Keep awake! The party's getting started...

 Sermon for Sunday 8 November 2020

The Rev. Carrie Ballenger

Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, Jerusalem

Keep awake! The party's getting started...

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Sermon for Sunday, 8 November 2020

Matthew 25:1-13

23^rd Sunday after Pentecost

Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, Jerusalem

 

The Rev. Carrie Ballenger

 

Matthew 25:1-13

 

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.

 

Red states and blue states. Democrat and Republican. Black lives matter and All Lives Matter. Masks and no masks. He/She/Them.

East and West Jerusalem. West Bank and Israel proper. Arab and Jew. Palestinian and Israeli. Refugee and citizen. Christian. Jewish. Muslim. This side of the wall, and that side of the wall.

It’s hard to imagine a time in recent history when we’ve been more aware of the deep divisions between humans.

And then we come to church, or tune in online to hear a word, and find that the lectionary gives us a parable from Jesus about dividing people into categories.

In this story, five bridesmaids are wise, and five are foolish. Five have brought enough resources, and five are lacking. Five are welcomed into the wedding party, and five are left out in the dark. We, the listeners, are also left in the dark, wondering: Which one am I? Am I a wise or foolish bridesmaid? Will I be welcomed into the wedding party? How can I be sure I won’t be left on the wrong side on that day?

 

This is a tough parable, friends. I recognize may be especially hard for us to hear the Good News from a story of division at this time.

At the end of the parable Jesus says, “Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” Keep awake! Be ready, for I’m coming soon!

This, at least, is not complicated. This message is clear, even if the parable is not. Jesus is coming soon, and even if the wait is long—even if justice and peace and hope and a vaccine seem very far off –still we are to stay awake and watchful because Change is coming. Change is coming! Amen!

“Stay awake, I’m on my way” is the period at the end of this sentence, the ultimate message of this parable, and yet countless sermons have been preached in which that message “Keep awake” has somehow transformed into “Better be on the right side.”

You know what I’m talking about! You’ve heard that sermon, too.

Be sure you’re like those wise bridesmaids!

Be sure to bring enough oil. Stockpile it if you have to!

Get on the right side!

Don’t be foolish!

Except it’s probably not oil that you’ve been told you need. It might be correct theology, or political affiliation, or church membership. It might be baptism, or holiness, or a happy marriage, or children that behave in church, or a check in the offering plate.

In this common interpretation of the parable, the oil you need to ensure your entrance to the party might even be something you forget you possess most of the time.

Let me explain.

Some time ago on a certain Friday morning, during a wave of violence in Jerusalem, I entered the Old City through Damascus Gate. On that day, as many other days, barricades stood in front of more barricades, which reinforced checkpoints, which were monitored by gun-toting Israeli soldiers.

 

Palestinian men and women were lined up, several people deep, waiting to enter the city for prayer, for shopping, and for business. One young man after another was pulled to the side and questioned about his papers, with M-16s providing incentive for the right answer. News cameras lined the sidewalk, ready to capture anything newsworthy.

And then I walked up to the checkpoint, and it was as if a red carpet were rolled out for my entrance. The waters parted. Guns were lowered. I even received smiles and a “Have a nice day” in English.

And just like that, I’m in the Old City! Thanks be to God!

Yes, I was thankful! After all, no one wants to be left outside the gate! No one wants to miss the party! No one wants to be a foolish bridesmaid. Thanks be to God, I brought enough oil.

Thanks be to God I brought my white skin, my American accent, and the black clergy dress and white clergy collar which usually puts me solidly in the “wise bridesmaid” section.

You see, I have enough oil, and some to spare.

The others—the ones outside the gate—lacked the resources I always have in abundance.

I wonder: Is this really what Jesus intends for his parable to teach the faithful—that the goal is to be sure you’re in the group with enough resources to survive until Jesus comes back? That the kingdom of heaven is full of privileged bridesmaids like me?

Dorothy Day, who founded the Catholic Worker Charities and championed the cause of the poor in the 20^th Century, famously said, “Our problems stem from our acceptance of this filthy, rotten system.” I must say, I believe that our problems with this Gospel text stem from our acceptance of this parable’s filthy, rotten outcome. As if this is what Jesus intended.

“Now the kingdom of heaven is like this,” says Jesus as he tells a story of division, of privilege, of “us” and “them.”

