TITLE: READY OR NOT
SCRIPTURE: ST. MATTHEW 25:1-13
I remember with great fondness growing up and spending weekends and holidays with my grandparents in Keyport, NJ. Both sets of grandparents lived just blocks from one another. One of my grandparents lived right next to the City Cemetery. I believe it is called the Green Grove Cemetery which dates prior to the Civil War.
• There were large trees throughout the cemetery
• There were places for families to sit throughout
• Sometimes there were work vehicles there as well
• Some of the old grave stones were very large
We come from a large family along the Shore Points of NJ. At any given time there would be 15-20 cousins together running through the streets and playing various games. Most of my Aunts and Uncles lived within blocks from each other and we would run and play from house to house. One of my fondest memories was playing HIDE AND SEEK with my older siblings, cousins, neighborhood friends - which was often played in the Cemetery because of the many places we could run and hide. In fact, sometimes the problem wasn’t finding a place to hide, but simply choosing which spot would be the right one this time.
• Children don’t play outside any more
• Video games and cell phone all day long
• Consider going outdoors as punishment today
I remember back in the day, at the start of each round of the Game, we would gather around one of the large trees in the Cemetery and the counter would start counting – 1… 2… 3… 4… 5… – and the hiders would start hiding. There was always a mad dash for some of the favorite spots and no end to strategizing.
• Did you want a great spot far away from base or something that might be a little more exposed, but with a shorter run?
• Did you want some place low to the ground or did you want to climb?
• If you were indecisive, you might still be looking when the counter announced, “48… 49… 50! -- Ready or not, here I come!”
“Ready Or Not!” Those are the words that could strike terror in the hearts of the unprepared, those with no place to hide, no cover chosen for this round of the game. I can still feel the panic of not being ready, and apparently I’m not the only one who has this sort of anxiety. That need to feel ready, to feel prepared can be a highly motivating emotion.
Marketers have realized this for years. Much of advertising, if not designed to make us feel like we are incomplete, is designed to make us feel like we need to be prepared, Much of marketing seems to be based on making consumers feel like they need to be prepared, ultra-prepared, maybe even over-prepared.
• We spend much time in Preparation
• Are you prepared for Winter?
• Are you ready for the big game?
• Better stock up on snacks so you don’t run out
• Are you prepared for the New Year?
• Are you Prepared and will your loved ones have everything they need when you are gone?
• If you not, it’s time to buy insurance
• All so that you are ready
• So that you are prepared when that important day comes
On the whole being prepared isn’t a bad thing. In fact it can be downright crucial! Most people I know that have had a very difficult life, it is not that they could not have done much better in life, it was simply a lack of preparation. Look what happened in August 2005 when a city, a whole region wasn’t prepared for HURRICANE KATRINA.
• Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced from their homes
• More than $100 billion of damage was done across 90,000 square miles
• Nearly 2,000 people died all because of gross under-preparation
• No, being wisely prepared is more than a good thing, it can be life-saving
This New Year 2018 is already a week old today. We tried to make Preparations for this New Year.
• Some made last minute adjustments to their finances preparing for this New Year
• Some called Accountants to determine how the new Tax Law would affect them
• Others made Preparations to do better with Church attendance
• Others made Preparations perhaps to retire during this new year
• Some made New Year Resolutions resolving to make changes this year
• No matter what we attempted to do, the New Year is on us – Ready or Not
Maybe that’s why our first glance at this parable most likely leads us to hear it as a call to preparedness. The WISE bridesmaids brought enough oil to keep their lamps burning and then they brought even more. The FOOLISH bridesmaids, who really did just what was expected, had enough oil with them but not more than enough.
• It was the bridegroom who was late to his own event!
• They may have been prepared, but they certainly weren’t pre--PARED
• This parable is exactly the story every Parent - Scout leader - and Spare Tire Salesperson needs in order to get his or her point across
• You better be ready!
• You never know when disaster will strike!
• You’d better be prepared!
