23rd Sunday after Pentecost (27A) November 8, 2020
Matthew 25:1-13 Panzer
Chapel Liturgical Service
Readiness redefined
The early Church had a problem. At the time when our
two NT lessons were written, Jesus had not yet come back. It’s one of the
reasons we have an NT at all… to share the story of Jesus to those who were not
witnesses to his ministry themselves. The NT writings, gospels and letters, are
a ministry of evangelism, not just for spreading the message of Jesus, but also for helping people understand how and why Jesus should be important to them.
The book of 1 Thessalonians was written by Paul to the
church in Thessalonica, in modern-day Greece, in approximately 52AD, about 20
years after Jesus’ death. Matthew’s gospel was penned 30-40 years later as a
way to concisely tell the story of Jesus to the Christian church rooted in
their prior or current relationship with the Jewish community. Trivia fact of
the day: the book of Matthew contains 600 of the 661 verses of Mark, which was
probably written about 10 years earlier, but they are not used as a verbatim
telling of Mark’s version of the story. Matthew rearranges events to highlight
Jesus’ position in the Jewish community as the Messiah they had been waiting
for. Trivia fact #2: Matthew and Luke both use a not-yet-found common source
scholars call the “Q source” to fill in the gaps that Mark does not cover… now
back to our current story.
We are getting close to the end of Matthew’s gospel,
Jesus’ life, and the end of the Christian year. Chapters 24 and 25 in Matthew’s
gospel are defined as the Eschatological Discourse and lays specific
theological groundwork for Jesus’ going and returning. Here h hear Jesus tell
four distinct stories about his return – even though he has not left yet. We
will cover three of the four stories in these final weeks of the Christian
year.[i]
This week we hear the story of 10 bridesmaids, waiting
outside the gates for the bridegroom to appear for a festive, days-long
celebration. What held him up? We do not know. But because the women were
there, waiting, it’s probably not the first time this happened. Weddings were
not what they are today… celebrations of love and commitment. In first-century
culture, they were often the culmination of intricate contracts between
families, involving the shifting of property and negotiation of growing
alliances, which takes time. Everyone wants to make sure they get what they
deserve. So, the bridesmaids wait.
In fact, they wait so long that some of them run out
of oil for their lamps. Unprepared for the long delay, they ask, what do we do
now? Those who came prepared were unsure about how much longer it would be, and
they were unwilling to share their oil. So, the unprepared left the gates of
the feast and went to the shops to replenish their stock, I’m sure hoping that
the bridegroom would not come while they were away. He did, and their greatest
fear was realized… being locked out of the feast, unable to celebrate the one
they had been waiting for.[ii]
Readiness is a big part of our lives, even if we’re
not a part of the active duty or civilian force structure. BSA Scouts are asked
to be prepared… testing for the different ranks and working through merit or
skill badges prepares these young people for the challenges of life. Command readiness
drills, exercises, war games, even the routine of yearly checkups and PT tests,
are designed to make sure that our people are ready for the physical,
leadership, and emotional tasks that will come.
When we moved to Grand Forks, ND in 1999, we moved
into an entrenched Air Force community. It wasn’t just about being in a place
where there were sunflower and sugar beet fields for as far as the eye could
see. It was about integrating ourselves into a military culture that had been
waiting for a nuclear war with the Russians for almost 50 years. KC-135’s and
B-52’s sat at the ready, day and night, ready to respond at a moment’s notice. I
was a fairly new Air Force wife who expected my spouse to be in and out much of
the time, coming from the Airlift community. At the end of our first date, he
said, I’d like to see you again, but I’m leaving the country tomorrow and I
don’t know when I’ll be back. I’ll give you a call… and he did. Having a 5-day
TDY turn into a 17-week deployment seemed par for the course, as far as I was
concerned.
But for former STRATCOM spouses, the new era of
training for routine mobility deployments was a hard transition. Working at the
Thrift Shop one day, one of the spouses, who was living there for the third
time, lamented over the changes from a strategic strike posture to rapid
mobility response. One week of training, one week on 24/7 alert, and one week
of home and office duty… that was so ingrained in them that seven years later,
they lamented those “good, old days”…
It felt like they had forgotten that all that
preparation was for the eventuality that those planes would be called on to
launch in the event of impending nuclear attacks… The preparation cycle became
the focus, not what they were preparing for. And maybe that’s what’s required
when something so unthinkable is at stake, but when it comes to the idea of
Jesus returning, as a bridegroom comes to a wedding feast, that feels like
something very different.
