Always Ready
Sermon
All About the Kingdom
Cycle A Sermons for Proper 24 Through Thanksgiving Based on the Gospel Texts
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.
Some literature students at the University of Chicago once asked Ernest Hemingway what hidden meanings were in his stories. He merely shrugged and said he didn't know of any and that they could make of his stories whatever they wanted.
Biblical scholars seem to have a similar attitude toward the story Jesus told about ten bridesmaids who went out to meet a bridegroom. Five of the maidens neglected to bring extra oil for their lamps; they are called the foolish maidens. Five remembered to bring extra oil; they are the wise maidens. The bridegroom is delayed and all the bridesmaids fall asleep. When a crier proclaims that the bridegroom has arrived, all ten bridesmaids wake up and rush to their lamps. During the long night the lamps had run out of oil. This was no problem to those who had thought to bring extra oil. Those who had not brought extra oil tried to borrow from those who had. They were denied and had to run to the stores to try to find a merchant who would open up and sell them oil. Meanwhile, the bridegroom arrived and the parable ends with those who are prepared going into the feast. The door was closed and those not prepared were left outside.
Some see this as a message of warning by Jesus to the Jews of his day who should have been prepared for his coming but were not. Others see it as a parable of Jesus that was reworked by Matthew to be used in the conflict between first-century Christians and hostile Jews. Still others see it as a reference by Jesus to his second coming, at which time those who are ready will join Jesus and those who are not ready will be shut out. While any or all of these interpretations may be correct, we need to remember that a parable makes one point. We do not need to make it into an allegory in which every person and every action stands for a particular person or situation. It is more important to apply this parable to ourselves than to limit its application to people in the past or the future.
The first thing this parable says to me is that whatever you want to do or to be, there is a need to prepare. All ten bridesmaids had prepared their lamps so they would be able to march in procession accompanying the bridegroom, and no doubt the bride, to their new home. When the group arrived at the couple's new home, there would be a celebration, and though the girls were not part of the official wedding party, they would be welcome at the festivities because of the part they played in lighting the wedding parade.
We are apt to attribute someone's success in a field to certain natural gifts possessed by the successful person, but more often success is a result of preparation. For example, in sports, Wayne Gretzky is seen as one of the greatest hockey players of all time. In the 1980s he won the National Hockey League's Most Valuable Player award an unprecedented nine out of a possible ten times. It took the previous holder of the goal-scoring record 26 years to set the record. Gretzky did it in 15. You wouldn't know it to look at him. He is smaller and lighter than the average hockey player. He didn't skate particularly fast or gracefully. His shot was not a real burner, and on strength tests administered to each member of his team, Gretzky always placed dead last. What made him such a winner was practice in season and out of season, especially practicing unusual shots like bouncing the puck off the side boards or the side of the net to a teammate. He practiced those shots so much that he could do them in any direction. He may have had a gift, but he was also the best prepared member of his team.
Success in literature is another field that requires preparation. As a schoolboy I learned that Abraham Lincoln wrote the marvelous Gettysburg Address on the back of an envelope as he rode on the train to the dedication of the military cemetery at Gettysburg. An official who accompanied the president said that he did no writing on the trip. His address was delivered on November 19. However, when he spoke informally to a crowd on the White House lawn four months earlier, he said: "How long ago is it? Eighty-odd years since, on the Fourth of July, for the first time in the history of the world, a nation... declared, as a self-evident truth that all nations are created equal." These are phrases that appear in the Gettysburg Address, showing that more than four months before the Gettysburg Address Lincoln was already sharpening the classic wording contained in the speech. Lincoln had oil in his lamp. He'd been storing it for months, and when the occasion arose he was ready for the task. Successful people may have gifts that contribute to their success, but even they have to prepare.