However, I am not convinced this is what the text is saying to us. When we interpret this parable in a way that it is all about being prepared, it just doesn’t line up with our understanding of GOD’S GRACE. If this parable is a warning that we need to spend all our time amassing enough, more than enough goods on earth or treasures in heaven – – whether that means we pray more or work more or shine our lamps before others more – – all in order to earn our way into heaven, then we are ESPOUSING WORKS RIGHTEOUSNESS -
• We are saying we can earn God’s love
• We are saying that we must earn God’s love or we won’t be included in God’s kingdom
• And that’s just not correct
++++I am reminded of the Parable Jesus told in ST. LUKE 12:16-21 --
16 AND HE SPAKE A PARABLE UNTO THEM, SAYING, THE GROUND OF A CERTAIN RICH MAN BROUGHT FORTH PLENTIFULLY:
17 AND HE THOUGHT WITHIN HIMSELF, SAYING, WHAT SHALL I DO, BECAUSE I HAVE NO ROOM WHERE TO BESTOW MY FRUITS?
18 AND HE SAID, THIS WILL I DO: I WILL PULL DOWN MY BARNS, AND BUILD GREATER; AND THERE WILL I BESTOW ALL MY FRUITS AND MY GOODS.
19 AND I WILL SAY TO MY SOUL, SOUL, THOU HAST MUCH GOODS LAID UP FOR MANY YEARS; TAKE THINE EASE, EAT, DRINK, AND BE MERRY.
20 BUT GOD SAID UNTO HIM, THOU FOOL, THIS NIGHT THY SOUL SHALL BE REQUIRED OF THEE: THEN WHOSE SHALL THOSE THINGS BE, WHICH THOU HAST PROVIDED?
21 SO IS HE THAT LAYETH UP TREASURE FOR HIMSELF, AND IS NOT RICH TOWARD GOD.
We are not given extra credit for being vastly prepared. The farmer was diligent but Jesus points out that he was not the one who produced the crop. True, he planted and tended and harvested.
• But he did not make the Rain to Fall
• But he did not make the Sun to Shine
• But he did not make the Seed to Crack Open, Sprout and Multiply
• He could not even Explain the Process
• If he were honest with himself he would acknowledge God as the Provider
All that the farmer has - will not go to him. Life without God is meaningless. Man finds true fulfilment in this world - we want to have "PLENTY OF GOOD THINGS LAID UP FOR MANY YEARS" and then we can "TAKE LIFE EASY; EAT, DRINK AND BE MERRY" -- but Jesus says true fulfilment can only come through a relationship with our God.
There is nothing we can do to earn our way in. Matter of fact the Bible is very clear – “THAT WHILE WE WERE STILL SINNERS CHRIST DIED FOR US.”
• Not when we were Good Enough
• Not when we had Worked Hard Enough
• Not when we had Performed Enough Charity
• While we were still sinners - when we were still messing up - at the exact same time we were forgetting everything we had been taught -- Christ was reconciling us to God
• Christ was ushering us into the party
So while being prepared is a good thing, both before a storm of a century and in our spiritual lives before God, being prepared doesn’t earn us the favor of the bridegroom. So, being prepared may just not be what this parable is all about after all.
What if, upon waking up and realizing their oil had been completely consumed, the so-called foolish bridesmaids had just stayed put?
• What if they had not run out to try to cover up their mistake?
• What if they had not scrambled around with an effort made too late to make up for not being prepared?
• What if they had just recognized that they were fallible human beings and acknowledged their shortcomings before the bridegroom when he came?
The bridegroom in the narrative doesn’t even mention the oil or preparedness or lack thereof.
• He doesn’t praise the wise bridesmaids for thinking ahead
• He doesn’t even thank them for being ready even when he wasn’t there on time
When the foolish bridesmaids arrive at the banquet with plenty of oil if not in plenty of time, he does not chastise them for not having enough oil the first time; he leaves them out because they weren’t at the house when he arrived.
