Sermon: “Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning”

Text: Matthew 25:1-13

32^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

November 9, 2008

Scripture introduction.  Our second reading this morning is from the 25^th chapter of the gospel according to Matthew, the story of the ten bridesmaids, five foolish and five wise.  We really don’t know much about the wedding customs of Jesus’ day.  The ceremony itself probably occurred in a private home, either that of the groom’s family or the bride’s.  From the story we can see that at some point, the bride’s attendants meet the groom—probably in order to dance and to escort him or the bride to the next part of the ceremony.  There may have been some good-natured haggling over the dowry.[1]  The father of the bride might ask initially for a fantastic sum, as if to say that the bride was invaluable.  The groom’s family would play along and in so doing would show their agreement that she was indeed a fine woman.  Finally, the two sides would get realistic and come to an agreement—one they probably had reached privately months or years before.  Then the groom and the bride would be brought together.  The coming of the groom is what the bridesmaids in Jesus’ story await.  Maybe the bargaining caused him to be late!

Five bridesmaids were wise because they brought extra oil for their lamps.  The foolish five did not.  When the groom finally came, the foolish ones had burned up all their oil.  The wise ones would not lend because then their lights might not have lasted long enough for the ceremony.  In the end, the foolish bridesmaids went away to the dealer to get more oil, but when they came back, the door was shut.  When they knocked, the Lord replied, “I do not know you.”  The moral of the story, Matthew tells us, is “Keep awake, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”

Sermon.  Thursday night the Women’s Book Club had a meeting and invited the husbands to attend.  The book for discussion—Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen—recounted the story of a young man who, when his life fell apart, decided to join the circus.  That led us to a conversation about whether any of us had ever run away from home or planned to run away.  Alan Harder entertained us with the story of how he had run away once.  After a few hours on the road, he thought better of the idea and went back home.  But things were so busy there that no one had even noticed his absence!  It made me think of my own youthful plans.  I really never intended to run away, but in that Cold War era—about the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis—I was very concerned that the Russians might invade our neighborhood.  This sounds far-fetched now, but it seemed perfectly reasonable to me, given the fact that my parents had built a bomb shelter in our back yard.  We lived not too far from some forested land owned by United States Steel, so I formed the plan that if the Russians invaded I could go live among the hills of that forest.  I had an old army surplus knapsack, which I gradually filled with the necessary items—a few C-rations, some candy bars, a compass (which I did not know how to use), a pocketknife, and a first-aid kit.  But no warm clothes or sleeping bag; I must have assumed the Russians would invade in the summer.  When all had been packed, I put the knapsack under my bed—just in case.  Whatever might happen, I would be prepared!

Preparation is the key to success in almost any endeavor.  As we approach Veteran’s Day, it is appropriate to recall the years of planning that preceded the Allied invasion at Normandy.  General Patton was given an imaginary army in England, complete with plywood tanks and fake radio traffic, just to hold the attention of the Germans on him and to make them believe he would invade at Calais—while the real invasion was happening elsewhere.  Preparation is something we know about in our everyday lives.  Amanda spends her professional life promoting preparation in mathematics at all academic levels.  Golfers spend hours practicing their swings and putting.  Painters—and we have some really good painters in this church—know that painting is the easy part of the job: it’s the preparation of the surface to receive the paint that takes so much effort.

Matthew ends the story of the ten bridesmaids by telling us that we should “keep awake”—and Jesus did tell some stories about the need for watchfulness—but I doubt whether that’s really the message of this particular story.  Remember that all ten of the bridesmaids went to sleep when the coming of the bridegroom was delayed.  So it was not the sleeping that showed five of them to be foolish, but rather their lack of preparation.  They brought some oil, but they did not anticipate that the bridegroom would tarry.  One commentator has noted that the foolish bridesmaids were not prepared to meet the bridegroom on his schedule; rather, they expected the bridegroom to meet their schedule.  This was a big mistake, especially since this story was told for theological, not practical, reasons. 

