November 12: "Got Oil?"

THE WORD IN THE GOSPEL  

Matthew 25:1-13

[Jesus taught the people, saying,] “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten young bridesmaids who took their lamps and went out to meet the groom. Now five of them were wise, and the other five were foolish. The foolish ones took their lamps but didn’t bring oil for them. But the wise ones took their lamps and also brought containers of oil.

“When the groom was late in coming, they all became drowsy and went to sleep. But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Look, the groom! Come out to meet him.’

“Then all those bridesmaids got up and prepared their lamps. But the foolish bridesmaids said to the wise ones, ‘Give us some of your oil, because our lamps have gone out.’

“But the wise bridesmaids replied, ‘No, because if we share with you, there won’t be enough for our lamps and yours. We have a better idea. You go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’ But while they were gone to buy oil, the groom came. Those who were ready went with him into the wedding. Then the door was shut.

“Later the other bridesmaids came and said, ‘Lord, lord, open the door for us.’

“But he replied, ‘I tell you the truth, I don’t know you.’

“Therefore, keep alert, because you don’t know the day or the hour.”

MESSAGE

It’s hard to imagine such a thing happening at a modern wedding, isn’t it? Hard to imagine that half of the bridesmaids would be caught off-guard without something they needed for the ceremony.

Nowadays, a lot of weddings are really big productions, planned and perfectly orchestrated by professional wedding planners. A few years ago, Jennifer Lopez starred in a movie called, appropriately, “The Wedding Planner.” She played a character named Mary Fiore, who was a meticulous and devoted professional wedding planner.

In the opening scenes, she is coordinating a very big, expensive, and fabulous wedding, and everything is going along smoothly until . . . the father of the bride goes missing-in-action. After a bit of searching, Mary finds him, slightly drunk and a bit hysterical, crying about the little girl who’s now all grown up, and Mary goes into action. She pulls back her suit jacket to reveal a James Bond-like kit around her waist in which she carries something for every possible wedding emergency. She has aspirin, safety pins, smelling salts, wet wipes, Krazy Glue, scissors, breath spray . . . Well, Mary sprays some water in this father of the bride's face and herds him back to get ready to walk his daughter down the aisle.

You could say that Mary is one well-prepared wedding planner. And you can be sure that none of the bridesmaids in one of her weddings would ever get caught unprepared.

Jesus tells a story in which the unthinkable happens – some bridesmaids are not ready when they should be! There were ten bridesmaids waiting for the bridegroom to appear so they could go into the wedding banquet. But while they were waiting, they all fell asleep. And when the bridegroom arrived at midnight, all ten bridesmaids got up to trim their lamps.

But only five of them had brought extra oil. The other five – the “foolish” ones – did not bring oil, and so, couldn’t light their lamps. They had to run off to find more oil, and when they came back, the bridesmaids who had been ready with extra oil went into the feast with the bridegroom, and the door was shut. When the foolish bridesmaids knocked on the door asking to be let in, the bridegroom said, “Nope, sorry, I don’t know you.”

At first glance, this seems to be a parable about the end times. Jesus seems to be telling his disciples that they must keep awake and be ready, because the end could come at any time.

Christians have long been fascinated with the idea of the end times. What will it be like? What will happen? Or, more importantly, what will happen to me?

Christians have also been fascinated with trying to figure out who will be “in” and who will be left out?  Who are the wise bridesmaids who brought extra oil for their lamps? Who are the foolish ones who didn’t bring any more oil? Who will be invited in to the great feast, and who will be left vainly knocking at the door?

Some Christians believe that anyone who doesn’t proclaim the Christian faith will be automatically left out. Some believe that anyone who doesn’t belong to their particular denomination will be left out. Some believe that anyone who doesn’t belong to their particular church will be left out.

A lot of people think that anyone who doesn’t believe the exact same things they do will be left out. Some believe that if you don’t take the Bible literally, if you don’t believe that every word of scripture is historical and factual and true, or if you weren’t baptized in a certain way or take holy communion in a certain way, you will be left out when the bridegroom comes to celebrate the great banquet.

Unfortunately, this story doesn’t seem to help us with these questions. The story simply says that those who plan ahead and bring enough oil are the ones who will be “in.” But the story does raise the question: what is this oil that we’re supposed to make sure we have enough of? 

