Rev. Mark Schaefer
Kay Spiritual Life Center
November 10, 2002
Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25; Matthew 25:1-13

I. INTRODUCTION

Two years ago, when I was in the seminary, I had a miserable class schedule. I was in class on Mondays from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30, 4:45 to 6:00, then 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Eight hours of class with only 45 minutes in between. My Wednesdays were worse. 9-12, 12:45-3:45, 4-6, 6:30-9:30. 12-1/2 hours of class with only 1-1/2 hours of break in between.

My last class on Wednesday was called “Philosophical Backgrounds of Theology.” It was a requirement before taking Systematic Theology. It was a fascinating course and was really interesting, but by the time I got to that class, I just could not keep my eyes open. I was exhausted. I once nodded off, woke back up, and (apparently in some kind of unconscious effort to participate in the class) discovered that I had my hand raised to answer a question. To this day, I have no idea what question I was answering or whether the comment that I gave had any bearing on the discussion.

It can be a hard thing when the day is long and the hour is late to keep awake.

II. TEXT

Today’s gospel lesson is one of the more curious parables in the New Testament. Ten bridesmaids–other translations say ‘virgins’–go out to meet the bridegroom. Five are ‘foolish’ and five are ‘wise.’ The foolish took only their lamps, the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. The bridegroom was delayed and they all fell asleep. At midnight there was a shout that the bridegroom was coming and that it was time to go out and meet him. They all get up and trim their lamps. Those without extra oil ask for oil from those with. They are told there will not be enough and that they had better go buy some more. While they’re out looking for oil, the bridegroom comes and those who were ready went into the banquet and the door was shut. They come to the door and ask to be let in and the bridegroom says, “Truly I tell you, I do not know you.” Then we are told “Keep awake, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”

It’s a difficult parable–in no small measure because it’s also kind of strange. First, we are told that there are five wise and five foolish bridesmaids. The wise bring extra oil. But think about it–who in their right mind goes to a wedding thinking that the groom is going to be so late, that you will need extra provisions? The bridegroom shows up at midnight! That’s completely unreasonable. So it’s a little strange to expect your bridesmaids to prepare for a wedding that might start many hours late.

And then the other bridesmaids won’t share their oil. Instead they tell them to go out and buy some fore themselves. Now, where, you might ask, are they going to buy oil at midnight? It’s not like they had a lot of Walmarts or 7-11s around then. Where are they expected to find this oil? But they do find oil. And then there’s the strange behavior of the bridegroom. When the bridesmaids do return, he does not admit them, in fact he says that he does not know them. Further–where is the bride? And why is she never mentioned?

It is a strange story and we understand right away that we’re not really talking about a wedding. This is not so much a parable as it is an allegory, used to convey theological meaning. Rather, this is a message to the Church about being ready for the return of the Lord, despite his apparent delay. Jesus is the bridegroom. The wise bridesmaids are the faithful believers, the foolish are the unfaithful. The Lord is coming, but since we don’t know the day or the hour, Keep Awake!

III. WAITING

That kind of instruction doesn’t always sit well with us. We don’t like to wait. Whether it’s waiting on line at the DMV, or sitting in traffic at a red light (or worse, if you’ve ever had to wait for a seemingly interminable train to pass by), or sitting in the waiting room at the doctor’s office, waiting is not something we generally enjoy. Waiting creates anxiety, stress, boredom, exhaustion. We can get tired of waiting.

A. Waiting for Godot

I don’t know how many of you have seen the play Waiting for Godot. It’s a play by Samuel Beckett that features two men who are simply waiting for a man called Godot to arrive. It’s maddening. Godot never arrives. At the end of the play, the two men leave and decide to return the next day. There are times when waiting for God, for the Kingdom of God can be like that.

B. 1 Thessalonians

We’ve been concerned with waiting from the very beginning. We read in the gospels Jesus’ words that ‘This generation will not pass away until these things have come to pass.’ The first generation of Christians expected the arrival of the Kingdom of God. Jesus had spoken of the Kingdom as being ‘at hand.’ The early Church was expecting Jesus’ imminent return and the beginning of God’s direct reign on earth.

But a strange thing happened while they were waiting: some of them started to die… of old age. This caused a great deal of anxiety in the early church. The Thessalonians were particularly distressed by this turn of events. They feared that the dead would miss out on Jesus’ return. In Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, he has to deal with this crisis in their congregation. He writes:

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died… (1 Thess. 4:13-14)

Actually, it is interesting to note that the word that is translated “those who have died” in Greek actually means “those who have fallen asleep.” Paul calms their fears by telling them that though they fall asleep, because they fall asleep in faith, they will be awakened to see the coming of the Lord.

IV. WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR?

But what is it that we are waiting for? What is it we are ‘keeping awake’ for? From our twenty-first century perspective, we don’t always know what to do with this kind of material. We are not necessarily comfortable with the “End Times.” Those of us from the center/mainstream or more liberal traditions are actually a little uncomfortable with all this Kingdom of God talk. We’re often a little embarrassed by it, like the uncle at Thanksgiving dinner who brings up embarrassing stories from our childhood.

