I love to grill; it's a big part of why I love summer so much. And when I grill, I use propane; mostly because it’s faster than charcoal. This is a propane tank.
One of the worst feelings in the world is having some chicken or nice steaks on the grill and realizing that they're not cooking. So you start to mess with the gas knobs but nothing’s happening.
And then you realize . . . You're out of gas . . . mid-grill. So now instead of grilling your meat outside over a fire like you intended, you have to cook it on a stove.
Let me tell you . . . that walk of shame inside, to pull out a baking sheet or frying pan is the worst.
And all of this because you weren't prepared.
For some of us, the idea of preparedness is tough. We like to live in the moment, to address immediate concerns and only consider the long-term if we have time . . . which we never do.
And that can creep into our spirituality. We tend not to consider God except on church days, when "spiritual stuff" is right in front of us.
We like the idea of spiritual activities that form us, that help us to be more attentive to God in our everyday life, but those are usually the first thing to go when time is tight.
The reality is our schedules are packed so full we don't have time to prepare. We're held captive to the immediate.
Whatever matters NOW is what gets our attention. Later can wait till later. But we all know that sometimes, later is too late.
And when it's something relatively minor - like running out of propane when I'm grilling, maybe it's not that big a deal. But when we're talking about our finances, our kids, our lives, we owe it to ourselves, to our families, to each other to do better than live in the moment.
According to Jesus, choosing to be prepared isn't just a good idea for backyard barbecues.
This summer, we've been exploring the parables that Jesus told to help those who followed him understand what it means to live in that place where God’s kingdom intersects with our kingdom.
And today's parable is all about how to wait well in that place.
About why we can't afford to wait till later to embrace the life God invites us into.
Let's hear Jesus' story,
I’m going to assume you've been to a few (hundred) weddings. So you hear this parable and think... uh, what? None of this sounds like familiar wedding culture. Well except the huge wedding party.
So let's get a little context to help us make sense of the story:
In the ancient world, families lived in huge three generation homes. You'd have a father, all his sons, their wives and all their children all living technically under one roof.
When a son was ready to marry, his father would arrange a marriage. Until the wedding, the groom-to-be lived in his father's house and the bride-to-be in her father's house.
Once the marriage was arranged, the groom-to-be was expected to build a space for him and his bride to live together in his father's house.
So essentially, he was responsible to build an addition onto the house. And the wedding didn't take place until that addition was ready.
Building back then wasn't any more predictable than it is today so they couldn't know exactly when the wedding was going to take place. They'd have a general idea but not an actual date.
So, the bride's family, who's hosting the wedding, couldn't send out invitations or anything until the groom sent word that the house was ready.
So - if you're part of the bride's family - you waited.
And when the groom finished, all his people would gather and they'd all head to the bride's father's house for the wedding (often a village or two away).
And they'd send runners ahead to announce, It's time! It's time!
And the bride's family had been waiting, expecting this moment, so in theory they’d be prepared: they'd send their messengers out to invite everyone and they'd get the feast ready to go and everything would be ready by the time the groom and his people showed up.
The bridesmaids would go out to greet them, and lead them to where the wedding was set up, and then they'd party for a week or so, and somewhere in there, the couple would marry.
So as we enter this story, the bridesmaids are waiting.
The messenger shows up announcing that the groom is on his way. He wakes the bridesmaids up, and now we see the problem: half of them were prepared for the delay. They were prepared to wait. They bought extra oil so their lamps could stay lit through the night.
But the other half weren't prepared. For whatever reason, they didn’t bring enough oil. They have to run out to get more oil, which is hard to do because apparently this village did not have a 24-hour Wal-Mart.
So by the time they get their oil situation sorted, they're too late. They've missed the party. The wedding started without them.
It's obvious the focus of this story is those 10 bridesmaids and it's clear that whatever this oil is matters.
Jesus often uses the wedding metaphor to describe himself.
