2020.11.08 | Prepared to Party
“Prepared to Party”
Rev. Pepper Swanson
Like the Ten Bridesmaids in today’s Scripture reading, this week we experienced a delay in receiving what we are all anxiously awaiting: final and unequivocal announcement of who the next President of the United States will be. While the worst of the waiting may be over now, considerably more waiting lies ahead as counts are recounted, finalized, certified, the Electoral College process completed, and the new President inaugurated on Jan 20, 2021. If and when the peaceful transition from the 45th to the 46th President has been accomplished, 75 million people will celebrate and 70 million people will be sorely disappointed.
Applying the lessons of today’s reading to our current political situation is not difficult.
As our two English-language Bible Study groups, who have been pondering the Gospel of Matthew for months now, have observed: Jesus and his followers lived in a time characterized by the same kind of deep divisions between people that we are experiencing now.
Jesus of Matthew was fond of describing this division as a battle between two Kingdoms. His was not a battle between red and blue, between races, between religions, or even between the conquerors and the conquered. The division that Jesus addressed was between one kingdom composed of powerful people — both Roman and Jewish — who either did not care for those who suffered or who chose to make their lives more difficult by refusing them food, work, healing, acceptance, and, even, access to God.
The other kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, was a realm where people heard and understood God’s command to love one’s neighbor as oneself and then acted with mercy and compassion, so that mercy and compassion might grow and suffering might be abated. Jesus spoke and worked tirelessly for the kingdom of heaven until his final week of life.
Today’s story is one that Jesus told in the middle of his last long sermon describing to his disciples the end of the age. After telling them that there would be division, wars even, between nations and kingdoms, famine, earthquakes, persecutions, and the danger of false and lying leaders, he reassured them that his triumphant return would their suffering would be short and that his elect would be gathered up to him in heaven.
After Jesus described what will happen and emphasized that no one knows the hour of his return, he told four stories to illustrate what his disciples should do while they await his coming. The story of the 10 Bridesmaids is the second of these four stories.
The easiest lesson to pull from this story is one that is quite apropos for 2020: be prepared. As Bible scholars point out, until the critical moment of the bridegroom’s arrival, there is no or little difference between the five bridesmaids who are ultimately admitted to the celebration and five bridesmaids who are excluded. They may be dressed alike, they all have lamps, they all go to sleep during the delay but at the moment it is announced that the bridegroom has arrived, five are prepared to re-fill and light their lamps and five are out...out of oil, out of luck buying oil in the middle of the night, and out, locked out, of the wedding celebration. At a surface level, the scripture makes a compelling case for preparedness that would appeal to Scouts of all genders, parents, teachers, and...well, to anyone caught without toilet paper, hand sanitizer, or cleaning supplies last March.
But, it’s important to dig a little deeper into the story and notice that:
Knowing — or believing — that the bridegroom is coming is not all that is required of the bridesmaids. Similarly, waiting — and only waiting — for the bridegroom is not sufficient. One must think ahead and prepare for the eventuality that the bridegroom might be delayedThe preparation required, however, is common-sense. It’s doing those things that ensure you can see and be seen by others who need to see you.
But, being hyper-active or hyper-vigilant of what one and others are doing is not necessary. All the bridesmaids, even those who are prepared, sleep while waiting for the bridegroom.
And, finally, it’s important to remember what the bridesmaids are waiting and preparing for is a celebration. The lamps they carry light the way for the bridegroom and ensures their timely entry into the celebration. They bring nothing but themselves and their lamps to the wedding party hosted by the groom and his family.
So, in summary, Jesus advises his disciples that when waiting, they should live certain of, but not obsessed with, his return, prepared at any moment to be the light of the world that Jesus asked his disciples and the crowds at the Sermon on the Mount to be. Light, in fact, that glorifies God. Being prepared, therefore, is one half about lighting the way to the kingdom of heaven and one half living in hope of a better day, in hope that the kingdom of heaven will triumph.
In fact, some say there isn’t a better description of hope in the Bible. Hope is oil in your lamp. Hope is what helps you sleep when sleep is needed, hope is what helps you act when action is required, hope picks you up when your efforts to help those who suffer fail and you must endure longer.
Reflecting on this story, I think that regardless of how the election turns out, whether one’s candidate wins or loses, whether the map is blue or red or shades of purple, whether half the people are staunch Democrats and half the people are life-long Republicans, being prepared, truly prepared, means we who call ourselves Christian must have hope and be light by acting on behalf of that kingdom of mercy and compassion.
From today, we must worry less about 145 million who voted and how they voted and more about the 38 million people who live in poverty, earning less than $33/ day, the 27 million who do not have health insurance, the 19 million who do not have access to the internet, the 12 million or more who are unemployed, and all those who suffer mental illness, drug addiction, and live without housing, food, or assistance. And those are just the neighbors who live within the boundaries of our nation. As challenging as it seems, God calls us to be a light of mercy and compassion to the entire world.
The good news for us is there is still plenty to prepare while we wait. Now, as always, we are called to move forward in hope, the kind of hope that does not exhaust us, but lights our way, the way of all people, toward the celebration that God prepares for each and every one of us who chose to model, to teach, to study, to speak what it means to have and to give hope to those who suffer and have been denied so much.
My friends, God’s party awaits all those who vote, with their bodies, their minds, and their faith, for the kingdom of heaven. Amen.