Let me say a little more about this.  What is the theological meaning of this story?  Just who is the bridegroom?  All through the story, he is simply referred to as “the bridegroom,” but at the end—when the foolish bridesmaids are attempting to gain entry to the celebration—they identify him: “Lord, lord open to us,” in Greek, “Kyrie, kyrie.”  This is the word used to refer to God the father or to Jesus.  I believe that when Jesus originally told this story, he was referring to God the father.  He begins the story by saying that it represents the kingdom of heaven.  Jesus’ point would have been that if you want to enter into the kingdom of heaven, you have to be prepared.  You may not get into the joy of the wedding banquet if you are not prepared.  Jesus taught that the kingdom of heaven was “at hand.”[2]  So by telling this story he would have been teaching how it is that we enter that kingdom—right now in this life.

The author of Matthew may have had something different in mind when he included this story in his gospel.  For the community addressed by Matthew’s gospel, this story (originally told by Jesus in a different context) may have become an allegory of the second coming of Jesus.  In that reading Jesus himself would be the bridegroom, and the bridesmaids would represent wise and foolish Christians, some of whom were prepared for his second coming, and others who were not.

So the story as it appears in Matthew can be read on at least two levels, each one with deep theological significance.  Yet the story’s lesson is the same in both cases.  Whether the bridegroom is God the father and the wedding banquet is the kingdom of heaven here and now, or whether the bridegroom is Jesus himself and the banquet is the kingdom of heaven that will be manifest at his second coming, the point remains that we are to be prepared.  And the “we” in that sentence, I believe, is referring to Christians, to believers.  Note that there was nothing to distinguish the five foolish from the five wise bridesmaids other than their differing levels of preparation.[3]  Both groups had lamps, both groups had at least some oil, both were together waiting for the bridegroom, both went to sleep, and both were awakened by the cry at midnight.  It would be hard to turn this story into a lesson about believers and nonbelievers because the bridesmaids are so alike.  All of the bridesmaids believed that the bridegroom was coming and that there was a wedding banquet to attend. 

Some, especially in the Protestant tradition, have attempted to argue that the foolish bridesmaids were unprepared precisely because they did not have faith.[4]  If this argument is correct, then maybe the story is about believers and unbelievers.  However, I think the evidence is against this argument.  In Matthew’s gospel this story appears in a lengthy section having to do with the end times and how persons of faith should behave.  In chapter 23 Jesus criticizes the scribes and Pharisees because they were outwardly religious but inwardly they were greedy and self-serving, neglecting the duties of justice and mercy.  In chapter 24 Jesus predicts the destruction of the Temple and the unexpected coming of the end times, and he teaches that when this happens his followers should be found “working.”[5]  In chapter 25—after our story for this morning—Jesus teaches that persons who feed and clothe and shelter and visit those who are least important in the eyes of the world, these persons will inherit the kingdom of heaven.  In all these chapters of Matthew the emphasis seems to be on how God’s faithful people are to live, how they are to behave.

So if this story of the ten bridesmaids is about Christians—persons who already are believers, persons who do have faith—then what is the kind of preparedness Jesus expects of us?  I believe it’s clear from the larger context of these chapters that Jesus is talking about preparing ourselves by doing good works.  Of course, we can never do enough good works to make ourselves worthy before God.  That is why our basic faith is so important.  But Jesus teaches us that we cannot stop at faith.  Faith has to have some outward manifestation.  We should be able to watch someone and pretty soon know whether she or he is a person of faith.  If we say we have faith but do not reach out with help to those around us, we are like the foolish bridesmaids who knew the Lord, who knew he was coming, and who believed there was a wedding banquet being prepared, but who ran out of oil—“ran out of gas” might be our modern equivalent—at the most important time.  Like Nikos Kazantzakis, who wrote The Last Temptation of Christ, I like to imagine that maybe, at the end, the door might finally be opened even to the foolish bridesmaids.[6]  Were this to happen, the fact remains that preparation would have helped them enjoy the party more. 

Like so many of the stories Jesus told about “separating the sheep from the goats” the main point is not about judgment and consequences—although those points are present.  The main point is about how we can be happy.  Think of the last time you did a really good deed for someone else, something unexpected, something you did not have to do, something for which you never expected anything in return.  When you completed that act, didn’t you feel happy?  Didn’t you feel a little closer, not only to that other person, but also closer to God?  Didn’t you feel like you had taken a step toward to the kingdom of heaven?  Today’s message is very simple.  Keep doing those things.  You don’t have to save the world today.  Just do the next right thing.  And then keep doing more of them.  Fill the flask of your life with oil, and when the bridegroom comes, you can wake up knowing that you are prepared for joy.