The wise and foolish young women and a very strange wedding...
The moral of the story is – weddings are
a pain in the neck! So often we rush to the teaching, the lesson. What is Jesus
trying to say? We should be ready! What a weird story to teach that lesson? We
all know the urgency of doing the right thing and living as if God were
present. A deeper and harder lesson is to let go of the religious expectations
and simply live in the moment. How much harder is this? Do we really live in
the moment or are our thoughts already chasing the next thing? Are we really
prepared to appreciate the blessings of this present moment?
Jesus’
parable also has a lot of cultural baggage we have trouble unpacking. What sort
of a wedding is this? Who leaves ten young women out in the cold and dark to
fend for themselves? Are these ten brides or ten friends of the bride? Where is
the bride? Are these bridesmaids property? Servants? Why are they left to their
own devices? What sort of party is this that starts so late and locks the doors
so quickly?
This
is the kingdom of God – but how does this help us? There is no happy ending for
the five foolish women. Maybe we are content to say, “Too bad. You should’ve
been ready.” We have to admit our own foolishness and poor life choices. Do we
just get in by luck and those others deserve their fate. This hardly seems
comforting or hopeful. There seems no room for grace – or even love – and this
is supposed to be a wedding? (Who would want to marry such a groom?)
Maybe
we need a tougher faith. Joshua warns the people not to bother to follow God
because they will begin to worship idols and God will punish them. Joshua
chooses to follow God – what about us? Is the wedding story to steel our
resolve or a story to toughen us up? Choose well or lose out! Are we better off
not trying than trying and failing?
Jesus
is telling us something about our journey with him. It may take longer than we
expect. (I’m used to brides showing up late, but not grooms.) It might cost
more than we expect. We are told to take stock. Do we have what we need to keep
on? Are we ready for the long wait? Are we ready for our story to unfold
differently than we expect?
We
lose track of time. We have plans and deadlines. The holidays come and go. We
expect life to unfold as we think and we are upset when life doesn’t. We hardly
think about what might happen. Two thousand years ago Christians thought that
Jesus would return at any moment and they were troubled that they were waiting.
This is where a lot of end times jargon comes from in the letter to the
Thessalonians. Will we be caught up into heaven with Jesus? What about those
who have died? Somehow, the early Christians found a sort of hope in the midst
of what they did not understand. It might be a while, but it will be OK. They
trusted in what they knew about Jesus. They trusted his promises – even as they
had no idea how those promises would come about.
Consider
our own journey with God. Who would have planned it? Who knows what will come
next? What is our hope for the future? We can repeat a hope for heaven or a
hope for a new creation. The more difficult step is to describe precisely what
we intend to do next. How will we follow Jesus from this moment forward? We are
disciples. We do the work of our master. We follow in the steps of our master
to become like the master. We must live in faith, living as if everything we
have been told is true despite evidence to the contrary. Unlike the ten
bridesmaids who were wise or foolish, we are together on our journey. We can
choose a different path that brings us all into the party. Instead of
wandering, we can hold the hands of those with no oil and bring them in with
us.
We
have no right to look down on anyone who is a failure – because we have all
been wise and foolish. We’ve been invited into relationships. We have family
and friends. We have jobs and future plans. We have also been locked out. We
have lost friends and family. We have lost jobs and failed classes. Sometimes
we have been foolish and sometimes we have suffered something we didn’t
deserve.
We
are happy to be here – whether we feel lucky or not. To some, the church is a
locked door. People feel unworthy. People feel judged. They have borne many
wounds and many indignities. Jesus is not speaking to them. He is speaking to
us. He is warning us not to take our blessing for granted. He is urging us to
be ready to meet him. He is also urging us to be ready for whatever blessing
there might be in this moment.
We
should not settle for a simple and expected ending of this story. We might feel
smug that we are inside and warm. This story judges us. Are we really paying
attention? We are not only the lucky few who have found our way in. We can be
the invitation. We can be light to those in darkness. We can open the lock and
welcome the fools into the feast. The party will be much more fun that way.
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