Emergency Preparedness
David C. Myers
November 9, 2008
Joshua 24:1 - 3a, 14 - 18
Matthew 25:1 -13
Texts: "Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, chose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served . . .; but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." . . . from Numbers 14:15
"Five of them were foolish, and five were wise." . . . Matthew 25: 2
If you like happy endings, skip this parable. Go back and read again the Parable of the Eleventh Hour Worker in the Vineyard where God acts like God should, where God over-treats everybody equally. It will make you feel better, as if the Bible is supposed to serve that purpose! But this one ends with the sound of a slamming door, and the image of five bridesmaids shivering outside while the party goes on without them.
Oh, it starts out happy enough. Weddings in first century Palestine were the most festive occasion that could happen.1 It was an undeclared holiday, and would begin at nightfall to escape the brutal heat of the day. Sometimes it would go on for days! Even the religious leaders would join the celebration and revelry. [I give thanks to Robin Meyers and his sermon, "Sometimes It's Too Late" found in the Biblical Preaching Journal, Fall, 1990; and to the teachings of Walter Wink for the background material on weddings in the time of Jesus.]
Unlike today's times, however, the groom was the center of attention. And in this parable, he makes everyone wait. The groom was the center of attention.
That's not the way it is now. Now the bride makes everyone wait. At today's weddings the groom is almost an accessory at weddings, old "what's his name" who is lucky enough to have hooked up with the beautiful bride. Her preparation is long and glorious. All eyes are on her.
Well, in ancient times the groom was at the center of a sometimes sticky legal process involving gifts between the families. Often the bride's family would hold out long into the night, hoping for more gifts.
The climax, however, was the parade, the march of family and friends of the bride who went, by torchlight to the paternal home; that is to the groom's father's house, where the couple might well live at first. Once they were all there, the doors were shut and couldn't be opened for fear that evil spirits might enter and curse the marriage.
As the evening drags on, and the hour approaches midnight, the bridesmaids start getting drowsy and begin to nod off. It was their job to provide the light. And they hold those little lamps - you have the image, shaped like gravy boats and usually attached to the ends of long poles. 10 were needed; but only five brought enough oil, the other five didn't and they ran out.
Finally at midnight, a cry breaks through their slumber: "The bridegroom is coming, Wake up!" Five discover they are out of oil and ask the others if they may borrow some. "Sorry!" comes the reply, "but that wouldn't leave enough for us . . . go and buy some for yourselves." And after they have gone to the local 7 - 11 and come back they are not allowed in - the door is shut in their faces.
What kind of parable is this?
Wouldn't it be nice if they had just shared? The image of the church lady from Saturday Night Live comes to mind. Yes, wouldn't it be "special" if those bridesmaids had said, "Share and share alike." Or wouldn't it have been nice if the door had not been closed shut while they went out to get extra oil?
But that's not what happened. That isn't what this parable says.
Think about it, what would be better - 5 lamps that stay lit, or 10 that go out in a few minutes? What would be better to keep the doors shut, or to open them and possibly let in evil spirits?
You see, most likely what Jesus is trying to do is teach a lesson about the Second Coming. After all, it was the number issue of the early Christian Church. When is Jesus coming back? And Jesus, after all is the Bridegroom of God's church. When will the real bridegroom come? How long do we have to wait? When Matthew's Gospel was written about 60 - 70 years had passed. That's two generations! People only hear the announcement so many times before they lose interest and fall asleep.
This is one of those troublesome stories about the end times; what Biblical scholars call eschatology. Paul preached and wrote about it. Jesus talks about it in the chapter of Matthew in this parable, the Parable of the Talents and the Parable of the Sheep and Goats. Be ready! Be prepared! Build a bomb shelter! Stock your basement with non-perishable foods! Homeland Security speaking. We need emergency preparedness!
And we still are waiting. If not waiting for the end times, certainly for Jesus to come into our lives in a way that is definitive and transforming. And, while there is harsh judgment for those who aren't ready; let us not lose sight of the fact that when Jesus comes - this parable says - it will be joyous; like a wedding feast! It's not going to be with the destruction of this world, but the celebration of life as God wants it! So often we see that second coming as harsh judgment; perhaps even as punitive. I like the way Robert Capon put it:
"God is not our mother-in-law, coming to see whether her wedding-present china has already been chipped. He is a funny Old Uncle with a salami under one arm and a bottle of wine under the other. We do indeed need to watch for him; but only because it would be such a pity to miss all the fun." [Robert Capon, from the book The Parables of Judgment, Eerdmans, 1989. p. 166]
But what about those who run out of oil? Not only won't the other 5 bridegrooms share, but the door to the party is slammed shut in their face. But the doors couldn't be opened lest the evil spirits come in.
