November 9, 2008 + Elizabeth Gibbs Zehnder

MP3 File

The differences between our lives and the lives of people described in the bible can trip us up. Today’s text assumes that we understand the wedding traditions of 1st century Palestine. It seems as though they did weddings very differently that we do.

For example, Tim and I got married here at Immanuel. Mary Ann Weaver, the wedding director, not coordinator mind you, director, worked with us for the ceremony and reception. From the bridesmaid lunch the day before the wedding to the cutting of the cake at the reception – every moment was clocked out. Mary Ann kept all of us doing what we were supposed to do when we were supposed to do it.

Weddings in New Testament times had a different rhythm. The groom would show up to the bride’s family’s home at an unappointed time and that’s when the wedding would begin. The bridesmaids were in charge of welcoming the groom. It could be any hour of the day or night, hence the importance of having lanterns ready.

As I read this text, I feel sad that there isn’t more sharing going on here – shouldn’t those who have oil share with those in need? You know, in the spirit of if you have two coats give one to your neighbor who doesn’t have one….

But no, it turns out that the sharing of lamp oil is not the point of this text. Maybe it’s more like gas in the car – I remember Sara Erickson telling me about her work for Obama’s campaign. He was attending a fundraiser in LA and Sara’s friend was recruiting people to help out with transporting Obama and his staff to the airport. She had lined up enough drivers and cars, Sara was one of them. They waited until the event was over, and then Obama and his staff climbed aboard and the motorcade headed for LAX. Obviously Sara didn’t show up at the fundraiser with her gas gauge on empty. She wouldn’t ask the driver of the car next to hers if she could siphon some gas out of their tank…She wouldn’t wait for the moment when they were getting in the car to say “oh, mind if I stop by the gas station, I’m running on fumes.” Sara showed up prepared for the role she had promised to play.

So, yes, it was silly of half of the bridesmaids not to come prepared. Maybe they had expected the groom sooner, like before it got dark, maybe they hadn’t imagined that they would be waiting so long, maybe they hadn’t thought it through, but there they were without what was needed, and their last minute shopping trip cost them their admission to the wedding celebration.

In his Gospel, Matthew layouts out stories about characteristics of God’s kingdom. The Kingdom of God is like… a mustard seed…its like yeast that we use for making bread….its like treasure hidden in a field…., but here, Matthew shifts verb tense from present to future– This is how its going to turn out in God’s new world, this is how its going to be …it’s a reference to a future event – one that is coming for certain, but its not scheduled. It gets us in an advent mood a little early.

I’ve shared with you all before, my experiences in advent of 2005. I was very pregnant with Naomi – the doctors had given us a due date of mid-December, but I was feeling like she was coming sooner! Every kick and cramp made me stop and wonder – was it now? It was so hard for me not to be able to know when she would be born, when should I ask my mom to fly out? when should I start my maternity leave, how could I pull together Christmas for Eva? All I could know is that she was going to be born, but the day? The hour? Who knew?

At the same time John, my father-in-law’s health was failing. He had been battling cancer for three years and the tide, it seemed, had turned decisively against him. It was obvious that his strength and vigor were draining from him, but how much longer did we have with him? Would he live to meet his grandchild? It was clear his death was near, but the day? The hour?

And it was advent, so along with all of the world, I was waiting for Jesus to return. Another event that had been promised and immanent, but not calendared. Bursting with Naomi and grieving John’s decline, I found myself attentive to the textures of waiting for Jesus’ return in a whole new way. It was suddenly profoundly relevant to me that something so important could be happening without a published timetable.

In today’s reading and in the preceding chapter, Matthew reminds us that no one knows the day or hour of the arrival of the kingdom of heaven. There’s speculation that Matthew included that emphasis because the faith community was really wrestling with Jesus’ apparent delay. Those who had been eyewitnesses to Jesus and his ministry were passing away, the stories were being shared 2nd and 3rd hand. Given the economic and political turbulence of the times, people of faith had banked on Jesus coming back soon and setting everything right. And yet the years continued to roll by. So Matthew is reminding them (and us) that Jesus said “no one knows the day or hour – not the angels not me, only God in heaven knows” So keep awake, be prepared.

Alright – be prepared, so I can get a pretty good handle on how to prepare for a baby to be born – go to the doctor, come up with a birth plan, get a crib, wash some baby clothes

…And it’s different every time, but we know a bit about how to prepare to loose someone who we love – we have those important conversations, we make sure we know their wishes about cremation or burial, we learn about where safe deposit keys are.

…but God’s New World? how do we prepare for God’s Kingdom to arrive?

Sarah Dylan Breuer suggests, We prepare for God’s kingdom by seeking it – by pursuing the things that God pursues. We prepare for the fulfillment of Christ's purposes on earth by doing what he did. We prepare for God's kingdom by seeking it, and God's justice first.

Mary, the teenage girl, who found herself unexpectedly pregnant, sang a song when she recognized the connection between the child in her womb and the coming of God’s Kingdom. She doesn’t mention much about baby clothes and cribs, rather she prepares herself for what lies ahead by describing what God is about in the world –

Bringing down rulers from their thrones, lifting up the humble, filling the hungry with good things. She gives voice to the radical upheaval that accompanies the in-breaking of God’s New World. She aligns herself with who she knows God to be.

So what is our song, Immanuel? What is on our to do list as we seek to live prepared?

How about starting with….
* Ending poverty and hunger
* Promoting gender equality and empowering women
* justice for immigrants
* economic justice
* Combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
* Caring for God's Creation

You might notice these aren’t easy tasks – there is no quick fix for world hunger – people have poured their whole lives into working for these changes and progress is almost imperceptible.

There are breakthroughs – did you hear, we elected a fine man to be our next president, and his father was Kenyan and his mother American! But there are set backs – that same day Californian’s voted to bar gay and lesbian people from being able to get married.

If we are looking to the results of our labor to motivate us, then we will surely grow weary as the wait grows long, we’ll get distracted and discouraged, we’ll let our oil run out and be found unprepared.

What we thought was a short wait has turned into a long one, if we are to live prepared, if we are to stay engaged in the things that God is engaged in, then our motivation needs to be rooted in who we know God to be. We work for justice because God loves justice. We give our time to feeding the hungry because God wants every child to be well fed. We protect and promote life, because God is the God of life. As we heed Jesus’ charge “keep your wits about you, you don’t know how long the waiting is going to be.” We seek to stay engaged in the things that Jesus was engaged in.

Maybe there’s a reason why there isn’t a fixed date on the calendar…it’d be just like us to let ourselves off the hook until the day before – like putting off studying until the night before the final exam. With a date on the calendar we could fool ourselves into thinking that we were in control of the whole event. We could have some gauge of knowing how to prepare just enough to get by. Just enough oil in our lantern to get in the door of the party.

But God’s not a professor handing out grades. God’s not interested in our heroic all-night study sessions. It’s the whole of our life that God wants – each day that unfolds, each breath that we take.

If we knew the day or hour, we’d be all about planning, scheduling, we’d carve out just enough time for God and we’d stay in control of our lives, juggling all the other things that keep us busy and distracted. It's so not the point.

God’s not interested in the parcels of time that we carve out for “God work”. God isn’t interested in being the first priority among many. And when we step back, we see that we are kidding ourselves if we imagine we would control the arrival of God’s kingdom.

God’s desire is for the whole of our being to be in communion with the whole of God.
Doing and attending to the things that God loves, that’s how we prepare ourselves,
  that’s how we “stay awake”
  that’s how we find ourselves there,
  ready to celebrate the wedding feast with joy,
Our lanterns ablaze against the night sky.