Preparing to Wait
November 12, 2023
Year A; Proper 27; 24th after Pentecost
1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18
Psalm 78: 1-7
Matthew 25: 1-13
Matthew 25:1-13
Jesus said, “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise replied, ‘No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut. Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’ Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”
Homily by Rev. Megan Limburg
Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our
hearts be acceptable in your sight,
O God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.
I can picture in my mind’s eye all of the bridesmaids dresses I wore in the 1970s and 1980s. The colors: sea foam green, raspberry sherbet pink, Swiss-dotted lace, and royal purple to name a few. And the styles: big puffy sleeves, Laura Ashley ruffles, Grecian something……
So, whenever I read this parable that Jesus offers about the 10 bridesmaids, also called virgins, young women and maidens depending on the translation, I picture them in one of the bridesmaid gowns I can not forget.
But of course, they hadn’t invented sea foam green back then, but this is a parable about a wedding and about young women given the role and job of being bridesmaids, and about waiting.
In the time when Jesus walked this earth, a wedding took place at the home of the bride’s family, and then the wedding feast was at the home of the groom’s family. The preparations for the feast were complex as the feast would last a week! So, as there were no wedding planners in those days, the start time depended on when the feast was ready, and thus an exact time was not given, resulting in a lot of waiting.
Also, the feast would begin at night, hence all this talk about lamps and oil. When all was ready for the feast, the groom would come to get his bride, and they would walk together to the wedding banquet. The bridesmaids walked with them and carried their lamps to light the way for the bride and groom. The bridesmaids had a job, a call, they were not just part of the wedding ornamentation, they were to provide the light for the first journey of the bride and groom. They were to bring the light.
And they had to wait, the groom does not arrive until late, midnight! A long time to wait, to watch, and yes, to grow drowsy.
Every year the lectionary calendar of readings gives us such a reading at this time in mid-November, a reading that speaks of waiting, of watching, reminding us, though we may be drowsing on this 24th Sunday after Pentecost, that change is coming and are we ready?
Three weeks from today, December 3rd, we will begin a new church year and gather for the first Sunday in Advent. Just three weeks! We better check our lamps!
Advent is always a bit of challenge, a season designed for quiet, for waiting, for contemplation for hoping for and watching for the light that shines in the darkness, for preparing ourselves and growing in our faith, for making room in our hearts for the birth of the Christ child.
The challenge comes as Advent occurs in the loudest month of the secular year! Shopping, wrapping, planning, packing, cooking, decorating, exhausting, all with “Silent Night” blasting out in stores and on sidewalks as we rush past!
Advent is my favorite season, and yet I often feel I miss it in all the noise.
So, Deb and I have planned an Advent formation program that hopefully will help us, and you, to carve out a bit of space to wait and watch together, and to see if we can put a little more oil in our lamps.
The program, “The Way of Love”, is from the Episcopal Church and Bishop Curry was central in its creation.
We will meet on four Wednesday evenings by Zoom, allowing folks to come as they are, curl up at home, and join in.
The program “Journeying The Way of Love: Practices for a Jesus-Centered Life” will focus on the first two chapters of the Gospel of Luke and introduce us to 7 spiritual practices that may fill our lamps a bit and help us to be the light for others.
You are welcome to come to as many sessions as you can, but you will understand the program better if you can be there for all four.
There are handouts with more information in the parish hall and a sheet to sign-up if you would like to join the group.
And if you’d like to unearth that old bridesmaid’s dress and wear it to the first gathering, feel free! Sea foam green never went out of style!
But, putting the bridesmaid dresses aside, and focusing on the lamps and the oil, we all drowse, we all wander off, we are all prodigal, and need paths back to our God who loves us. So, I’ll end with a quote from an Episcopal writer and priest, The Reverend Amy Richter, about our gospel today:
“Waiting doesn’t mean inactivity. Having oil at the ready, being prepared, comes from doing what we’re told to do, being obedient to God, being formed by God’s power at work in us. So, how do we keep this oil on hand? By some practices and disciplines that are the same for all of us—prayer, reading the Scriptures, sharing fellowship and worship with other Christians, caring for people and the planet. And some of it’s probably a specialty oil blend: it’s spending time with family, it’s looking at nature’s beauty, it’s listening to or making music, it’s knitting, it’s marching, it’s writing, it’s baking, it’s building. It’s using what God gives us to keep us going, to recharge, to stay connected with God and God’s love.”
Amen.