all jesus wants is to be with us: 22nd sunday after pentecost

here is the manuscript from the sermon i preached today at christ the king lutheran church.

the reading referenced from amos was amos 5:18-24.

the format and much of my thinking for this gospel come from david r. henson.

The Holy Gospel according to Matthew.  Glory to you, O Lord.

[Jesus said,] “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this.

       Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.

              ²Five of them were foolish,

              and five were wise.

But if you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise.  From 1 Corinthians: “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.” (1 Corinthians 3:19)

       ³When the foolish took their lamps,

              they took no oil with them;

                     ⁴but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.

       ⁵As the bridegroom was delayed,

              all of them became drowsy and slept.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, from Matthew: “Jesus came to the disciples and found them sleeping; and he said to Peter, ‘So, could you not stay awake with me one hour?’” (Matthew 26:40)

                     ⁶But at midnight there was a shout,

                            ‘Look! Here is the bridegroom!

                                   Come out to meet him.’

               ⁷Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps.

                     ⁸The foolish said to the wise,

                            ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’

From Isaiah: “A dimly burning wick he will not quench” (Isaiah 42:3)

                     ⁹But the wise replied,

                            ‘No! there will not be enough for you and for us;

From Matthew:” Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you” (Matthew 5:42)

                                   you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’

From Matthew: Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” (Matthew 19:21)

                     ¹⁰And while they went to buy it,

                            the bridegroom came,

From Revelation: In the city of God, “they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light.” (Revelation 22:5)

                            and those who were ready went with him

                                   into the wedding banquet;

From Matthew: “But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.” (Matthew 19:30)

                                          and the door was shut.

From Matthew: “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 23:13)

                     ¹¹Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying,

                            ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’

                            ¹²But he replied,

                                   ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’

From Proverbs: “If you close your ear to the cry of the poor, you will cry out and not be heard.” (Proverbs 21:13)

¹³Keep awake therefore,

       for you know neither the day nor the hour.

The gospel of the Lord.  Praise to you, O Christ.

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who is foolish?  who is wise?  the parable in today’s gospel has always been one that i struggle with.  the way i’ve always heard it, 5 are bad and 5 are good, but when we dig deeper into the parable, it’s not so simple.  what makes the foolish ones so foolish?  everyone falls asleep on the bridegroom.  in fact, the bridegroom doesn’t even bother to show up on time! 

sure the “foolish” ones don’t have enough oil, but the other 5 do.  those 5 are unwilling to share—to give of what they have, and even if they do need to keep what they have, what’s worse is: they send the “foolish” away, off into the night right when the bridegroom is coming!

this parable could easily be a lesson about being prepared, having enough…stuff?  faith?  oil?  but what if this parable isn’t about having enough, but instead about being authentic community? 

the bridesmaids are the ones invited to an important role in the celebration.  they are important to the couple getting married and yet in the face of being unprepared, the “foolish” choose to miss the arrival in order to be “fully prepared” and the “wise” ones neither share nor encourage them to stay and celebrate as a whole community.

but what is meaningful, authentic community?  if we take a hint from amos here, community has to do with care for those considered the least and the last in this world.  worship, amos says, doesn’t mean anything if our lives the other six days a week aren’t lived out as worship and service to god.  if we aren’t concerned for the well-being of our neighbor, how can we claim to care about god?

this parable also raises the question: what kind of “wise” and “foolish” are we talking about with respect to these bridesmaids?  are they wise and foolish according to god or according to the world?  as paul put it in 1 corinthians, “for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with god.”

are there two groups, one “wise” and one “foolish” at all?  in the end does anyone really win? in the course of the parable, half the people are missing and by not showing up, or not sharing the light and oil they have, or not encouraging each other’s presence, they’ve treated each other such that it’s no wonder the bridegroom says “i do not know you.”  the friends the bridegroom knows would have been there when he arrived, even if he did arrive late.     

what if community and god’s wisdom is really just about showing up?  being there for those who are suffering and being there for those who are celebrating?

you each have papers, hopefully with jesus drawn or written on them.  when bishop jim was with us for my installation, he gave us all homework and we’ve been working on that homework these last two weeks.

he asked us to find jesus and he gave us hints about where we might find jesus.  where did he say we’d find jesus?  do you remember?  this is a real question, so feel free to shout out answers.

here’s my homework report: these last two weeks, i haven’t had to do much searching for jesus, because jesus has called me.  this week i’ve been the emergency pastoral care contact for pastor steve at zion’s while he’s on vacation. 

on wednesday i received a call from a social worker at the huntsman cancer institute.  d was really sick with cancer and he was being transferred to hospice care.  his family had come to be with him and they were from nevada.  they asked for a lutheran pastor to come be with them.

when i walked in the door to the room, there was jesus.  gathered together with tear-filled eyes, a family who had lost touch with each other, and yet gathered again together for this moment.  they held hands and encircled d as he drifted in and out.  together we prayed…for comfort, for healing, for love.  for d, for his family, for peace.  we prayed together and gave thanks to god for the life d had lived, we anointed d with oil for the journey he would soon take. 

i stayed with d and his family as some said goodbye, needing to return home, and i heard of the ways god had brought them back together, and i held the holy-ness of their tears and their sorrow.  and there was jesus.  in their tears, in their sorrow…in their suffering.

today we send our project linus blankets out with god’s blessing, trusting that they will bring god’s comfort and love to those who need it.  that the blankets might be just enough extra love for someone to remain, with the oil in their own lamp running out, but trusting the brightness of jesus’ presence and of god’s love.  or that the blankets might inspire others to encourage those exhausted ones, the ones whose oil is dwindling, to remain, and to be with them in their waiting. 

waiting for god in our vulnerabilities, when we are running on empty, is not a comfortable thing.  it’s easy to think, like the “foolish,” that we need to go off and gather supplies when we feel unworthy or unprepared for god.  or, like the wise, that our preparedness is what is important and others need to be more like us.

all jesus has ever wanted, however, is to be with us.  that’s why he came to earth as a baby—dependent on us and in that way required to be with us.  that’s why, as i say in the eucharistic prayer each sunday, on the cross jesus opened his arms to all.  that’s why jesus comes to us each week in bread and wine.

jesus wants to be with us—all of us.  just as we are.  with lamps barely burning and with extra supplies for weeks to come.  jesus holds us close, wraps us in a blanket, anoints us with oil.  and jesus becomes our light.

jesus comes as the bridegroom.  jesus comes as oil and lamp.  jesus comes to light the way; to make bright the celebration and love that is his body, the beloved community of god.  jesus comes to be all we need at our lowest and at our highest and jesus loves us right where we’re at.

thanks be to god.