The second thing this parable says to me is that as we prepare to reach our goal, we must also prepare for the unexpected. In the parable the bridegroom's coming was delayed. Five of the bridesmaids prepared for that eventuality; they brought extra oil. There's a story told about a Cornish farmer who had difficulty keeping a hired man because his farm was located on the west coast of England, where storms roared in off the Atlantic. It was a miserable place to be. The farmer looked and looked for help. Finally, a man came and applied for the job. He was a little fellow. He didn't look very strong and appeared to be past middle age. He looked like he could be on his last leg. But he was the only person the farmer had found.
The farmer asked him, "Are you a good helper to a farmer?" The man answered in his Cornish accent, "I can sleep when the wind blows." When the farmer said, "I don't understand," the little fellow repeated, "I can sleep when the wind blows." The farmer didn't know what that meant, but he took the man on because he desperately needed help. The man worked well around the farm and seemed to be effective. Then one night the farmer could hear the wind kicking up and beginning to blow. He got out of bed, lit the lantern, went to the barn where the hired man was sleeping and shook him awake. "The storm is coming and the wind is howling," the farmer shouted. "We have to do something fast." The hired man looked at him and said, "No, sir, I told you, I can sleep when the wind blows." The farmer went outside and saw that all the haystacks had been covered by tarpaulins, all the chickens were in coops, all the cows were in the barn, all of the things that could have blown away were secured and all doors and shutters closed. Indeed, the hired man could sleep when the wind blew. He was prepared when it came to regular farm work, and he was able to deal with a change of circumstances.
There are some preparations that can't be put off until the last minute. It's too late for a student to begin preparing for an exam when the day of examination has come. It is too late to acquire a skill when a job comes along that requires us to already have that skill. In the theater, a relatively unknown actress may be given a small part but also be assigned to be the understudy for the leading female. Broadway lore is filled with stories of actresses who were called upon to fill in for the leading actress and who did so well that they became leading actresses themselves. They prepared themselves in advance.
It is the same in our relationship with God. It is told of Queen Mary of Orange that when she was dying, her chaplain came to speak to her about her relationship with God. "My friend," she answered gently, "I did not leave such an important matter till this hour." Circumstances can change quickly. The day of death is not the time to begin thinking about the place of God in our lives.
Another thing this parable says to me is that there are some things in life that can't be borrowed from others. The five bridesmaids without extra oil could not get by on the preparations of others. When they tried to borrow oil, they were refused. They would have to go back into the town to see if they could find a merchant who would open his store to sell them oil.
It is that way in many situations in life. For example, we cannot get by on somebody else's education. We may have gifted teachers who are willing to share their education, but the student must take responsibility for assimilating what is taught. Jesse Jackson, speaking about the education of inner-city children, said, "We keep saying that Johnny can't read because he's deprived, hungry, and discriminated against.... The reason Johnny can't read well is that Johnny doesn't practice reading" (quoted in Pulpit Resource, Vol. 9, No. 3, p. 45).
Personal responsibility is also important to the development of one's spiritual life. As I was calling on people in the community who had attended our church, I met a man who told me that he had been a Methodist all his life. He was born a Methodist, he said. In fact, his great-grandfather was a Methodist preacher. When I asked him how he and his family happened to attend our church, he acknowledged that it was actually his wife and children who attended. He couldn't make it. It turned out that he hadn't made it to church for years. In fact, the last time there was a genuine decision for Christ in his family, it was made by his great-grandfather. On the strength of that decision rested the assessment that his family was Methodist for generations. As lovingly as possible I tried to point out to him that each person has to decide for himself to follow Christ, and after that decision, a person may decide to identify with one church or another. He was not ready to go that far. The visit ended with an invitation for him to come and worship with us. He did not do so.
Several years later I received a letter from him from out-of-state, telling me that he made a decision to follow Christ and he and his family were now active in a church in their new community. He acknowledged that he had been angry with me, but he now saw the importance of taking responsibility for one's own spiritual development. He was no longer content with borrowed religion.
The fourth thing this parable says to me is that in every field opportunities pass. When the members of the wedding party arrived at the bridegroom's house, all those who accompanied him were invited in and the door was shut. This doesn't necessarily suggest that the girls who weren't ready were lost. They suffered disappointment because they could not participate in the wedding festivities. There would be other weddings and other parties, but this one was closed to them because they were not ready.
