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Tending God's Light
Who had to stand in line the longest?
This was a year of record turnout across the nation, and it sounds like it was as well in our own backyards. I know some of our members worked the polls that day and can attest to the level of preparation that went into getting the machines up and running, the poll workers trained, the supplies in sufficient quantity, and back-up plans in case something went wrong.
By and large, the voting went smoothly. Even as 64 million people showed up at borough halls, schools, fire stations, bars, grocery stores and churches to vote, the planning paid off. Plans A, B and C all worked. But being unprepared could have been disastrous – imagine the lines, the court challenges, the unrest if voting did not go as smoothly as it did.
Being unprepared can be inconvenient. We’ve all been there – the party where the food ran out before the guests stopped arriving. The vacation to the beach where the suitcase was packed with everything but the kitchen sink – and your bathing suit. The unexpected summer storm arrived and caused a power outage – and of course, no flashlight in the house had working batteries.
But being unprepared can also be dangerous. At no time was this more evident than during Hurricane Katrina. As tens of thousands of people were abandoned throughout New Orleans, we saw firsthand how being unprepared can mean the difference between life or death.
When we are lazy, when we are in a hurry, when we are not intentional with our planning or our thinking, we get caught unprepared. We don’t plan like we need to or want to when we are preoccupied. We are not ready for what life brings to us when we lose focus of what’s important and get distracted or caught up in our own problems, in our own struggles, and forget that there’s more to this world than us.
Today’s gospel lesson is a small part of the larger Boy Scout section of the Gospel of Matthew. For almost two chapters, Jesus spends a lot of time talking to his disciples, his closest friends, about being prepared. And he’s pretty specific in these parables: be prepared, he says, for the end is coming. And no one knows when it will be. The kingdom of heaven is not far off, God’s presence is near. Be ready.
This parable of the 10 bridesmaids is in the middle of this section of the Gospel, right after Jesus describes to the disciples what to expect before the Son of Man returns, and right before a long string of parables that describes the Kingdom of Heaven, the community of God. This particular parable continues the theme of Jesus: God’s rule and reign is here and ready to take over the world. Are you ready for it? Do you want to live into its new reality or are you going to wait around for it to overtake you, and risk being caught unprepared?
Like much of the language in these parables and sayings, they are not meant to be taken literally. We don’t know very much about the wedding customs of first-century Palestine, but we can guess that very few weddings began after midnight, and probably no oil vendors were open then, either. But parables are not meant to be taken literally; they are word pictures, metaphors and similes for us to use to get a small toehold on enormity of God. The image of the wedding, with Jesus as the bridegroom and us as the bridesmaids, offers us a way to enter into Jesus’ world, to get a glimpse into how we important it is that we are prepared for the kingdom of heaven.
Weddings are one of the most-prepared for events in a person’s life. It’s not unusual for engagements to last 12, 18, even 24 months as the bride and groom – well, the bride – plan for their big day. Wedding planners offer their organizational services for a fee, bridal magazines always include checklists and timelines, and at every wedding, someone is in charge of “the list.” Each wedding is different, of course, but they all have “the list.” When one of my best friends got married, her “list” took up four pages, single spaced, typed out, on specifically colored paper. She would not have been one of the bridesmaids from the lesson who didn’t have enough oil. On my wedding day, however, I had a handwritten list on the back of an envelope. You can probably guess which of the two groups of bridesmaids I would fall into.
In today’s lesson, only five of the 10 bridesmaids reviewed “the list” and noticed that they needed to take some extra oil for their lamps. They dutifully took their extra flasks of oil, their lamps, their fancy dresses that they would never be able to wear again, even though the bride promised them it would make a cute cocktail dress, and went to wait for the groom to arrive so the party could start.
The groom must have gotten lost on the way to the reception, because the bridesmaids waited and waited and waited. Night fell, and they fell asleep. Their lamps burned down to a faint flame. When the groom finally got his GPS system working and made his way to the wedding site, the girls woke up and went to turn up their lamps. At that point, half realized they left their extra oil back at the hotel and were caught with a low burning flame, threatening to be extinguished, and they were going to be left out of the party. They needed more oil, and they needed it now.
In Jesus’ day, oil was essential to life. Oil, most commonly olive oil, was in the fuel for lamps, the main source of light. It was used in cooking, and was poured down on heads, over beards, and onto feet to anoint someone, to mark them as set apart for God. Having oil meant having light in one’s body and spirit.
Without the oil, the flame that provided warmth, provided light for the party, and showed the groom where to go was going to burn out. I find the wise bridesmaids’ response to the foolish, unprepared ones very interesting: instead of sharing their extra, they sent the other bridesmaids to the store to get some more. They were realistic, not mean: each one had just enough extra for her own lamp. Each person had to tend to her own light. Some things just can’t be shared.
Tending to the light. In our own lives, we each have times where our flame burns brightly for Christ. We are prepared for him to come and visit us: we are connected to him through prayer and Bible study. We are reaching out to serve others who are hurting or lonely, trying to bring the compassion and mercy of Jesus to our brother or sister. We feel like those wise bridesmaids: our lamp is burning brightly and we’ve got extra oil and we’re ready to go.
But other times, we are groping in the dark. We can’t see where we’re stuck, much less where God wants us to go. Our light of Christ has burned down to a single ember, a smoldering coal. We are lost and lonely in our lives. We desperately want to see the flame grow, but like the foolish bridesmaids, our oil is running low. We can’t borrow what feeds the fire from someone else; we have to go get it ourselves.
Where are you today? Are you feeling wise or foolish? Are your oil stores running high or low? Does your flame need tending? Is God’s light within you feeling smothered or is it unencumbered and burning bright and pure?
The source of all light, of course, is Jesus. He is the one who ignites our hearts and who grows the love of God into a brightly burning flame. Jesus, God who took on flesh and came to live among us, is the one who conquered death and lives, so that we might live, and live abundantly.
What is the oil that feeds the light of Christ in us? It’s our connection to God, the means of Grace John Wesley calls them, that opens up channels for us to hear God, receive God’s mercy and grace, and to renew our connection to Jesus. It’s prayer, time spent between you and God, listening as much or more than talking, just being in God’s presence. It’s reading and studying the Bible. Scripture is the most important way God reveals God’s self to us. Studying the Word will brighten God’s light in us like nothing else. It’s serving others. When we give, when we share, when we put aside our own needs and desires to serve another person, we allow Christ to shine through us and warm another.
What needs tending in your life today? God’s light is there, the love of God lives in us. What needs to happen in your life so that it might burn more brightly, connect you closer to God, and transform your life into one that looks like the kingdom of heaven? What do you need to do to be prepared today?