What Matthew presents to us today, as he has throughout his
gospel, is terribly troubling. This is a nightmare parable about what happens
if you don’t take this life seriously in being formed as a follower of Jesus.
It is based on Matthew’s understanding that Jesus, through death, resurrection,
and ascension, is always with us, therefore, be ready, Jesus will return when
all things are fulfilled. And it is a story about what happens if you fritter
your life away.
The problem is not that five fell asleep and five stayed
awake, everybody falls asleep, that’s not the issue. And this parable is not
about believing the wrong things. Remember, that Matthew has no patience, no
empathy for people who don’t get this stuff the first time. This is a story
about five people who are not ready because they are clueless, and five people
who are ready because they get it. Maybe if we put a line on a picture to make
a meme, it would say, “Don’t be clueless like these people, just be ready like
these people.” And, this is a story about the end of all things, and the
beginning of the new, with the coming of Christ. And it is about how we live in
the world, the place God has given for human habitation.
So what does being ready for living in the world God has
given us look like? What does being ready for the fulfillment of time look
like? It has everything to do with what we do today, in the present moment. And
it has everything to do with the long haul of our lives. It is about staying
focused on what is important today, tomorrow, and for the future.
Around here, at Trinity, we have a vision for being ready.
We Love God, Love others, and we Show it. These aren’t just words, this is a
way to be ready. Being ready is taking seriously our baptismal promises, those
promises we reaffirmed last week on the Feast of All Saints. We will continue
in the apostle’s teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the
prayers. We will persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever we fall into sin,
repent and return to the Lord. We will proclaim by word and example the Good
News of God in Christ. We will seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our
neighbor as yourself. We will strive for justice and peace among all people,
and respect the dignity of every human being.
The world needs the church today. Not the institution of
church, but the body of Christ. The people who take seriously these promises,
and are ready with mercy, and compassion, justice and love.
The sadness I have about empty pews is not grief about the
death of a church. It is the sadness for people not knowing God’s love, I am
sad because so many people do not know about forgiveness, in the midst of
brokenness, that people do not know or care about how good life can be when
lived in the fullness of God’s embrace, and the embrace of people who are ready
to celebrate the feast.
The church needs you today, you who are here, and those who
are not yet here. I pray, each time before we gather on Sunday morning, that
God continues to prepare the hearts of those who will come here to worship, and
that God continues to prepare us to welcome all who are sent and called. The
world needs the church, the witness to Christ in each other. And the witness to
brokenness that so desperately looks for healing, healing that only happens
when the fragments of our lives get put back together in the mystery of the
bread and wine, the body and blood.
And the church needs world to keep us from being full of
ourselves and our rightness.
I love you, and I love this church, and I am filled with
hope, because that is what being ready is for me. Hope, that today all that I
am, and all that I was, and all that I will be is acceptable, not just
acceptable, but cherished in God’s sight. I am filled with hope, the loving
God, loving others, our neighbor, will change the world. Amen.
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