Amos 5:
18-24
NPMC
Psalm
70
Peace Sunday
1 Thessalonians 4:
13-18
Pentecost 26
Matthew 25: 1-12
Anita Retzlaff
It’s decision time!
Grace to you and peace from God the Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ. In our moment of silent meditation this morning we become peaceful before God and remember those who have died in war; soldiers and civilians. We remember together the horrible and high cost of conflict in our world. We pray for all those who have been affected by war and seek God’s mercy and grace. Let us pray. You desire that we live in peace O Lord. We commit ourselves to that end. AMEN
The world is still rocking following the election of Barack Obama on Tuesday, president-in-waiting, the soon to be 44th commander-in-chief of the United States of America. What has happened south of our border is stunning to say the least. An African American has been chosen to lead the world’s only super power, this in a land where racial tensions have coloured the daily life of a democracy for generations. It has been amazing to hear the gracious concession speech of the one who didn’t win this contest, John McCain, rallying his supporters behind his opponent following a campaign marred with gut-wrenching character assassination all around. But by far and away the most astonishing outcome of this whole drama is the hope that Obama has inspired in millions in the U.S. and around the world. His stirring speeches have ignited a flame of hope that has spread like a wildfire, exciting imaginations everywhere and promising change. The American public, now giddy with hope, has made a decision and has the highest of expectations: that Obama’s policies and leadership will calm their fears.
We just had an election too, the results of which hardly engendered celebration but felt rather like another go round of “the same old.” This is not a partisan statement. I don’t think it would have mattered which party won. Our political climate now too has stooped to smearing and discrediting the opponent. When such tactics dominate a political contest there isn’t much room for vision or for hope to creep in. But Obama, in the midst of the mudslinging inspires people, empowers them to imagine a different future. He says that time has run out for the old regime and a totally new and hopeful era has come to the USA. He promises to enfranchise the disenfranchised, address poverty and deal with the wars that are being fought. Obama’s gospel of hope is sweeping the globe. His rhetoric is not unlike the very words and hopes we use to describe the promises of Jesus. It is uncanny how the same language of hope can set the world on fire. Not unlike the politics to the south of us I would have to challenge us now to recognize in this time and place that the ultimate hope is before us today. Our decision is not about electing a political leader but rather our choice is a desire for peace and wholeness in relationship to God and each other. It is decision time!
Ten bridesmaids are invited to a wedding banquet recounts the writer of Matthew’s gospel. Ten young women invited to a wedding feast await a meeting with the bridegroom. As the story begins all ten bridesmaids are invited to attend; all are expected and included. However, the bridegroom doesn’t show up right away. The bridegroom, many interpreters say, is Christ and his delayed arrival means that his followers will have to wait, in faith, for his coming again. So there are two ways to go and at decision time half of the group - the five foolish bridesmaids - does nothing to prepare for the unexpected as they wait. The other five are very aware of what is needed and they prepare. They fortify themselves by bringing extra oil to fuel their lamps at the time when the bridegroom appears.
When the bridegroom finally arrives, the five wise ones with oil in their lamps are ready to meet him and follow him to the banquet right then and there. The five foolish ones without oil have gone on a shopping trip, distracted from the main event, scrounging for supplies. When eventually they are ready to follow the bridegroom, entrance to the party is denied and they are not even recognized by the host.
This story urges us to think about the truth that we may only have one chance for anything as it comes to us; that as time moves along nothing is repeated in exactly the same way; that we don’t have endless opportunities to do what we must at this very moment. An opportunity comes and then it is gone and if we don’t seize the moment it may be lost to us forever. This is a parable, a story about judgment, about reckoning, about decision-making. Judgment means only that we choose between things in life and those choices have consequences. That is the truth about life on this earth. At every moment we are choosing a direction. Our choices affect the long term path we walk, our choices communicate something to those who are watching us and our choices affect the health and the well-being of the world. Our choices bring us either closer to God or keep us at a distracted distance.
