God Calls Us to
Keep Steady!
Sermon preached at St.
Mark’s,
Proper 27, year A: Matthew 25:1-13
Matthew 25:1-13 (NRSV) “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.
Over the past
several Sundays, our scripture readings have taken us through a number of
judgment parables in the gospel according to Matthew. Today we hear a story
that sounds something like a “come to Jesus talk,” the kind of message that
comes before the altar call at a revival.
We hear about the
wise and the foolish, we hear about the anticipation of a wedding banquet, we
hear about a missed opportunity. Finally we hear the call to “keep awake!” a
call that we will hear again in Advent, the season of preparation. But in this
parable, Jesus doesn’t just call us to keep awake; Jesus calls us to “Keep Steady!”
In the parable, ten
bridesmaids await the arrival of the bridegroom to a wedding feast. When the
groom arrives, the bridesmaids escort the bride and groom into the wedding
feast—a celebration that will last for days. All the bridesmaids brought their
lamps—like old-fashioned kerosene lamps with the tank of fuel that burns a
bright flame on a cloth wick. Five of the bridesmaids have extra oil for their
lamps, so their lights can continue to shine through the night. The other five
bridesmaids run out of oil to fuel their lamps, so they go to buy more. When
the bridegroom arrives, the wise bridesmaids are there with lamps shining
brightly and they enter the banquet. But the groom does not recognize the
foolish bridesmaids when they return.
This parable appears
with others parables about preparing for the second coming of Jesus. Wise
disciples, like the wise bridesmaids, are prepared for his return, and even
though all fall asleep—like those described as falling asleep in today’s
reading from Thessalonians—the wise disciples are ready to greet their Lord and
escort the church—the bride of Christ—into the extended festival of the
heavenly wedding banquet.
As the story ends,
Jesus charges his disciples “Keep awake!” Keep awake! Strangely, however, all
of the bridesmaids had fallen asleep. So is there more to this phrase “Keep
awake?” The Greek words literally do mean “keep awake,” but some bibles
translate the phrase as “keep watch,” for the New Testament uses this phrase
elsewhere as a call to be prepared for the coming of our Lord. Keep watch, like
a sentinel or a guard on the castle walls—keep watch like parents waiting the
return of their teenager late at night—keep watch like stranded travelers
watching for help to arrive.
This call to keep
awake might sound like a revival rally cry for conversion. But the conversion
that Jesus calls for in this reading is not a one-time event. Keeping awake in
this passage is not a matter of bringing your lamp, but of being prepared for
the long haul to keep that lamp lit. In
this parable, Jesus calls us to keep steady.
Keeping steady is
not easy. Keeping steady looks more like resisting an insurgency day after day,
rather than winning the brief battle—or better yet, even more like keeping the
peace in an unsteady world. Keeping steady looks more like weekly visits with a
friend over lunch rather than a card at Christmas. Keeping steady looks more
like reading to a child every day rather than just showing up at graduation.
Our relationships die if they are not
nurtured steadily day by day.
Think of how a husband and wife have to work to keep their relationship steady.
When both husband and wife work long hours and travel out of town, they might
see each other only occasionally. After a while, they joke to each other that,
like the bridegroom in the parable, one doesn’t know the other. So they plan
time to be together, to get to know each other more deeply each day.
We recognize the
call to be steady with our families or friends or jobs, so we set aside time
for them. We call them priorities and
decline other events so that we might keep steady to these important
relationships and responsibilities. We describe a habit of this kind of living discipline, and we value disciplined
lives. We rise early in the morning to go to work each day, or to catch the
ride to school, or to begin our daily routine. We rearrange our schedule to
meet with friends, we say no to other opportunities to be with our families,
and we show up to work every day. We embrace these disciplines because we know
they are life giving.
This is good news
for us today, for if we can keep steady with our jobs and schools and families
and friends, then we can keep steady
with God as well. We can develop habits of living that welcome and value
the time and attention of forming an active and ongoing and steady relationship
with God.
Like keeping steady
with friends, we can read the bible every day, we can talk with God every day.
Like our commitments to our schools or work or to our families, we can call our
relationship with God a priority, and
take joy in the disciplines that
support that relationship. Because we know that our relationship with God is
not simply life giving, like our other priorities, but eternal-life giving. Our
relationship with God will not end, but only grow, as long as we form the
disciplines that keep us open to God’s grace each day. Jesus calls us to Keep
Steady with him each day.
Keeping Steady is
that basis of Christian Discipleship. The Sunday Study this fall has been
studying passages of scripture that relate to the topic of discipleship.
Discipleship is how we structure our whole lives to be followers of Jesus.
Discipleship starts with those three hours each week that are basic to the Christian
life: worshipping with the Christian Community, studying and learning with the
church, and sharing in ministry in the church. These basic disciplines are
supported by daily prayer, by seeking God’s calls to us wherever we may be.
Disciples seek to be faithful stewards of all that God has given us—our time,
our money, our talents and gifts for the world around us—serving and glorifying
God with our whole lives.
Of course, these are
mostly categories. How do you keep steady with God? What part of your life is
open to God’s influence and formation? How might you structure your life to
keep steady with God each day?
There is a
temptation in these questions that perhaps you are feeling. That temptation is
to immediately feel guilty of what you are NOT doing or how you are NOT steady
with God. This might be helpful, because each of us here today has parts of our
lives that can be more open to God. But God does not want us stuck in our guilt
and scared to approach him because of our guilty feelings. Jesus died to
forgive us from our guilt, to set us free from guilt, not to bury us in it. So
how might we respond to this forgiveness? How will you specifically embrace
this life in Christ each day? How will we support each other as we light those
lamps of God’s grace for the world?
We can keep steady
with God not because we are infallible or pure (we’re not). We can keep steady with God because God
keeps steady with us. God reaches out to us each day. God gives us life;
God gives us wisdom. God gives us family and friends who accept us despite our
faults. God gives us a Christian Community that is alive for more than just one
hour a week. God provides for our material needs in a land that, despite our
fears, is still the richest in the world and the richest in history. Every day,
God pours out upon us the oil of the Holy Spirit so that our lives might be set
on fire with his love, and shine the good news into the hearts of others. God
gathers us for prayers in this place, God, through this community, supports us
in our needs, and God makes himself known to us through Word and Sacrament.
We celebrate the wedding
banquet of the Eucharist every week because the call to keep steady isn’t just
a one-time call to come-to-Jesus. God
calls us to
Stay with Jesus,
Walk with Jesus,
Work with Jesus,
Cry with Jesus
Laugh with Jesus,
Rejoice with Jesus,
Be carried by Jesus,
Be healed by Jesus,
Be forgiven by
Jesus,
Have our lives
changed by Jesus,
Be on fire with the
light of Christ,
Sustaining us and
keeping us steady with God every day.