Are You Prepared?

 

Based on Matthew 25:1-13

            The Boy Scout Motto is “be prepared.” That is a good motto to live by. Although we don’t always know when things will happen, we do know what can or will happen. We will get sick or have significant health issues at some point in our lives. We will retire. We will die. The stock market will go up and down. There is always a possibility that there will be a blizzard, or a fire that could destroy your house, or an auto accident. The prudent thing to do before any of these events occur is to be prepared to deal with them when and if they happen.

            Boards of election across the nation have been preparing for an historic voter turn-out, especially when it came to early voting and mail-in voting. For months they have been getting staffed up, building up the needed infrastructure, to handle all those ballots in the most efficient way possible to get out an accurate vote count so that the will of the American people could be heard. It has been frustrating for many of us who were hoping to know by Tuesday night who was going to be the next president. Imagine if those boards of elections, especially in the states where the vote is so close, had not been prepared to deal with all those mail-in ballots. I think we should be grateful that they were prepared and are getting the job done. Preparing for all those mail-in ballots was definitely the prudent thing to do.

            Above my desk at home is a cork board where I have different things pinned with thumb tacks. One of those things is a piece of paper that is a Disaster Preparedness Calendar from the Red Cross. It provides a 24 week plan. For each week there is a list of things for you to buy at the grocery store or the hardware store and a few action steps. If you follow the calendar, your family will be prepared for any kind of natural disaster that could happen. That calendar has been pinned to that cork board for years. I glance up at it from time to time and say to myself, “I need to do this, get started on this.” But I haven’t started. I think to myself that I’m going to regret not having followed this calendar if we have a big blizzard or something else happens and we will have to shelter in place at the house for a week. I’m not taking the time I have now to get ready for the potential disaster. I’m being foolish because I am wasting this time and not getting prepared.

            The parable of the ten bridesmaids is about being prepared. Prepared for what? In the story they are waiting for the bridegroom to come, so that they can escort him to the house of the bride, where the wedding and the party will take place. Their job is to light the way. But they don’t know when the bridegroom will make his appearance. The prudent thing is to be prepared with extra oil so that they will have functioning lamps when the bridegroom shows up so they can do their job.

            Of course, this story is an allegory that points to something else. For us, this story is about our being prepared for the return of Jesus and the establishment of the reign of God. This is part of our tradition, the belief that Jesus will come back some day. Every time we have communion, we declare the mystery of our faith, “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.” We don’t know when Christ will return. But we do know that he will. Our task is to be ready, to be prepared for his return. How do we get prepared? This story of the ten bridesmaids gives us some clues.

            In this story, we are told that five were foolish and five were wise, or better prudent. We are told right up front why half of them were foolish and the other half were prudent. The foolish ones did not bring flasks of oil to refill their lamps if needed. The prudent ones were prepared. They brought extra oil with them just in case the bridegroom was delayed. They knew that was a possibility so they wanted to make sure they could do their job and escort the bridegroom into the house where the wedding would take place. Whether or not the foolish bridesmaids considered this possibility or not, they were not prepared.

            The question for us is, what does the oil represent? We get a clue at the end of the story. In the middle of the night, while the bridesmaids were asleep, they hear the shout that the bridegroom has arrived. The bridesmaids trim their lamps but the foolish ones have run out of oil and there isn’t enough extra that the prudent bridesmaids can share. So, the foolish ones are told to go buy some real fast. Good luck with that since it’s the middle of the night. But, in desperation, the foolish ones run off to go see if they can maybe find someone they can buy oil from. While they are off hunting in vain, the prudent bridesmaids escort the bridegroom to the house and they all go in to enjoy the wedding and the party after. The foolish bridesmaids, likely still without any oil, stumble in the dark to the house where the wedding is taking place. They knock on the door and say, “Lord, lord, open to us.” But he replied, “Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.”