The parable of the 10 bridesmaids is a part of the last in a series of stories that Jesus tells before his trial, arrest and crucifixion. He knows that his ministry is coming to an end. Everything in human experience comes to a conclusion; so too Jesus’ time as a pilgrim on earth. In this parable he tells his followers that all are included in the invitation to the wedding feast but the critical time has come and though all are invited some are not prepared to receive the hospitality of the bridegroom.
It sounds harsh. Give them a second chance. The five who run out of oil have not been told that they must be prepared for a delay. No one told them that they should stock up on oil. No one told them that there were limits to their entrance into the banquet. The ten bridesmaids needed lamps burning brightly to meet the bridegroom and follow him into the party. Half of the group does not recognize the risk of missing the whole event.
I have relied on some thoughts from Robert Capon and I quote him now as he reflects on the meaning of this parable: “Time has at last run out, as it always does in real life. And since faith is at bottom something we do in real life, the time for faith has run out too…. The parable does seem to say that since faith is a relationship with God, there will inevitably be a point at which God will say that the relationship does or does not exist. God will tell us whether we said yes or no. No one will get away with saying maybe forever…. That is the whole point of the parable: some day, late or soon, it will be too late even to believe. We become what we do. If we trust, we become trusters, and we enter into the sure possession of him whom we trust. If we distrust, we become distrusters and close out the only relationship with reality [that is] ever offered to us…. [Jesus] does not say, ‘I never called you.’ He does not say, ‘I never loved you.’ He does not say, ‘I never drew you to myself.’ He only says, ‘I never knew you - because you never bothered to know me.’ ” (Robert Farrar Capon, The Parables of Judgment, pp. 164-5)
Gifts come to us often unexpectedly. One such gift came to me this week during our Wednesday morning prayer for peace. We are reading short excerpts from the 14th century mystic Catherine of Siena as we gather our prayers for the world and prayers for peace. What we read on Wednesday speaks directly to the story of God’s invitation to us; the way in which God sees all of humanity. Catherine speaks about those who do not yet believe in the mystery of a faithful God, who have not yet caught that fire of hope. Listen as she puts these words into the mouth of God. Here is the gospel for us:
I give them
time to come to me.
I do not order the earth to swallow them as a punishment
for their sins and indifference.
I hold back
neither my charity nor my mercy for them.
Rather I wait upon them,
commanding the earth
to give them light and warmth,
and the sky to move above them.
I bless their days with all of my creation.
All are invited to come and follow Jesus into the eternal feast but the truth is that not everyone comes to know the host and to know the hope. The story of the 10 bridesmaids is an urgent one, not one of condemnation, but one that acknowledges that time runs out, that decisively at any given moment the past is gone. Every moment is a choice along a path. We become ever more “trusters” in the grace and renewing power of God.
We don’t want to miss the opportunity to participate in the peace of Christ and it is indeed grace that it is not up to us to decide who “knows” the heart of God and who doesn’t. Each one of us can sense for ourselves whether or not we are on the path of trusting and learning to trust. There is no need to fear but rather there is urgency to believe that with Christ’s help we are part of a Spirit-filled movement to bring hope out of despair and peace out of destruction and death. How appropriate for Peace Sunday and for Remembrance Day as it approaches.
The story that we read with the children is so, so simple. Peace is a decision and is found in the simple but profound actions of one creature of God to another. “Somewhere today someone is being a friend instead of fighting. Somewhere today someone is learning to do things a different way. Somewhere today someone is reading a book about peace and thinking about making the world a better place.” (Shelley Moore Thomas, Somewhere Today: A Book of Peace) This is hope! This is decision!
We don’t want to miss out. We don’t want to be deaf to the call of Christ. We choose to be aware of the world’s need and prepared to follow God, to journey along an ever new and wonderful path into a full future; a future of possibility. In the lyrics of a ballad sung by Enya I quote these few lines:
Pilgrim, how you journey on the
road you chose
to find out where the winds die
and where the stories go.
All days come from one day that
must you must know,
you cannot change what’s over
but only where you go.
It is decision time every day and every moment of our lives. The kingdom is present here and now. The feast is in progress. With the grace of God and the peace of Christ we are part of the hopeful throng. This is our faith. This is our hope. In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. AMEN