• For the bridegroom it doesn’t seem to be about the oil at all
• He simply takes the wise young girls along with him to the wedding banquet because, Ready or Not - they are the ones who are there
Both sets of bridesmaids fell asleep, which is really the only thing that seems to be a problem. It is really the only direction given to those hearing this parable, “Keep awake!” He says this in VS. 13 “WATCH THEREFORE….” He is telling these five women, you should have been paying attention. – the same direction given to the disciples in the GARDEN AT GETHSEMANE on the night of Jesus’ arrest when He goes to pray, deeply grieved, “Stay awake.”
Both sets of bridesmaids failed at this one task, to stay awake and attentive to the one who will be coming to them at any minute in any hour.
• If only those who had run out of oil had just stayed behind when they woke, they, too, would at least have been there
• They could have joined the procession and entered the festive banquet
• If only they had been there he would have seen them
• He could have included them
• If only they had been where they were supposed to be
This was the problem Adam ran into in the Garden back in Genesis. Thousands of years ago, as God walked through the Garden of Eden, in the cool of the evening, He spoke these words… “ADAM, WHERE ARE YOU?”
• And those words echoed across the Garden
• They reverberate across the Centuries
• Through the pages of the Old Testament
• Through the little town Bethlehem
• Across the Hills of Calvary
• They Resound Inside an Empty Tomb
• And today, yes today, these same words still echo and fall upon the ears of each person within the sound of my voice
• Adam where are you?
Adam was not lost. That is not what God was suggesting. God was saying ADAM, YOU ARE NOT WHERE I LEFT YOU – YOU ARE OUT OF POSITION.
• When you are in the wrong position you are exposed to the wrong things
• When you position yourself where God wants you to be, you are able to have the right conversations and interactions with the right people
• However, when you are out of position and you are not where God wants you to be, you expose yourself to people and situations that may hurt you in the long run
• It pays to be led of God in all things
Adam and eve had wanted to be like god more than to trust god. They now know more than they wanted to know and there is, to quote MARTHA REEVES AND THE VENDELLAS, “NO WHERE TO RUN TO, NO WHERE TO HIDE.”
• God the Gardener cares for the Garden and its Creatures
• The Gardener asks a hugely important and poignant question
• Perhaps the most plaintive question in the entire Bible is the Lord God asking humans, “Where are you?”
• We need to be in Position
• Ready or Not when the Lord comes
So, my brothers and sister, it is not so much about being prepared as it is about just being in position and ready. I recognize that even if this parable isn’t about having enough oil it still has a harsh sound to it. The door is shut in the face of those who didn’t show up and even that doesn’t sit well with what we know about Jesus, with the Abundant Grace that is promised, the call to Forgive Seventy Times Seven Times, the promise that even when we owe a million dollars our debt will be forgotten. But this parable isn’t the end of the Gospel.
The parable does not end when the verse comes to an end. Thanks be to God the parable ends when we get to CALVARY.
• Ready or not -- Jesus invites us
• Ready or not -- Jesus comes to us
• Ready or not -- Jesus wants to bring us to the banquet
Preparation, yes, it’s a good thing. When we are prepared, we may be more apt to see Him coming in -- the POOR -- HUNGRY - THIRSTY - IMPRISONED.
--Being where we are supposed to be allows us to be a part of God’s Kingdom Builders
--Being where we are supposed to be allows us to use the talents we have to nurture God’s Grace in the lives of other people and the Church
--Being where we are supposed to be gives us time to find our spirits strengthened our wisdom sharpened our faith deepened
--It is not Preparation that Saves us or Keeps Us
--It is being in Position for God to Use us
--Even the disciples when they were challenged by Jesus to Watch and Pray
--Even the most prepared among us will fall asleep sometimes
--But note the disciples although they fell asleep, they were still right where Jesus left them
--The reality is that we might not be ready
--Some of us are, some of us aren’t, but the being ready isn’t the point
--Showing up is
--Ready or not, showing up, trying to keep awake, looking for the bridegroom as he comes to us in what seems like a dark night void of the presence of God, this is point
--Showing up, with Authenticity
--Showing up with Honesty
--Showing up with Humility and Awareness
--That is the Posture and Position we must be found
--Ready or Not, He is Coming Back Again
