Grace to you and peace from God, who comes to us...at an unexpected hour!
God surprises us, gives us what we need to keep our lamps lit, calls us to use that oil, to pay attention and to be ready.
This text comes in Matthew, Chapter 25, and it’s part of what’s been called “the final discourses” of Jesus, just outside the city walls of Jerusalem, just before he undergoes the final supper, his trial and his death. This is part of the last things, the final discourse -- this week and next are Jesus’ parting words. So that adds a thick layer of import...
And what we have here is Jesus warning his disciples: “Be ready...with what I’ve given you. Pay attention.” The oil is free and available now, if you take it. If you don’t, you’re going to be -- like last week’s text -- left out in the cold and the darkness.
Last week I alluded to this: the guy who didn’t wear his wedding garment that he had been offered freely at the door -- and now this week the bridesmaids who didn’t keep their lamps trimmed and lit with the flasks of oil that were available freely -- when we don’t accept or use the gifts of grace, the gift of faith that God gives us freely in our baptisms, then we get left out -- in a sense -- too!
[pause and slowly]
I have come to realize these last few months (since about August) -- more than ever, I think, in my life -- how difficult it is to ask and even more to receive help from another -- another family, another friend, maybe even a stranger. When an offer to help is right there in our midst, and we just can’t open our hands and receive it -- I see this all the time in the church.
I struggle with it myself. We’re suppose to be self-sufficient. Me for mine. You for yours. If I’m coming to you, then I’m mooching -- that what we’ve been taught. Nobody likes a moocher. “C’mon!” we say, “take care of yourself!”
We try to live by that, and so we shy away from letting ourselves be lavished, symbolized by the wedding garment (from last week) or oil in our text today. We don’t just shy away, sometimes we down-right reject the oil that God so freely gives in order to keep our lamps lit.
Heather and I saw a dear friend yesterday perform. Her name’s Rachel -- we went to college with her, and became friends because of a number of social crossovers and shared interests. And Rachel is wildly gifted, musically and theatrically. And singing and acting is her passion. But when she got married 11 years ago now and over the years had two children -- all a very important, central parts of her life -- that musical theater side of her went to sleep and (without going into it) she suffered in many ways...like having a part of you amputated.
So in the last year or so, Rachel’s gotten involved with a small theatre company in her community, and she’s done a handful of shows now. And yesterday she had the microphone for an hour and she share her songs and a few stories with her audience. I just had this smile plastered to my face. And there it was: she was doing what she loved and what God gave her, and blessing us all in the process.
It’s the oil in the lamp, you see! For some years she wasn’t taking a single flask of oil and using what God had given her -- and she was really suffering as a result. But how engaging a passion and a talent that is God-given, not only betters the world, but completes the individual too!
Rachel is able to be a better mother, and wife, and daughter, and friend -- now that she’s using the oil, keeping her lamp lit.
What is it for you? [pause] (That requires paying attention.) There are many and various ways that God fuels us. There are so many gifts and talents in this holy room. In a culture of scarcity -- you know, fears that we don’t have enough (Money’s tight this month!, or where are all the people in our churches?, or who’s going to take over this organization or that committee if I’m gone?, or I’ll never be as smart as Richard Lederer!) -- in a culture of scarcity that seems to pervade...if we slow down and just ponder the gifts, talents, skills, assets, abilities of the people in this room we would find more than enough oil “to keep the lamps lit”.
God gives us the oil; so for God’s sake -- and for yours -- use it! God gives us a wedding garment; so for God’s sake -- and for yours -- put it on!
Don’t let your lamps go out when God’s sitting there handing us oil, garments of grace. Get back into theater! Get back into volunteering with children or Meals on Wheels! Get back into painting, or working in the garden, or writing, or reading classical literature, or traveling, or working in the garage, or spending time with your partner or your children! What is it that fuels you? God’s provided the oil! What is it that keeps your light shining? Because when your light shines before others, others can see your good works, and all of this fueling and shining activity gives glory to your God heaven! (this text today, btw, is a direct reference to that passage earlier in Mt.)
Lent is the time, for digging back in -- so what if you’ve broken your Lenten thing-you-were-going-to-give-up! That’s the point: that we stand in need of grace.
So take a deep breath, wake up, pay attention, and dive back into this good life that God has simply lavished before us. The feast is ready, there’s plenty of fuel for the party. And you’re welcomed by God’s open arms. Don’t reject it, don’t blow it off, or make excuses why it’s not for you, why you’ve got better things to do...
Just open your hands and receive it -- God’s love and forgiveness and peace.
This is grace enfleshed. This is God’s goodness poured out for you. Bread is broken, wine is poured, candles are lit. Pay attention, it’s all around. AMEN.
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