Watching and Waiting

Sunday, November 27th, 2005
Advent B1
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Micah 5:2

But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.

Do you realize that there’s a lot we hold in common with the first-century inhabitants of Bethlehem?

We (at times more noticeably than at others) share the burden of living in the expectation of what is yet to come – what has yet to be. We, like our counterparts then, live with the longing of a time of fulfillment, of rejoicing, of celebrating the coming of the Messiah.

To be sure, we have a degree of comfort in our waiting the likes of which the residents of Bethlehem could not even dream about. Air Conditioning, Heating, indoor plumbing, transportation and mobility in general as well as communication capabilities that would stun them into silence, to say nothing of the ease with which we go about feeding ourselves, all these and even the clothes we wear would be so far out of even the wildest imagination of those early … watchers and waiters that it is almost like comparing apples and oranges.

That is not the only thing we share with our counterparts of the early years of the first century of the Common Era.

We also share the burden of oppression – though it takes a less obvious form than a despot named Herod, or occupying armies of soldiers with spears and swords. The oppression we live under is more pervasive, more insidious, than they were.

I don’t believe in taking on a victim mentality, but there are certain aspects of living in this day and age that can be as degrading, as nullifying as the prospect of death was then. We face the prospect of being relegated to irrelevance just as quickly and with just as little thought.

As I have noted before, one of the deepest-seated needs of the human heart is to have made a difference – to be of significance – maybe not in a grand way, we are not all called or gifted in such a way as to make that a probability, but in a local, more personal, and in that sense, a more immediate way.

I remember watching a documentary once, it was entitled ‘the heart of hatred’, and it dealt with racism in contemporary France. The producers took a mixed group of individuals – from Algiers and other former Franco-African colonies, and put them together with a cross section of Frenchmen of European origin, and over the course of 3 or 4 days had them talk through, in several sessions, talk out their fears and anxieties and attitudes towards each other.

At one point, one of the senior native Frenchmen in the group, who had been outspokenly pro-integration of the disparate communities, on hearing a comment from one of the other, less open-minded men in the group which gave an indication that he was coming around to a more inclusive attitude burst into tears. When asked why he was crying, his response was ‘if I’ve made any difference, any difference at all, in the heart of that man that might result in a change of attitude and a reconciliation between the races, I would consider this time to not have been wasted.’

To be honest, in watching the documentary, it seemed a response that was not entirely proportional to the event. It didn’t seem to be that big a deal to me. Though part of it might have been due to the fact that the documentary was in French, with Spanish subtitles … so there’s a real probability that some of the emotional impact was lost in translation. Be that as it may, we come back to the fact that there is a longing in human nature to … have made an impact, in however small a way, on the society in which we live.

I heard a wonderful saying on NPR yesterday. It was a saying by an unnamed rabbi, which was “always carry two notes with you – one in each pocket – on one have written the message ‘today, the world was made JUST for you.’ On the other, have written the message, ‘you are an insignificant speck of dust in a meaningless world.’”

Somewhere between the two is where we live our lives. But we are under the oppression of a world that says ‘what is of most value is what you can lay your hands on, and whoever has the most wins.’ That can be oppressive in the extreme. One of our more socially conscious Christian Magazines has for the last several years promoted the day after thanksgiving as the ‘buy nothing day’ – in order to make a statement about how we will not bow to the rampant materialism that is taking over the season of Advent.

So it really can be sneaky – after all, you’re giving a gift TO someone you love OUT of love. And yet, in that giving, there are ways in which we can easily lose sight of why the season was celebrated to begin with.

So we find ourselves watching and waiting. Waiting for what comes next, for the coming of the Messiah. How easy, it seems in retrospect, they missed it the first time around. “They” were expecting someone else … “they” were expecting a political and military champion … “they” were expecting this or that …

When in truth, God surprised us all by sending a baby … one of THE MOST defenseless creatures we can ever imagine – to become the savior of us all.

So we watch and wait and pray for God to surprise us again – to catch us in the act of being his disciples, his lovers, his followers.

Let’s pray.

The Gospel, in Spades

Sunday, November 20th, 2005
Christ the King Sunday
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Matthew 25:31-46

31 ‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33 and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. 34 Then the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” 37 Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” 40 And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” 41 Then he will say to those at his left hand, “You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” 44 Then they also will answer, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?” 45 Then he will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.’

There are memories in each of our minds that mark for us a specific time and place. Some of those memories are associated with a smell, or a sound, or a voice, or a song.

Even now, as some of you have heard me comment, the smell of fresh cilantro can put me back in the open air weekly market that came through our neighborhood in Santiago as I was growing up.

This passage has some of that effect on me today. Though it doesn’t necessarily tie in to an exact date and time, it does tie in to an extended period of time in my life – my first two years of college, when I was introduced to the music of Keith Green.

He was an amazing musician, and a charismatic speaker. He began his ministry in the mid 70’s and officially started Last Days Ministries in 1977. He was killed in a small plane crash in July of 1982, along with two of his children. Keith Green only lived to be twenty-eight years old.

What I believe … and what I came to believe was deeply impacted by the words of Keith’s songs. There was a line that kept running through what he wrote and said – “no compromise” – no compromise in what it means to follow Christ, in what it means to give yourself wholly and completely to Christ. Keith was all or nothing. And he wouldn’t back down from that.

It came as a shock to me last night as I read once again that he was only twenty-eight when he was killed. When someone young dies it always seems to be harder to understand, harder to take in, harder to accept than when someone who has most of their life behind them passes away.

Looking back, it’s hard to think of myself as now being 14 years older than he was when he died. It seems he did so much in the short time he had here on earth.

One thing that Keith demonstrated, at least to an impressionable 19 year-old college sophomore- was a brutal honesty. He met the hard issues head on. At least that’s how I remember it. Over the next few years I stopped keeping up with Last Days Ministries, and have realized that where I have ended up is somewhat different from where I began my spiritual pilgrimage, and I realize it is probably not where I will stay. I fully expect to continue to grow and change as God continues to teach me and mold me – as long as I am teachable and moldable.

I’d like to jump to the end of the passage – actually, to the end of each of the two sections in the passage, for our starting point this morning: the question that we hear from both groups – the ones on the right as well as the left – and please understand, this is not a reference to any sort of political spectrum, it is purely a division for clarity’s sake.

From the first group – those called the sheep – the question is posed in a positive frame – “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” Compare that to the way the later group – the goats – phrased their question: “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?”

In describing the scene, Jesus poses the two groups facing the King – the continuing reference to God, just as we’ve seen in the last couple of weeks – and again we are faced with an outcome that calls for judgment.

Why is Jesus doing that? If he came to bring the Good News of a loving God, willing to do everything for humanity, why is he speaking of eternal punishment?

Last night was opening night for the Westmoreland Players’ production of ‘A Christmas Carol’, by Charles Dickens. With Leslie accompanying and Caleb onstage, we HAD to go see it, of course. It was ‘pay what you can’ night, so we reserved a group of seats and took and met some of our Hispanic brothers and sisters there.

Most of us are familiar with the story. Ebenezer Scrooge goes to bed on Christmas Eve, and the ghost of Jacob Marley, Scrooge’s former business partner, shows up wrapped in chains, and warns Scrooge of what he is about to experience – the haunting of three spirits – the Ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future. When Scrooge asks what all the chains are, Marley wails that they are the chains he himself forged during his life on earth – each link formed by an opportunity spurned or missed or avoided to do good – to tend to a care, a need, a relationship. And he condemned himself to bear the fruit of his efforts here on earth in the afterlife. So in a sense, he made his own hell.

Whether one consigns oneself to hell or whether it is done by God, the path by which the destination is reached is the same.

Jesus is warning the Marleys and Scrooges of his day of just where they are heading if they do not dig deep and drink the water of life that the Gospel offers. We are called, challenged, exhorted, entreated to find in the living out of Christ’s message and life in us the life that he offers to all who would listen and obey.

The harrowing visit from the last Ghost – the Ghost of Christmas Future – is most harrowing because of the way it brings to light just how ALONE Ebenezer is. The conversations that revolve around his death are mostly comments on the lack of anyone else in his life and his circle of concern other than himself.

And that is the antithesis – the opposite – of what the Gospel teaches us. God sent his Son in order to tell us we are not alone. We are NOT here to focus on our own individual needs and wants. We are here to care for each other. You’ve heard it before from me – we are here to BE community to each other – to BE family. To BE Christ’s presence himself.

And what is made plain in the parable today is that Christ is not only in the acting, but in the receiving as well. When we act as Christ would, then we receive Christ that much deeper into our lives. When we allow Christ deeper into our lives, we are transformed, and it is in the transformation that we become the people God wants us to be.

“Be doers of the word, not hearers only”, James tells us. The Gospel is not simply a set of ideas, of principles by which to guide our lives, the Gospel is action, the Gospel is actively living out what those ideas mean – without the action, the ideas are worthless.

What does that mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton?

It means that we are called to action, we are called to duty, to engage the community in which we live, and the world of which we are a part, to take the Gospel TO them. We can’t come here Sunday after Sunday and simply expect people to find their way here. We’ve had some exposure to a church without walls through our involvement in the Hispanic Ministry of the Association. The idea of taking the Gospel OUT is fully in line with what Christ commissioned us to do – to GO.

So, as we close this church year, let’s proclaim Christ as King, and look at the beginning of a new year as one full of opportunities by which we can take the message OUT, rather than keep it in.

Let’s pray.

Trips, Talents, and Returns

Sunday, November 13th, 2005
Pentecost + 26
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Matthew 25:14-30

14 ‘For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; 15 to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 16 The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. 17 In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. 18 But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. 19 After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. 20 Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, “Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.” 21 His master said to him, “Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.” 22 And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, “Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.” 23 His master said to him, “Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.” 24 Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, “Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; 25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.” 26 But his master replied, “You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? 27 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. 29 For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. 30 As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

A talent was worth more than fifteen years wages of a laborer.

That is the single bit of information that has consistently, apart from the central lesson of the parable, been drilled into me over the last 35 years of reading and hearing this passage mentioned in studies and sermons.

What I didn’t realize is that this very passage is where we get the term ‘talent’ as used today – in the sense of a skill or ability – or a gift.

Jesus is in the middle of what is sometimes called his “eschatological discourse” – that is, a discussion about the end times – due to his repeated references at the end of each parable to a judgment or a sentence carried out on the orders of the Master.

Remember, Matthew was writing to an early church that was struggling with the reality that they had witnessed the death, burial and resurrection and ascension of Jesus, along with his great commission and promise to return. They had also witnessed the life and ministry and the martyrdom (in most cases) of the disciples, and THEY were suffering persecution, and JESUS HAD NOT COME BACK YET.

So the writer of the Gospel is writing to encourage and strengthen them in their resolve to continue in the faith, to hope in spite of their circumstances, to continue to live each day as though Jesus was coming back in the next minute, or hour, or day.

So in the passage this morning we hear Jesus continuing in the same vein as last week – to let his followers know that he would be gone for a while, but to stand firm, because he WAS coming. Here, it is somewhat more explicit, IF you read closely, but in some ways it seems to get lost in the events of the story – at least for US it does.

Have you ever been part of a conversation that is terribly important to you? One in which you are waiting, holding your breath, listening to hear that one phrase or that one word that will make all the difference? I think that may have been what was going on in both the writer’s mind and in the listener’s ears with this parable. And to us it gets lost in the context. The opening phrase of verse 19: After a long time.

Of course, that’s not the focus of the parable, but for people who are living with the uncertainty of their conviction --- people who were literally risking their lives by adhering to the basic tenets of their faith in Christ, it was a critically important element of the story. The words are coming from Jesus’ own mouth. And he’s telling his followers he’s going to be gone for a while. Earlier, he’s already said that no one knows the day or the hour. So that doesn’t change. It is Jesus telling his followers there and then and here and now to be patient, to be steadfast, to hold firm to what they believe.

But, just as we saw last week, and the week before that, his is not a call to passivity, to a status quo approach to the world around us while we await his return. It is, rather, a call to action, to faithfulness in view of faithlessness. It is a call to be salt and light, to be different, to be contrary, and to be surprising.

This past Wednesday Leslie and I drove up to Woodbridge for the Pastor’s Conference before the BGAV meeting that began on Thursday. We decided to stop by the conference center first, and register, before heading off to find the Church that was hosting the meeting on Wednesday. As we walked up to the building, Leslie and I were talking about the events of this past Sunday evening. As thrilled as we are about Leslie’s ordination, we are acutely aware of the fact that not everyone, even folks we continue to consider beloved friends, not everyone is in agreement with the action that Jerusalem took in ordaining her. So we quietly decided between ourselves that we wouldn’t make a big deal about the ordination. As you heard Leslie say, it is a simple step of obedience in a lifetime of discipleship and a desire to serve the Lord – wherever he leads.

No sooner had the words come out of our mouths than we walked through the doors of Hylton Chapel and there was John Upton, General Secretary of the BGAV. We started to say hello, and almost the first words out of his mouth to Leslie were, “CONGRATULATIONS REVEREND! I HEARD IT WAS A WONDERFUL ORDINATION SERVICE! WE ARE SO PROUD OF YOU!” So much for not making a big deal about it. We were surprised by the joy and the grace with which the news was received.

What we were reminded of last Sunday evening, and in truth, last July, at the business meeting when the church voted, AND at the ordination council in September, is that the unused opportunity is lost. The parable is not about the money. That is why the term ‘talent’ has come to mean what it means today. It is about the gift. Or Gifts, rather, that God gives us.

And it is about faithfulness.

In the first century, trusted slaves, even though they were slaves, were put in charge of property and businesses belonging to the master/owner. Setting aside for a moment the master/slave issue, coming from a twentieth century perspective, the trusted slave recognized that HIS or HER welfare depended on the welfare of his or her MASTER, and that they were just as much beneficiaries of ably dealing with that welfare as the master was. This would have been something that was patently obvious to the folks listening to Jesus’ telling of the parable.

We get a skewed view of the dynamics if we apply twentieth-century sensibilities to a first-century parable. The driving thought behind the parable is not the gaining of wealth; it is the trust between the master and servant – the relationship between the two.

What we find different in the last servant is mistrust of the master, and a dishonesty in dealing with the realities of the responsibilities entrusted by the master to the servant in his absence.

That is something we can all wrap our brains around as twenty-first-century followers of Jesus Christ. All of our gifts and opportunities come from God. However we break it down, ultimately, what we believe requires that we acknowledge God as the giver of all good and perfect gifts. There is no distinction between the praise given to the servant who received five talents and the one who received the two talents. It makes no difference to God how many gifts we receive individually. If we remain faithful to God in the use of them, in the exercise of them, in the living out of them, we are maintaining that relationship of trust in him by doing so.

The shadowside of the parable is apparent in what happens to the servant who was entrusted with one talent. It’s not so much that he received ONLY the one talent, it is more what he DID … or DIDN’T do with the one talent, that is the sticking point of the parable and the Gospel lesson today. God has entrusted us – fallible human beings that we are, flawed, selfish, petty, ambivalent, at times cowardly and at other times courageous, God has entrusted US with the duty of ushering in the Kingdom here on earth until his return.

So we have this talent, this gift within us – the Holy Spirit—that is prompting us to take the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ into all the world … and the question for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton is this:

What have we done, what are we doing, and what are we going to do with that trust that has been placed in us by our Master?

Can we approach the master with the almost childlike “Look! See what I did!?” tone of the first two servants, or is our response going to be the sullen, mistrusting tone of the third servant, trying to lay blame where none is due but on himself?

Do you realize it all comes down to a question of the individual?

We are called to live and live OUT our faith in community, and as a body we serve each other and encourage each other in our daily pilgrimage, but when it comes right down to it, the question is asked of each of us.

What will your answer be?

Let’s pray.

Keep Awake

Sunday, November 6th, 2005
Pentecost + 25
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Matthew 25:1-13

1‘Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. 3 When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; 4 but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. 5 As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. 6 But at midnight there was a shout, “Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.” 7 Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish said to the wise, “Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.” 9 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.” 10 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. 11 Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, “Lord, lord, open to us.” 12 But he replied, “Truly I tell you, I do not know you.” 13 Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

It was 10:15 on Thursday night, and I heard a plaintive voice quietly calling from the bedroom across the hall.

“Daddy? … Daddy?”

“Yes, Hannah? … Why are you still awake?”

“I wanted to stay awake so that when Momma and Judson get home I can ask her to sleep with me.” When any of the kids ask one of us to sleep with them, it usually involves laying down next to them for the duration of one or two songs playing on their lullaby CD’s.

I would’ve liked for Hannah to have gone to sleep an hour and a half earlier, but it is an utterly lost cause.

There is the school of thought that declares that your behavior is determined by genetics; your parents, and their parents, and THEIR parents … ad infinitum. You’ve heard the saying ‘the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree?’ This is where it comes from.

The other school of thought proposes that your behavior is determined by your environment. What you DO you do in reaction or in response to what is going on around you; it is not necessarily something that is predetermined by your great-great-grandmother catching your great-great-grandfather’s eye at an 1832 barn-raising.

So for Hannah, when it comes to going to sleep at night, she is caught both ways. Genetically, she is duplicating what BOTH Leslie and I did as children – sneaking around, staying up late, FINDING the flimsiest excuse to walk into the living room or den to ask our parents the most innocuous question JUST so we could SEE WHAT WAS going on. Leslie and I BOTH lived in fear of MISSING something.

It has never occurred to me until now to ask our parents if they did the same thing as children. Chances are, if not they themselves, I suspect my Aunts or our Uncles MORE than compensated in some way. So the genetics would still come into play, as a latent gene.

As for environment … well, I suppose it could be considered that simply the fact that there are other people in the house who are awake when SHE is supposed to be sleeping is enough of an environmental factor to trigger whatever that gene is that we gave her.

There are those of us who eagerly remain awake, waiting for the next thing, and those of us who gladly sink into the dream world, and rest in preparation for the day that is to come.

In the text, we read of 10 virgins, Jesus says that five of the virgins went to meet the bridegroom with only the oil in their lamps. The other five came not only with the oil in their lamps, but an additional flask of oil as a backup, in case they had to wait an unexpectedly long time.

Guess what?

They had to wait an unexpectedly long time.

The first five thus end up being called foolish, and the second five are called wise for their foresight.

ALL of them dozed off and fell asleep while they waited for the bridegroom to appear.

ALL of them, both the foolish and the wise, fall asleep.

But it wasn’t the falling asleep that ended up being the problem. The problem ended up being the lack of oil in the lamps. THAT ended up causing the foolish five to leave the place where they were to find the oil they needed to relight their lamps, and they missed the opportunity to enter with the bridegroom.

In first century Palestine, young couples wouldn't go away for a week-long honeymoon; instead, they would stay at their home and would have a sort of "open house" for their friends. Everyone treated the couple as royalty; the week following their wedding ceremony was undoubtedly the best week of their lives.

Before the wedding, the maidens or virgins kept the bride company outside of the groom's house as she waited for him to arrive. They'd bring lamps to use while they waited because they were not allowed in the streets at night without light. Because the groom could come at any time, even at night, they had to stay and wait.

No one knew exactly when he'd arrive. They didn't print invitations and invite people to come at a precise time for the wedding, it happened whenever the bridegroom came. It could be today, it could be tomorrow or it could be next week.

When the bridegroom approached, a messenger would go out into the streets and declare, "Behold, the bridegroom is coming" then the maidens would accompany the bride into the house for the wedding ceremony and the week-long celebration to follow. (Barclay 354)
There was a small window of opportunity to walk through the door into the house. Once the wedding began, no one else was admitted.

In other words, it wasn't possible to be too early, but it was possible to be too late. You couldn't just walk in and find a seat in the back, when the door was shut, it was shut and it wouldn't be opened again.

So when Jesus told this parable, His listeners had a cultural point of reference that made it come alive to them. They immediately got his point about the importance of preparation.

The Gospel of Matthew might have been written down as much as 50 years after the resurrection of Christ, the church was struggling with the extended time interval between the first coming and the second coming of Christ. Perhaps some were losing hope.

Some suggest that Matthew uses this parable to remind the church that the end will come and it will come suddenly, but it may not necessarily come soon.

The main question for the first readers of the Gospel and for us today in this scripture is: "What do we do while we're waiting?"

Keeping watch, standing guard, being prepared; they are all watchwords for doing what we are supposed to be doing in the preparation of AND in preparation for the coming of the Kingdom of God.

The analogy is pretty stark. The coming bridegroom is Christ himself, the Messiah. What we do while we’re waiting for him to show up is being answered FOR us in the parable: Do we show up and wait prepared, or unprepared for what comes next? How do we, as Christians, prepare for the inbreaking Kingdom of God? What is it we’re called to do ‘in the meantime?’

Jesus, in this passage and the rest of the chapter, is bringing things to their conclusion. The allusion we find just before the conclusion of the parable, “Lord, Lord, open to us” and the bridegroom’s “I do not know you” reply is not a reference to preparedness, but to … judgment, and justice. Jesus is communicating to his followers that he is not going to be with them much longer, and that they are in for a wait. And yet, in the absence, there is hope.

As we approach the Advent season, during which we remember the waiting of the people of Israel for the Messiah, We are here presented with an image of what will be involved in our waiting for the RETURN of that same Messiah into OUR future.

Our wait now becomes an echo of theirs. But we do not wait complacently. We do not wait in stillness. We wait in eager anticipation, we wait by fulfilling his commands, following his examples, as we spoke on Wednesday; the most powerful testimony to the movement of God in the world is each of our individual lives. We wait by engaging the world through living lives that reflect the character of Christ – and not only the character, but the PRESENCE of Christ in our lives. If we are to talk of weapons that can vanquish an enemy, let’s talk about the weapons of love, forgiveness, service, truthfulness, and grace. They are a formidable array with which to confront the enemies of hatred, bitterness, egoism, superficiality and malice.


What does this mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton?

It means this: if we are to choose how we live our lives, may our choices always reflect those of Christ Jesus himself. If we are to practice what we read and know of Christ in our hearts, let it first be reflected among us as the body of Christ. If we cannot see each other as Jesus sees us, and we more or less like each other, how can we hope to see the world, with which we might have less in common, as Jesus sees IT?

Have we run out of oil, and don’t have a flask from which to refill our lamp? Jesus said ‘I am the light of the world’. Can we reach out and claim that light again and again and pass it on as we find the world knocking at our door? Are we going to recognize the bridegroom when he comes? Will we be ready when he comes? Will we be about the business of the Kingdom of God when he comes, or … not?

Let’s pray.