Sermon Title: "Be Prepared"
Date: November 9, 2008
Minister: Rev. Charles E. Ensley, Jr.

Lesson:  Matthew 25:1-13

My first reaction to this week’s lesson came in the first verse.  It was the “ten bridesmaids” part.  WOW.  That is our maximum limit here.  For a wedding of that size, the bridesmaids stretch across the front here from the steps to the end of the piano.  And when we move them up into the chancel, five stand in front of the choir modesty panel, and the other five stand behind it.  I’m not sure which are the wise five or the foolish five.  One time I actually turned away a couple that wanted fifteen attendants on each side.  I told them they needed a much wider church.  I suggested they visit First Congregational or Covenant Presbyterian churches downtown.

To better understand Jesus’ parable today, it might be helpful for you to know that in Roman-era Palestine, Jewish tradition required the bridegroom to arrive at the home of the bride’s family, claim the bride, and take her to his own house.  The bridesmaids waited at the groom’s house, ready to welcome the couple and go into the wedding banquet to celebrate their new beginning.

Waiting for the bridegroom meant being prepared, not merely passing time.  In this parable, some bridesmaids neglected their oil lamps.  You know about trimming wicks.  After you’ve burned a candle, before you light it the next time, it is best to snap off some of the burnt wick.  Otherwise the flame is too big.  Same with an oil lamp.  Having lamps that once burned well did not mean they would burn well again.  Constant attention to the oil level and advancing the wick ensured the light would be available when required.

In Bible times, oil was associated with anointing and indicated the presence of God’s Spirit with a person.  Oil was also a metaphor for God’s presence, displayed in one’s compassion and acts of love and mercy.

Early in the story we can see a problem.  The groom seems late in arriving, and the bridesmaids, at first expectant, are now very, very drowsy.  After the midnight cry that the bridegroom was finally on his way (hopefully, the bride too; though you will note no mention is made of her whatsoever), all ten sleeping bridesmaids were awakened and trimmed their lamps.  Five bridesmaids’ lamps lit up just fine; the other five’s lamps sputtered for lack of oil.  They asked the wise five to share some oil.  ‘We can’t share,’ they replied.  ‘There won’t be enough for you and us.  Go to the sporting goods store and buy some more.’  Maybe they had 24 hour markets even back then!

Now there are two glaring red flags in this parable.  The first is the reaction of the five presumably wise bridesmaids who spurned their five foolish sisters.  To be true to the teachings of Jesus, the most loving thing the former could have done for the latter would have been to have shared some oil with them.  Where’s the Golden Rule when you need it?

The second thing that ought to grab your attention is the final verse:  “Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” (25:13)  Jesus had already used this saying in the previous chapter (24:42),  so we can surmise that is was a free-floating oral tradition that Matthew appended to this parable.  As used here, verse 13 is not only limiting but inaccurate.  All ten of the bridesmaids fell asleep—none of them stayed awake.  And yet, the five wise ones were admitted while the other five with no oil and no flame were not.  It was the preparedness, not the wakefulness, of the wise that ensured their entrance to the wedding festivities.

We’ve heard a lot about being prepared this year, and I don’t mean just the Boy Scout motto:  Be prepared.  Much of the entire presidential campaign was built on preparedness.  Back during the primaries, remember the ads for the 3 a.m. phone call in the White House?  Is the person who answers prepared to be president?  Then when each party settled on its candidate, the first question asked was:  is Barack Obama experienced enough—read “prepared”—if he were elected president?  Next came Sarah Palin:  was she experienced enough to be vice-president, and if it became necessary, prepared to become president? 

Probably nobody is ever ready.  You trust a president-elect will have a good transition team, and select a skilled and experienced cabinet to advise him … and probably someday, her.  No president can do it alone.

The motivation behind our Life Decisions forum two Sundays ago was to help people be prepared for the end.  Do you have a will, a trust?  Have you selected someone to make life-care decisions for you?  Have you thought about what you would want said or done at your funeral or memorial service?  Are your financial affairs in order?  In other words, are you prepared?

A lot of behind-the-scenes preparation goes into these worship services.  You don’t see it, but we plan the right placement of each musical selection.  Does it advance the flow of the worship service?  Where are the musicians to be seated?  Which side does he piano need to be on this week?  Will it be in the way of the communion table?  A lay person who sat in on one of our weekly staff meetings last year said, “And I thought it all just happened!”  Well, in your eyes, it does, but we prepare for it.

Teachers plan for what’s going to happen in their classrooms each day.  Surgeons prepare for each surgery, no matter how many times they’ve performed it, for each patient’s condition is unique to him or her.

And being prepared is the ultimate bottom line for Jesus’ parable.  The reason there is no bride mentioned in the story is because the bridegroom is a metaphor for Jesus.  He is the one who is coming.  Are you prepared?

“I feel like I’ve been preparing for this all my life,” a man said to his pastor.  The pastor was a bit surprised to hear him say that.  His beloved father had just died of a massive coronary.  What did he mean that he had been preparing for this all of his life?

“All that sitting in church, listening to sermons, reading the Bible,” he said. “All of that was getting me ready for the worst day of my life.  That was like disaster training.  Now, the disaster has come.  And I’m reaching down, and I am praying that I paid attention, that I will be fully prepared.”

That’s not a bad way of thinking about church.  Perhaps some people are blown away by the disasters of life in great part because they are unprepared.  They have neglected their training.  So think of church this Sunday morning as a training session.  You’re surrounded by people, many of whom have gone through experiences similar to what you have or will go through.  They are both resources for you, and there to support you.  And what you hear and learn in this place can prepare you for any eventuality in life.

I remember distinctly the sister of an active church member sitting in that front pew during her brother-in-law’s funeral here 15 years ago.  When I read the scripture lessons, she kept nodding and smiling.  I commented on this to her afterwards.  She said to me, “I’ve heard those passages all my life.  I believe them.  They comfort me.”

Today’s parable could be heard not so much as a warning, a threat, but very good news.  Embedded in this parable is a gracious promise:  Though today you may be frustrated with the inactivity of God in your life—be patient.  The Lord promises to come to you.  Though you may be tired of waiting for deliverance, though you may have earnestly prayed for the living God to be present to you in a vital, an undeniably real way—take heart.  Though you may be uncertain just what God wants you to do in your life, take heart; God has work for you to do and will eventually call upon you to do it.  By our human standards, God may be moving too slowly.  When we are in pain or difficulty, any wait can seem too long.  But be well assured, our God is a living God.  Our God keeps promises.  And our God has promised to come to you.

In the Bible, there are lots of stories about folk who have a tragic, difficult time in life.  It gets very, very dark.  Then, just at midnight, that’s when God comes.

Take this as a parable and as a promise.

(Concluding paragraphs taken from a sermon, “Get Ready for God,” by the Rev. Michael A. Turner, pastor of Wightman United Methodist Church, Prosperity, South Carolina.)