Watching for the Word and Wisdom of God

Proper 27-A; Nov. 9, 2008
St. Paul’s
Wisdom of Solomon 6:12-16; Psalm 70
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Matthew 25:1-13

When Jesus tells us a parable, it is upsetting. When Jesus tells us a parable, he is shaking up the order of the story. We’re in the 25th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, for crying out loud. The real story is the Easter story, or rather the march to Jerusalem, the passion, the cross, the death, the resurrection. That is the Jesus story, the big narrative of Christianity. When Jesus throws us these curve balls of parables, it shakes us all up. Gets us off track, off balance, off message.

Unless.

Unless we’re not really paying attention to what the story is really about.

You have to admit that today’s parable of 10 bridesmaids is a little odd. It says nothing about wedding customs of 1st century Palestine, or of the ancient Near East – this is not a story drawn from fact.
Yet. This story does come from the end of Jesus’ ministry. This 25th chapter of Matthew contains three important, big stories. They are full of urgency – Jesus is pulling out all the stops to get our attention – to pull what he is doing down to our level. God is acting in history, yes – but God is also acting in history down here, among the ordinary people of this world.

So there are three important, career-topping parables Jesus tells – this one today, and the next two over the next two weeks – and the message for this one is … what?

Be prepared. Be watchful. Keep awake. Open your eyes. Figure out what is going on. Be wise.
Wisdom: it’s been around a long time – Wisdom was present at the creation. Wisdom is a characteristic of the Word of God, of the power of creation. The creation is full of Wisdom; it’s been there from the beginning. But we have to pay attention to find this Wisdom. We have to rise early. We have to be vigilant. We have to focus our minds and our hearts. That’s discernment. We have to be prepared, if we are to find the Wisdom of God.

There is a lot going on in the world, and it is easy to be distracted. Televisions, radios, Ipods, billboards, train whistles, sirens, telephones, chatter, bells, whistles – not to mention falling stock markets, collapsing housing values, foreclosures, jobs lost, bills unpaid – the whole litany of anxieties and worries. This is the world of business as usual, where the business of business tries to rule our lives. Where the dominant powers of greed and fear and violence try to fill our every waking hour.

It wasn’t all that different for the people Jesus was trying to reach, the people to whom Jesus first told this parable of the bridesmaids. Keep awake! He said. Be watchful. Be vigilant. The world will lull you to sleep, and now, right now, you need to pay attention to what is going on. You need to discern the movement of God in these times. You need to seek that ancient Wisdom of God, and it cannot be found if you doze off, or if you’re distracted by all this other stuff.

It’s kind of easy to read these parables of Jesus as being about some far off distant time, about God coming to reign in the by-and-by. Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians describes the “rapture,” the archangels’ call, the sound of the trumpet, meeting the Lord in the clouds. Is that what we are to be prepared for? Something terrible and mighty, but something far, far off?

I think when Jesus tells a parable, he is talking about something right close to home, right close to the here and now. Be watchful, bridesmaids, not for some far off, distant event, but for something that is happening right now. Keep awake, right now, for God is doing a new thing, right now. The world you live in – the world of 1st century Palestine – might be bad, you might be suffering under the Roman Empire, taxes outrageous, work unending – you might think those rich and powerful guys have the upper hand in your life – but think again: God is working here and now. God is doing a new thing, here and now. This is how you’re supposed to live in the here and now, Jesus says. Be vigilant. Stay awake. Pay attention. You don’t want to miss it. God is coming. God is here.

Occasionally, even in the world of politics, big things break through. I think the drone of politics can lull us to sleep, and cause us to think nothing will ever change. But occasionally, a big thing breaks through even there, and the election of Barack Obama is such a big thing. And in the context of this big thing, this parable of Jesus’ is for us. It forces us to ask: what is going on here? Where can we find the Wisdom of God in this great movement of the body politic? Be awake. Be vigilant. Where can we find the Wisdom of God in the movement of our lives?