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SERMONS

Twenty-Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
November 9, 2008
Proper 27A

By The Rev. Sylvia Czarnetzky

Amos 5:18-24
Psalm 70
1 Thessalonians 4:13-8
Matthew 25:1-13

On July 25 of this year, a 47-year-old man died of cancer in Chesapeake, Virginia.The death of a college professor normally would not be particularly newsworthy. But it made the news because the professor who died was a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, named was Randy Pausch, and he delivered something called ”The Last Lecture.”

Maybe you watched “The Last Lecture” on YouTube; Maybe you read about it in the Wall Street Journal; Maybe you heard about it on the network news, as I did,then bought his book, The Last Lecture,which remains on the bestseller list. Most of us have heard about Randy Pausch one way or another. It’s a story that would have been hard to miss in the news, and the story of The Last Lecture is pretty straightforward.

Randy Pausch was invited to participate in a lecture series,in which professors were invited to “speak to their students as if it were their last lecture” (Neary 1) – to impart wisdom to their students as if it were their last chance to speak to them. (Martin 1)

He agreed to give the lecture, and the first thing he did was to show the audience scans of his liver tumors – Pausch had been diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer, which had metasticized to the liver. (Neary 1) So Randy Pausch was, in fact, a dying man with just months to live when he gave his last lecture.

I can’t do justice to his lecture in this sermon – you’ll have to listen to it or read it yourself – but I was moved by parts of his story. “He spoke of his love for his wife” and he spoke “of their three young children, saying” that he’d decided to give the last lecture “mostly to leave [his children] a video memory – to put himself in a metaphorical bottle that they might someday discover on a beach.” (Martin 1)

There was something extremely poignant about this healthy-looking young man who knows that he’s going to die soon, taking the time to say some important things to the people he loves best. He knows he is running out of time,which gives the whole lecture a sense of urgency.

It occurred to me that today’s gospel might well be considered part of Jesus’ Last Lecture.  For by this point in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus is speaking with his disciples privately for the last time before the events of the passion. He knows he’s about to die. And he’s speaking to the people closest to him for the last time,imparting wisdom to them before he dies.

Jesus is running out of time, and he knows it,which lends a certain urgency to the things he says to the disciples. So it’s Jesus’s Last Lecture. His message in a bottle for his followers. And he chooses to spend some of that precious time telling them a story about a wedding.

Once upon a time in ancient Palestine, there was a wedding. Keeping with tradition, the bridegroom had gone to the home of the bride’s parents to fetch his intended for the wedding festivities. (Vamoush 59)

Weddings in those days usually took place in the evening, when the bride was brought to the groom’s house in a festive torchlight procession.” (59) And that’s where our story begins. Ten bridesmaids with ten oil lamps have gone out to greet the bridal party. Only there’s been a delay – the bridegroom is late and the bridesmaids, who have gone out to greet them, all fall asleep. (Carrick 1)

But the bridesmaids are awoken with a shout at midnight that the bridegroom is finally coming! So they all rouse themselves from sleep to greet the wedding party.

The story is kind of told in miniature in the Hymn we just sang. (Hymn 68, The 1982 Hymnal)  In addition, the Hymn text on the front of your bulletin helps sets the stage. They are from a famous hymn by Philip Nicolai later harmonized by Johann Sebastian Bach. (Glover 116)

(In fact, Bach wrote an entire cantata based on this story (116), one movement of which will be sung as our anthem this morning at the 11 o’clock service.) And the verse on the front of the bulletin vividly renders the setting of this parable:

“Wake, awake, for night is flying;
The watchmen on the heights are crying,
‘Awake, Jerusalem, arise!’
Midnight’s solemn hour is tolling,
his chariot wheels are nearer rolling.
He comes; prepare, ye virgins wise.
Rise up, with willing feet
Go forth, the Bridegroom meet:
Alleluia!
Bear through the night
Your well-trimmed light,
Speed forth to join the marriage rite.”
(Hymn 3, 1940 Hymnal, verse 1)

So that’s where our story begins – with ten bridesmaids roused from their sleep by the cry of the night watchman. All ten bridesmaids have oil lamps with them, as they rush forward to greet the members of the wedding party. (Carrick  1) Now we are told right away, in the second verse of the gospel that 50% of the bridesmaids are wise, and 50% are foolish. (Mt. 25:2) And what distinguishes the wise bridesmaids from the foolish ones is simple:

The wise bridesmaids brought extra oil for their lamps. So when all ten bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps,the wise bridesmaids had plenty of oil, but the foolish did not, so when their lamps began to go out, they had no oil in reserve. (Mt. 25:3-8) They called to the wise bridesmaids, pleading with them to share some of their oil, but the wise bridesmaids rather ungraciously said to the foolish bridesmaids, essentially, “Get your own.” (25:9)

(Like that cracker commercial where the slogan is “Get your own box.”)

And while the foolish bridesmaids are gone to get more oil, the wedding party arrives, the banquet begins, and the foolish maidens find themselves left out in the cold. (25:10-3)  So five bridesmaids found themselves locked out of the marriage feast, because they hadn’t brought any extra with them! So on one level, this is a story about being prepared, about planning for contingencies. The bridesmaids were foolish because they didn’t bring extra oil, so that, when the bridal party was delayed, they ran out of oil, and their lamps went out. (Harrington 349-50)

So, in one sense this is a story about living according to the Boy Scout motto – Be Prepared! The parable of the ten bridesmaids is, in part, a story about preparedness,a cautionary tale about the dangers of waiting until the last minute. (Procrastinators, take heed!) (Richardson 2)

But surely there is more to this story than that rather mundane practical advice. Otherwise, why would Jesus spend valuable time in his last lecture talking about this story? Obviously Jesus thought this was a story his disciples ought to hear, right here, poised as they are the beginning of the end; at the start of the last chapter of Jesus’ earthly life. Remember, the last supper is just around the corner, followed in short order, by his betrayal in the Garden, His arrest. His trial. His crucifixion.

