Grace, Mercy, and Peace be unto you from God our
Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Amen
But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the
bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’
In the Name of Jesus
Today is Nov 9th. There is so much to be excited for this time
of year. It is only a few weeks until
Thanksgiving, just a few weeks after that is Christmas, there is so much to do,
so many people to visit with, so many gatherings to attend. There are meals to make, lists to accomplish,
and to top it all off, deer hunting started yesterday! What a great time of year.
But sometimes the
excitement gets to be too much. Just
think about the excitement of a child waiting for a parade, for a birthday, for
Christmas. There is that brief moment
when they don’t know if the awaited time will ever come? And that anxiousness is enough to overwhelm
us. I remember a commercial not that
long ago for Disney World. The parents
were just finishing up packing and then we saw the children lying in bed with
the little boy exclaiming “I’m too excited to sleep!” Is that you this time of year?
This waiting and excitement
is the life of a Christian. This is the
life of the 10 virgins in our text for today.
Jesus, still speaking in parables, tells us about a great marriage feast
about to take place.
One might expect the
conversation to go straight to the party when Jesus says his famous parable
words, the kingdom of heaven is
like. But today we get a lesson in
waiting, more specifically a lesson in the proper way to wait. Our Lord says then
the kingdom of heaven will be like ten
virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the
bridegroom. Five of them were
foolish, and five were wise. For 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, they all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come
out to meet him.’ Then
all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil,
for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be
enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’
Today’s parable focuses on
the second coming of our Lord. 10
virgins come to celebrate, but when the bridegroom is delayed, the 5 foolish
virgins run out of oil, have to leave, and miss the entrance of the guest of
honor. What should have been an easy
wait, has become a disaster. Think about
it…how often does a party start on time?
How often does the guests all arrive on time?
Even more embarrassing is
the fact that no guarantee was given as to when the bridegroom was
arriving. Still, all were expected to be
ready. With the cry at midnight in verse
6, here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him, the feelings were sure to have been
mixed. Such excitement for the 5 wise
virgins who had enough oil to wait the coming of the bridegroom. Their waiting paid off, for they were invited
into the party. But utter disappointment
for the 5 who had to leave to refill their lamps. They missed the entrance, the door was now
shut, their entrance denied.
We have entered the final
days, which began when our Lord ascended back to the throne of God, and we must
have enough fuel. This will be
easy! With prices the way they are, I am
sure we would all be more than happy to go stock up on fuel to wait for the
coming bridegroom. But we must remember
this is a parable. So how does this then
apply to us?
We are waiting for the
coming of the bridegroom. We are those
waiting, lining the streets, waiting for the guest of honor to come so that we
may be invited in for the feast. We are
in the time of waiting for the sound of the trumpet from our epistle reading,
did you catch that? But
we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that
you may not grieve as others do who
have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so,
through Jesus, God will bring with him those
who have fallen asleep. For
this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we
who are alive, who are left until the
coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. We are waiting
the signal which will be given when the son of God comes. We are longing to hear the words here
is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.
But we are also in a time of danger because we are sitting with the fire
of our lamps, the fire within our souls, vigilantly lit, wondering if we have
enough oil to make it until the bridegroom arrives. How much is enough? How do we know that what we are filling our
lamps with, what we are filling our souls with, is the right stuff?
Lets be completely honest. This
is a difficult waiting game. Worse than
waiting for Christmas, a birthday, the arrival of a family member, this is the
waiting game for the rest of our lives. Because we don’t know the day, the time, of
the arrival. While we haven’t heard it much this year, the past few years we
have had plenty of false announcements of the bridegroom, of the coming
Christ. We have people, “spiritual
leaders” around the world telling us they know when the last day will be. And so many fill their lamps with that
persons oil and take just enough for the allotted time. When they run out, they are left in despair, looking
for the next oil to fill up on.
What is the oil that we fill our lamps with? We are all about sustainable fuel these days,
what do we will our lamps with that we hope will keep our hearts, our souls,
burning until the end? I think it is
safe to say that this question boils down to the First Commandment. What do we fill our hearts with? As we await the coming of our Lord, what keeps
us energized, what sustains our faith until that time?
The world would like us to fill our hearts with worldly things. We sang it just a few weeks ago. Though devils all the world should fill, all
eager to devour us. The devil would like
us to fill our hearts, set our hopes, on the fluff of the world. On beliefs that are not real. On hopes that are false. Our faith cannot be sustained to the end on
fluff!
We must ask what is sustainable in this present day and age? Is it that which the world presents to us
which abounds? No. As we
find ourselves waiting for the last day, we fill our lamps, we fill our hearts
with oil. This oil, this sustainable
fuel, can and must only be one thing. The
pure Word of God. While the world tries
to convince us what is important, while the world ties to convince us what will
make us happy here on earth is what matters, we are given the grace of an
endless supply of the oil of God’s precious Word.
The worldly oil will
always leave a void. The worldly oil
will always run out. The worldly oil
will never last. Filling our heart, our
soul, with the oil of the world is like lighting a lamp without oil. Yes it may light, but it lasts for only a
moment before it goes out. Filling our
lamps with worldly oil will leave us like the 5 foolish virgins who were left
knocking and saying Lord, lord, open to us.’ But
he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I
do not know you.
Praise God we have been given what endures. Through the proper teaching of the Word of God,
which I pray continually flows from this pulpit, your lamps, your souls, are
filled for the coming of our Lord on the last day. For it is here that you receive that which
cannot run out, that which cannot be taken away.
When the foolish virgins left, they had to refill their
lamps. Because you have the unending
oil, your lamp is attended to by none other than the bridegroom himself. He makes sure your lamp, your vessel, is spotless. He has done the work to make sure you are
prepared to be ushered into the marriage feast.
We are beginning a noticeable shift in our readings now. That shift takes us toward the end times as
we enter into the final 3 weeks of the church year. We get the privilege of looking at the final
day, not in fear, but in faithful trust, when our Lord returns again and calls
all believers to himself.
As we draw ever closer to the second coming of our Lord, when
we hear the cry here is the bridegroom!
Come out to meet him or even hear the sound of the trumpet of God, by His grace,
may we be found with oil overflowing in the eternal light of Christ.
Amen
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