As I have traveled around the world by ship in recent years I have seen large shipping containers in most ports with the name Hanjin Transportation Company written on the sides. I asked a port agent whose company that was, and I was told an interesting story of a man named Cho Choong Hoon, known as Harry to Westerners. Sometime after the liberation of Korea from Japanese control in 1945, Harry was driving along a country road in his truck when he noticed a jeep that was stalled on the side of the road. Harry stopped to offer a hand and helped to get the vehicle started. One of the jeep's passengers, a U.S. Army officer, thanked Harry for his help and told Harry to look him up sometime. Harry did that and the acquaintanceship bloomed into a contract to haul supplies for the U.S. Army. Prior to and during the Korean War, Harry's Hanjin Transportation Company earned tens of millions of dollars, and his financial empire, Hanjin Group, became a conglomerate that now owns Korean Air Lines. Harry saw an opportunity and seized it before it disappeared. He knew what it meant to "seize the day."
In a nursery where trees and plants are sold in London, Ontario, Canada, there is a sign in the tree section that reads: "The best time to plant a tree was 25 years ago..." a sobering jolt that reminds one that trees take a long time to mature. Some oak trees, for example, are sixty years old before they bear any acorns. But that isn't the whole story of that sign in the Canadian nursery. The complete message is: "The best time to plant a tree was 25 years ago. The second best time is today." That sign is a reminder that the opportunity is still open. A tree can still be planted, in spite of the squandered opportunities of 25 years ago. The door is still open, and as long as it is, there is still opportunity to act.
The parable of the ten bridesmaids reminds us that to reach our goal we need to prepare, we need to be ready to deal with the unexpected, we need to rely on our own personal experiences, and we need to act when the opportunity presents itself because opportunities pass. Shakespeare expressed this very well:
There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, Leads on to fortune.
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries
On such a full sea are we now afloat
And we must take the current when it serves
Or lose our ventures.
(Julius Caesar, Act IV, scene iii)
Jesus reminds us of all this in the conclusion of this parable when he says: "Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour" (v. 13).
Some literature students at the University of Chicago once asked Ernest Hemingway what hidden meanings were in his stories. He merely shrugged and said he didn't know of any and that they could make of his stories whatever they wanted.
Biblical scholars seem to have a similar attitude toward the story Jesus told about ten bridesmaids who went out to meet a bridegroom. Five of the maidens neglected to bring extra oil for their lamps; they are called the foolish maidens. Five remembered to bring extra oil; they are the wise maidens. The bridegroom is delayed and all the bridesmaids fall asleep. When a crier proclaims that the bridegroom has arrived, all ten bridesmaids wake up and rush to their lamps. During the long night the lamps had run out of oil. This was no problem to those who had thought to bring extra oil. Those who had not brought extra oil tried to borrow from those who had. They were denied and had to run to the stores to try to find a merchant who would open up and sell them oil. Meanwhile, the bridegroom arrived and the parable ends with those who are prepared going into the feast. The door was closed and those not prepared were left outside.
Some see this as a message of warning by Jesus to the Jews of his day who should have been prepared for his coming but were not. Others see it as a parable of Jesus that was reworked by Matthew to be used in the conflict between first-century Christians and hostile Jews. Still others see it as a reference by Jesus to his second coming, at which time those who are ready will join Jesus and those who are not ready will be shut out. While any or all of these interpretations may be correct, we need to remember that a parable makes one point. We do not need to make it into an allegory in which every person and every action stands for a particular person or situation. It is more important to apply this parable to ourselves than to limit its application to people in the past or the future.
The first thing this parable says to me is that whatever you want to do or to be, there is a need to prepare. All ten bridesmaids had prepared their lamps so they would be able to march in procession accompanying the bridegroom, and no doubt the bride, to their new home. When the group arrived at the couple's new home, there would be a celebration, and though the girls were not part of the official wedding party, they would be welcome at the festivities because of the part they played in lighting the wedding parade.
