Blessed are they who keep awake

Sermon for the Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Pentecost (November 12, 2023) at St. James’ Episcopal Church in Hyde Park, NY. A video of the entire worship service is available here.

What are we talking about? View the scripture readings and the Collect of the Day: Proper 27, Year A

James Tissot’s Foolish Virgins. From Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57765

Listen:

Like what you hear? You can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Jesus said, “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.”

Matthew 25:1-13

Edited Transcript

May only truth be spoken here and only truth be heard. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Please be seated.

So we're back to the parables. We did a lot of parables in October and now we've got three more parables this coming month as we complete the season after Pentecost and look ahead to when our new year begins, which is on the first Sunday of Advent, December 3rd.

Last week, we observed All Saints Sunday, right? And on All Saints Sunday we stopped reading parables, which, again, we had been doing pretty much every week. Instead we heard the beatitudes, from Matthew's Gospel. And in our Bible study that week, one person said, "Well, I'm just glad this isn't a parable!"

So, sorry, yes: we're back to parables. And this one, and those that we're going to read in the following two weeks, are from the 25th chapter of Matthew's Gospel. And they are all really hard.

This parable seems to tell us, on face value, that the kingdom of heaven is like a party where, if you don't have it together, you're not going to get into the party. That's what it seems to tell us. There are wise bridesmaids, and there are foolish bridesmaids. The wise ones planned ahead, the foolish ones didn't. And the cost that they pay is that the door is slammed shut in their face.

I find that really hard to reconcile with the same Jesus who said, if you have two coats, give one to your brother, to your neighbor who needs one. Give half of everything you have to the poor.

How, then, is Jesus going to tell us a story where the kingdom of heaven looks like the people that get in are the ones who won't share?

We have many questions about this parable!

Okay, so I'm going to tell another story as a balance to this parable. "The kingdom of God is like..."

This story comes from Madeleine L'Engle. I actually read it when I was preparing for All Saints Sunday last week. And this parable tells us what the kingdom of heaven is like and what a saint is like. Madeleine L'Engle, if you don't know, was A) an Episcopalian and B) the author of my all time favorite book, A Wrinkle in Time. And here's the story:

A really good man dies and he goes to heaven. And when he gets there, Peter is there with the gate of heaven wide open. St. Peter says, come on in. We've been expecting you. We're so glad you're here. Welcome to heaven. And Peter shows him the pearly gates, the streets of gold, the mansions upon mansions—a place for all who have earned their way into heaven.

And the guy is just so happy that he is finally gotten his reward and he goes to his own mansion and he falls asleep. And it's only when he wakes up the next morning that he says, wait, something's not quite right.

And he wakes up, he goes out of the mansion, down the gold street, back to the pearly gate, and he says to St. Peter, Hey, where is everybody else? Why am I the only person here?

And St. Peter says, what do you mean?

So the guy says, well, where's Mother Teresa? Where's Gandhi? Where's St. James of Jerusalem? Where's the Blessed Virgin Mary? And Peter says, oh, well! They're all in hell, ministering to the damned. If you want me to show you the way I'll take you.

The kingdom of heaven is like a place where the saints know that there is no kingdom of heaven as long as anyone hasn't discovered the love of God.

The kingdom of heaven is like a place where those who have everything only long to share it with the ones who don't.

The kingdom of heaven is like a place where those whose light is burning within them only long to minister to the ones whose light has gone out.

If you have questions about this parable in Matthew's Gospel, consider: at the end, there's an admonition, right? What's the admonition? This is very familiar, especially as we look forward to the season of Advent, as we await the coming of Christ.

The admonition is: Keep awake! Keep awake, for you do not know the day or the hour when you will see God. Keep awake.

And I think sometimes when we hear this parable, we think, well, who's being admonished? It must be the foolish bridesmaids, because they let their lamps burn out. They didn't prepare.

But look back at that Gospel reading again. Keep awake. Who falls asleep? Is it only the foolish bridesmaids who fall asleep? No. They are all waiting. They all get drowsy and they all fall asleep. And then the admonition is: keep awake.

I don't know about you, but sometimes if I've just woken up, I'm not my best self. So all these people have gotten drowsy, and then they hear the cry: the bridegroom is coming, get ready to greet him! Everyone wakes up, maybe not quite their best self. And the wise bridesmaids, when begged to share the extra that they have, they respond out of fear. No. If we share, there won't be enough for you. No, we can't share our oil. And the foolish bridesmaids, they get panicky that they don't have what they're supposed to have. And instead of doing their job and waiting for the bridegroom who is coming—right this second! wake up, he's coming!—they run off. I don't know what convenience store is selling lamp oil at midnight. But they've just been told he's coming and they decide to leave.

Keep awake! So you don't run off from where you're supposed to be. And so you don't react out of fear with what you've got, the gifts that God has given you.

The kingdom of heaven is like a place where we recognize that all of us are going to have times when our lamps feel full, when our spirits are full. And all of us are going to go through times when our lamps have grown low or have even gone out. We have highs in life and we have lows. We have mountain peaks, and we have deep valleys of the shadow of death. We have times when our hearts are filled with hope and faith and belief, and times when we question and doubt.

We have times when we have, and times when we have not.

When we did read those beatitudes last Sunday, Jesus said, Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are those whose lamps have run low, or even gone out, for yours, too, is the kingdom of God. And the door will not be closed to you.

We are a community. So the invitation is: just stay present. Just keep doing your job, looking for the face of God. Remember, you'll see the face of God in the people around you.

Don't let your fear keep you from sharing what you have when your lamp is full. Don't let your fear allow you to abandon your post when your lamp runs low.

But remember that the kingdom of God belongs to those who remember that the kingdom of God belongs to the poor, to the mourning, to the needy, to the ones who are low. And to the ones who are full and remember to reach out a hand. That's who we want to be. Amen.