However much it hurts, this parable teaches that in the vocabulary of God there is the word "No." It is the only way it can be in a consequential world. Without no, yes means nothing. Without yes, there is no hope. It sounds so trite, but there is something to the old definition of luck, "luck is where preparation meets opportunity." Another similar saying is, "don't sleep through school and expect the job interview to go well."
But we don't want it that way. After all, just a few weeks ago we studied Jesus hard teachings of grace - and how hard it was to learn that God's grace is equal whether we come to God at the beginning of the day or at the eleventh hour. So this parable is jarring; apparently contradicting Jesus' own teachings on grace. We can always assume, especially in good times, that there will always be someone from whom we can borrow some extra oil. Perhaps we all know people like the man who lived off his father's hard work, his mother's goodness, his wife's undying loyalty until his midnight came, and there was no one left to borrow from. He looked inside himself and discovered there was no one at home. He never set his alarm clock, never made his own breakfast, or made a trip to the nursing home. Sometimes it is too late.
I shall never forget the late night call from a woman dying with pneumonia complications from end-stage cancer. She told me her life was soon to end. She was terrified, and asked me to pray for her. In those moments of prayer I wanted to say something that would connect and help her to understand that death is not punishment, that death is part of God's plan. How could I get her to realize that it wasn't all pain. Then I glanced over at her bedside table. On it lay a stack of magazines: Silver Screen, Modern Romance, Soap Opera Digest, and The National Enquirer. And suddenly it occurred to me that she was asking for some of my oil. Like the 5 bridesmaids who ran out, she had none. For her, the bridegroom coming was only something to dread.
Consequentiality is at work in this world. Half of the people in hospital beds are there because, "one of these days" they were going to quit smoking, but never did.
We see parents working harder and harder, sacrificing time and energy for a growing career, buying their children everything - the best schools, clothes, video games; summer camps - only to discover that they did deprive them of everything - love. Sometimes it is too late
Faithfulness is a lifetime vocation. Last week we talked about the saints and read about them in Hebrews, chapter 12. We read, "they ran the race with perseverance." What an image!
This is not a foreign image in Scripture. Forty years is the desert for Moses; his people asking how long they must wait. Forty days in the desert in Christ. Yet, when the time had come, they had persevered and were ready.
And today we read the story in Joshua, Joshua places before the people who are still waiting to move into the land of milk and honey and are still wondering how long - how many more battles. And Joshua says to them God has fulfilled every promise He has made, and there is one more to come; don't transgress from God's Covenant, "Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served . . . or the gods of the Amorites in whose region you are now living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!" (Joshua 24:15)
Emergency preparedness!
Today two families have chosen whom they will serve - they will serve the Lord! They are coming before us with extra oil as we celebrate the Sacrament of Baptism. At the 9:30 service Jay and Jeannie Fryer bring Jocelyn to the join family of God. At the 11:00 service Russ and Katia Phillips bring Brynn. Those two children come to be part of our family.
The children come to our church family with a fresh new supply of oil. Children don't come to us grumpy and judgmental. They come with excitement and newness! It's a party.
A minister I know prays at every baptism that the parents will have love for their child "and enough to spare". Isn't that praying that the parents will have an extra flask of oil? That these parents would have reserves of care and patience and energy and commitment when the unexpected comes and they will need it?
"Keep awake, therefore," Jesus says at the end of the parable, "for you know neither the day nor the hour." When all is said and done - whether or not we have scared ourselves silly with the now-or-never urgency of faith and the once-and-always finality of judgment - we need to take a deep breath and let it out with a laugh. Because what we are watching for is a party. Jesus calls it a wedding feast! But that party will not come to us. The unknown day and time will burst upon us suddenly. We don't know the day, we don't know the time. But when it comes, as Robert Capon says, it will not come as ". . . our mother-in-law, coming to see if her wedding present china has been chipped. But God is a funny old uncle with a salami under one arm and bottle of wine in the other. And who would want to miss the fun!"