Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost, Matthew 25:1-13

November 12, 2023, Faith-La Fe Lutheran Church, Pastor Jonathan Linman

The days are getting shorter and shorter. Sunset happens earlier and earlier. When I lived up North and out East, I quietly dreaded this time of year, because all of this meant that the unpleasantness of winter was fast approaching…. Here in Phoenix, I’m finding that I welcome less intense sunlight, because that means cooler days, and the ideal weather for which this town is loved and why people keep moving here.

Even so, this season of longer nights and shadows calls our attention to end times – in the case of sunset, the end of the day. But we’re also approaching the end of the calendar year. And likewise, the end of our church year when the Sunday bible passages turn our attention to more ultimate end times – the end of our lives, the end of the world, the day of judgment, the promised coming of the Lord.

Then there’s the intersection of this season of endings with the currently frightening news cycles which turn up the volume on any dread we might be feeling these days. Will the war in Israel and Gaza, or the war in Ukraine, or the threats of China or Iran or North Korea spill over into another world war? Does the quickened pace of climate change hearken to the end of habitable environments in various parts of the globe? Then there are the specters of nuclear war and the possible ill effects of artificial intelligence, and what seems to be a cold civil war going on in this country – not North vs. South, but red states vs. blue states….

It seems as if the world order as we have known it for most of our lives is unraveling and coming to an end.

Amidst all this foreboding and threatening news about emerging new realities, I want to share with you that I do believe in the second coming of Jesus. Maybe not in terms of popular conceptions of the rapture, as suggested in today’s second reading from 1 Thessalonians: “For [our] Lord, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air…” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)

Even if it doesn’t happen in the way that Paul and the Left Behind series of books describe, I still believe in Jesus’ promise to return some time, somehow, in some manner to complete what he began on earth two thousand years ago. That gives me hope. It’s the promise of good news amidst so much bad news. As Paul says in today’s reading concerning the return of Christ: “And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.” (1 Thess. 4:17-b-18)

But if this is a promise of a future coming, a coming that could be soon or centuries or more in the future, what do we do now? How do we live our lives now? The parable of Jesus recounted by Matthew, today’s gospel reading, gives us some clues when the story concludes: “Keep awake, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour” of when Christ, the bridegroom, will come.

Concerning Christ’s appearing among us, there’s always the element of surprise. For example, who knew that God would take human flesh in a little baby in the manger two millennia ago? That was not unexpected. Nor was where it happened in that little town of Bethlehem.

Moreover, it’s not just one more final return of Christ that we’re looking for and waiting for. No, Jesus comes again and again.

Think about it. Here’s the compelling thing about where today’s parable appears in the narrative in Matthew’s Gospel. At least in popular imagination, this parable by itself seems to focus on what is called the second coming, Jesus’ ultimate and final return in the very last days.

But where today’s parable appears in Matthew is actually the last days of Jesus’ life on earth. Chapter 25 is the chapter right before the Passion Story, the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

In this context, then, perhaps today’s parable is more about watching for the bridegroom to arrive on the cross and just outside the empty tomb, completely unexpected places for him to appear. But it is Jesus’ death and resurrection that commences even now, here on earth, the wedding banquet. Which is to say, Christ, the bridegroom appears when hanging dead on the tree, the cross. Christ shows up again when in a complete surprise, he reappears alive, resurrected from the dead, when he emerges from the empty tomb.

And it doesn’t end there. Christ arrived again with the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the Spirit that proceeds from the Trinitarian Godhead, of which Jesus is an integral part. So, there are lots of comings of Christ, the bridegroom. And that’s true for us today.

Christ appears again, for example, when we are baptized in that Trinitarian name of God, when in the waters we are immersed into his death and resurrection and emerge out of that torrent children of God and heirs to eternal life, turning our world upside down in unexpected ways.

Christ, of course, also appears when he makes himself known to us in the breaking of bread, just as he did on the Road to Emmaus, when the disciples were surprised to recognize that stranger in their midst as the risen Christ – and who then vanished from their sight.