We are apt to attribute someone's success in a field to certain natural gifts possessed by the successful person, but more often success is a result of preparation. For example, in sports, Wayne Gretzky is seen as one of the greatest hockey players of all time. In the 1980s he won the National Hockey League's Most Valuable Player award an unprecedented nine out of a possible ten times. It took the previous holder of the goal-scoring record 26 years to set the record. Gretzky did it in 15. You wouldn't know it to look at him. He is smaller and lighter than the average hockey player. He didn't skate particularly fast or gracefully. His shot was not a real burner, and on strength tests administered to each member of his team, Gretzky always placed dead last. What made him such a winner was practice in season and out of season, especially practicing unusual shots like bouncing the puck off the side boards or the side of the net to a teammate. He practiced those shots so much that he could do them in any direction. He may have had a gift, but he was also the best prepared member of his team.
Success in literature is another field that requires preparation. As a schoolboy I learned that Abraham Lincoln wrote the marvelous Gettysburg Address on the back of an envelope as he rode on the train to the dedication of the military cemetery at Gettysburg. An official who accompanied the president said that he did no writing on the trip. His address was delivered on November 19. However, when he spoke informally to a crowd on the White House lawn four months earlier, he said: "How long ago is it? Eighty-odd years since, on the Fourth of July, for the first time in the history of the world, a nation... declared, as a self-evident truth that all nations are created equal." These are phrases that appear in the Gettysburg Address, showing that more than four months before the Gettysburg Address Lincoln was already sharpening the classic wording contained in the speech. Lincoln had oil in his lamp. He'd been storing it for months, and when the occasion arose he was ready for the task. Successful people may have gifts that contribute to their success, but even they have to prepare.
The second thing this parable says to me is that as we prepare to reach our goal, we must also prepare for the unexpected. In the parable the bridegroom's coming was delayed. Five of the bridesmaids prepared for that eventuality; they brought extra oil. There's a story told about a Cornish farmer who had difficulty keeping a hired man because his farm was located on the west coast of England, where storms roared in off the Atlantic. It was a miserable place to be. The farmer looked and looked for help. Finally, a man came and applied for the job. He was a little fellow. He didn't look very strong and appeared to be past middle age. He looked like he could be on his last leg. But he was the only person the farmer had found.
The farmer asked him, "Are you a good helper to a farmer?" The man answered in his Cornish accent, "I can sleep when the wind blows." When the farmer said, "I don't understand," the little fellow repeated, "I can sleep when the wind blows." The farmer didn't know what that meant, but he took the man on because he desperately needed help. The man worked well around the farm and seemed to be effective. Then one night the farmer could hear the wind kicking up and beginning to blow. He got out of bed, lit the lantern, went to the barn where the hired man was sleeping and shook him awake. "The storm is coming and the wind is howling," the farmer shouted. "We have to do something fast." The hired man looked at him and said, "No, sir, I told you, I can sleep when the wind blows." The farmer went outside and saw that all the haystacks had been covered by tarpaulins, all the chickens were in coops, all the cows were in the barn, all of the things that could have blown away were secured and all doors and shutters closed. Indeed, the hired man could sleep when the wind blew. He was prepared when it came to regular farm work, and he was able to deal with a change of circumstances.
There are some preparations that can't be put off until the last minute. It's too late for a student to begin preparing for an exam when the day of examination has come. It is too late to acquire a skill when a job comes along that requires us to already have that skill. In the theater, a relatively unknown actress may be given a small part but also be assigned to be the understudy for the leading female. Broadway lore is filled with stories of actresses who were called upon to fill in for the leading actress and who did so well that they became leading actresses themselves. They prepared themselves in advance.
It is the same in our relationship with God. It is told of Queen Mary of Orange that when she was dying, her chaplain came to speak to her about her relationship with God. "My friend," she answered gently, "I did not leave such an important matter till this hour." Circumstances can change quickly. The day of death is not the time to begin thinking about the place of God in our lives.
