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Ordinary Sunday 33, Year A
South Sydney Uniting Church
November 19, 2017
Matthew 25:1-13
‘Keep Awake’
If we are to live a life of faith and responsibility, we are called to see it as an invitation to be aware and awake.
Some people who believe in God imagine that this God will tell us what to do and what not to do and that all we need to be is an obedient servant. In fact, I think that life is far more than that. Our God does indeed care what happens to us and embraces us with love and grace, but also creates us to be free to choose who to be and what to do. This is about living fully rather than as young children.
It means that we mature and have the chance to grow wiser as we journey. As far as possible, we may think ahead and prepare ourselves for what the days may bring. This doesn’t stop us from walking forward into life – the bridesmaids went out to be present at the wedding, some carrying all they thought they might need to be alongside the bridegroom and the others assuming that it would be easy to simply join in the occasion and that most of what they might need would be provided.
If we see the bridegroom as a vision of the Christ, we might ask ourselves what takes us close to this presence of Christ? This is the one who loves and heals, but who also invites us to do the same. We are not Christ’s true companions unless we take each step prepared to love our neighbours as ourselves – carrying lamps of light which show us more clearly the truth in each situation and the oil for healing of ourselves and others.
We are not God, so we can see that we do need resources like this to enlighten us and bring healing, but if we are to enhance the fullness of life for others as well as ourselves we face into complexities.
The bridesmaids, who came prepared with extra oil for the lighting of their lives as they walked forward, believed that we can never tell what help and strength we may need. We anticipate life which calls us to grow, to stop and then see more clearly what we must do, being prepared to face into that more challenging existence.
Life is often wounding as God does not save us from entering tough reality, knowing that this is part of growing and changing. Of course, the Bible is a special resource for helping us to understand and interpret this journey, but the God of love also offers us all sorts of oil of renewing and healing – music, poetry, art, the beauty of creation and the love and wisdom of our friends and families.
This passage in Matthew offers us a picture of what complexities there can be. We may think that the first group of bridesmaids, who came prepared for anything, would be invited by God to provide the other group with oil when they ran out. Sometimes this is, indeed, the way we love our neighbours – those who have no access to things which save their lives, or who are so vulnerable that they are genuinely unable to feed themselves or protect and heal themselves.
We can all think of people like that and can hear God calling us to share with them or defend them in some way.
However, there are those who journey through life and deliberately make themselves dependent on others, rather then acting responsibly. When we hand over things they request from us, we are likely to actually take life from them. That is why we don’t just hand over money and other things to everyone that requests it. The life which God calls us towards is grander than that and invites maturity in both ourselves and those who relate to us. That is a way of living more fully whoever we may be.
The oil which lies in our hands may well be offered in blessings or prayers for healing. God is not simplistic but calls us towards honest grappling with what is before us. We are forgiven when we face into that reality with humility and truth, even if we make mistakes.
If we come to church, it is because we believe that, in the presence of other believers and loving people, we may learn more and more about who we are and who God is, what the Bible means and how we can have the courage to face the truth as we are held in love by other truly human people.
If there is one thing which I love and respect in our congregation and our Minister, it is that I believe we are free to be authentic – to ask the hard questions of God, of ourselves and each other, no matter who we are. We can laugh and cry. We can celebrate moments together or grieve together. In our life as a parish, we share in serving the community in many different ways which bear witness to our journeying with God and each other. This is another way of carrying oil into the life of others and our own lives.
In God, we are called to live with passion and persistence but we are also freed to rest, to reflect and to renew ourselves as individuals and together.
In response to the Word for us today, I invite the present Elders to stand holding the oil of blessing and healing. In five minutes of silence, let us reflect on those we have experienced as people who lead us towards life in all its fullness – who invite us to move closer to the Christ in all that we do and believe.
I will then pass around the nomination forms for our next Elders and invite you, if you wish, to write a nomination. I will then pass around the special voting box and invite you to place your nomination form in it. We will be doing the voting for our Elders on December 10.
When we stand to receive the Body of Christ in our Eucharist, you may choose to receive a blessing from a present Elder with the oil of love and hope.
Amen.
Rev. Dorothy McRae-