So again, with all of these appearances of Christ, penultimately in our day of living on earth and in the routines of the church, and ultimately when Christ will come one final time to tie up all the loose ends on the last day? What do we do now? How do we live our lives?

In response to these questions, we can take our cue from the wise young women in the parable, the ones who brought with them not just their lamps, but flasks of extra oil. This seems to be an exhortation to always be prepared, always be vigilant and watchful, well-organized, etc. And it’s a warning about the consequences of our not being prepared.

But I think the symbol of the lamp with extra flasks of oil goes deeper than the Scouting motto of always “Be Prepared.” For the lamp is a symbol of God’s word. Remember that the psalmist exclaimed to God, “your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” (Psalm 119:105). And remember that Christ, the word of God made flesh, is the light of the world, the light no darkness can overcome. Christ the word is the lamp filled with oil, with light burning brightly. Thus, we are called in these days to live with the light of Christ the word close at hand.

So, rather than just being awake and watchful and prepared, I hear in the parable’s teaching a call for us to be immersed in the deep reservoir of God’s word in Christ in the power of the Spirit, whose presence is like a burning wick fed by deep reserves of oil evident in God’s word.

So how do become immersed in those deep wells of the oil of God’s word? Well, Sunday worship is one such time, an hour filled to overflowing with the word – readings from the Old Testament, the Psalms, the New Testament, and the Gospels. Plus, songs and prayers that are often paraphrases of scripture or direct quotes from the bible.

But our immersion in the wells of the Word is not for Sunday only. Thus, here’s another invitation for you to come to Wednesday bible studies when we go deeply into the gospel reading for Sundays and often how the other lessons complement.

Then there are your occasions at home for daily bible reading and prayer.

My days are better when they start with Morning Prayer, which includes three bible readings and psalms. My immersion in the word prepares me to be open to seeing signs of the good news of Christ’s coming throughout the day, often hidden in plain sight.

I see the world differently, more hopefully through the lenses of God’s Word. That in contrast to when I begin the day just with reading the horrific headlines in the daily news. It’s the difference between being poised to see good news or ending up seeing only the bad news…. If reading the daily headlines becomes doomscrolling, then engaging the scriptures is scrolling for hope and joy and holiness!

This is how today’s reading from Wisdom refers to what our experience is like when we are engaged by the Wisdom of God’s word, when we discover or are discovered by, Christ. Listen again: “Wisdom is radiant and unfading, and she is easily discerned by those who love her and Wisdom is found by those who seek her. Wisdom hastens to make herself known to those who desire her. One who rises early to seek Wisdom will have no difficulty, for she will be found sitting at the gate. To fix one’s thought on Wisdom is perfect understanding…. Because she goes about seeking those worthy of her, and Wisdom graciously appears to them in their paths and meets them in every thought.” (Wisdom 6:12-16) This is what happens when we engage and are engaged by God’s Word in multiple formats: Christ, the Wisdom of God, finds us, appears to us, even when we just begin searching for her. Thanks be to God!

When the Wisdom who is Christ meets us, we are awakened in faith like a splash of baptismal cold water on our faces, like when I get you wet with sprinkling of water on those days, like All Saints.’ when we remember our baptism. When we walk wet, our faith is rejuvenated even at the midnight hour, our fires of faith burning more brightly within and among us. The light of Christ illuminates our paths as we draw deeply from the reservoirs of the holy oil of the Word who is Christ who leaps off the pages of scripture into our lives, and who appears again to us in the sacraments.

In this light, this Wisdom, we carry this same light and this same wisdom with us when we leave this place, bringing these gifts to the wider world, illuminating a world of midnight shadows with the light of Christ in our words and deeds, our serving our neighbors in need and in seeking justice.

Thus, we live our lives now with knowledge and confidence that we will be with the Lord forever. May these words of promise ever be for our encouragement in a very discouraging time in world history which seems forebodingly to be at the midnight hour. For Christ has died, Christ is risen, and Christ will come again. Amen.