“Remember: Turn your computer off before midnight on December 31, 1999”
“January 1, 2000: The Day the World Will Stand Still”
“Banks will fail!“
“Electricity will be cut off!“
“Year 2000 Computer Bug will Turn Man Against Man!“
These all were headlines from you guessed it- the anticipation before the year 2000.
I”m sure many of you remember the feeling of suspense, excitement, and worry that seemed so prevalent.
I asked Pastor Andrew this week what he remembers about the event, and he simply responded “Were you even alive?”
The answer was yes, but to me, the year Y2K was most prevalent through lore and one specific story that will be remembered in Baker-Mikesell family lore for generations.
My grandmother had a group of fellow teachers and community friends, and what I remember about them, they reminded me a lot of the Golden Girls. They would go out to dinner every Friday evening, each order their special drinks, and get together for football games, community events, you name it. And when the year 2000 rolled around, they riled each other up about their computers shutting down, haywire machines, and their cars not working. It’s this last one that my dad, in a rather mischievous mood, took advantage of.
Early in the morning on January 1, 2000, my Dad snuck over to my grandparents’ house, popped the lid on my Mom Mom’s car, and disconnected the battery. A few hours later, my mom called Mom Mom to tell her that I was walking, and that she had better come over “right away”. Mom Mom jumped in the car, turned the key in the ignition, and the car didn’t start. SHe ran inside and started calling her friends, spun up about the car not working and the end of the world coming with the new millennium.
My Mom-Mom called my parents next, My dad got on the phone with her and told her what to do in order to restart the car. First, say this special incantation, followed by three kicks of the back right tire, and three clockwise laps around the car.
It worked. The car started.
In the midst of all the phone calls, my dad came back over and reconnected the battery. I’ve heard the whole thing was rather hilarious.
The year 2000 was not unique.
There have been over 180 predictions about the end of the world and coming Kingdom of God, from individuals from as early as 60 BC. Christopher Columbus to the painter Botticelli to our own Martin Luther were among the people who have made predictions. The coming reign of Christ and the Kingdom of God is a subject of fascination, of interest, and a theme in our Gospel lesson for today.
Today’s Gospel lesson takes place after Jesus has entered Jerusalem, and is one of many parables he gives to his disciples and the crowds about what is to come. He tells them today that the kingdom of heaven will be like 10 bridesmaids waiting for the groom to arrive from the wedding feast.
Half took oil for the lamps when they waited, and the other half did not bring any lamp oil. They all fall asleep, and when the bridegroom arrives, the half with extra oil had burning lamps, and the ones without extra oil did not have enough oil to light their lamps. The bridegroom invites the prepared attendants to join him at the wedding banquet, and tells the foolish ones that have left to get more oil that they are not welcome at the banquet. Jesus ends the parable with the warning: Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.
This text follows many others that speak about the coming Kingdom of God. We see this upcoming Kingdom in the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount, in his discussion about the welcoming of children, the parable of the wedding banquet that Pastor Andrew preached on a few weeks ago, and today’s parable about the wise and foolish bridesmaids.
And as wonderful as that future Kingdom will be, the process of getting to that kingdom can be pretty nerve-wracking. Many of Jesus’ parables, speak about judgment, separation, and a removal of the unrighteous from the Kingdom of God. Today’s sermon is no different.
And honestly, a direct interpretation of most of them leave this pastor-to-be feeling pretty inadequate, worried about if I’ll measure up in the coming Kingdom of God.
Today’s Gospel lesson can be interpreted in several different ways, from the most common “be prepared, do not fall asleep” one, to a message of filling our lamps with spiritual oil to get us through dark times in life.
This week, when I was trying to figure out what approach to preach today, I found myself asking one question: “Why did they need lamps in the first place if there was a watchman there waiting for the bridegroom as well?”
One of my favorite Lutheran Theologians, Nadia Bolz-Weber, often challenges her readers to look for the truth in challenging parables. So where is the truth? Regarding this parable, she asks “What exactly are we supposed to take from this parable? That we should not rely on others? That we should not give to those who ask of us? Is Jesus just suddenly taking back everything he’s taught so far about generosity and self-giving and instead giving us a parable about how we should be stingy and self-reliant?”
I don’t think so. All of those seem unlikely- we should rely on our friends and family in dark times. We should give to those who ask. We should look out for others, even if it means we will not receive an invitation to the banquet.
For me, the Gospel today lies a little deeper than initial messages about being prepared. I’ve found those messages lead to thoughts about ourselves being prepared, and others lacking in their spiritual preparation, a spiritual hierarchy of worthiness for entry into the banquet. If we believe that the Gospel is preaching good news, full of grace for everyone, we need to start looking not for the condemnation within the Gospel or messages of our own salvation, but the good news of the grace that saves all of us.
Yes, being prepared, having enough spiritual oil is important. We all need a good “douse” of spiritual oil in our torches every now and then.
But it’s also important to remember that in this story, there’s a watchman, with a lamp and enough oil to light the way for all those going into the bridal party. He goes ahead of the bridal party, lamp in hand, lighting the way for the attendants, whether they have enough oil in their lamps or not.
A look at the news, our Facebook pages, or the radio are full of stories that objectively do not look greatIt is easy for us to look at the war, destruction, and disease happening worldwide and convince ourselves that the end time is near. We tend, in our humanness, to feel uncertain of what is to come, of feeling under-prepared.
We get anxious, thinking about how we wish we should have been a little kinder, read the Bible a little more, gave more to those who needed it.
The good news today, though, is that despite all the preparation we do or do not do, we have someone who lights the way for us. We have Christ, who, full of grace, gives us enough light to guide us in the darkness.
The foolish bridesmaids did not have to leave the group in order to get more oil. They missed the banquet. Those bridesmaids simply had to trust that there would be someone else, lighting the way for them.
And that is the good news for us today, as well. It doesn’t matter if we hear news about computers not working or our car not starting. There are no special incantations or number of kicks we have to give our back right tires or laps we have to make around our cars, because our cars will start anyway. Grace abounds for us all, filling our lamps with the reassurance that we are all saved, regardless of who we are, what we have done, or where we come from.
This week, when we feel overwhelmed at the state of the world, when we are reminded of war, destruction, when we see Nation rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. When we see famines and earthquakes in various places- when we hear about the War in the Holy Land, genocides in Darfur, volcanoes in Iceland- all the things that make us feel helpless, that the world is crumbling around us, may we find comfort in our Christ who lights the way for all of us – oils in our lamps or not.
Amen.
Sermons at St. James Gettysburg 