Matthew 25:1-13
“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids 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 bridesmaids 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 bridesmaids 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.
You might have noticed that in the scripture I just read the wise bridesmaids—the nerdy squirrels—don’t share. Arguably, however, the main point of this scripture is not to make a statement about sharing but to get our attention and to wake us up to being disciples. Recently, I’ve been thinking about our church’s public relations and how we get the attention of people who aren’t members. It was this past week while I was watching TV that an idea came to me as to what we might do. Some of you might be familiar with the TV series “Heroes” which has become one of the most popular shows on television. For the uninitiated, in the first season of this series it tells the story of a diverse group of characters from different countries who gradually become aware that they have special abilities. One of them can travel through time, another can fly, another can rapidly regenerate body parts and recover from any injury, another can read thoughts, another can paint the future, and so on. Well, the one who can paint the future foresees a time when New York City will be destroyed by a nuclear explosion days after a man by the name of Nathan Petrelli is elected to congress. As the plot unfolds, some of the persons with special abilities join together in a race against time to stop the explosion from happening.
In watching this TV show, I have come upon a sure fire media event that will help us market our church to the masses. Some of you might be familiar with the website YouTube which is used by people to post video clips for the public to see free of charge. I want to propose that we enlist our high school youth group to direct and produce a YouTube film entitled “Spiritual Heroes: The First Season.” I am sure you can see how this project will be a good follow-up for the stewardship theme from last month. The series will begin with a random group of people from all the different parts of Vancouver who gradually become awakened to their spiritual gifts. Kathleen New has discovered that she has a gift for painting the future. One night in a trance she paints a picture of our beautiful church skylight crashing to the floor and causing our entire church to implode. In order to prevent this catastrophe, a group of spiritual heroes otherwise known as First Congregational, UCC, must combine their spiritual gifts to stop the disaster which Kathleen predicts will occur shortly after Bob Bandarra leaves for Seattle where he will one day become a US congressman and solve our nation’s water treatment problems.
Over the course of many episodes, members of our church put their gifts to use in extraordinary ways. Cliff Boydstun fortifies the congregation with his magical cream puffs. Dorothy Mathews energizes the troops with her Barbecue Baked Beans. Opal Chapman protects all of the babies from potential falling shards of stained glass by making baby clothes out of an impermeable fabric supplied by Bert Martin at Columbia Sportswear. In a climatic moment hours before Bob’s departure to Seattle, Darly DeSilva with lightening speed cross-stitches a gigantic blanket that our handymen Bob Hettman and Randy Rock hang across the ceiling to catch the falling glass and save the day. In triumphant celebration, Becky Andrews dances down the aisle underneath the blanket while Virginia directs the choir in singing Handel’s Hallelujah chorus with Mary Craford playing cello. To capture this momentous event in Christian history for ages to come, Claudia Martin makes a three-dimensional scrap book that UCCers from around the country make pilgrimages to see.
“Now, Brooks, tell us again what any of this has to do with the ten bridesmaids in today’s scripture.” My understanding of this scripture is that the author of Matthew was getting the Christian community of his time geared up for the climatic finale of his gospel: the Great Commission. There are the foolish and wise bridesmaids, and the wise are the one’s who get ready to live in the way Jesus taught the disciples to live. We are all bridesmaids, but only those who get ready can be spiritual superheroes. If you want to be a spiritual superhero, as a Christian you have to prepare yourself by getting onboard with Jesus.
I am guessing that the tough question for us in all this is not whether we want to be spiritual superheroes, but what does it mean to be onboard with Jesus so our spiritual superpowers don’t get hijacked by demonic forces—the Sylars of the world, for those of you familiar with the villain in Heroes. Figuring out what it means to be on board with Jesus can be confusing in today’s world. We live in a time where there are lots of Christians who claim to have a monopoly on understanding Jesus. They go by different names: conservative and liberal, evangelical and progressive. At times, we might feel like we are caught in a war with the battle lines drawn, and we need to figure out which side to be on. But maybe, it’s not the labels we need to focus our attention on. And, maybe it isn’t so much about us going around and telling people that we are this or that kind of Christian. Maybe part of what we need to do is focus on how we can best model our walk after Jesus.
I am not much into making general statements about what it means to model one’s walk after Jesus, so let me give you a concrete example. Last year on Easter, a group of Christians left Phoenix, Arizona, to literally model their walk after Jesus as they joined together to walk 5 million steps across the United States to Washington, D.C. The group set out on this “Walk Across America” to promote what they called “Progressive Christianity.” They had a set of twelve affirmations that articulated what they saw as the values of their faith. These affirmations included things like:
-openness to other faiths
-care for the earth and its ecosystems
-taking the bible seriously, but not literally
-separation of church and state
-affirming that all people are created in God’s image, including lesbian, gay,
bisexual, and transgendered people
-standing with the poor and oppressed
-standing for peace
-affirming the role of faith and science in the pursuit of truth
Last week in Minnesota I saw a pre-screening of a documentary about this group of walkers. For me, there were two deeply affecting parts of the documentary. The first was the discovery the walkers made about Christians in rural small towns. They discovered that they had to let go of their stereotypes and labels about conservatives and liberals, rural towns and urban cities, red states and blue states. People were often much more complex than these labels suggested. There were those who were against abortion but worked “tirelessly on behalf of the poor.” There were biblical literalists who believed in “full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people.” Sometimes in places literally called Podunk Corner, the group found so-called evangelicals and fundamentalists who came up to them and said, “Thank you, you are walking for me.”
A second striking part about the documentary was watching the impact the walkers had on the lives of those in these towns who were gay or lesbian or were family members of gays or lesbians. They found a “ground swell of people” who were “becoming inspired to speak out for the fair treatment of GLBT” persons. One of the walkers reflected on the people in this ground swell:
They finally made the decision to no longer be silent about their faith. Especially in these small communities it can be tough because, they are small, if you stick out you can be ostracized pretty easily… but…when these people discover that they are not alone in these communities, then they begin to get a bit more emboldened. And, when they start connecting, they start getting pretty impassioned. And, when they start getting impassioned, they start getting pretty joyful. And they start getting organized over time. And we found this again time after time.
In communities throughout the country, there are people who are getting awakened to discipleship and what it means to follow Jesus in our own day. Now is the time to get ready and to make sure we have got oil in our lamps. Now is the time to gather with the bridegroom and join the joyful celebration at the wedding banquet. Now is the time for us to realize our powers as spiritual superheroes headed to a party that isn’t pie in the sky, but rather the result of us joining together as faithful disciples around Jesus, the star of our banquet, here on earth. Amen.