Now, of course, like most of Jesus’ parables, this story is an allegory and is not meant to be understood literally. For instance, the story doesn’t mean that we should all literally be carrying around oil lamps and containers of extra oil, waiting for a bridegroom to show up. But what if the point and truth of the story? What does having oil mean for us, today? In the story, the bridesmaids who had brought enough oil were prepared. So what does it mean for us to be prepared?

I believe we can find the answers to these questions if we look at the gospel of Matthew as a whole. In other places in the gospel, the author makes it clear that being prepared does not mean:

- Believing the “right things”

- Having one’s personal spiritual house in order

- Constantly watching for signs of the end times

Being prepared doesn’t mean just sitting around waiting for the bridegroom to appear, or waiting to be invited to the banquet.

No, in Matthew’s gospel, being prepared – or having enough “oil” – means living as if you are already at the banquet. That is, being prepared means living out the Great Commandment to love God and to love your neighbor by doing deeds of mercy, kindness, and justice.

This is not a parable about being ready for the end times. This is not instruction that Jesus gives to his disciples about how they are to prepare for his return some day, Rather, it’s an instruction about how all disciples are to live between the time he leaves them and the day when he will return.

This is not a story about who’s “in” and who’s “out” at some final judgment time. This is a story about being ready to care for and love other people each and every day.

Just a few verses after this story of the bridesmaids in the gospel of Matthew is another story about being prepared. In verses 31-46, Jesus says people who are prepared – who have enough oil – are those who feed the hungry and welcome the stranger and clothe the naked and care for the sick and visit those in prison.

Being prepared means that our lamps are trimmed and full of oil so that we can respond to the people we see every day – people who need a bit of kindness, or a helping hand, or a show of mercy. The lamp represents the light of Christ that shines through us when we respond to people’s needs. And the oil, of course, is what it possible for our lamps to shine.

And it doesn’t matter how much oil we might have stashed away some place. After all, those bridesmaids could have had gallons of oil sitting at home. But that wouldn’t have helped when they found themselves needing to light their empty lamps in a hurry. It doesn’t do any good to carry a lamp if you don’t also carry the oil you need to keep it lit.

What matters is that we carry enough oil with us every day. Then, whenever we come across someone who needs the light of Christ that we have to offer, we’ll be ready to let our lamps shine brightly.

But where do we get the oil?

The oil – the fuel for our lamps – is our relationship with God, and if we don’t attend to our relationship with God, we might find ourselves running pretty dry. I think we all have had the experience of missing an opportunity to help someone by being the light of Christ to shine in someone’s darkness.

I know that there have been times when I was stressed out or too busy, or times when I haven’t paid enough attention to God. Those are times when I often miss out on an opportunity to help another person. You know how it is – it’s like when you’re driving down Main St., deep in thought, and you simply don’t see the person waiting in the crosswalk to cross the street. You just drive right on by without stopping. I’ve done that, and by the time I realize that I should stop, it’s usually too late to stop without slamming on my brakes.

There are other times when I’m too worried about things or too focused on details that I can’t see the person – who is sometimes right in front of me – who needs the light from my lamp.

When I think about it later, I realize that, at that moment when someone needed me, my lamp was dry. I was dry. And I didn’t have any oil with me.

How can you make sure you have enough oil for those unexpected moments when someone needs your light to shine? What helps you stay connected with God, the source of the oil you need?

I hope that coming here to worship helps fill you up. I hope that being a part of this community of faith replenishes your daily supply of oil. I hope there are other things – reading the Bible, praying, meditating – that keep your daily oil supply well-stocked.

As the bridesmaids learned, you can’t simply borrow oil from someone else. We must each take responsibility as Jesus’ followers to keep our own lamps filled. We can help and support each other as we fill up our lamps, but at that moment – out in the street, or at your workplace, or at the store – when you come across someone who needs your lamp to shine, you can’t run and borrow someone else’s oil. You must be ready. We must be ready. There are countless hurting people out there who need us to be ready.

Jesus begins his story of the bridesmaids by saying, “The Kingdom of heaven will be like this . . .” We need to remember that Jesus did not describe the kingdom as some event or experience that would happen in the future. To Jesus, the kingdom was something very real, something that could be perceived in the here and now. In the gospel of Luke, Jesus tells his followers, “Don’t you see? God’s kingdom is already among you.”

So being prepared doesn’t mean waiting with expectation for some future event. It means living with the expectation that each act of love and mercy, each bit of light that shines from our lamps reveals a little bit more of the kingdom that is already among us.