Another thing this parable says to me is that there are some things in life that can't be borrowed from others. The five bridesmaids without extra oil could not get by on the preparations of others. When they tried to borrow oil, they were refused. They would have to go back into the town to see if they could find a merchant who would open his store to sell them oil.
It is that way in many situations in life. For example, we cannot get by on somebody else's education. We may have gifted teachers who are willing to share their education, but the student must take responsibility for assimilating what is taught. Jesse Jackson, speaking about the education of inner-city children, said, "We keep saying that Johnny can't read because he's deprived, hungry, and discriminated against.... The reason Johnny can't read well is that Johnny doesn't practice reading" (quoted in Pulpit Resource, Vol. 9, No. 3, p. 45).
Personal responsibility is also important to the development of one's spiritual life. As I was calling on people in the community who had attended our church, I met a man who told me that he had been a Methodist all his life. He was born a Methodist, he said. In fact, his great-grandfather was a Methodist preacher. When I asked him how he and his family happened to attend our church, he acknowledged that it was actually his wife and children who attended. He couldn't make it. It turned out that he hadn't made it to church for years. In fact, the last time there was a genuine decision for Christ in his family, it was made by his great-grandfather. On the strength of that decision rested the assessment that his family was Methodist for generations. As lovingly as possible I tried to point out to him that each person has to decide for himself to follow Christ, and after that decision, a person may decide to identify with one church or another. He was not ready to go that far. The visit ended with an invitation for him to come and worship with us. He did not do so.
Several years later I received a letter from him from out-of-state, telling me that he made a decision to follow Christ and he and his family were now active in a church in their new community. He acknowledged that he had been angry with me, but he now saw the importance of taking responsibility for one's own spiritual development. He was no longer content with borrowed religion.
The fourth thing this parable says to me is that in every field opportunities pass. When the members of the wedding party arrived at the bridegroom's house, all those who accompanied him were invited in and the door was shut. This doesn't necessarily suggest that the girls who weren't ready were lost. They suffered disappointment because they could not participate in the wedding festivities. There would be other weddings and other parties, but this one was closed to them because they were not ready.
As I have traveled around the world by ship in recent years I have seen large shipping containers in most ports with the name Hanjin Transportation Company written on the sides. I asked a port agent whose company that was, and I was told an interesting story of a man named Cho Choong Hoon, known as Harry to Westerners. Sometime after the liberation of Korea from Japanese control in 1945, Harry was driving along a country road in his truck when he noticed a jeep that was stalled on the side of the road. Harry stopped to offer a hand and helped to get the vehicle started. One of the jeep's passengers, a U.S. Army officer, thanked Harry for his help and told Harry to look him up sometime. Harry did that and the acquaintanceship bloomed into a contract to haul supplies for the U.S. Army. Prior to and during the Korean War, Harry's Hanjin Transportation Company earned tens of millions of dollars, and his financial empire, Hanjin Group, became a conglomerate that now owns Korean Air Lines. Harry saw an opportunity and seized it before it disappeared. He knew what it meant to "seize the day."
In a nursery where trees and plants are sold in London, Ontario, Canada, there is a sign in the tree section that reads: "The best time to plant a tree was 25 years ago..." a sobering jolt that reminds one that trees take a long time to mature. Some oak trees, for example, are sixty years old before they bear any acorns. But that isn't the whole story of that sign in the Canadian nursery. The complete message is: "The best time to plant a tree was 25 years ago. The second best time is today." That sign is a reminder that the opportunity is still open. A tree can still be planted, in spite of the squandered opportunities of 25 years ago. The door is still open, and as long as it is, there is still opportunity to act.
The parable of the ten bridesmaids reminds us that to reach our goal we need to prepare, we need to be ready to deal with the unexpected, we need to rely on our own personal experiences, and we need to act when the opportunity presents itself because opportunities pass. Shakespeare expressed this very well:
There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, Leads on to fortune.
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries
On such a full sea are we now afloat
And we must take the current when it serves
Or lose our ventures.
(Julius Caesar, Act IV, scene iii)
Jesus reminds us of all this in the conclusion of this parable when he says: "Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour" (v. 13).