            We have heard this before. If we go back to Matthew 7:22-23 we read this:

 

On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?” Then I will declare to them, “I never knew you.”

 

Why did Jesus not know these people who called him Lord and did all kinds of miraculous healings and spoke prophecies? It would seem that since they are doing these powerful things in Jesus’ name that they would be known by Jesus, right? But Jesus says in vs. 21, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” Jesus knows only those who do God’s will. You may be wondering how is it possible that Jesus only knows those who do God’s will since Jesus died for everyone. How is it that Jesus doesn’t know somebody? Still, the point that is trying to be made here is that doing God’s will is necessary to enter into the kingdom of God. This is what Jesus is teaching. Those who fail to do God’s will are left out. That may sound harsh. But there are consequences for not doing God’s will and that’s what Jesus is trying to stress here.

            So, going back to that question about what the oil stands for. The foolish bridesmaids lacked oil and they were left out of the wedding. There are a few other stories in Matthew where a wedding is a symbol of the kingdom of God. So, by being left out of the wedding, the bridesmaids are being symbolically left out of the kingdom of God. They are being left out because, based on Matthew 7, they did not do the will of God. That’s why the Lord did not know them. Their failure to do God’s will is symbolized by their lack of oil. The prudent bridesmaids who brought oil with them are those who did God’s will. The oil represents doing God’s will, doing the right thing, being righteous.

            One more thing I want to say about this story. It is likely that Matthew’s church struggled with the question of why Jesus had not come back yet. This was a big question for the earliest Christians. They thought that Jesus would be coming back soon to establish God’s reign on the earth. But the first generation of Christians were starting to die off. They were wondering what the delay was. This story helped address that question. Yes, the bridegroom Jesus is delayed. We thought Jesus would be coming back soon but that does not appear to be the case. What should we be doing while we wait? Get ready. Be prepared. That’s the message to Matthew’s church. The last line of the story is, “Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” By keep awake is meant be ready, be prepared. We look back at the story and see that all the bridesmaids fell asleep. So, by saying “keep awake” that does not mean we can’t go to sleep, obviously. The point is that the followers of Jesus need to be prepared and ready to welcome Jesus on his return. And the way to be ready, to be prepared, is to have extra oil. And that oil is the doing of God’s will. To be prepared is to be about doing the will of God.

            Two-thousand years later, we are still waiting. Our task is the same as those first and second generation Christians who really believed they would see Jesus again in their lifetimes. We don’t know the reason for the delay. We would be forgiven if we drew the conclusion that maybe Jesus isn’t coming back, or not coming back in the way we thought he was coming back. Still, our tradition teaches us that Christ has died, Christ is risen, and Christ will come again. We believe that the Lord will return some day and will finally establish the reign of God on the earth. In the meantime, we wait. And we use the time we have to get ready, to be prepared for the Lord’s return. As the first Christians a few thousand years ago, so we strive to live our lives guided by the will of God. If you are wondering what that is, Jesus revealed it in his sermon on the mount. That sermon in Matthew 5-7 is what we need to know and live to be prepared.

            It is prudent for those of us who are working to save and invest for our future retirement. It is prudent to have homeowners insurance in case your house catches fire. It is prudent to have supplies on hand and a backup generator if you are out of power for a few days or stuck inside because there’s six feet of snow blocking your front door. But most of all it is prudent to be prepared for the return of the Lord by doing the Lord’s will in your daily life. It’s not about working miracles, healing people, speaking prophecies, any of that. It’s not about looking for signs and trying to predict when the Lord will arrive. It’s about living your life as Jesus taught us to live.

            Somebody once was visiting a monastery and walked past a monk who was working a garden plot with his hoe. The man asked the monk, “If you knew for sure that Jesus was coming back today, what would you be doing right now?” And the monk replied, “I would be hoeing this garden.” He was prepared. He was doing God’s will. He knew Jesus and was assured that Jesus knew him. Are you prepared?