24 November 2017

Sermon Proper 27, Year A, Matthew 25:1-13, 12 November 2017

         Are you a wise bridesmaid or a foolish one? Are you always prepared or seldom prepared? This morning’s Gospel reading might be telling us that even if we aren’t prepared in what we call “real life,” we still tend to think of ourselves as being prepared for God. But are we? And is being wise always enough?
         Consider the wise bridesmaids in this morning’s story for a moment. They brought plenty of oil, didn’t they? There they were, waiting. But did you catch that all the bridesmaids fell asleep, not just the foolish ones? I wonder what that says about our ability to wait. I wonder if instead of focusing on preparation, we might look at staying awake and alert and present.
         Most of us get impatient when we wait. In fact, some of us even use excuses about our impatience. “I like things to happen fast. I like things to get done. I don’t like to waste time.” These are some of the things we say about waiting. And we complain about waiting: waiting in the doctor’s office, waiting in line, waiting for service in a restaurant, waiting for results from a test, waiting for someone else to do something for us. We live in an eager and instant gratification society. Some of us even get impatient with God. Why doesn’t God get on with it? Why don’t we have a new Rector yet? Why don’t more people get involved? Why don’t people do what they used to do here?
         Yet we forget that time does not belong to us. Time belongs to God. Psalm 90, addressed to God tells us about God, “For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past, or like a watch in the night.”[1] We do not get to choose when the bridegroom returns. We get to choose how we wait.
         So what does it mean to stay awake to the presence of God? What does it mean to be aware each moment for the coming of Christ, the bridegroom? What does it mean to be present, to be available to Christ for when he calls us not just in this moment, but in future moments? And, what does it mean to be so preoccupied and distracted by other things that when we turn back to begin waiting again, the door is already shut?
         Matthew’s scripture this morning begins to point us in the direction of Advent, of waiting and anticipation for Christ among us. We spend most of Advent in waiting, waiting for the Christ to come among us again at Christmastide. But what if Christ Jesus, the Messiah, is already among us, waiting to be noticed and recognized and served? What if in our impatience with waiting we get complacent, or fall asleep, or stop waiting?
         How are you about waiting? Are you wise or foolish about waiting? Do you come prepared to wait, to sit patiently, or do you squirm impatiently? Do you come prepared to see and hear and know something new, or are we so caught up in our impatience we miss the things happening around us?
Do we keep our eyes and ears and minds and hearts wide open to what might be delightful and joyful, tender and true? Or do we shut our eyes and ears and mind and heart to anything new because we like the old so much?
         Perhaps Jesus calls us to be neither wise nor foolish but awake and alert. Perhaps Jesus calls us to wait alertly and wide-awake, with our eyes and ears and minds and hearts open to seeing Jesus among us. To see Jesus waiting to be noticed and recognized and served. Perhaps Jesus calls us to keep our eyes and ears and minds and hearts open to what is delightful and joyful, tender and true. AMEN. 

The Rev Nicolette Papanek
©2017



[1] Psalm 90:4 (NRSV)

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