He's the groom, we are the bride. And the wedding day is the day he returns. That's why he begins the parable by saying "Then the kingdom of Heaven will be like".
Not now, but then, when he returns for his bride.
So right now, we're the bridesmaids. We're waiting for the groom, for Jesus to return.
And the question the parable begs is . . . which bridesmaid are you? Are you prepared or not?
And we think, Hmm. I'm really not sure. What does it mean to be prepared?
We can quickly say what it doesn't mean: It doesn't mean stopping everything you're doing, leaving your everyday life to become a crazy apocalyptic Christian.
It doesn't mean you have to stand out on the street wearing a sign that says The End is Near! and shout through a bullhorn at people to Repent!
But what does it mean?
Did you notice that the bridesmaids were all sleeping? All 10 of them!
And of course they were. It's midnight. Especially in the ancient world (before electric lights and televisions), sleeping is just what you did at midnight.
But when you didn't know exactly when the wedding would happen, everyday life couldn't just grind to a halt. That's so different from wedding culture today. With our fixed dates and save-the-dates and invitations, it might be more helpful to think of how we prepare for the birth of a child.
The due date is a lot more like the wedding date of the ancient world. You hope that's when it's going to happen, but you just don't know for sure. So when you're expecting a child, you prepare.
You figure out the fastest routes to the hospital. You pack a bag with everything you're going to need at the hospital and leave it by the door. You get the nursery ready. And then you wait.
But you don't stop everything. You still have to go to work. You still do all the regular things in your life. But always in the background is the understanding that at any moment you're going to have to stop everything because IT'S TIME!
Can you imagine not preparing at all? Waiting until that first contraction to start trying to figure out what needs to be packed up? Getting caught in traffic because you didn't think about what time of day it was or how the roads would be? Rushing out of the office with everyone wondering where the fire is because you didn't bother to tell anyone you were having a baby? Foolish, isn't it?
That's how the people listen to Jesus on that day would've thought of these 5 bridesmaids who didn't get some extra oil.
They know the wedding is happening. And they know that they don’t know exactly when. The time to prepare isn't once the groom's here. It's before, while you wait.
Preparing is waiting well. It's being ready so you don't miss the party. Because, according to Jesus, if you're not prepared, you miss out.
That seems harsh to our ears. We want Jesus to say, Hey, it doesn't matter! Do whatever you want and show up whenever you want!
But that's not how it works.
When we don't prepare, we're not ready for the party. When we don't prepare, we miss out. Not because God keeps us out, but because we're not capable of participating.
No one who’s a bridesmaid or a groomsman would want to miss the wedding. How much more then, does Jesus’ story ring true about the new life he offers? He will return, and when he does, if you're not prepared, you'll miss out.
Not because you're not invited, not because you're not in the wedding party, but because you didn't make yourself ready.
So how do we prepare? How do we make sure we have enough oil?
Well it's no coincidence that the early church used the oil lamp as a symbol for the God’s Spirit.
So Jesus is saying that if we want to be prepared . . . if we want to ensure that our lamps are full of oil, or we might say, make sure we’re always cooking with gas . . . then we need to make ourselves available to God’s Spirit.
Allowing God’s Spirit to shape our lives, allowing God to restore the broken pieces of our lives and moving us to a place where we become a part of God’s restoration plan as we become the hands and feet of Christ.
And if we don't make room in our lives for the Spirit . . . it’s kind of like trying to cook without propane.
So how do we do it? How do we make ourselves available to the Spirit?
The Prayer of Examine. It's an opportunity to pause at the beginning and end of your day and remember to make yourself available to the Spirit. An examine also takes only a few minutes. Every day this week, begin and end you day with a few minutes of prayerful reflection on your day. This is a small, simple step. But as we talked about last month, the Kingdom of Heaven is found in these small, simple steps. Jesus promises that if we make ourselves available to be transformed, the Spirit will produce a miraculous harvest in us, Spiritual fruit to nourish our souls, our families, our friends and our world. So what're you waiting for?