Prepared

Matthew 25:1-13

Did you hear that story Jesus told?

Ten bridesmaids wait for the groom to come and get the party started.  They’ve brought festive and necessary light for the celebration, but the groom is late.

Very late. Everyone falls asleep waiting.

And when the groom finally arrives, half of them have run out of lamp oil.  If you’ve run out of phone battery at a critical moment, you know how they feel.

So only the “wise” or “clever” bridesmaids get to party. The ones who ran out of oil get shut out, rejected and ignored.

And the moral of the story is…..???

Yep. "Be prepared."  You screw up, you lose heaven once and for all. (Not high stakes at all.  I’m sure my blood pressure’s fine.)

That’s a useful warning in some ways.  It is important to be ready for God, to be ready for heaven, and ready for Jesus to come at any moment – soon or long delayed. But I’m not sure Matthew actually gets the moral of the story right when he tells it to us.

Since Jesus has just been warning that God comes like a thief in the night, it’s natural that Matthew is still focused on the importance of “staying awake” to be ready. But everybody falls asleep in this parable, even the “wise” women, and that’s not what gets them in trouble, so that can’t be quite right.

And I’m not even sure that the traditional interpretation of "preparedness" is what Jesus is after.  The way I usually hear the story, it sounds like when God finally comes, you’d better be not just ready, but over-prepared, and it’s every one of us for herself.

Something doesn’t feel right about that.

But I couldn’t put my finger on what until I read this parable with the Vestry recently.  It didn’t take long for someone to ask the question that changes the story:

“Why didn’t the bridesmaids share?”

Honestly, isn’t that the entry-level lesson about what Jesus expects us to do?  Share what we have with people in need? So why don’t the bridesmaids in this story share their oil?

Well, it’s a disruptive, chaotic, scene, and they’ve all been woken from a sound sleep without coffee.  Few of us are generous and flexible under those circumstances. 

Jesus is intentionally setting that up. He’s telling us a story about how it will be in the chaos before God’s final coming.  We’re probably going to be afraid, and off balance.  It’s very human to become self-protective and hang on to what you’ve got in those circumstances.

But I think that the question about sharing is one Jesus wants us to ask about this gospel story.
Think about this: What would have happened if they did share?

If they did share, there would be twice the number of festive, welcoming lights and ladies for the bridegroom’s arrival, for the start of the party.  It would have been better hospitality.

If they’d shared, no one would be shut out of the party.  The bridegroom wouldn’t have broken relationships with half the bridesmaids, and all the women would belong to the holy and festive community.

If they’d shared, it would have deepened the relationships between the women. Gratitude and generosity have a lot more staying power than selfishness and resentment.

If they’d shared, it would mean everyone let go of the fear of running out.  There’d be more peace in the whole community.

Isn’t that what the kingdom of God is supposed to be like? 

Jesus is awfully big on caring for the outcast, welcoming the stranger, and healing the broken. So maybe that’s why he’s telling this parable. Maybe he’s telling it so we can see how scary it is not only if we are unprepared, but if we fail to share.

ANY time we worry that there’s not going to be enough for us – enough money, enough time, enough love, enough patience, enough anything – any time we believe that there is not enough, we get selfish.

We don’t usually mean to.  But it happens. If it feels like there’s not enough for me it’s very hard to give away – or even share – whatever I may have.

And we live in a world that’s very good at telling us there’s not enough.  That’s the subtext of every political ad.  It’s the limited-time-offer, winner-take-all, work-smarter-and-harder water we swim in.  It’s the fear of loss every time we face unexpected change.

So every day, there’s a way that you and I don’t share.

Every day, there’s a way many of us don’t share our money.  Not just by turning down panhandlers and tossing out the charity appeals that show up in your mailbox – but perhaps by spending it on disposable things that don’t really satisfy; pouring away what you could have shared.

Every day one or another of us fails to share our time.

Not just by turning down a volunteer opportunity, but by not getting around to that phone call you’ve been meaning to make, or not making the effort to meet a new neighbor.

Every day many of us fail to share our faith, our dreams, our talents.  We might fear rejection or ridicule. We might fear that we’re not good enough.  We might just be tired or busy. 

Those are all forms of the same fear of “not enough” that keeps the bridesmaids from sharing their oil.

So Jesus tells us about how bad it can get when we forget to share.  This story tells us that the people we didn’t share with are left lonely and rejected in the dark, closed out of even a glimpse of the abundant feast at which they’d been expected.

I don’t think anyone in Jesus’ story today was really prepared for the coming of God.  Not even the Boy Scout bridesmaids with their jugs of oil. 

Because being prepared for the coming of God means being ready to let go of every fear and convention,  ready to share what you don’t have enough of,  prepared to light a lamp without oil or matches, ready to join the celebration and welcome strangers even if you’ve screwed up your part of the planning beyond recognition.

Jesus tells a story that isn’t finished – a story that’s still happening, because we’re still in that time of worry and waiting that precedes the coming of God.  The end of the story is still up to us.

We can listen to Jesus’ story, and share pre-emptively.  We don’t have to wait until we have enough, or until our friends and neighbors run out. We can listen to Jesus and get ready to celebrate in spite of every mistake and inadequacy and failure you can find in yourself when God shows up in front of you.

Because the kingdom of God is like that: abundant, disruptive and joyful, demanding and relational, and never when or what you expected.