24 November 2019
Text: Matt 25:1-13 (Isa 65:17-25, 1 Thess 5:1-11)
In the name of +
Jesus. Amen.
Our
Lord’s Parable of the Ten Virgins pits wisdom against foolishness.
Ten
young girls are set to attend a wedding. The groom is going to arrive to bring them to
the marriage feast. Five of the girls are
foolish, and five are wise. The foolish “took
their lamps but took no oil with them,” but “the wise took flasks of oil with
their lamps.”
As
often happens, things did not go according to their plans and expectations. The bridegroom was delayed. And so the girls all fell asleep while they waited.
They were startled awake by the midnight cry that
the bridegroom was coming. Since it was
now late, getting the missing oil was a problem. So the foolish wanted the wise to share with
them – but there would not be enough oil for the journey. The foolish girls had to take the time to walk
to the oil sellers instead.
The
groom came while they were gone, and took the five wise young girls to the wedding
feast, and the door to the hall was shut. The foolish girls arrived late. They pounded on the closed door. They wanted to be let in: “Lord, lord, open
to us.” But he answered, “Truly, I say
to you, I do not know you.”
Jesus
tells us the moral of the story: “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day
nor the hour.”
So
what does it mean to be wise, and what does it mean to be foolish? Wisdom doesn’t mean education, or even
intelligence. Foolishness doesn’t mean being
uneducated or even stupid. For there are
more than enough highly-educated and even pretty smart fools to go around.
Notice that the wise girls did something that the foolish did not: they had prepared. They invested their time and their money into
getting what they needed. The foolish
had different priorities. They used
their resources in a way that was maybe more fun, but when the plans changed,
they were caught unawares. And when it
was time to go, they didn’t have what they needed.
Jesus
doesn’t say that the foolish girls were evil and the wise girls were righteous.
He just says that some were wise, and
some were foolish; some were prepared, and some were unprepared.
We
all know the difference between being prepared and unprepared. Having your tools before you start a job is
wise. Studying for a test with plenty of
time instead of waiting until the last night is wise. Making plans to get home some other way than
driving before deciding to drink alcohol is wise. Leaving for work early enough so that you won’t
be late because of traffic is wise.
It’s
all a matter of being prepared, being ready.
And when we are unprepared, it’s usually because of bad priorities. We make poor decisions because we don’t use
our time and resources wisely, and so something bad happens because of our lack
of preparation.
But
of course, Jesus is not teaching us life lessons about school or work or
operating a car. He isn’t teaching us
about project management or even how to operate an oil lamp. He is teaching us about “the kingdom of
heaven.”
For
nobody wants to think that we could lose our salvation. Nobody wants to think that we could end up in
hell. Nobody wants to think that we are
foolish instead of wise. But, dear
friends, Jesus is telling us this story for a reason. Don’t foolishly throw away the gift of
salvation earned for you at the cross and given to you at baptism. Like an oil lamp, the Gospel shines light
where there was formerly darkness. But
what good is a lamp if it runs out of fuel. And maybe you can get away with an empty oil
lamp for a while, but when the time comes that you really need it – and it will
be unexpected – you need to be prepared.
It
is like having a generator with no gas in it. Once the storm comes and you lose power, it’s
too late. It’s like not wanting to plug
in your phone because you’re having fun, and then when an emergency happens,
you have a dead battery. Wisdom is
making sure there’s gas in the generator, charge on the phone, and oil in the
lamp. Yes, the kingdom of heaven is like
that.
Jesus
is telling you right now – while there is still time – to be wise and be
prepared. Don’t let the lamp that was
given to you at your baptism be empty. An
empty oil lamp won’t shine the light that you need in dark times. An empty oil lamp is nothing more than a
decoration – like a cross on the wall that is just there for show, or pictures
of the your baptism that are nothing more than a reminder of a fun day.
Dear
friends, you fill your lamp when you are engaged with the Word of God. For Jesus is the Bridegroom, and we are
waiting for Him to return. St. Paul
teaches us that His return will come “like a thief in the night” – when nobody
expects Him. And our lives can come to a
sudden end as well, when there is no time to fill our lamps. Don’t be foolish by letting your lamps go out!
This
is not my advice; this is Jesus speaking to us. Don’t get mad at me, I’m just the messenger. There is no way around this parable except the
fact that Jesus is warning us not to be foolish. We are foolish when our priorities are messed
up. We are foolish when we skip church because
we don’t feel like going or have something more fun to do. We are wise when we commit to filling our
lamps as often as possible with the oil of the Gospel – hearing the Word of God
preached and taught. We are wise when we
attend Bible class, when we pay attention to the readings and the sermon, and
when we humbly receive our Lord’s body and blood in the Sacrament.
Whether
we die, or our Lord returns – we are close to eternity, dear friends. It can happen instantly. Even when we think “there is peace and
security,” the “sudden destruction will come upon” us. St. Paul says that we are children of light,
not of darkness, for he implores us to be wise, living in the light of the Gospel
and not in the darkness of misplaced priorities. We must not let “that day” surprise us “like a
thief.” We need to be ready, dear
friends. Jesus is telling you – not someone
else – you. He is telling you to be
ready – now, not tomorrow – now.
For
Jesus has already come into our world, born of the virgin Mary. He has already paid the price for our sins on
the cross. He has already risen from the
dead, conquering death. He has already
sent the Holy Spirit to guide His church to Himself, to the Word of God, to the
Sacraments – even as He, the Bridegroom, is delayed, and we wait for His
imminent return. As we wait, we must use
our time wisely, dear friends. For our
time is shorter than you think.
“For
behold,” says our Lord, “I create new heavens and a new earth.” He creates a new world of joy and gladness,
of life and prosperity, a world without “weeping and the cry of distress.” It is a world like Eden, where everything and
everyone is in the right place. There
will be no predators, for “the wolf and the lamb shall graze together, the lion
shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food.” The serpent will indeed “bite the dust” as Satan
and his angels and all of those who followed him – including the foolish – will
be cast into the lake of fire.
And
so we need to be wise. We parents need
to exhort our children to be wise. We all
need to encourage our families and friends to be wise. We need to “encourage one another and build
one another up” as St. Paul says.
We
have a glorious banquet to attend, dear friends! Let’s get ready! Let’s look forward to this eternal feast. We have a foretaste of it right here in the Eucharist,
by invitation of the Bridegroom Himself, who is on the way. Let your light shine, dear friends, fueled by
the Word of God, by the Gospel, by absolution, by the regular reception of the Sacrament.
Let us be prayerfully prepared, ready at
any time to meet our Lord. And being
ready, let us go in with Him to the marriage feast,” where:
“The
King’s daughter shall be brought to the King; the virgins, her companions who
follow her, shall be brought to You. With
gladness and rejoicing they shall be brought; they shall enter the King’s
palace.” Amen.
In the name of the Father
and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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