Scripture: Matthew 25:1-13; Psalm 78:1-4; Matthew 5:21-22; Matthew 19:16-22 Series: One offs
A sermon on the Parable of the Ten Virgins (Matthew 25:1-13) preached as the first of Matthew 25’s three ‘parables of attention.’ Wilson argues parables refuse our instinct to sort people into in-groups and out-groups; the question is not who is good or bad but who is attending to Jesus. Waiting for the bridegroom means giving God active attention, and that attentiveness is the shape of holiness and the substance of judgment. Drawing on a Rowan Williams interview (and John of the Cross), he frames judgment as being examined on love rather than rule-keeping, with the present moment as decisive: ‘the next thirty seconds are decisive, and the thirty seconds after that.’ The call is to attune to God’s love now and keep awake.
Illustrations: rich-young-ruler, ut-austin-acceptance-in-group, boarding-the-plane, rowan-williams-thirty-seconds, john-of-the-cross-examined-on-love, devil-take-your-eye-off-the-present
November 13
The Next Thirty Seconds
Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known, that our ancestors have told us. We will not hide them from their children; we will tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might and the wonders that he has done. Psalm 78:1-4
“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten young women took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those young women got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise replied, ‘No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet, and the door was shut. Later the other young women came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’ Keep awake, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour. Matthew 25:1-13
Jesus can be very frustrating. He teaches in these parables, these stories with lessons. Lessons that are unique. He also teaches directly. There’s a tendency that when Jesus speaks in parables, we wish he was speaking directly. And when Jesus speaks directly, we wish he was speaking in parables. I’ll give you an example of this. When the rich young ruler comes up to Jesus and asks him, what must he do to inherit eternal life, Jesus says the commandments. And the rich young ruler says that he’s been following them since he was a youth. Jesus then says, go sell everything you have and give it to the poor and come follow me, then will you be my disciple. And the rich young ruler walked away sad because he had many possessions. This is a story of the gospels that has been turned into a parable. It is more palatable as a parable. It’s more palatable as figurative language. It’s more palatable to think of Jesus talking only to this rich, young ruler and not to us.
In the opposite way, when Jesus speaks in parables, sometimes we wish he would just speak directly. Our reading for today is an example. We have the 10 virgins. Five are responsible, five are not. why virgins? Why 10? He explains the parable of the seed, but he doesn’t explain this one. Five keep oil. Five do not. Five are patient; they wait patiently for the Lord. They wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning. Five Do not. They go to sleep. Jesus gives a brief explanation about time, you’ll not know the time of the hour. So be prepared. Okay? I kind of get that, but how should we be prepared, Jesus? Just tell us. Another time, when Jesus is direct that we may wish he were parabolic, is in the Sermon on the Mount
You have heard it said to the ancients, You will not kill, whoever kills will be liable for judgment. I tell you anyone who is angry at their brother will be liable to be judged, and whoever speaks Raka to his brother is liable to the Sanhedrin. And whoever says, fool, is liable to the Gehenna of fire. Matthew 5:22-23
Oh Jesus, can’t you just tell us a parable about anger and how there’s this complicated story of anger and you know, we shouldn’t be angry, but if we are, it’s okay. Then we can do what we wanna do. But not too much. Wouldn’t that be easier? Yes, it would be easier, but it wouldn’t be God’s word. I think one of the powers of the parables is that they refuse to let us create in group in out-group. That’s what we wanna do all the time. We humans, we love in-groups, we love out-groups. When I was a senior in high school and I was accepted by the University of Texas at Austin, I was so relieved to be in an in-group. I was included. Once I made a decision, I didn’t have to worry about which college I was going to anymore. The same thing happened with seminary. The same thing happened with the ordination process. These are systems-based in-groups and out-groups, but we also do this socially and as a society. We have people we like and people we don’t. We have people we invite to our homes and people we don’t.
It is like getting on a plane. Once you board the plane, you are in. People who missed the flight are out of luck. Parables challenge these groupings because they are not about divisions of humans but the divisions of our heart.
Jesus inverts expectations in this parable of the 10 virgins. The five that wait for him do not assume they have already made it on the plane. The five that do not go to sleep because the bridegroom was delayed and they don’t think it will effect them. They think that they are already in the in-group, so they sleep.
