Last Sunday of the Church Year
November 20, 2005
Matthew 25:1-13

"Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a shout, 'Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.' Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.' But the wise replied, 'No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.' And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut. Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, 'Lord, lord, open to us.' But he replied, 'Truly I tell you, I do not know you.' Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour." (NRS).

Are You Ready To Go?

  This is the last Sunday of the Church year. Today we focus on a final thought concerning the end of time, heaven and eternal life before turning to Advent, Christmas and a new year. Our thoughts might naturally turn to judgment as they did in last week’s Gospel reading. Jesus gathered all nations before him and separated all people into two groups like a shepherd separates sheep from goats. He judged them according to their deeds. The righteous entered into eternal life for they did God’s will. But the wicked entered into eternal punishment for they did not do God’s will.

  This week, however, Jesus directs our thoughts to the fulfillment of his promise to come back and take us to be with him in the kingdom of God, in paradise. However, he cannot tell us the day and time of his arrival nor can we somehow determine it. Yet he very much wants to take us to paradise. Therefore, he tells us to be ready to go at a moment’s notice. If not, we will be excluded from paradise.

  Jesus compares our situation to that of ten young women waiting to go to a wedding reception. Jewish weddings at the time took place in three stages similar to what we do today. First, there was the engagement. The fathers of the future bride and groom made an agreement for them to be married. Then there was the betrothal or wedding ceremony. The two families would gather at the bride’s parent’s home. They would make formal promises of marriage before witnesses and the groom would give presents to his bride. This was legally binding although they were not yet completely husband and wife. Latter, maybe a year later, the groom, finally ready to take his bride and consummate the marriage, would go to her house, get her, and take her back to his home for a great marriage feast. Then they were husband and wife.

  I need to add one important piece of information that I came to appreciate in the villages of Africa. We may be used to frequent parties. In fact, some of us may spend too much time at parties and banquets. We often consider it routine to go out on Friday or Saturday evening to have a good time. If we don’t feel like going out, maybe we stay at home and watch a movie or have some friends over. They point is, we have many and regular opportunities to party.

  Not so in villages long ago before cars and electricity, recorded music and video, before pay checks, bars and casinos, before more food and drink than we can possibly consume. Parties were rare. When there was one, you didn’t want to miss it. A funeral or a wedding was an important social event. There you would eat and drink, dance and sing, and hang out with friends and relatives, and of course, meet members of the opposite sex. While we may be tired of such events and not look forward to them, people in Jesus day very much looked forward to them, like we look forward to Christmas.

  It is this moment of excited, impatient expectation when the groom goes to fetch his bride and take her to the wedding feast that Jesus compares to our situation. Not only does the bride go, but her friends as well, these ten virgins or young women. And they do not want to miss the wedding feast. That would be a huge disappointment, a disaster.

  These things often happen at night or go all night. So naturally the ten women take their oil-lamps. They didn’t have flashlights and street lights! They didn’t know exactly when the groom would arrive--they didn’t have watches either. Time in a village is very approximate. You can’t call to say you’ll be late--yep, no cell phones either! So you often have to get ready and wait for people. If they are delayed, you can’t know why and just have to wait a long time. Or they might come early. In either case it’s important to be ready. The bride and groom are more important than the ten young women. They will not wait and hold up the feast for a few invited guests. If the girls are not ready, they will miss the feast.

  This is our situation. Jesus has already come into this world. He lived among us. He taught us the Word of God, did miracles and revealed all that we need to know now about God. Then he died for us to make us his own. He bought us with his blood. He betrothed us to himself. He made all of us together into his Church, his bride. He bound us to himself in a formal and legal way. Instead of a ring he gave us Baptism. As a wedding gift, he gave us his Body and Blood in the Sacrament of the Altar. These gifts assure us that he will keep his promise to complete our union by returning to take us to his home, to heaven. As often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Having gone to prepare a place for us, to make the wedding feast ready, he tells us to be ready to go at a moments notice. He can’t tell us when he will arrive, only that he will. So be ready.

  What then does it mean for us to be ready, to have oil for our lamp so to speak? In a way the answer is extremely simple, in another way somewhat complex. The simple answer might be, He who believes and is baptized shall be saved. Or maybe, Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household. Being ready means to believe that Jesus is Lord and Saviour, to put one’s confidence and hope of eternal life in him. Having done that, we are ready, ready to go at a moment’s notice.

  But because time drags on, we are faced with doubts and concerns that tend to make us not so ready to go at a moment’s notice. Sometimes we forget that we’re waiting to go to the greatest party ever, a true paradise. We get tired of waiting and wonder if it’s really worth waiting for Jesus. The prophet Isaiah spoke to a tired and discouraged Jewish people. They had been despised and abused by the rest of the world for centuries. They were getting tired of waiting for God to restore them to the good old days, to a land flowing with milk and honey. So through Isaiah, God repeats his promise that he will bring his people into paradise, a real utopia. He describes a new heaven and earth, a place of laughing instead of crying, a place where we live very long lives of peace and joy. It is the place where God dwells, a paradise that man cannot create for himself.

  We too get discouraged and tired of waiting. Paradise may begin to seem like only a dream rather than a promise. We give up that hope and begin to look for some other paradise, something we can make here and now. We no longer wait for Jesus. We’re not ready to go.

  Or maybe like Peter says, we have become scoffers, convinced that Jesus isn’t even coming. First of all you must understand this, that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and indulging their own lusts and saying, "Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since our ancestors died, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation!" Certainly the unbelieving world around us scoffs at us for waiting for Jesus. It’s hard to maintain hope in Jesus’ promise when the visible world disagrees. When we loose that hope we’re no longer ready to go with Jesus to the wedding feast.

  To be ready then means to remember that we’re going to a great, eternal wedding feast. It’s worth being ready. It means to maintain our trust in Jesus, that he will most certainly keep the promise he made to come and take us with him. He is not lazy or slow, but as Peter said, he is giving others time to get ready for the feast.

  There is another aspect of being ready that permeates the two chapters of Matthew’s Gospel of which this parable is a part. It is to go about the business that God has given us to do while we wait. In this parable the wise young women bought and took along oil for their lamps. The foolish did not. The wise women were thus ready to pass a long time waiting for the groom to arrive. The foolish were not ready. The business that God has given us to do while we wait is to maintain faith and holiness.

  I already mentioned Baptism and the Lord’s Supper as gifts that Jesus gave to us when he betrothed us to himself and promised to come back for us. He also gave us his Word and the Holy Spirit. These gifts were not meant to be put on a shelf, they were meant to be used. To hear and study God’s Word strengthens faith and keeps us ready. To remember one’s Baptism into the name of Jesus, a sort of wedding ring given to you by God, strengthens faith and keeps one ready. To receive often the Lord’s Body and Blood as a visible reminder or his promise strengthens one’s faith and keeps one ready. No wonder the epistle to the Hebrews says, And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10:24-25). When we meet together as the family of God, we use the Word and Sacraments, the Means of Grace, we encourage each other. That keeps us ready!

  The Holy Spirit in us also wants to act in the world. That’s why Paul says not to quench the Spirit. It’s like a fire that wants to burn and give light and heat. Don’t put it out! Our Epistle lesson from 2 Peter omitted these words, But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed. Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire? But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home. (2 Peter 3:10-13). When we let the Holy Spirit do his work in us by leading holy and godly lives, we are ready to go with Jesus at a moment’s notice.

  Jesus says, Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour. Jesus is coming to take you to the greatest event that will ever be. Are you ready to go, now? Will you still be ready next week, next month or next year? Concern yourself with faith and holiness and you will always be ready.