Matthew 25:1 - 13 Ready for Christ's Return?

Grace, Mercy, and Peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ,

       The word “parable” comes from a Greek word that means “putting things side by side”. Somebody said that a parable is a heavenly story with an earthly meaning. Somebody else said this: “a parable is one of those stories in the Bible that sounds like a pleasant yarn but keeps something up its sleeve that pops up and leaves you flat.” In other words, Jesus’ parables are meant to wake us up from complacency and get us to think.

       When I was a seminary student, I learned that although our Lord’s parables have many details, most of them have one central point of comparison and one basic message they want to get across. I’ve never been very good at figuring out these central points, so if I want to get to the heart of Jesus’ stories, I need to consult the writings of experts. This morning’s parable is the same as the others: we need to do some thinking to get to the main points.  

       Jesus uses the parable of the wise and foolish virgins to be ready for his return. That’s its basic meaning. A day is coming when he will return in glory to claim his beloved people with all the love and joy with which a new husband claims his bride. He will bring his faithful children into eternal happiness. He will wipe away sin and death and every evil to such an extent that we won’t even remember the things that may trouble and vex us today. Instead, there will be gladness and rejoicing forever. The love God has for his people, which we now experience by faith, will be clear to us and visible and unmistakable.

       The Lord commands us, meanwhile, to be ready. The word “readiness” suggests certain things to us. We get ready for winter by getting our heavy clothes in order and making sure the care is shipshape, if you have one. A student gets ready for exams by studying faithfully.

       We get ready for the Lord’s second coming in a different way, not by taking external measures, but by trusting in Christ now, in his friendship, his goodness toward us, his promise that we are saved by God’s love through our faith in him. Somebody explained the details of the parable this way: the oil we need is God’s grace and the power of Christ and the flame the oil produces is faith together with the good works we perform today and tomorrow and the inner changes we undergo as the Holy Spirit works to transform us.

       Faith in Jesus means more than agreement with certain facts, such as the ones we’ll recite in the Apostle’s Creed. It isn’t just carrying out the forms of religion or being active in the church. Faith is a living trust that Jesus is our friend and savior – that he died on the cross to win the forgiveness of sins for each one of us. Faith in Jesus means a profound certainty in our hearts, which only God can give, that Christ hears our prayers, that he’s present in our worship and in the sacraments, and that he has prepared a place for us in heaven. Faith in Jesus means assurance, confidence, that we ourselves are saved. If when we read the Bible or hear God’s Word spoken, we are convinced of Jesus’ friendship for us, then we have a good supply of oil and the flame of faith is burning. We’re ready for the second coming of Our Lord.

       Let’s think about how this readiness works by imagining a few people in everyday situations. Nelson is an intelligent and searching person. He wants to know about salvation. He reads a wide assortment of material and talks to many people. He often hears the idea that he doesn’t need God for salvation because he can earn it on his own through good works and pushing himself to live by a strict code. But because he knows very well he isn’t perfect and is likely to make mistakes, he doesn’t take these ideas seriously. He knows that he needs help. He turns to the Bible where he learns that Jesus is his help and he comes to trust what Scripture says about the Lord. Nelson is ready for the second coming.

       Mary Beth is a young lady from a strong Christian background. She goes to school and then to work, where she meets a variety of people whose faith isn’t so strong. They tease her and tell her she ought to get more fun out of life. Going to church every Sunday won’t do anything for her, because there is no evidence that Jesus will come back. Mary Beth says that it isn’t just a matter of going to church. It’s true that for some people turn religion into a routine, but she herself has a strong personal trust that Jesus is her savior. He refreshes her and gives her energy. He removes her sins and fills her with confidence. Her lamp is filled with oil. She’s ready for the second coming of our Lord.  

       Warren is an older man. He’s had a wide experience of life and contact with hundreds of people. Many have done better than he in a worldly sense, and he has endured more than one heavy disappointment. Without his faith in God, he would be tempted to sink into despair and give up on life. He’d be inclined to blame himself for everything he thinks has gone wrong. But Warren is a Christian. He brings his troubles to the foot of the cross and he feeds on our Savior. Even while he knows the heaviness of life, he trusts in the mercies of Christ. He is ready for the second coming.

       Hilda has had a long life. She knows what it means to be active and she’s had many joys. She’s also experienced a lot of sadness and frustration in recent years together with physical pain. People she loves have moved away or passed on to eternity. She’s tempted to wonder if life has meaning and purpose, but only tempted because she believes in her heart that Jesus walked the earth before her and that he passed through every sorrow that she’s now experiencing. She leans on Jesus’ companionship and his compassion for the wounded. She trusts that he died for her and that in his rising to new life again she herself gains new life. As she turns to Jesus, she discovers that her joy revives and she’s ready for the second coming.