The five who wait aren’t interested in being in the in-group or not, they are interested in the bridegroom. They care more about Jesus than their own status. It is not easy staying up. It is not easy waiting on the Lord. It takes making some sacrifices. In telling this parable, Jesus provokes us towards godly sacrificial love. The virgins here sacrifice something by waiting for the Lord. Another word for waiting is attention. Giving the Lord attention. Throughout Matthew 25, that’s what is going on. We have these three powerful parables of attention. Next week is the parable of the talents, the week after that, the sheep and the goats. Each of these parables gives us a cascading understanding of what it means to give attention to God. In each of these parables, we are offered a choice between apathy and activity. Passive waiting and active waiting. Ultimately, the parables are not offered to convince us of the truth of God’s love. The parables don’t function as apologetic tools. If someone doubts that Jesus is Lord, reading this parable is not going to convince them. Conversion ultimately can only happen through grace. The parables, however, are offered to convict us towards active attention. This is what holiness is. Setting ourselves apart for God, not staying in the same place. Do not stay in the same place. Those are the virgins who don’t get the oil. They wait for the bridegroom, but not that long. They’re tired and they go to sleep. They expect God to do everything. They expect that they can just do what they want.
I want us to think about the brides who went to sleep, not as if they are lazy, but as if they are missing the point. Jesus isn’t giving us a simple “Don’t be lazy” speech.
The question is not about whether one group is good and the other bad. The question is about who knows Jesus. Who is seeking Jesus? Who is waiting for Jesus. The parables are not about us and them. They’re about us and God. The Parables are not offered to separate ourselves from each other. They are offered in order to provoke us into looking inward to see where our love lies. Does your love fall towards your neighbor? Does your love fall away from yourself and your own self-satisfaction? Are you gathering that oil? Are you giving attention to Jesus? Or are you just going to sleep?
We have judgment here. Jesus is judging the brides.
He says:
The foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise replied, ‘No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet, and the door was shut. Later the other young women came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’ Keep awake, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.
Judgment is always uncomfortable. And, sure, maybe the 5 brides with oil should have shared it, but again, this is not about us and them, it is about us and God. Where does your heart lie?
This is conversion. It isn’t about which church you are a member of or what music you listen to or who you vote for, where does your heart lie? Are you attending to Jesus or not? There will be judgment of a sort. The Bible says this again and again. Logic says this.
What is the shape of that judgment? That is the question. Is it based on rule-following? Is it based on a list of criteria? is it based on being a member of the in-group or the out-group? Or is it based on something else.
Rowan Williams, the former archbishop of Canterbury, gave an interview a few months ago and he said something profound about judgment that I want to quote at length.
I think the notion that we are judged not on our keeping of the rules but on something else is one that is already there in the Gospels in a sense. And just as Jesus in the Gospels is not saying, “Ignore rules,” but, “understand that rules are about the kind of person you are becoming.” And I think, you know, that does run right through. It is St. John of the Cross in the 16th century who says, “In the evening of our life, it will be on love that we are examined.” So the conviction that there is beyond death, however we express that, that moment of confrontation with the truth, I think ought to make us, as I hinted, deeply conscious of the significance of every moment that passes. Because becoming more or less attuned to the truth is what happens moment by moment in every encounter. It is possible for me to get a little bit further towards, a little bit further away from that fundamental, all defining honesty. And it is only in that way that I become the person who finally sees God in the face. So I think a proper attitude to death and judgment is one that quite simply says, the next thirty seconds are decisive. And the thirty seconds after that. And the thirty seconds after that. Don’t take your eye off the ball. Look at what is in front of your eyes. That is where it starts.
I’ve sometimes said that what’s going on in the temptation stories in the Gospels is, at least in part, the devil saying to Jesus, “Take your eye off the present for the sake of the future. Take your eye off the real world in favor of the imagined world where I can give you all you want.” And the refusal of temptation is the affirmation that it is here and now that the presence of God is encountered, that the will of God is discovered, and our own humanity is shaped. The next thirty seconds are decisive. And the thirty seconds after that. - Rowan Williams
Giving attention to Jesus is about how we live our lives now. It is about how we live the next thirty seconds. Attuning ourselves to the truth of God’s love for us. Attuning ourselves to the truth of God’s love for our neighbors. Attuning ourselves to the commandment to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us. Remembering that when we attune ourselves to God, we change. When we give Jesus attention, we change. If we are not changing and growing in holiness, we are not paying attention to God, and we are slowly being consumed by our own hardening hearts. You can go towards truth or away from it. You can go towards love or away from it. You can go towards Jesus or away from him.
Keep awake. You do not know the time or the hour. But be at peace, for your Lord is not a tyrant but a friend who is love. Don’t go to sleep on the Kingdom of Heaven. It is here. Start living it now. Change your life now. Give your life now.
Let us pray, Heavenly Father, you give us life and opportunity now to receive your love and seek your love, not just in the future, but here and now. Help us to be so bold as to wait for you fully. In the name of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.