THIRTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME A

[cappie]

The parable Jesus tells is about a wedding feast and waiting.

In Jesus’ day, a wedding ceremony would usually be held in the bride’s family home. The wedding feast afterward would be held in the groom’s family home and would start at night. It lasted about a week, not just one night, so a lot of preparation had to be done.

When the feast was set to begin, the groom would come get his bride, and together they would walk to the wedding banquet with the bridesmaids, who had one job: accompany the bride and groom to the banquet, holding lamps to light the way for them to walk to the feast. That’s it. Provide the light.  These lamp-bearing bridesmaids aren’t decorative. They have just one job, but it’s important: bring the light. Get the bride and the groom safely through the dark and to the big feast. Except, in the parable, only half of the bridesmaids were prepared to wait for the bridegroom. The other five weren’t. So, when the moment comes, they’re off at the all-night oil store trying to get a refill for their lamps. Eventually, they do, but by the time they arrive, the party has started, the door has been locked, and for those five bridesmaids, it’s a case of too little, too late.

In church tradition and biblical language, the bridegroom is a symbol of Christ, and the bridegroom’s arrival, a symbol of the Second Coming of Christ, when he will bring the faithful to the heavenly banquet, a great feast, a party that will last not just a week, but for eternity.

We’re still waiting for the arrival of the bridegroom. Whether we’re waiting for the Second Coming of the Lord, waiting to meet our Lord when we die, waiting for the Lord to come to us with the help we need, the answer we’re praying for, the comfort we’re looking for, we are still waiting. How are you at waiting?         

We don’t like waiting, but God promises us blessings even as we wait.   God says in Isaiah 40:31, “Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

Waiting is not doing nothing, and having to wait for the Lord doesn’t mean the Lord is doing nothing. We can wait, trusting that God is always doing something. God is not helping another customer while we languish in line. God is at always at work, doing “far more than we can ask or imagine,” according to Ephesians 3:20.  We can be ready, like wise bridesmaids with our one job of bringing the light, or we can be fools, untrusting, unaware, unprepared to do our part.  

Waiting doesn’t mean inactivity. Having oil at the ready, being prepared, comes from doing what we’re told to do, being obedient to God, being formed by God’s power at work in us. So, how do we keep this oil on hand? By some practices and disciplines that are the same for all of us—prayer, reading the Scriptures,  worship with others caring for people and the planet.  It’s using what God gives us to keep us going, to recharge, to stay connected with God and God’s love.

Do you see why the wise bridesmaids can’t just share their oil? Yes, sharing is a Christian virtue, but some things just don’t work that way. Your friend has a marvellous marriage. There’s no way to borrow some of that. Another has a vibrant and sustaining prayer life. Yes, she can pray for you, but she can’t take your place in a friendship with God. You can be influenced or inspired by someone else’s peace of mind and confident trust in the Lord, but they can’t just give you some of theirs. We have to get that oil for ourselves.

And yes, as much as we don’t like it, time does run out. You can’t say forever, “Someday I’ll spend time with my children, my spouse.” “Someday I’ll get back to church, back to praying.”  “Someday I’ll make that phone call, make that donation.” Or, really, we can say it all we want, but someday, there will be a shout, “Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!”

There is such a thing as too little, too late. We don’t like it, but there it is.

But here is the good news: we’re still here. We’re still here, hearing this parable. It is not too late. And remember, it’s a party Jesus wants to take us to. He’s preparing a great feast for us.