       We’ll take one more example. Priscilla is a new Christian. She has many questions and she isn’t sure that other Christians accept her. But she knows that Jesus is her savior and she has experienced his power to renew. She knows that Jesus’ blood washes away her sins and that she has a never-failing friend in our Lord. She is ready for his return.

       These five people of faith are prepared for the second coming because by God’s grace they trust in Jesus now. They know he is their savior; their lives are safe in his hands. It would be easy to imagine five people of a different sort, who thought they were ready for Jesus’ return but actually were not because although they had the right lamps, they lacked the oil that brings faith. They went to church; they did good works, but their souls were elsewhere, focused on themselves and on the world rather than God’s will for them.

       The Savior’s parable teaches several lessons. First, that automatic religion doesn’t do much for us. It’s possible to know all the teachings and to do good works and practice all the rituals, but to be dead inside. True religion comes from personal contact with our Savior, who makes alive and who brings joy. People who look for a lively, strengthening faith will find it. They will be ready for Christ when he returns.

       Similarly, borrowed faith doesn’t help. The foolish virgins believed that when the time came they could get oil from their friends. But their neighbors had none to give. They had just enough for themselves and nothing left over. It isn’t enough to say, as some might, though no one here this morning, I’m sure, “Well, my grandparents had lots of faith and I will attach myself to theirs.” We need our own relationship with the Savior.

       Thirdly, God’s grace is abundant. He is very patient, slow to anger and quick to forgive. He continues to reach out his hand. But a time is coming when it will be too late. There will be no chances for sinners to repent and faith to be renewed. The Lord has included us among the wise. We ask him to keep us there and to build up our understanding of what it means to be ready for his return.

       In the fourth place, Jesus points out that we do not know exactly when he will come back. It could be next month. There could very well be a long delay. We do not know. this is not a case, however, where ignorance is bliss. We are not to use our lack of knowledge as an excuse for laziness. We should regard each day as if that were the day of Christ’s return. When we think this way, we find that the Lord is bringing out the best in us. He motivates us to do good works – to spread the gospel, to help the needy, to visit the sick, to pray for ourselves and our neighbors, to read the Bible every day. We find then that we are not living by automatic religion or leaning on the prestige that previous generations built up. We are living by our own faith with plentiful supply of oil to fill the lamp when our Savior returns. What opportunities he has given us! What ways to be active as we get ready to receive him on the day of his second coming. In his name we rejoice. AMEN.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge of Christ Jesus. AMEN.

                   

   

Revelation 7 -- The Lives of Saints

Grace and Peace to you from him who is and who was and who is to come,

       All Saints’ Day gives us a chance to do something a bit unusual – we dip into the Book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, which wraps up a story that began in Genesis. You’ll remember that in the 3^rd chapter of Genesis, Adam and Eve fell from grace and were cast out of the Garden of Eden. Not only that, they passed on the guilt of their sin to every succeeding generation, so that even God’s chosen people had their share of bad moments as well as good ones. Christ came to earth centuries after the Fall and gave his life as a payment for sin. He rescued all believes from the clutches of the serpent and from bondage to sin. The Book of Revelation foretells the final outcome of Jesus’ work. A multitude of people from all over the earth will sing God’s praises in heaven. Although evil is powerful, God is even more powerful, and Revelation looks ahead to his triumph over everything bad and hurtful and worrisome, including death itself. The last book of the Bible has quite a few dramatic moments, but its main point is the victory of God. So the Bible has a happy ending. It begins with Creation and the Fall and ends with rejoicing in heaven, through the grace of God in Christ.

       This victory will take place through the church. This morning’s reading from Revelation shows the church in two phases – the church on earth and the church in heaven. The earthly church exists in the middle of the trouble and turmoil of the world; the church in heaven will praise God in endless rejoicing. God protects the earthly church so that there will be a loud and joyful chorus in the heavenly church. As John the evangelist wrote, in heaven there will be no hunger or thirst or penetrating heat. Jesus will lead his people to springs of living water; he will wipe away every tear. All evils will pass away.

