To Share or Not To Share

Sunday’s gospel is printed below, scroll down, the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Bridesmaids. Without realizing it, our crowd at the Wednesday evening service seemed to get at the heart of the matter. Clearly, the parable says that those who are not prepared for judgment when their darkness arrives are the unsaved, the lost, the damned; in religious lingo the bridegroom tells them they can go to Hell. 

In our Wednesday evening discussion, the crowd did not appreciate that the wise bridesmaids would not share, 

and almost unanimously said that, regardless of the risk to themselves, they would share their oil with those who had none; and when I invoked WWJD, they said Jesus would have shared; further, when I asked, “regardless of the risk to himself?” they said yes, Jesus would have shared no matter what. In a roundabout way they arrived at a somewhat scholarly conclusion, which I did not suggest to the group, that putting conditions on the lovingkindness, grace and mercy of God, this parable does not sound like Jesus at all. My own conclusion was and is that the folks at Holy Nativity “get it,” they thoroughly understand what the gospel of Jesus Christ is all about. And this is totally confirmed in the generous, compassionate sharing that marks the life and ministries of our congregation.  

Sorry, Matthew, this is your parable; you may have taken a line from Mark about being ready when your sun goes down, but the parable is yours alone, and, perhaps in your agenda to frighten your audience into staying and not leaving, in ranking "Be Prepared" over "Share and Share Alike" and the Golden Rule, you may have missed what Jesus is all about. The kingdom of God and the Good News is about how you live in the here and now, it is not about being as sure for heaven as if you were already there.

DThos+ always at risk in +Time+

Matthew 25:1-13

Jesus said, “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise replied, ‘No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut. Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’ Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”