What are we waiting for? Where is this life of faith
taking us? Are we waiting to get our tickets punched for heaven? Or are we
looking for ways to stay prepared, even though we don’t know when or how Jesus
will return? Paul writes to the Thessalonians out of concern for their worry
about what will happen to them if they or those they love die and Jesus hasn’t
yet come back, as he promised.
Over many years, people have taken these words
literally –
For the Lord himself,
with a cry of command, with the archangel's call and with the sound of God's
trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then
we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with
them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever. (1
Thess 4:16-17)
After all, that’s the scene painted behind the altar
in the Sistine Chapel in Rome.
We hear those words and it feels like a cosmic ending
to a Marvel superhero movie. But to the Thessalonians, it’s a direct challenge
to the power of Rome, which promised peace even as it treated them as
second-class non-citizens. This picture of Jesus coming from the heavens was
meant to remind them that no power on earth can measure up to the power of God.
God is the one who defines what real peace, real security, and real hope, look
like. In chapter 5, Paul defines the weapons Christians will use against the
forces that seek to enslave them… the breastplate of faith and love, and a
helmet the hope of salvation (5:8) with God as the source of peace.[iii] Like us, the
Thessalonians were looking for reassurance that God has not forgotten them, and
that whatever powers we encounter, God’s power is greater.
Many of us actually relate better most days to the
five unwise bridesmaids than we do those who brought the extra oil. We wonder
if we are doing the right things to secure our place in the Kingdom of God. We
trick ourselves into thinking that our readiness lies in being prepared for all
things – in our theology and in our practice of Christian faith. But what if
the readiness is first believing that Jesus will come back at all. What if
everything is dependent on believing that, before everything else?
Jesus is the main character in our stories. We are
responding to his love and promises, and the ways we live and the theologies we
construct must be rooted in that reality alone. We think of our lives as the
main feature, but we are just the preview to something much more amazing and
truer than we have ever imagined.
Once we understand and believe that, then we can more
authentically work on our readiness, develop the tools we need to keep waiting,
and looking forward to the gospel passages for the next two weeks, use our
talents wisely as we wait, loving those around as if we are welcoming Christ
himself into our midst. But none of that will compare with completeness we will
experience in that promised future, no matter how soon or how long it will be
until it comes.
The parable of the bridesmaids is challenging, because
it calls us to a state of constant alertness, of perpetual openness to God’s dramatic
future.[iv] As time goes on, I get a
little better at it, but I am very encouraged by those who tend to live that
way, day by day.
I think of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King,
Jr, who wrote letters from jail that inspire and direct us still today. I think
of Bishop Oskar Romero, who put his career and life at risk in order to
minister to the people of El Salvador. I think of Freedom Riders from the
1960’s, the Four Chaplains from the SS Dorchester in WW II, and people past and
present who dedicate their lives to justice and equality, in spite of the
difficulties it makes for them… all as a way of staying prepared. Those people,
for the most part, have known trouble. Some have given their lives, knowing
that even in death, they will not be separated from the promise that Jesus’
coming brings.
The readiness that Jesus requires is not just a
readiness of the mind and the body, but also the readiness of the heart. Are we
prepared to live every day as if he is coming back tomorrow? And can we keep the
enthusiasm, knowing that even if it doesn’t happen in our lifetimes, we are not
left out in the cold? Paul’s promise is true for all of us – Jesus will come
and glory and we will be with him forever.
Thanks be to God.
Let us pray:
Your love has brought us together, O Lord, and it is
your love that sustains us through each day. We pray that you would keep us
faithful. Even as we watch for signs of your kingdom, strengthen us to work
with you to bring about, here and now, your reign on earth. Give us the courage
to witness to your presence in the world, today, tomorrow, and into the future.
In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
[i]
Carla Works, The Working Preacher, 11/6/2011, https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1017
[ii]
Susan Hylan, The Working Preacher, 11/12/17, https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3459
[iii]
Holly Hearon, The Working Preacher, 11/6/2011, https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1053
[iv]
Susan Hylan, Ibid.
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