And this makes perfect sense to us, because we’re accustomed to the reality that when the gates are opened, only some are allowed through.

 

We’re accustomed to the idea that when the party starts, some will be left out in the dark.

We know very well that in this world, it is far better to be wise, prepared, favored, blessed, fully documented and officially recognized when the bridegroom opens that door.

Therefore, it’s nearly impossible for us to hear this parable in any other way except as a warning to the foolish (the other guys) and a pat on the back to the wise (us and our friends who are like us).

Starting from this vantage point, what preachers have often done is take this parable and allegorize it to death, assigning meaning to every conceivable detail:

If Jesus is the bridegroom, and the wedding party is heaven, then the oil in the lamps must be faith, and the lamps themselves are our good works, but then who is the bride?

And wait, why is it midnight?

And maybe the foolish virgins aren’t foolish for not bringing the oil, but for going out to buy some at midnight?

Maybe Jesus is saying they should have been willing to hang out in the dark and wait for him?

And there we go again, blaming the ones with the fewest resources.

You see, no matter how we spin it, we always imagine that this parable describes the kingdom of heaven.

Let me say that again: we imagine this parable describes the kingdom of heaven.

But what I think is that Jesus is doing something much different.

Hear this parable again, dear people:

Ten bridesmaids were waiting for the bridegroom. All ten of them fell asleep.

All ten of them fell asleep!

But only five bridesmaids entered the party.

Because the other five were out getting oil for their lamps (and one might say, because the first five did not share their light) they missed their chance.

And now the wedding party is divided. The celebration is incomplete.

And Jesus says: “Keep awake!”

Keep awake!

We assume that the five who entered the party are blessed, or happy, or examples to follow.

But Jesus did not say “bring enough oil.”

He didn’t say “keep your stuff for yourself”, either.

Yes, five bridesmaids got into the party. But now, because the other five are desperately seeking oil for their lamps, there are empty seats at the wedding banquet. There are voices absent from the choir. There are cousins missing from the family photo. The joy of the celebration is incomplete, because the wedding party is half missing.

 

Can you imagine planning a wedding, in which it would be just fine if half the wedding party couldn’t make it?

No! Because half a wedding party is half the joy.

When I can enter Jerusalem and walk safely to work, but young Palestinian men cannot, my joy is incomplete.

When a wall separates West Bank residents from their friends and family in Jerusalem and Israel proper, our joy is incomplete.

When some humans have access to doctors and life-saving medicines and others do not, our joy is incomplete.

When what was supposed to be a free and fair election turns church communities, family members, and neighbors against one another—and when a world leader relishes that division and plants seeds for even more—our joy is incomplete.

Whenever and wherever the human family is divided and pitted against one another, whenever and wherever only a select group is given a seat at the table, our joy is incomplete.

This is how we know we are still waiting for the coming of the kingdom of God.

Jesus said; The kingdom of heaven will be like this: Keep awake.

Jesus said: The kingdom of heaven is party with no end!

Jesus said: I want all of you there. Every single on of you.

Sisters and brothers, instead of hearing this parable as Jesus’ vision of a coming kingdom where our current divided reality persists, I invite you instead to hear Jesus pronouncing his imminent arrival, over and against a pretty accurate description of life in the meantime.

I invite you to hear the parable of the divided bridesmaids as a familiar tale of life in Jerusalem, in the United States, in states and societies all over the planet—where we, broken and sinful humans, have not trouble accepting that some are in, and some are out.

But where in reality, all lose out.

“Be on the right side” is no kind of Good News for us today, or any day. And my God is a God of Good News, of love, of life, of liberation.

Of wholeness.

Of complete and abundant joy.

Dear ones,

The Kingdom of God is nearer now than when we first believed.

There is no longer Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free there.

There is no mourning, no more crying and no more pain there.

There is no wall there.

There is no map with numbers and colors and statistics pitting us against one another.

There is just the biggest table you’ve ever seen, filled with all wedding attendants, both wise and foolish; the ones with oil and the ones without, the ones with masks and the ones without, the ones who voted the way we did and the ones who didn’t.

The whole family with is there, divided now but reconciled through the love of a crucified and risen Lord

Each of us loved, redeemed, and essential to the wedding feast that has no end.

The kingdom of heaven is like this, says Jesus. And I’m coming soon.

Change is coming soon!

In the meantime, keep awake.

Share the light! The party is about to begin.

May the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen..