Catching Up!

I'm sorry I missed yesterday. A carload of us left directly after Church for a viewing. When we finally got home, I chose to go to sleep rather than blog. My sincerest apologies for those who have been waiting with bated breath for another post! (Or maybe you just want to know the answers to the questions!)

So, here's the info from yesterday. I'll do another post for today:

Here's the question and answer from yesterday:
Sat, Feb. 7- Who said I am innocent of this man’s blood?
Exodus 30:1, “Make an altar of acacia wood for burning incense.”

And here's the question of the day:
Sun, Feb. 8- What was the altar for burning incense made from?

And here's the sermon from Sunday morning:

PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION
Please pray with me: Gracious God, Still our minds and quiet our worries; open our ears and hearts so that we might truly hear your Word. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

SCRIPTURE READING Matthew 25:1-13
"At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten bridesmaids 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, 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 bridesmaids 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 bridesmaids who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. 11 "Later the others also came. 'Sir! Sir!' they said. 'Open the door for us!' 12 "But he replied, 'I tell you the truth, I don't know you.' 13 "Therefore be prepared, because you do not know the day or the hour.

The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of the Lord endures forever.

INTRODUCTION
Did you know a black bear can sleep for up to four months during the winter, without ever waking up to eat, drink, or go to the bathroom. Some of us would like to just make it through one night without needing to get up. Four whole months! While they are hibernating, a black bear’s heart rate can drop to six beats per minute. Yet, they can still burn 4000 calories per day!

They get a four month break, and when they wake up, black bears are just about as strong as they were when they went to sleep four months earlier. I’m a big fan of napping—not for months at a time, mind you. But an hour or two is great. Besides going to church and watching football games, napping is my favorite thing to do on a Sunday afternoon. There is nothing like a little nap to rejuvenate my spirit.

MOVE #1
There’s a whole lot of napping going on in our passage from Matthew today. It was part of the wedding tradition in biblical times that, on the day of the wedding, the wedding party would gather at the bride’s house and then, once the groom arrived, they would process to his family’s house for the wedding banquet.

So the bridesmaids are gathered at the bride’s house, waiting for the groom to show up. But there’s been a delay. It doesn’t tell us what happened, but we know that it’s long enough that the bridesmaids decide a little power nap is in order. All ten bridesmaids became tired and fell asleep.

Next thing they know, the groom has arrived, and it is time for the wedding banquet to begin. All of the bridesmaids woke up and trimmed their lamps—but not all of them were prepared for such a long wait for the groom.

The five foolish bridesmaids ask the five wise bridesmaids to share their oil with them. But the wise ones refuse to share their oil, explaining that there may not be enough for all of them. So, the foolish ones go off in search of some place to buy oil. While they are gone, the groom arrives, the wise ones are invited in to the wedding banquet, and the foolish ones are left out in the cold.

MOVE #2
There’s a lot of stuff in this story that doesn’t really add up, does it? When we read this story at Bible Study, I asked if anyone had any initial thoughts about the story. One person said she felt sorry for the foolish bridesmaids, and it didn’t seem fair that they got left out. And someone else mentioned that it seemed to teach a bad lesson about not sharing.

It seems there is more than meets the eye in this story, as is so often the case when Jesus starts to fell a story. So, as Maria Von Trapp says, “Let’s start at the beginning, a very good place to start. . . .”

In verse 1, it says, “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like. . .” That means, this is a story about heaven, not life on earth. And if it’s a story about heaven, chances are it’s a story about. . . judgment—it’s a story about who makes it into the kingdom and who doesn’t. It’s not something we like to talk about, that whole heaven and hell thing, but it appears to be unavoidable, this morning at least.

And in a story like this, each thing or person stands for something else. Jesus is the groom and we are the wedding party. And heaven is the wedding banquet at the groom’s house.
The oil seems to be the key—the five who had enough oil are welcomed into the kingdom but the five who don’t have enough—they are left out in the cold. But what does the oil stand for? Why are only five bridesmaids prepared with enough “oil”? And why didn’t they share their oil?

MOVE #3
I said earlier that this story is about judgment: about who gets in to heaven and who doesn’t. So, what do you need to get to heaven? Faith in Jesus Christ and bearing good fruit, right? They go hand in hand. So the oil that keeps their lamps burning is faith AND works.

So, the five wise bridesmaids are prepared. They are prepared to wait for Christ to come again—they have brought plenty of faith and works with them. They are the faithful disciples, doing their duty at the appropriate times and places. They are watching and waiting for Christ’s return—like we talk about during Advent—and they’re not just sitting on their hands until that time comes. They are living out their faith each day.

But the five foolish bridesmaids—well, they had some faith and some good works, but not enough. The groom’s return was near and they were scrambling to find more oil for their lamps—more faith and works. But there were none to be found. It was too late. They were not prepared, and they were not included in the wedding banquet.

The five wise ones couldn’t share their oil with the foolish ones because they couldn’t give their faith and good works to them. Each bridesmaid needed to make sure she was prepared to wait for the groom to come. And some just never got around to preparing.

CONCLUSION
I know this isn’t the happiest of sermons you’ve probably heard me preach, but it is one that we all need hear. This story is a warning to us—to all Christians: we do not know when Christ will come again, so we need to be ready. We need to make sure that our wicks are trimmed and that we have plenty of oil for the duration. And though we can’t give our faith and good works to our friends and family, we should be concerned that they are prepared too.

And if we can do this—if we can be prepared and if we know that our friends and family are prepared too—THEN we can sleep peacefully and without that panicky, last-minute running around the foolish bridesmaids did. We can even nap each and every day without fear of waking to find that we’re short on oil and we are left out of the wedding banquet.

But we have to be ready—each day we need to work on getting to know God better—not just knowing things about God, but really getting to know him better. And we need to be practicing the Fruit of the Spirit and the Beatitudes. We’re getting ready—we are preparing—for heaven.
Let’s take a lesson from the black bear who can sleep four whole months and wake up just as strong and prepared as when he first went to sleep—we need to be ready to wake up prepared to go.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.