Got Oil?

Text:  Matthew 25:1-13

Theme:  “Keep It Burnin’, Burnin’, Burnin’!”

22^nd Sunday after Pentecost

November 9, 2014

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Denton, Texas

Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

+In the Name of Jesus+

“At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4 The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 5 The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

6 “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’

7 “Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’

9 “‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’

10 “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.

11 “Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’

12 “But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’

13 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

In case you didn’t know, there are 46 days remaining until Christmas! So now you know!   Do plan accordingly.  In some retail establishments, Christmas is already here!  The decorations are up.  The big Rockefeller Center Christmas tree for New York City, however, was – as of late last week – still sitting on the 18-wheeler.  I get the feeling that they’re slowing it down a bit at Starbucks, too.  There were some large, cardboard boxes in the back of the store here on University Drive.  They were wrapped in festive, red tape with the company logo.  The wording on it was as follows:  “Do not open until November 12^th.”  That would be this Wednesday.  Verizon Fios already has 24/7 Christmas music on channel 1840.  Satellite radio (Sirius/XM) will have four different “holiday” channels this year; the first one starts on Tuesday.  That should about cover it for now. 

We do tend to get ahead of ourselves.  I am grateful this morning that the church year puts on the brakes a bit.  If allowed to, it slows us down and lets us savor the moment (and moments!) we are in.  Traditionally, this is harvest time.  The Bible has quite a bit to say about harvest – what it means and what is to be done.  Also, it’s the stewardship season.  We are invited to consider our time, talent, and treasure and how best these gifts can be used to the glory of God.  Finally, this is that time of year when the appointed Scriptures bid us to look ahead – to the future and, even, the end.  Today’s Gospel from Matthew 25, our Lord’s parable of the wise and foolish virgins, illustrates this. 

The question on the table, offered up by the disciples for Jesus to answer, was this:  “…What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”  This inquiry was made privately and just days before Jesus was betrayed, arrested, tried, and crucified. 

What is the sign (or signs) of the end?  They wanted a little bit of a “heads up” on that, and who could blame them?   For starters, Jesus said nothing about zombies or a zombie apocalypse. More to the point, neither did He say:  “Well, I’m coming on February 18^th, in the year 2030, at 4:15pm Central Standard Time.  Put it on your calendar.”  He said not a word about when it would be. In fact, He said at the end of our passage:  “You do not know the day or the hour.”   

What He did describe is what it will be like.  “It will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. “  I’m thinking:  “That’s cool!  The end is going to be like a wedding with, presumably, a reception afterward.  It’s going to be party time!  No doom or gloom, fire and brimstone, or anything like that!  But wait.  What’s this bit about five of the virgins (or bridesmaids) being wise and five being foolish?”

So I keep thinking this through as I read the parable:  “The wise ones get into the party.  The foolish ones do not.  I better be doggone certain I’m a wise one, or, if not, that door to the party, that gate of heaven, that portal to paradise is going to get slammed shut in my face!

“What’s the difference between wisdom and foolishness here?  It’s certainly not educational attainment.  Getting a degree, or even studying the Bible backwards, forwards, and sideways, might make me knowledgeable, but not necessarily wise.”  Sometimes we forget, especially down here in the Bible belt, that the devil could quote the Bible with the best of them. So what really are the factors in play here?

“Oh, wait a second!  It’s all there in the story.  The wise ones took extra oil for their lamps.  The foolish ones did not.  The fools didn’t figure that the bridegroom, as Jesus said, was ‘a long time in coming.’“ The foolish ones didn’t plan on the bridegroom’s delay.  They fell victim to figuring, and they suffered burnout.  The oil ran dry.  The door was shut.

“So the wise ones took extra oil; they would be ready for any contingency.  The foolish took only as much as they figured they needed.  Did they have anything in common?  It looks as though they did.  Jesus said ‘They all became drowsy and fell asleep’ They nodded off.

When we, as disciples and followers of Christ and presumably wide awake, affirm our faith together, we say (in the second paragraph – or “article” – of The Apostles’ Creed):  “He ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father almighty.  From thence, He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.”  We live between those two sentences – between the ascension of the Lord and the future return of the Lord.

Obviously, this is not the world’s narrative and not the way the current culture looks at it.  “Eschatology”, which is the branch of Christian theology dealing with the end times, is just a worn-out fairy tale.  People might speculate about the proverbial end times and even write Hollywood screen plays about it, but mostly it’s a bunch of nonsense, the stuff that religious fairy tales are made of.    Even in the church, where we confess as an article of belief that Jesus is coming again to judge, we don’t think about it very much.  The watchfulness and readiness and the yearning are all missing; I certainly know they’re missing from my life more than I care to admit.  We carry on day after day after day; it is just business as usual. We try to manage the drama.   It’s been that way as far back as our eyes can see, and it stands to reason that it will be this way as far ahead as the eye can see. 

Believers and non-believer alike, foolish ones and wise ones alike – we’ve all become drowsy and fallen asleep.  We’ve nodded off.

Jesus declares:  “At midnight the cry rang out:  ‘Here’s the bridegroom!  Come out to meet him!’”

I can’t make you believe that this midnight cry is going to come some day.  I believe it will.  I hope you will, too, for I want fellow travelers for this journey.  I believe that cry will come.  And makes no difference whether my earthly life is over or I’m still around. I want to be ready – even if I’m drowsy, nod off, and fall asleep.  I want MORE THAN ENOUGH oil for my lamp.  I don’t want to EVER fall victim to figuring – because I don’t want to suffer burn out.  I’ve been there; I’ve done that.  I don’t want to go back.  It’s almost like the sound of a door being slammed shut.  You feel absent from God and even absent from your own life.

So I want oil for my lamp – a lot of it, more than enough of it, always more than enough of it.  I want a blessed addiction, dare I say, to that oil of grace!   In the grace of Jesus, the Son of God, who was put to death for my sin and raised for my justification, I have endless oil for my lamp.  He has done the figuring.  He knows the day and the hour, and that is more than enough for me. 

Therefore, I can rejoice and smile when I think of that old youth group song – and I hope you’ll rejoice and smile too!

Give me oil for my lamp, keep it burning;

 
Give me oil for my lamp, I pray.

 
Give me oil for my lamp, keep it burning, burning, burning –

Burning ‘til the break of day!

Amen.