Neither the Day nor the Hour

 

Matthew 25:1-13

November 8, 2020

 

            I have something to admit to you. I keep thinking that the lectionary passages in these last few weeks of our church year, in these last few weeks of Matthew’s gospel, just can’t get any harder. Seriously. Every Sunday I think, surely, I have conquered the last of these tough, seemingly unfathomable passages from Matthew’s gospel. Then Matthew says,

“Oh really? Hold my scroll.”

This parable about ten bridesmaids and a delayed bridegroom just does not feel like a passage that I can find some foothold in, some small morsel that I can sink my teeth into. How can I relate these ancient and challenging words to where we are today, now? So, as I struggled with how to even get into this passage this morning, I decided that I was going to ask it – the parable – some questions. And I thought that maybe these might be the questions you would ask if you were in my shoes. So, here goes.

Question 1: where is the bride? There are 10 bridesmaids and a bridegroom, but no bride? I know that this is a kingdom parable, it says so right at the beginning. But where is the bride? Who is the bride? Who is the bride meant to be? Is the bride an allegory of the kingdom? Is she God or creation? Who is the bride?

Question 2: At what wedding is there not a specific time for the bridegroom to show up? When Brent and I planned our wedding last year, we both knew that at 4:00 pm we were heading down the aisle. This uncertainty about the bridegroom’s arrival makes me anxious.

Question 3: Why are the five “wise” bridesmaids so stingy with their oil? I have a hard time not hearing them in my head as a cross between mean girls and valley girls.

“Please give us some of your oil because our lamps are going out.”

“Like no. There will totally not be enough for you and for us. I mean if we were you, which, ew! We would go find an oil dealer and get some more. So, you better go. No, really, you better go.”

Question 4 (and final question): Why is it that the bridegroom doesn’t even recognize the other bridesmaids when they return? Be angry at them for not planning? Okay, I get that. But not to even recognize them? Shut the door, lock them out, I don’t know you?! I don’t get it.

I don’t get it, and that’s why I’m asking these questions. It isn’t to be irreverent or to make fun of the parable and the characters within it. It is to try and make some connection, cling to some inkling of understanding that might come my way if I only ask the right questions.

But I cannot ask these questions of this parable without asking questions of the larger context around it. This parable Jesus tells does not stand by itself, alone. It stands in a context of people being told to watch and to wait. In the chapter and verses before these, Jesus spoke about the end times, about the necessity for watchfulness. Jesus spoke about signs and times and things to look for. And at the end of our passage today, Jesus warned those who would listen to stay awake. Keep watch. Neither the day nor the hour of the bridegroom’s return is known, so you have to stay awake. And unlike the foolish bridesmaids you need to be prepared for the long haul.

Maybe I have been asking the wrong questions then. Maybe the question to ask is not so much about the details, but about the message that is being relayed through them. What is Jesus trying to tell people to do in this parable? What is he telling them about the kingdom? What is Jesus saying about the people’s response?

Is Jesus trying to make folks afraid, afraid they will be shut out of the kingdom? Or is he trying to make them let go of their assumptions that they will be the wise bridesmaids? Once again, I too often see myself as the “good guy” in scripture’s stories. I see myself as the one who does the right thing, the wise thing. But it is quite possible and highly probable that I am one of the foolish bridesmaids instead of one of the five who came prepared. It is highly probable that Jesus is warning me, not the person sitting next to me, to be watchful, to stay awake, and to make the necessary plans for the long haul that is waiting. It is quite possible that this is true for many of us. We have to stop assuming that when it comes to our faith and our understanding of God’s word to us that we automatically get it right. Maybe we should assume instead that when it comes to the day and the hour, we might just not get it at all. As Amos warned those who longed for the day of the Lord. It’s like a bear, a lion, and a snake, and none of them are friendly.

So, what do we need to hear in these words of Jesus? What message do we need to cling to and what lesson do we need to learn?

I believe that the underlying message of this parable is waiting. Watchfulness, preparedness, being ready is essential. If the necessity of being prepared were all that we take away from our reading of it, that would be plenty but let’s not skip over verse 5 too blithely.  

“As the bridegroom was delayed.” 

The bridegroom was delayed. They were waiting. Matthew’s gospel was written for a people who were waiting. None of the gospels were written at the exact moment of Jesus’ life.  They were written after his life, his death, and his resurrection. They were written by people for people who were waiting. The first letter to the Thessalonians, which was part of the lectionary choices for this morning, is considered the earliest of all the epistles. Paul was also writing to a people who were waiting. Matthew’s gospel was written approximately 30 years after that letter. The people who believed in Jesus, who believed he was the Son of God, who believed in his resurrection, also believed that he would return to them soon; maybe not immediately, but soon. Yet here they were, generations after the resurrection and they were still waiting. You can’t really fault the bridesmaids for falling asleep. The bridegroom was delayed. 

Here we are, some 2000 years after the resurrection and we’re still waiting. If you think about it, our faith is based on waiting. We are a waiting people living in the interim. We are living in the time between the times, waiting for the promises of God that were embodied in Jesus to come to final fruition. I am not shy about saying that I’m not an apocalyptic preacher. I don’t focus on the end times. I disagree with the popular interpretation of the rapture because I think that what passes for rapture theology is iffy theology at best. I often think that we get so caught up in looking for signs of the end times that we forget to be the people God calls us to be right now, here, in the present. 

It seems to me that this parable challenges us to think about how we wait. It challenges us to consider how our daily lives connect with what we proclaim to believe. Waiting for the bridegroom is not a mindless state of being. Waiting for the bridegroom calls us to be intentional.  It calls us to be thoughtful about what we do and how we live. Waiting is not passive. It is active.  No one knows when the bridegroom will finally arrive, so let’s assume that we are in it for the long haul. Let us wait with intention. 

What does this waiting with intention look like?  In our parable, it’s about being ready.  Again, the prophet Amos chastises the people listening to him that they are more worried about correct ritual, then about caring for the least of God’s people. They worship in name only, but their hearts are not involved. It seems to me that waiting with intention is about trying to make our daily lives match up to the faith we profess. I’m not leveling criticism at any one of us. It is really easy to say that those two things should match; it’s another thing to actually do it.  But that doesn’t exempt us from trying, from striving to make our waiting and our living sync. 

Yet living with intention and waiting with intention does not mean that we live without hope. We live with hope that the kingdom of God will come to fruition right here and right now. We live with hope that God truly is doing a new thing, in our midst in this moment, and what was flat will be lifted high, and what was high will be made low. We live with hope that there will be streams in the desert and a way made in the wilderness.

We live with hope, and so we wait. But while we wait, we are engaged fully in the here and now. While we wait, we live as though every day will be our last. While we wait, we seek to imitate Jesus – in siding with the poor and the oppressed and the marginalized, in speaking truth to power, in doing justice and walking in righteousness and in deepening our relationship with God and with ALL of God’s children.

We are a waiting people. We are a hopeful people. We do not know the day nor the hour, and we don’t have to. God does. So, we wait and we hope and live as disciples right here and right now, and trust that the future is in God’s hands. Those are pretty good hands to be in. We wait and we trust that our waiting will not be in vain.

Let all of God’s children say, “Alleluia!” Amen.