       Now, in order to appreciate the happy ending that God is preparing, we celebrate All Saints’ Day once a year, and also take a moment to define the word “saint”. When people speak of “saint” in every day conversation, they sometimes do so in a mocking way. According to popular definition, a saint is a superior person who lives a rigorous life and performs wonderful deeds for God day after day, someone who hardly ever commits a sin. But the Lord has another understanding of sainthood. A saint is a person who is aware of his or her capacity for sin, who accepts God’s pardon through the death of Christ, and welcomes his guidance. A saint is a person whom God is gradually changing so as to become more and more like Christ – in virtue and godliness of life. A saint holds onto the Lord by faith no matter what trials he or she may be passing through. In other words, you and I are saints, even though the word might embarrass us because of the uses to which it’s put in daily life; we are saints because of our faith in Christ. The Lord sees us as saints; he looks on us as his chosen people; he sees us as brothers and sisters of Christ. All because of our trust in our Lord. He includes us in the long line of saints that has existed since biblical times. He has a high opinion of us. We are his constant delight. As someone once said to me, we are twinkles in the eye of eternity.

       Now, the Lord wants to keep it that way, and so he brings us and all his other saints into his church on earth where he can protect us and feed us and watch out for us.

You probably know that John wrote Revelation during a time when the church suffered heavy persecutions. Many Christians feared that they would crumble under the pressure the Roman government placed on them. John reassures his readers that God protects his church. He keeps faith alive in the hearts of his people. He puts a seal on their foreheads – a brand, a special mark – that only he can see. This invisible seal identifies them in God’s eyes as one of his chosen people. What a terrific reassurance. Even on bad days when nothing went right and they felt like closing in on themselves, the Lord still saw the early Christians as his saints.

       Nothing can prevent him from completing the work of bringing saints into his kingdom – not wars or plagues or the forces of nature can keep him from drawing saints into his church and keeping us there. To take a present-day example, we know there has been a resurgence of faith in areas where the former Soviet communists held sway. I came upon these words of a 21 year old Russian: “I believe in God now. Lenin and Marx said there wasn’t a God...but I thought, that can’t be. It’s too primitive to look at humans as pieces of fat and molecules. A person can’t live if he or she doesn’t have a soul.” What a powerful witness! It’s happening all over the world. God draws people to him out of the cesspool of materialism and makes them saints. We should pray that people now turning to God stay in the faith and treasure their place in the Lord’s kingdom.

       Closer to home, we don’t have to look far to find the ills of materialism at work in our own society. We sometimes hear it said that our neighbors are hungry for God, that folks want the guidance and consolation of his Word. That may be so, but the loudest voices they hear urge them to seek comforts and pleasure, to live for status and achievement. Government and the schools, business and the media – all ignore God. Everything is tolerated, it seems, except the good news of salvation in Christ. Society overlooks the golden rule and the Sermon on the Mount, not to speak of the good news of forgiveness and new life in Christ. Outside Christian circles, we don’t hear the message that a day of judgment is coming. And people who don’t hear about sin and wrath never see their need for a Savior.

Even with a spiritual climate like ours, however, the Lord calls people to him and raises up saints, like you and me, who don’t think of ourselves as anything special. He equips us to witness to others about their needs and God’s mercy and love. He calls us to work with his help against the trends of the day. He encourages us to speak the truth in love, even words of reproach, and to reach out to the spiritually hungry with his offer of love and friendship; he urges us to ease aching hearts with the message of the gospel; he invites us to comfort the fearful with his offer of hope.

       In other words, we do Jesus’ work while we have the chance. We point others to the kingdom – whether children or neighbors or people who have fallen away – so that they, too, may live as God’s blessed saints.

       Our lives now are a curious mixture of ups and downs. We have great joys and deep sorrows. Things we look forward to are rarely as fulfilling as we had hoped. We enjoy beautiful things, but moments of beauty never last very long. We turn away after the sunset or when a favorite song is finished only to find that we must go back to our familiar routine. Worse things than that happen to us. What are we to make of this strange mixture, earthly life?

       We bring our concerns to God. His Word tells us that life has a purpose that will be revealed to us in heaven. Meanwhile, painful moments refine us and bring us closer to Jesus in faith. We learn to see the best moments of earthly life, which for Christians are likely to occur at church during worship, as a foretaste of what is to come.

       Ups and downs will end. We will join the multitude of saints in heaven, where there will be no grief or hunger or tears or war. We’ll emerge from our present tribulations, whatever they may be, and we’ll stand before the Lord in white robes of righteousness. If you like conversations, there’ll be plenty to talk about. If you like singing, there will be plenty of music. If you like sports, there will be physical activity. Most of all we’ll be in the presence of Christ. As John wrote, he will feed us and lead us to fountains of living water and he’ll wipe away every tear.

       So – you and I will be included in the happy ending that concludes the Book of Revelation. The ups and downs won’t get the best of us, because God has put his mark on us. He knows exactly where to find us, and in his own good time, he’ll deliver us from every evil. Our task now is to give him thanks and praise as we will do when we reach the church in heaven. In Jesus name. AMEN.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge of Christ Jesus. AMEN.