Oration for the
Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost
O God of justice and love, you illumine our way through life with the
Words of your Son. Give us the light we need and awaken us to the needs of
others through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.
Additions to the
Prayers of the people:
|
· For our neighbours In the
Anglican Church of Canada, Trinity Church Aylmer and their pastor, Archdeacon
Janet Griffith Clarke, and Bishop of Huron, the Very Rev. Todd Townshend, Let us pray… |
·
For our bishops, Susan and Michael
and all who share the ministry of leadership
and authority in the church, let us pray…
·
For peace in our
world and in our hearts as we approach Remembrance Day…
·
For
all the needs and prayers we hold in our hearts…
(a time of silent prayer)… let us pray…
Amen.
Amos 5:18-24
18 Alas for you who desire the day of the Lord! Why do you want the day
of the Lord? It is darkness, not light; 19 as if someone fled from a lion, and
was met by a bear; or went into the house and rested a hand against the wall,
and was bitten by a snake. 20 Is not the day of the Lord darkness, not light,
and gloom with no brightness in it?
21 I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn
assemblies. 22 Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain
offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your
fatted animals I will not look upon. 23 Take away from me the noise of your
songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. 24 But let justice roll
down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Psalm 70
Be pleased, O God, to deliver me.
O Lord, make haste to help me!
2 Let those be put to shame and confusion
who seek my life.
Let those be turned back and brought to dishonor
who desire to hurt me.
3 Let those who say, “Aha, Aha!”
turn back because of their shame.
4 Let all who seek you
rejoice and be glad in you.
Let those who love your salvation
say evermore, “God is great!”
5 But I am poor and needy;
hasten to me, O God!
You are my help and my deliverer;
O Lord, do not delay!
Second
Reading: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed,
brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as
others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose
again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. 5
For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who
are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have
died. 16 For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel's call
and with the sound of God's trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in
Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught
up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will
be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Reading:
Matthew 25:1-13
1 "Then the kingdom of heaven will be
like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. 2
Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. 3 When the foolish took their
lamps, they took no oil with them; 4 but the wise took flasks of oil with their
lamps. 5 As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. 6
But at midnight there was a shout, "Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out
to meet him.' 7 Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. 8
The foolish said to the wise, "Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are
going out.' 9 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.' 10
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. 11 Later the
other bridesmaids came also, saying, "Lord, lord, open to us.' 12 But he
replied, "Truly I tell you, I do not know you.' 13 Keep awake therefore,
for you know neither the day nor the hour.
Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor
the hour.
·
When I was a child (a younger child anyway), this passage used to scare
me. I would wonder if I had enough “oil” for my lamp and would it be enough for
the time when the “bridegroom” would arrive. I didn’t even know what the lamp
oil was all about. I was scared of a possible future.
·
Now I realize that this parable is one for the present although it has
its roots in the future. It takes place for us in the now.
·
Everything I’ve studied about this parable agrees that we should not make
it into an allegory where one thing represents another. It’s best to avoid
assigning role to the characters and to the props in the story. The oil and
torches and bridesmaids make up the story and drive the action, yet they are
not so central to the story that they become the focus of our thinking. They
are not the focus of the lesson.
·
Maybe some explanation is necessary. In Jesus’ time, Jewish wedding
customs had the groom coming with his friends to claim (or maybe as some would
say, symbolically “steal”) the bride. The bridesmaids would have been waiting
for him to arrive as “maids of honour” as it were. Oddly enough, there is not
bride mentioned in this parable; the focus is on waiting and preparation. Note the
odd thing that all ten of the bridesmaids fell asleep during the delay of the
arrival of the groom. Still when the groom arrives the wedding and the
celebration begins.
·
Rather than blaming the characters in the parable or trying to figure out
what each figure in the parable means, we’d to better to remember that the
parables of Jesus teach us something about the Kingdom of God. The stories
remind us that the Kingdom is with us now and is still on it’s way to its
fulfillment.
·
We really have no idea of when the Kingdom will be fulfilled or what it
will be like. What we do know is that the reality of the Kingdom is present
now, both around us and within us.
·
So are supposed to live as if the future were always present? Here’s the
real word: the future is present! With the birth of Jesus the Kingdom began to
break into the created world. With the death and resurrection of Jesus, all who
could see might see that the reign of death was coming to an end. The Pentecost
sending of the Spirit upon the Church tears down more barriers to the final
coming of the Kingdom of God.
·
The idea of the Kingdom “breaking in” and becoming part of our mortal
reality always sounded strange to me. I’ve come to believe that it is true
none-the-less. The Kingdom is present and it is still yet to come. It could be
that there is always more to be and more to become.
·
If this is the case, how different might we act and on what would we act?
I can’t answer that question for anyone but myself. We all know that ourselves,
although we know the shape of the answer – justice, compassion, care, faith,
hope, and love.
·
What we do will not bring about the Kingdom, just as neither the vigil of
the bridesmaids nor their napping brought the groom to the wedding banquet. Our
task is to remember that the groom is on the way and in a number of ways, is
with us already and in that remembering to wait. We wait as those in readiness,
but we wait never-the-less.
·
What do we say every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer? Your kingdom come; your will be done on
earth as it is in heaven. For now that must be enough.
Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor
the hour.
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