Who's Got the Oil?

Amos 5:18-24; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; Matthew 25:1-13

It has long been a custom in the Christian church to use the few weeks just before the season Advent as a time to prepare for the coming of that season. And this may seem to be a bit redundant, simply because the season of Advent, itself, is a season of preparation for the coming of Christ. So, what, in fact, we are finding ourselves doing during the weeks of Novemember is preparing to prepare, meditating upon meditating, getting ready to get ready. But, when you think about it, that's not such a bad thing to do. In fact, we do it all the time.

Afterall, how many of you who are housekeepers haven't gone to the store to purchase the things you need to get your house ready for company to come? You wander the aisles, looking for everything from sponges, mops, Mr. Clean, rug shampoo, and dusting cloths. You buy Windex so you can go back to your house to get those windows and mirrors washed. You buy vacuum cleaner bags so that you can get the Hoover back into action, again. And you buy rug cleaner so that you get get rid of those paths in your carpet that sort of came out of nowhere.

Indeed, when we want to prepare for company to come, we sometimes find ourselves having to prepare to prepare. Likewise, the approach of the season of Advent is a similar time to prepare. It is a time to get ready to get ready.

Jesus, in our gospel lesson for today, explained this very well. He said that the coming of the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to watch for the bridegroom. Five of these young ladies were foolish and had not brought enough oil for their lamps. But, the other five were wise and brought enough extra oil so that their lamps could stay burning bright.

If we look at this parable with western eyes, it may sem to us to tell an unnatural and a "made-up" story. But, in point of fact, it tells a story which could have happened at any time in a Palestinian village, and which could still happen today.

In a village in Palestine a wedding was a great occasion. The whole village turned out to accompany the couple to their new home, and they went by the longest possible road, in order that they might receive the glad good wishes of as many as possible.	Now the point of Jesus' parable lies in a Jewish custom which is very different from anything which we know. When a couple married in Palestine, they did not go away for a honeymoon; they stayed at home; and for a week they kept open house; they were treated, and even addressed, as a prince and princess; it was the gladdest week in all their lives. To the festivities of that week their chosen friends were admitted; and it was not only the marriage ceremony, it was also that joyous week that the foolish virgins missed, because they were unprepared.

The story of how the foolish young ladies missed it all is perfectly true to life. In fact, an author who travelled to Palestine a half a century ago explains it this way: He writes: "When we were approaching the gates of a Galilaean town, I caught a sight of ten maidens gaily clad and playing some kind of musical instrument, as they danced along the road in front of our car; when I asked what they were doing, the driver told me that they were going to keep the bride company till her bridegroom arrived. I asked him if there was any chance of seeing the wedding, but he shook his head, saying in effect: 'It might be tonight, or tomorrow night, or in a week's time; nobody ever knows for certain.' Then he went on to explain that one of the great things to do, if you could, at a middle-class wedding in Palestine, was to catch the bridal party napping. So the bridegroom comes unexpectedly, and sometimes in the middle of the night; it is true that he is required by public opinion to send a man along the street to shout: 'Behold! the bridegroom is coming!' but that may happen at any time; so the bridal party have to be ready to go out into the street at any time to meet him, whenever he chooses to come.... Other important points are that no one is allowed on the streets after dark without a lighted lamp, and also that, when the bridegroom has once arrived, and the door has been shut, late-comers to the ceremony are not admitted." There the whole drama of Jesus' parable is re-enacted in the twentieth century. Here is no made up story, but a slice of life from village life in modern Israel.

Like so many of Jesus' parables, this parable has an immediate and a local meaning, and a wider and a universal meaning.

In its immediate significance it was a criticism which directed towards his own people. They were the chosen people; their whole history should have been a preparation for the coming of the Son of God; they ought to have been prepared for Him when He came. Instead of that they were quite unprepared to receive Him, and therefore they were shut out. Here in dramatic form there is the tragedy of the unpreparedness of Jesus' own people for his coming into their midst.

But this parable has two other warnings that apply to us, as well.

First, it warns us that there are certain things which cannot be obtained at the last minute. It is far too late for a student to begin studying when the day of the examination has come. It is far too late for a person to begin learning how to dance the ballet on the day he or she is asked to be the lead dancer for a dance company. And so it is with us and God. It is so easy to put off the preparations we should be making to meet with God so that when the hour comes it is simply too late!

And there is another warning in this parable. It warns us that there are certain things which cannot be borrowed. The foolish virgins found it impossible to borrow oil, when they discovered they needed it. We cannot borrow a relationship with God; we must possess it. We cannot live on the spiritual capital which others have amassed. There are certain things which we must win or possess for ourselves, for we cannot borrow them from others. Nevertheless, there are persons who do not attend to the needs of faith who, yet, think that they are Christians simply because their parents were Christians that they will have the rewards of faith. Yet, they should be warned, as the saying goes, that "God has no grandchildren." We are either God's children, or no children at all.

So, this is basically what Jesus was saying in his parable of the ten virgins. And, yet, this morning this story of the ten virgins, accompanied by the Old Testament and Epistle Lesson, seems to carry with it another even fresher meaning.

Last Sunday I got up early and turned on the television set. A preacher was preaching about the second coming of Jesus Christ and how glorious that day would be, especially for those of us who are Christians. And he explained that this day was just a few months away; that he could see it all happening right now in the desserts of Saudi Arabia. And how excited that preacher was! He just couldn't wait for the bombs to start dropping and the missiles to start flying so that the day of the Lord could come.

But, then, this week, I turned to our Old Testament passage in Amos and read these words: "Woe to you who long for the day of the LORD! Why do you long for the day of the LORD? That day will be darkness, not light." As I read that passage and the accompanying verses, it struck me that this passage was directed towards those who look for the day of the Lord in what may or may not happen in the sands of Saudi Arabia and Iraq and Kuwait. For if our rush to Armageddon is hastened by the self-fulfilling prophesy of the religous fervor of thousands, perhaps God's judgment should be upon them, as well. For as Amos said, "I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.

But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!"

Yet, how ironic, it seems to me, that in Jesus' parable of the ten virgins, a story describing what things will be like just before the kingdom of God comes, conflict should take place among the central characters of the story and that this conflict should be about a shortage of oil. Isn't this strange? Doesn't this make you want to study the scriptures a little more? Is there not inspiration in this little fact, alone, to make us want take a little more time to prepare?

Amen.