Joshua 24:1 & 14-15
Saint Matthew 25:1–13
I don’t know about you but if I live to be 1,000 I hope I never hear the words, “to close to call” ever again. I has been a harrowing week in a harrowing year.
No matter what side you are on it has been like a visit to Disneyland. There have been roller-coaster rides of emotions with one moment being up and the next being down followed by excruciatingly long waits. It’s the waiting that was the hard part.
We can tolerate a little waiting. Some of us can even remember the year when we waited 36 days until the Supreme Court decision in which President George W. Bush’s victory over Vice-President Al Gore was verified. We remember the wait but we had to be reminded of Mr. Gore’s graciousness in defeat when he said: “history gives us many examples of contests as hotly debated, as fiercely fought, with their own challenges to the popular will.
Other disputes have dragged on for weeks before reaching resolution. And each time, both the victor and the vanquished have accepted the result peacefully and in the spirit of reconciliation. So let it be with us.
I say to President-elect Bush that what remains of partisan rancor must now be put aside, and may God bless his stewardship of this country.1
That is where we are at now. The election has been decided after a difficult week of waiting, watching, and for some of us constantly checking our Twitter feeds for the latest update. It has just been more waiting in a year of waiting. Waiting for the pandemic to end and discovering that at one moment we are making progress while at the next we seem to be sliding backward. Waiting for jobs to come back. Waiting for schools to open. Waiting for congregational singing to return to our churches. Waiting for word on the health of people we love.
We don’t wait well.
Jesus once told a story about that. It was remembered by the gospel writer because the original readers were anxiously waiting for Jesus to return at any moment to establish his reign and make all things new. They were growing impatient, restless, about to give up and so he told them a story to remind them of the need to be ready and never forsake the faith.
Weddings in Jesus day were grand celebrations that involved the couples’ entire community and went on for days. There was feasting, dancing, and revelry beyond measure. Being asked to participate in the event was a high honour.
An important part of the wedding ceremony was the procession of the bride and groom with their pathway lighted by maids-of-honour holding lamps to illumine their path at night. Being asked to be a light-bearer was a high honour and it was expected that you do the job well.
Something happens and the groom is delayed.
I am sure all you have sat in churches, cooling your heals waiting for a member of the wedding party to show up. Any pastor can regale his or her congregation with one horror story after another.
In one I was called to officiate the couple forgot the rings at the hotel and insisted that they could not exchange vows with borrowed rings. It seemed like forever until they returned. The poor organist played ever piece of music he knew and some he didn’t. It was about thirty minutes of uncomfortable waiting.
Some of the bridal party, in Jesus’ story, made themselves comfortable – too comfortable. The day was moving into night and eyelids weighed down by rich food and probably an open bar were growing heavy.
Half the bridal party fell asleep. In the honor/shame society of the time it would have been seen as the greatest of insults which is why the groom reacts so unkindly to the women when they finally showed up.
He was angry because the bridesmaids had neglected their duty. They had only one responsibility – to light the way – and they failed.
While we are taken aback by the severity of the groom’s reaction of slamming the door in the latecomers face every one of Jesus’ original listeners would have been nodding their heads and saying, “Serves them right.”
Neither should they have expected any help from those who had prepared. These bridesmaids were ready for any eventuality. They had brought along enough oil to accommodate the delay but even they may have been running short.
One group asks the other for help and their request is met with derision. “They answered, ‘There might not be enough to go around; go buy your own.’”2
Remember this was a first century village. There were no late night convenience stores open. These woman were in real trouble. They were in trouble with their families for whom their irresponsible actions brought shame. They were in trouble with their community whose celebration they ruined. And, they certainly were in trouble with the groom who unceremoniously slammed the door in their face.
And so the message of Jesus’ parable is a harsh one. Be ready! Be prepared or else! And if you are like me you might be thinking: There had to have been other options.
One of those other options, which I had never thought of before was put forth by Aimee Moiso, a Ph.D candidate at Vanderbilt. She was really thinking out of the box when she suggested. “Light cast by a flame is not a zero-sum resource; if the oil could not be shared, surely the light of the lamps could have been.”3
What a wonderful idea! What a beautiful scene! The bridesmaids walking next to each other, each helping the other out, caring for each other, still lighting the way.
There is little doubt that for the original audience the was a parable about judgement, pure judgement. For us, in our day, we need something else.
Bishop Yehiel Currey wrote wisely and well in a letter he sent to members of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod.
As we look closely ...we see clearly that, as a society (and likewise as a church), we remain polarized and polarizing, separated, unable to perceive our neighbors, hear our neighbors’ pains, view our neighbors as humans like us, and invite them into the life-saving work of Christian community. Like society, we the church remain possessed by a spirit that disallows us from encountering and responding to our neighbors with attentiveness, authenticity, and love.
Conservative columnist Erick Erickson reminded his readers last Wednesday.
Both sides are convinced that if their guy loses, the country is going to hell in a handbasket. I assure you, despite the hysteria, that is not really the case. But it is the case that someone in your community is falling through the cracks and you can help.
Whoever becomes President and whichever party controls the Senate or your state legislature will be unable to fix those things. They will have zero impact in any meaningful way on the lives of those people.
We have all obsessed with this election. We are all fretful. We all have an interest in it. But the homeless, the battered wife, the child, the hungry, and the isolated do not need a president, a senator, or a congressman. They all need your commitment to your local community. They need a neighbor’s love. . . .4
They need us to bear the light for them and with them. For as the hymn writer puts it. “It’s not with swords loud clashing, or roll of stirring drums, but deeds of love and mercy, God’s heavenly kingdom comes.”
Now is our time to be light-bearer and light sharers for it is then we will be the kind of people the kingdom of heaven is made.
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1. CBSNews.com staff, “Text Of Gore's Concession Speech,” CBS News (CBS Interactive, December 14, 2000), https://www.cbsnews.com/news/text-of-gores-concession-speech/.
2. St. Matthew 25:9. (MSG) [MESSAGE=Eugene H. Peterson, The Message Devotional Bible (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2018).
3. Aimee Moiso, “Matthew 25:1-13. Commentary 1: Connecting the Reading with the World,” Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Teaching 3 (Louisville, KY: Westminister | John Knox Press, 2020): pp. 473-474.
4. Erick-Woods Erickson, “Can I Have Your Attention for a Minute, Please?,” Erick Erickson's Confessions of a Political Junkie, November 3, 2020), https://ewerickson.substack.com/p/can-i-have-your-attention-for-a-minute.
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