So we hear Jesus speaking of the Kingdom, we read Paul writing of the resurrection of the dead, we read the fantastic stuff in the Book of Revelation, and we chalk it up to an earlier, more foolish church that believed in silly things like that. We’re not expecting Jesus to come back any time soon. We look at the Kingdom of God in an overly “spiritualized” way–as something that exists in the here and now, in the church, or similar fellowship.

And there are those in the Church who go in the opposite direction, who are expecting Jesus next Tuesday. Who have figured out that the 12-headed dragon of Revelation is the European Union and that Bill Gates is the Anti-Christ and have predicted down to the minute when the Second Coming is going to occur. The Kingdom of God for such people is a political vindication.

Neither option is satisfying nor is it authentic Christianity. There is a way between minimalism and literalism.

Christianity confesses faith in the last days, in the ultimate victory of God. In the belief that wickedness, brokenness, poverty, injustice, war, famine, disease, and death will not always rule. God will triumph in the end and with him justice, peace, plenty, and life eternal.

We like those of the earliest church are awaiting the return of Jesus and with him, the inauguration of the Reign of God on earth. All semester we have been reading the parables of Jesus in the latter chapters of the Gospel according to Matthew. Those parables all state “The kingdom of God will be like…” Jesus does not tell us exactly what the Kingdom is, rather what it will be like. It is the same way with other apocalyptic literature. The Book of Revelation does not tell us what the Kingdom will be–it tells us what it will be like. It gives us images and ideas to help us to understand what kind of a thing we are waiting for.

V. HOW WE WAIT

This is no small thing. How we wait is determined by what we are waiting for. If we are waiting for a phone call, we keep the stereo down so we can hear the phone ring. If we are waiting for a cab, we look out the window every couple of minutes. When we are waiting for the Kingdom of God, we wait in a particular way.

A. Falling Asleep

I realize that it is something of a risk naming a sermon “Keep Awake.” One of you, upon seeing that as the title listed for the following week’s sermon, even sent me a kind note suggesting that I think more about my sermon titles. Just so you know: I get it. While titling a sermon ‘Keep Awake’ might give me the opportunity to shout at you as part of the sermon, the title is really just in keeping with the text.

That’s the theme of this text. That’s what this story is about–keeping awake. “Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” Keeping awake is the way that we’re supposed to wait for the bridegroom. Or is it?

Looking back at the text, we note that it isn’t just the foolish bridesmaids who fall asleep. They all do, wise and foolish. So, is the point of this whole lesson really an exhortation to stay awake? It becomes clear that falling asleep is not the problem.

No, Paul, in his letter to the Thessalonians makes that clear. ‘Falling asleep’, that is, dying, is not a problem at all. When the Lord returns, he will wake those who have fallen asleep.

B. Oil for the Lamps

So waiting does not really require ‘staying awake.’ (Actually a better translation of that phrase might be “keep ready” or “be prepared.”) Certainly not in the sense of staying alive. The church gave up on that interpretation a long time ago. Rather, the problem is not staying awake, but having enough oil for the lamps. The wise bridesmaids have flasks of oil, the foolish do not. But what is that oil?

The oil is the stuff of Christian living, of Christian discipleship. Back when we looked at the parable of the wedding guests, we talked about how Christian life is more than just showing up. Here we have that lesson repeated for us in stark terms. Participation in the wedding banquet is not limited to those who are awake at the time the bridegroom arrives, but those who are awake and who are prepared. Those who have brought with them the preparedness of Christian living are admitted to the feast.

John Wesley had the same interpretation. He saw the lamp as faith and the oil as “faith working by love.” When confronted by the bridegroom’s arrival, those who had faith, but not lived a life of love sought to fill their lamps at the last possible minute. They asked the wise to share, but they could not. Not because they were selfish, but because one person’s discipleship is that person’s and cannot be given to another. Each is responsible for their own discipleship.

C. Oil for Our Lamps

Though it is often read as a warning about a sudden and unexpected arrival, what Matthew’s gospel is telling us is that the wait may be longer than we think. Paul expected to see the coming of Christ. He did not. Nor did anyone in his generation. Or in the many generations since. Our wait has been longer than we think. We may yet fall asleep before the bridegroom comes. Will we be ready upon our awakening?

What is the oil with which we fill our lamps?

D. What we are waiting for

Remember, how we wait is determined by what we are waiting for. We are waiting for the Kingdom of God. We are waiting for a kingdom of justice, so we act justly. We are waiting for a kingdom of peace, so we act peacefully. We wait for a kingdom of love, so we act lovingly. We expect a kingdom of plenty, so we act generously. We await a kingdom of mercy, so we act mercifully.

VI. CONCLUSION

It can be a hard thing when the day is long and the hour is late to keep awake. Now, nearly two thousand years after Jesus walked the earth, there is great temptation to think that our hopes for his return have been profoundly misplaced. But we are still waiting. And as we wait we “wait in joyful hope”–living out the values of the Kingdom for which we wait. We may not be awake when the bridegroom returns. Our wait can be longer and more tiring than we initially thought. We cannot choose, we cannot know the day or hour of his coming. But we can choose how we will wait. In the words of the old spiritual, we will “Keep [our] lamps trimmed and burning, for the time is drawing nigh…”