the faithful Church that Jesus recognizes.
Faithfulness is measured by our lamps.
Psalm 119:105 says:
“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”
Holy Scripture is the oil that fires the lamps of our faith.
The law here is that your lamp needs to be filled with oil. The gospel is that the oil is free by the grace of God. You don’t need to go and buy it.
But here’s the catch: once it’s midnight, the store of God’s Grace is closed forever, whether that’s the end of your life or the end of the world.
Do not be foolish and go and try to buy oil after it’s too late.
V.
I said earlier that Jesus is describing the state of His Church in this parable. Since the Second Coming of Jesus Christ is always imminent (the same is true for our own deaths — we know neither the day nor the hour), this is a parable for the Church in every age.
Which type of bridesmaid are you? Foolish or wise? How can you tell?
First, do you have a lamp? The lamp is the badge of your faith. Have you been baptized? Have you joined a local church? Have you been regular in attendance at Sunday worship? If you have children, have you brought them up in the knowledge and love of the Lord? Have you brought them to church?
If so, good. You have a lamp.
Second, is your lamp full of oil? You see, you can do all of the above and still be a foolish bridesmaid. Are you nourishing your faith through regular reading of the Bible? Do you seek out good and faithful commentaries on the text to help you understand?
Do you make regular appointments with your pastor for spiritual checkups? Do you care for your souls with the same concern as you do your bodies?
How about your associates and friends? Are they fellow Christians? Do they encourage you in your faith or do they lead you astray?
The Word of God is indeed free, but it’s of no use to you if it remains a closed book.
Finally, can you honestly say that you know Jesus and know who He is?
He is not the Cosmic Christ. He is not the universe or cosmic consciousness. He is not the perennial tradition. He is not found in Islam or Judaism or Hinduism. He is not found in the paganism of old or the neo-paganism of today. He is not one of many paths to the center.
He was a man born in Judea, a carpenter’s son, under the Roman yoke, obedient to the Law of Moses.
In other words, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.1
You need never fear having to hear the dreadful words from His lips, “Truly, I say to you, I do not know you,” if you already know who He is as He has revealed Himself to you on every page of the Bible.
If you make yourself ready by knowing Him (and knowing who He is) during your time on this earth, then, when He comes, you will be found among the wise and not the foolish. Amen.
Preached on November 12, 2023 at St. Peter’s Lithgow, Millbrook, New York.
Don't Be Foolish