Today we have several things happening during the service. I invite you to bring these various strands together to make them the filter and the focus for the Gospel reading.
1. Today we celebrate All Saints Day. We remember particularly those who have walked beside us with love – carrying the Christ light for us in the night-time of our fears – being as Christ to us.
2. Today we are celebrating the confirmation of two young people, who are committing themselves to following the way of Jesus. Hamish and Nicholas are announcing today, publicly that they will carry the light of Christ in their lives.
3. Today we will be commissioning Clare and Nicholas as they set out on journeys that will take them to Myanmar – living and working, sharing and living with students at Tahan theological college. In this task, they demonstrate their commitment to carry the light of Christ into the journey of their everyday lives.
And into this context we hear a parable of Jesus, as told by Matthew. Scholars are divided as to whether or not this parable ever came from the lips of Jesus. It may well be that this particular one is a later construct – created for a church that expected the imminent return of Christ. And, of course, our context today is so different. Some two thousand years later, we are not particularly interested nor convinced by discussions about the so-called second coming of Jesus. We 21st century followers of Jesus’ Way are much more interested in how our lives and the lives of other people – and, indeed the whole creation – can flourish with meaning, wholeness and love. We can therefore be tempted to dismiss this morning’s reading as irrelevant and meaningless. And that would be a great pity. So I invite you this morning to hear this parable – not necessarily through the lens of the Matthean Community, but in the light of our context – of this All Saints, Confirmation and Commissioning Day.
The kin-dom of God, Jesus suggests, is like a wedding – a time we would understand to be of joyous celebration when hope is at its highest and love is at its brightest. Living the way of Jesus, the parable might be understood to say, brings about all the joy and love symbolised in a wedding celebration. But, of course, we all know, life’s not always a celebration – sometimes things go very badly. And in this parable, some of the pitfalls are spelt out. In the culture of this story, the young women have an important role to play in the celebratory moment – they have to be ready with their lamps burning, when the bridegroom comes. They have one responsibility in participating in this celebration: to stock up on supplies so they will be ready when needed. But it all turns to custard. The bridegroom is held up, some of the women are caught short – they hadn’t allowed for the extra time it would take. They just hadn’t prepared themselves properly.
Australian scholar, Bill Loader reminds us this story “is not about 2000 years of trying to whip up expectations that Jesus just might come very soon. It’s about sustaining the life of faith in the long haul.” It’s about how our beloved saints kept their faithfulness going right through to the end of their lives. It’s about the sustenance of faith that Hamish, Nicholas and Clare (and of course, all of us) will need for the days ahead. It’s about being prepared for our life journey so that we can be as Christ to each other until we’ve seen this life-journey through – right to its end. Bill Loader suggests the parable tells us that: “Just because we’ve had lamps in hand that have burned well at one time in our lives, is no guarantee at all that they will continue to burn – and keep burning into the future. Having been a Christian once – having been one who has carried the light for others in the past – means nothing if it is not a continuing part of our being. Matthew”, Professor Loader reminds us, “is interested in enabling people to live in a relationship with God which has continuing significance and continuing life.”[1]
Listen for the Gospel:
The Gospel Reading Matthew 25:1-13
‘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.
None of us is always wise; none of us is always foolish. The parable emphasises the extremes, to invite us into a thoughtful consideration of our own lives. So let’s take up the invitation of the parable, and consider our own journey of faith, the relationship with God we have already established, and the journey we would like to travel for the rest of our lives.
You might like to close your eyes as you imagine yourself into the parable as one who holds the light: A prayer of the heart– choosing the illuminated life.
We watch
from noontime on
the lengthening of light.
While each of us
our separate outward paths
pursues,
inside our souls
we wait
with one desire:
this night to be a light for God.
We watch
gold ochre haze
soft-sift vermilion sun
until from pearl-eyed day
pure light like flannel fades.
Our lamps take up the fire.
We watch
our gentle, guileless,
flame-thrown light,
like garland flowers
lily white with hope,
adorn our weary way
with eager confidence.
We watch
for princes’ sandaled feet,
for gay embroidered robes
all crimson stuff or blue.
Where are the shining faces,
raven hair, and golden mouths
that seek our light
to tell us God is near?
We watch
our fire’s unseen light.
Could God not know we wait?
Footpad sleep steals down the path
to snuff the watching out
just long enough to damp the
short-wicked urge that burns for God.
We grope
dishevelled
by the cry to wake
and meet our God
with light.
For those with urge
to spare they quickly rise,
renew their lamp’s bold flame,
and set their eyes on God.
For those of us with
no more urge at hand,
no borrowed fuel
can rouse our shrunken flame.
Unless we wake
within our soul
the longing urge of love
that burns unceasingly for God,
our well-intended flames
will lapse each time we wait
and leave our lamps
to stand invisible to God[2].
A minute of silence for reflection
And so we come to the litany of remembrance for All Saints Day. This is a time when we acknowledge all the saints surrounding us – those who have died and those who still live and who sustain us in our faith, enabling us to keep tending our lamps of faith – helping to wake within our souls, the longing urge of love, that burns unceasingly for God.
We pray in remembrance ... We pray in hope ....
No comments:
Post a Comment