"Ready or Not, Here I Come!" - Sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Lent

Ready or Not, Here I Come!
Lent 4 – Narrative Lectionary 1
March 15, 2015
Grace, Mankato, MN
Matthew 25.1-13

Today, we continue our Lenten journey through Jesus’ parables in Matthew as Jesus moves closer and closer to the cross. It seems as we do so, they get edgier and edgier. When I first worked with this parable several weeks ago, I didn’t realize it would follow the time change to Daylight Savings Time. So this last Monday when I attacked it in earnest, I realized why the maidens fell asleep waiting: it was after the time change. Perhaps when we take small children on a long trip we should do it at this time of year so that they’d fall asleep rather than keep saying, “Are we there yet?” My tail has been dragging so low to the ground this week I wonder if even Jesus’ coming would rouse me from sleep.

As we dig into the text today, it would be good to remember that parables are not puzzles to be solved but mysteries to be entered. Or more to the point, they are mysteries to enter us and open us up to the ways of the kingdom. This is especially true with the parable of the 10 maidens. It is important to note that although the parable has allegorical elements, it isn’t a strict allegory. There aren’t one-to-one correlations with all of the elements in the parable.

Now, we could do a whole Bible study on this, but what’s important to remember for today is that Matthew’s community preserved this parable because they were baffled about why Jesus hadn’t returned as he promised. It’s been 30 years since Jesus’ death, resurrection and promise to return. Where was he? Jesus’ command for them to keep awake was meant to not only assure them of his eventual return, but also to invite them to look around in their lives for his presence.

We need to admit that 2,000 years later we don’t have the same uneasiness about Jesus’ delay as Matthew’s community. That is, unless you’re one of those we make fun of, such as the “Left Behind” folk who take out billboard ads threatening Jesus’ imminent return.  Perhaps the only group periodically wishing for Jesus to come back is students taking tests they haven’t studied for. So, instead of the bumper sticker saying, “Jesus is coming; look busy!” it should be truncated to say, “Jesus is coming; look!”

So, I want us to understand Jesus’ words as a reminder to look for his coming every day. Here’s a quote by Eduard Schweitzer, an early 20th century New Testament scholar:

When Jesus calls on his disciples to keep watch, he is calling on them to take the reality of God so seriously that they can come to terms with its sudden appearance at any moment within their own lives, precisely because they know that this reality will one day come unboundedly in the kingdom of God.

In other words, because we are assured that Jesus will return one day, we know he shows up every day.

On one level, I think all of us know that God is active in our world, all the time and in many ways. But, I think that we have a hard time seeing God working because of busy-ness and ignorance. We are too busy to take the time to reflect on where God is active in our lives and we may not know how to look if we did. An ancient spiritual practice developed by St. Ignatius of Loyola called Examen of Consciousness is one way to help us see God. We don’t have time to do a full blown exercise (and I’m no expert) but here is one way to do this. At the end of the day, take some time to reflect on all that’s happened to you during the day, good or bad. Then ask, “What has been happening in me?” in these events and “How has God been working in me?” Now, this isn’t a time to dictate to God the questions you want answered, such as why things happened, but rather at time to see how God meets you in those events.

There’s a lot more to Examen than this, but this is a simple why to get practice in looking for God. It’s also a reminder that Lent is an opportunity to look for Jesus presence and to realize that we are often like the maidens on the other side of the door, seemingly shut out from God’s company. Waiting and looking are hard, which is why we gather together as a congregation, to help each other slow down and see what God is up to in, with and through us. Furthermore, together we are able to see that Jesus shows up in some pretty unexpected places. But that’s my sermon for next week, that is, if I can get used to the time change and stay awake long enough to hear what God would have me say. Amen.