Grace to you and peace from God, who comes to us...at an unexpected hour!
God surprises us, gives us what we need to keep our lamps lit, calls us to bring that oil, to pay attention and to be ready.
This text comes in Matthew, Chapter 25, and it’s part of what’s been called “the final discourses” of Jesus, just outside the city walls of Jerusalem, just before he undergoes the last supper, his trial and his death. This is part of the last things, the final discourse — this week and the next two Sundays are Jesus’ parting words. So that adds a thick layer of import...
And what we have here is Jesus warning his disciples: “Be ready...with what I’ve given you. Pay attention.” The oil is free and available now, if you take it. If you don’t, you’re going to be — like the Gospel text a few weeks ago — left out in the cold and the darkness.
We’ve had some special Sundays Reformation and All Saints, but 3 weeks back, I talked about the guy who didn’t wear his wedding garment that he had been offered freely at the door, and he gets kicked out (remember that?) — and now this week the bridesmaids who didn’t keep their lamps trimmed and lit with the flasks of oil that were available freely — when we don’t accept or use the gifts of grace, the gift of faith that God gives us freely in our baptisms, then we get left out — in a sense — too!
[pause and slowly]
I have come to realize these how difficult it is to ask for and even more to receive help from another — another family member, another friend, maybe even a stranger. When an offer to help is right there in our midst, and we just can’t open our hands and receive it — I see this all the time in the church. “No, no, no, I’m fine…[deflecting] How are you?”
I struggle with it myself. We’re suppose to be self-sufficient. Me for mine. You for yours. If I’m coming to you, then I’m mooching — that’s what we’ve been taught. Nobody likes a moocher. “C’mon!” we say, “take care of yourself!”
We try to live by that, and so we shy away from letting ourselves be lavished, symbolized by the wedding garment (from the previous weeks’ text) or the lamp oil (in our text today). We don’t just shy away, sometimes we down-right reject the oil that God so freely gives in order to keep our lamps lit.
Heather and I have a friend from college who is wildly gifted, musically and theatrically: Rachel. Singing and acting is her passion. But when she got married almost 20 years ago now and over the years had two children — all a very important, central parts of her life — that musical theater side of her went to sleep and (without going into it) she suffered in many ways...like having a part of you amputated.
So Rachel has gotten involved with a small theatre company in her community, and she’s done a handful of shows. And just as she was breaking back into her passion, Heather and I had a chance to see her perform. I remember I just had this smile plastered to my face. There it was: she was doing what she loved and what God gave her...and blessing us all in the process. Nothing like a great theatre performance.
It’s the oil in the lamp, you see! A gift she had been freely given. For some years she wasn’t taking a single flask of oil and using what God had given her — and she was really suffering as a result. But how engaging a passion and a talent that is God-given, not only betters the world, but completes the individual too!
Rachel shared with us that she’s able to be a better mother, and spouse, and daughter, and friend — now that she’s — as I’d say here — using the oil, keeping her lamp lit.
What is it for you? [pause] (That requires paying attention.) What God-given gift of yours has perhaps fallen asleep, been left out in the cold?
There are many and various ways that God fuels us. There are so many gifts and talents in this congregation. In a culture of scarcity — you know, fears that we don’t or won’t have enough — in a culture of scarcity that seems to pervade...if we slow down and just ponder the gifts, talents, skills, assets, abilities of the people in this church we would find more than enough oil “to keep the lamps lit”.
God gives us the oil; so for God’s sake — and for yours, for ours — use it! God gives us a wedding garment; so for God’s sake — and for yours — put it on!
Don’t let your lamps go out when God’s sitting there handing us oil, garments of grace. Get back into theater! Get back into volunteering with children or preparing and serving meals in the neighborhood! Get back into painting, or working in the garden, or writing, or reading classical literature, or traveling, or working in the garage, or spending time with your partner or your children!
(Another dear friend of mine’s father just died, and he was reflecting on it again — what we often say when we lose a loved-one: so much time wasted on things that don’t matter, at the expense of things that do.)
What is it that fuels you? God’s provided the oil! What is it that keeps your light shining? Because when your light shines before others, others can see your good works, and all of this fueling and shining activity gives glory to your God heaven! (this text today, btw, is a direct reference to that passage earlier in Matthew.)
And how we also get our directions, our orientation, what glory to our God in heaven looks like, from Amos! — not empty ritual, but justice rolling down water and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. God’s provided the fuel, Amen?
Now is the time, for digging back in, as the weather gets colder, and nights get longer, as transitions here in Washington and around the country, perhaps significant transitions in your own life begin, now is the time: buckle down, get to work...
And so what, btw, if you’ve tried before and failed! I remember Rachel talking about her first show back: rusty. So what if we’ve tried and tripped and fallen, even crashed before — that’s kind of the point for us Jesus-people: we stand in need of grace. There is plenteous redemption, mercy abounds, and there is a community of saints, a choir of faithful watchers and holy ones, cheering us on...you are not alone. You are loved!
So take a deep breath, wake up, pay attention, and dive back into this good life that God has simply lavished before us. The feast is ready, there’s plenty of fuel for the party. And you’re welcomed by God’s open arms. Don’t reject it, don’t blow it off, or make excuses why it’s not for you, why you’ve got better things to do...
Just open your hands and receive it, friends: God’s love and forgiveness and peace.
This is grace enfleshed. This is God’s goodness poured out for you. The wedding feast is spread, the candles are lit. Pay attention, it’s all around. Alleluia. AMEN.
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