Lamplight

Oil Shortage

Matthew 25:1-13

Some people, it seems, “never put off until tomorrow what they can do today.” Others take the opposite view and “never do today what they can put off until tomorrow.” Most of us do both. Sometimes we procrastinate and sometimes we don’t. Men, for example, will often be faithful and meticulous in cleaning their golf club each and every time they play, but the garage they do it in may stay cluttered for a year. They tell their wives they’ll get to it tomorrow, but they don’t. They may go golfing instead. In other words we do what we think is important at the time, and if it is not – we are tempted to put it off until another day.

Our scripture today tells a story of preparation and procrastination and the consequences that may follow. It asks the question, “In matters of the soul, what do you think is so important. What can’t be put off until tomorrow? What can?” Before we look for answers, let us pray:

Lord, let your wisdom find us now and enter deep into our hearts, that our worship may be joyful, and our daily living be the life of your kingdom bringing hope to your world. Amen.

As Jesus drew closer to the cross his preaching seemed to take on a new urgency. Like the weather forecasters before Hurricane Katrina struck, Jesus prophetically warned, “there’s a big storm coming so get ready, make your preparations and head for the high country, because if you wait too long - it will be too late.” Some listened, but many did not.

Why is that? It’s not like hurricanes are some freak occurrence in that part of the world. They come every year, so why don’t people get ready? Well, in New Orleans some didn’t have much choice, they had no way out; but others did and decided they would ride it out. They’d done it before; they figured they could do it again. The same thing happened when Hurricane Wilma finally hit Florida. After a weeks worth of warnings many were caught unprepared. They ran out of water and food and gas in only a couple of days. Why?

` And why do people wait until they reach 60 before they even begin to think about making financial plans for retirement? It’s not like they didn’t know it was coming, but still they put it off? For some it’s a matter of playing the odds. Maybe the storm will turn before it reaches my house. Maybe I won’t live to see retirement, or maybe I’ll win the lottery, or maybe Social Security will bail me out, or maybe I’ll just move in with my kids. We justify our procrastination with a long list of maybes. Since, life is so uncertain it is not only all right to put things off until tomorrow, it’s downright biblical. Didn’t Jesus say, “be not anxious for the tomorrow, and let tomorrow worry about itself.”[1] Don’t borrow troubles from tomorrow.

But, some say there are two things certain in this world for which we better be prepared and that’s death and taxes. Since Jesus had given his answer to the question of taxes a few chapters earlier he will now speak to that other certainty.

He frames his thoughts in a parable and a setting that would have been completely familiar to his audience. “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to ten maidens who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.”[2] Weddings are big in every culture and the customs that control them are deeply ingrained. Believe me, I’ve done enough weddings to know that brides are very particular about who stands where and what they wear and where the groom is before the wedding starts. When you are about to make the biggest commitment of your life there is found in these traditions some comfort and assurance. The familiar music and bridal gown and rings confirm the covenant that is being made.

So it was in Jesus’ day. One of the customs was designed to create a grand entrance, not for the bride, but for the groom. Ten young women, not really bridesmaids, but more like grooms-maids were to light the way for the groom to make his entrance. Each held a lamp that was really more like a garden torch, so the effect was quite dramatic. The problem these grooms-maids faced was timing. They never knew exactly when the groom would show up. Since this would probably be the only time in their lives that they would be the center of attention, some liked to milk the moment for all it was worth. Procrastination stirred anticipation.

That is evidently what happened in this story because the groom waited so long five of the young women ran out of oil. Now you know and I know that Jesus’ parables have meaning that goes deeper than the story. Jesus’ audience would have immediately understood the bridegroom to be God or perhaps Jesus himself. In the Old Testament this metaphor was often used. God is the groom and Israel is the bride. The New Testament portrays Jesus as the groom and the church as the bride. Whichever understanding you choose the problem remains the same – why does the groom take so long?

Each of us asks that question when we do not immediately receive an answer to our prayers. The other day I came across a book that must speak to that issue because it has the honest title, “You’re late again, Lord! The impatient Woman’s Guide to God’s Timing.” Where were you God when I needed you?

I wish I could tell you the answer. If you’re waiting for God to heal an illness that wracks you’re body, I wish I could give you an appointment like a surgeon and tell you next Tuesday and everything is going to be all right. If you’re waiting for God to bring a child home who has been away too long, I wish I could tell this Thanksgiving all will be reconciled, but I can’t. It would be easy to give a glib response and just quote the prophet Isaiah when he said, “God’s ways are not our ways.”[3] So, “don’t worry – be happy.”

In reality my question is the same one David asked in Psalm 13, “How long Lord?” “How long wilt thou hide thy face from me? How long must I bear pain in my soul, and have sorrow in my heart? How long shall my enemy be exalted O Lord? How long Lord?”[4]

I don’t know the answer to that question and neither did those ten grooms-maids, but that’s the point. Since they had no way of know when they ought to have been prepared for today, tomorrow, and the day after that, but they weren’t! When these whose lamps went out because of an oil shortage they turned to those who had prepared for such a contingency and with nary a please or thank you demanded, “Give us some of your oil.”[5]

Now, a Good Samaritan should have responded by saying “Yes” even to a demand so arrogantly made. After all, the Bible does say, “Let the one who has two coats share with the one who has none.”[6] But, that’s not what happened. Those whom the Bible called “wise” said to those whom the Bible called “foolish”, “Go to a dealer and get some for you, because if we share we also may run out.”[7]

In this parable language what does this oil represent? Why is not transferable? Why do you have to get it on your own? Some scholars believe that oil refers to faith and others believe it is works of righteousness. In either case it’s not something you can really get from someone else. The Apostle Paul said each of us must “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.”[8]

In other words no one gets into the kingdom of heaven on the coattails of someone else. God has no grandchildren so the faith of a godly parent or spouse will not be sufficient for you. God has only children who have heard his call and prepared for his coming.

That’s the meaning of the hard judgment that concludes this parable. “And those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast; and the door was shut. Afterward, the other maidens came also saying, “Lord, Lord, open to us.” But, he replied, “I do not know you.”[9]

The finality of hearing the door close and the lock turned is one of the most fearful sounds in all of scripture for it declares there is no tomorrow. The tomorrows are all gone. Anyone who has ever stood before a loved one lying in a casket or has heard a doctor say, “we’ve done everything we could” has felt the knot that forms in the pit of the stomach and the dark emptiness that engulfs the soul. What do you have left when the tomorrows are all gone?

For those whom the Bible calls “wise” there is the marriage feast, the celebration and salvation that is found though Christ – the Bridegroom who comes surrounded by light. Who are the wise? They are the ones who are ready. How do you know if you are ready?

One preacher put it this way:

“We are ready when our relationships with God and others are what they should be. We are ready when at any moment of our day, whether in the privacy of our home or in the apartment of a girlfriend or in the recesses of our mind, we are not ashamed to have the Lord meet us. We are ready when we make sure that our children are cared for, when will not be ashamed at our credit card accounts being made public. We are ready when past grievances have been forgiven.”[10]

Are you? Are you ready or have you been putting it off for another day? Have you made a decision for Christ or is that also something you’ve been meaning to do after you’ve have your fun doing the things you know he’d disapprove? If you’ve made that decision for Christ, does you walk reflect your talk? Are their things you’re doing about which you’d be ashamed if he happened to walk through the door? Would you be willing to let him look at your checkbook or you date-book?

Procrastinate or pray, put off or prepare, the choice is up to you and will reveal what you think is important, what really matters. Since none of us knows the door the Lord will return to us and we return to the Lord, will it matter if I join the wedding feast or remain outside only looking in?

Jesus concluded his parable by saying, “Watch and pray.” So, let us do that now:

Pastor: O God, you call us to serve you in many, and sometime unexpected ways: