Pastors sermon for 11/9/14 A preacher was telling this parable of the wise and foolish girls to a group of teenage boys. He concluded his address with a rhetorical question saying, “Young men, I ask you, where would you rather be? Inside in the light at the feast for the bridegroom, or out in the dark with a group of foolish young girls?” Immediately he knew this was the wrong thing to ask teenage boys and with one voice they responded with a laugh, “Out in the dark with a group of foolish young girls, sir”. In Jesus’ day it was the groom who was the center of attention at the wedding. The feast did not begin until he arrived, and the guests were prepared to wait no matter how late he was. In Jesus’ story ten bridesmaids are waiting for the groom, but the groom was delayed. Five of the bridesmaids were prepared and ready to wait. Five others were short of lamp oil, and because of this, they were too late, and were locked out of the feast. Jesus is saying that it is not very smart to be caught unprepared for something that you know for certain is going to happen. All ten girls knew that the bridegroom would come at some time, and that a wedding feast was about to begin. They didn’t know exactly when, but they knew it would happen. The problem was how much oil they would need. Five of the girls brought along extra oil and so when it was announced that the bridegroom was near they were able to use their extra oil and join the parade. The other five didn’t have extra oil. They hurried to Menards to buy more oil, but by the time they got back it was too late. The door to the wedding feast was shut. They banged on the door and begged to be let in. A voice replied; “Certainly not! I don’t know you.” What is Jesus teaching us through this story? Firstly, Jesus, the bridegroom, is coming. Scripture leaves no doubt that Jesus is coming again. We don’t know precisely when he will come again, but he is definitely returning. Secondly, it is clear that Jesus’ return will happen in God’s time, and Jesus tells us that only the Father in Heaven knows when. Thirdly, this parable of Jesus is all about waiting and being ready; i.e. “What do we do in the “Mean-time”? It’s easy to think that we have plenty of time before we need to worry about the second coming of Jesus, but do we…really? Paul says, “THIS is the hour to receive Gods favour; today is the day to be saved!” (2 Cor 6:2). Jesus is simply saying: “Be ready”. So how do we accomplish “being ready”? We honor God above all other things; We trust Jesus for forgiveness and eternal life; We get to know God through Jesus through reading and studying the Bible, and by doing so we learn HIS plan for our lives; We pray regularly; We listen to the guiding of the Holy Spirit and let the love of Christ guide everything we say and do. Or to use the imagery of the parable – “ We keep our lamps full, lit and ready, waiting in peace for the inevitable coming of the Lord. There will come the day when Jesus will return. The faithful, both dead and alive will rise and enter eternal glory. This is hard hitting parable because it is a parable of judgement. It strikes at the core of our half-heartedness, our laziness and our luke-warm attitude towards our faith life. It hits hard at our lack of commitment to Jesus and his Church. It strikes out at all those good intentions we have but never get around to fulfilling. Good intentions based on the idea that we will start “One day”. “One day I’ll get around to studying my Bible”. “One day I’ll spend more time, praying, or worshipping.” The words of Jesus in this parable shout at us saying that “one day” is NOW! And so we turn to Jesus, we ask for his forgiveness for our failure to be committed disciples who are faithfully waiting for his return. It is only because of Jesus and his grace that we will end up on the right side of the closed door, the side where the party is taking place. We ask him to keep us alert to living as members of his family, to forgive us for the times we say “One day I’ll get around to it”. We seek His help to listen to the prompting of the Holy Spirit to be ready for that glorious day when he will come again. Reverend Robert Capon says in conclusion to his comments on this parable, “We do, indeed, need to watch for him; because it would be such a pity to miss all that fun.” Amen.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 01:04:10 +0000
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