Sermon: 23rd Sunday after Pentecost
8 November 2020 –
Archdeacon Mark Long
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Psalm 78:1-7; and Matthew 25:1-13; NRSV
Awake, prepared, and ready. Today’s parable begins with the intriguing
phrase, “The kingdom of Heaven will be like this.”[1]
It alerts us to a change, to a shift in the way God’s purposes are being worked
out. We see this shift beginning a chapter back when Matthew begins to place
emphasis on the necessity for watchfulness, recording Jesus encouragement,
“Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming”[2],
an injunction repeated a the end of today’s parable, reminding us that we “…
know neither the day nor the hour.”[3]
It is always tempting to think that we have got life and faith and God figured
out; that we know what will happen, that we have some insight into the future;
that we can control what will happen. In the disciples mind there is a plan, an
expectation of both who Jesus is, what God is doing in and through Jesus, an
outcome that will embrace the deep desire of the people for liberation, and
restore the Israelite kingdom to its former strength and glory as a United
Kingdom under the mystical rule of King David in former times. Yes and no; they
have the gist of it, but their thinking is based in the present and in the tangible,
and is limited to a political outcome. God is up to so much more in and through
Jesus: it is not about the liberation of the Jewish people, but it will include
them; rather it is about the liberation of humanity, and of Creation as a whole.
Two millennia later you and I still struggle to comprehend the fullness of this
vision, and get easily distracted by the rabbit holes of our own desire for
power and control, and find our focus overly consumed by the crises of the
moment.
The parable of the ten bridesmaids encourages us to wakefulness, to be prepared, to readiness. My own spiritual journey over the last while is a call towards an increased consciousness of who I am, of who we are, of who God is, and to a deeper awareness of what God is up to in and around us; and I am aware that I am far from awake. I recognise in myself the drowsiness of the bridesmaids, and while I think I am prepared I fear I will wake up to discover that like the five foolish bridesmaids I will find myself to be under-prepared and scrabbling for the needed resources at that moment of true consciousness. Back in early January I thought I was prepared for 2020, and each day of the last seven months has been proof that I was not; yet each step of this year’s journey has been as exilerating as it has been terrifying. I have discovered that each time I have scrabbled for resources that the oil I have required, while seemingly insufficient, has met the need of the moment; and that God can be trusted.
In telling today’s parable Jesus was preparing the disciples for events that would turn their expectations upside down, nullify their plans and shatter their limited dreams, leaving them scattered and fearful at the moment of awakening. Preparedness for this moment was not about having a clear plan of action, or even a good supply of lamp oil near at hand, but an inner ability to respond creatively to a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous set of circumstances.[4] The disciples relationship with Jesus and their participation in his ministry prepared them not especially for the crisis his arrest, trial, and crucifixion would create for them, but rather to the awakening his resurrection would thrust upon them. Death, as breaking and shattering and as often unexpected as it may be (and as horrific as Jesus’ death was), is a normal part of life; resurrection is not. In the various resurrection accounts we find the disciples dazed, uncertain and fearful as they awaken to the unexpected arrival of the Bridegroom. What is heartening for us is that these same disciples discover within themselves a strength to embrace this unexpected development with all its accompanying chaos, and much of the New Testament is testimony to their courage in embracing this starling outcome with all its uncertainty and ambiguity. They discovered that it was their relationship with Jesus, and all that they had been exposed to through their time with him, that had prepared them for this moment in history and the journey it would lead them on.
To be ready is not to know the plan, not to have the resources all neatly to hand, but to trust that in the moment of awakening that Jesus is “… the way, and the truth, and the life”[5] for us, and that our relationship with God in and through Jesus Christ is sufficient. In each of our awakenings may we find that our preparedness and readiness is deeply embedded in our relationship with God, supported and embraced by our love for one another, and lived out in service to others; that all humanity and Creation itself may “… obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”[6]
Let us pray,
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