And that makes me wonder….  What was so important about this story? What wisdom was Jesus trying to impart to his disciples here so close to the end of their time together? What was Jesus’s “message in the bottle” ?

Well, perhaps one clue about the significance of this parable rests in the fact that this is a story about light, about creating light.For the oil that the foolish bridesmaids ran out of was fuel for a fire – an oil lamp works by having oil in the base of the lamp, and lighting a wick that sticks out of the to. Without the oil in the base, the wick won’t stay lit and the fire goes out. So we’re talking about light – a light that in this story enables the groom and the rest of the wedding party to to the celebration. The bridesmaids’ task is to provide light to guide them. (Richardson 2)

If we remember the context of this parable, it starts to make better sense. Jesus is teaching about the kingdom of heaven. (2) He likens the kingdom of heaven to the story of the ten bridesmaids, five of whom are prepared and five of whom are not. But the preparations are all centered on readiness for the groom’s return.

When the groom is delayed, the wise bridesmaids are better prepared because they brought extra oil. What makes the wise bridesmaids wise is that they are ready to fulfill the task they are called upon to do – to light the way for the wedding party -- even when the groom is delayed. And it seems that, had the groom not been delayed, all ten of the bridesmaids would have been fine. (Robinson 1)

So maybe this is a story about readiness for the bridegroom’s return, no matter how long it takes him to come; then it dawns on us that, if Jesus is the bridegroom, this is a story about the coming of Christ. It is a story about having our lamps ready for Christ’s return, no matter how late Christ is running! (Warner 20)

“[T]here will be no time to run to the nearest gas station…” to buy more oil. (Carrick 2)

And the fact that the wise bridesmaids refused to share their oil with the foolish suggests that we are each responsible for our own readiness! We each are responsible for having our own flasks filled and our own lamps ready. (Richardson 2-3)

Ultimately, I can’t fill your lamp for you and you can’t fill my lamp for me. You may think the wise bridesmaids are  being selfish or overly harsh, in their refusal to share their oil with the foolish bridesmaids but “providing for everybody isn’t the bridesmaid’s job here. It’s the one occasion where taking care of everyone else isn’t a woman’s responsibility. (2)

The wise women of this story instead call us to attend to that which will deepen our relationship with God and hone our ability to receive God’s ever-present grace.” (2)   

So, maybe what Jesus is up to in telling this story is to remind us that our we are to be ready no matter how long Jesus the bridegroom is delayed! (Robinson 1) And maybe his message for us is practical as well: there is work for each of us to do.There are “flasks to be filled, lamps to be lighted,” and perhaps “long nights ahead that call for labor and readiness instead of rest.” (Richardson 3)

Perhaps that’s Christ’s message in the bottle to us, here, today, as we prepare for the season of Advent to begin. What kind of shape is your lamp in? How much oil do you have in reserve? (3) How brightly does your lamp burn? How ready are you, as we wait collectively and individually for the coming of Christ into our lives?

I think that’s why this story is here, in Jesus’ last lecture. Because, according to this parable, we may choose not to prepare. We can choose not to prepare or get ready, and if we do, then we effectively exclude ourselves from the banquet hall. “For if we have taken no steps” to be ready “for our encounter with God, whenever that might come,” then we may, like the foolish bridesmaids, find ourselves pounding on the door to the banquet hall, begging to be let in.  (Etchells 273)                      

Amen.

Works Cited:

Carrick, Judith. Sermon for Proper 27A. Sermons that work. TEC website.

Etchells, Ruth.  “A grave warning.”  A Reading of the Parables of Jesus.  excerpted in Resources for Preaching and Worship, Year A.  Eds. Hannah Ward and Jennifer Wild.  Louisville:  Westminster John Knox Press, 2004.  273-4.

Glover, Raymond F. Ed. The Hymnal 1982 Companion. Vol. IIIA. New York:Church Publishing. 115-9.

Harrington, Daniel J. The Gospel of Matthew. Sacra Pagina1. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1991. 347-351.

Martin, Douglas. “Randy Pausch, 47, dies.” New York Times July 26, 2008. reprinted at nytimes.com.

Neary, Lynn. “Remembering Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture.”  July 25, 2008. npr.org.

Nicolai, Philip. “Sleepers, Wake” Trans. Catherine Winkworth. Hymn #3. The 1940 Hymnal. Church Publishing.

Pausch, Randy, and Jeffrey Zaslow. The Last Lecture.  New York: Hyperion Books, 2008.

Richardson, Jan. “Midnight Oil.” paintedprayerbook.com November 4, 2008.

Robinson, Anthony B.  “Choices that matter.”  Christian Century October 20. 1993. 

Vamoush, Miriam Feinberg.  Daily Life at the Time of Jesus.Herzlia, Israel: Palphot, Ltd., 2007.

Warner, Andrew. “Living the Word.” Christian Century November 4, 2008. 20.

Zink-Sawyer. “The Season after Pentecost.” New Proclamation. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 200