Good Shepherd Lutheran Church(elca)
Following Christ, Growing in Faith, Sharing God's Love
Sermon
November 8 and 9, 2008
Matthew 25:1-13
This section of Matthew deals with 2 questions:
-When will Christ return?; and
-What shall we do while we wait?
So, first question…
When will Christ return?
Answer?
We don’t know.
In 1818,
there was a man named William Miller,
who said:
“I am fully convinced,
through my study,
that some time between March 21, 1843
and March 21, 1844,
Christ will come.”
So for 25 years,
William Miller and his followers
waited with excitement
and anticipation.
And guess what?
He was wrong.
Because we’re still here.
But as wrong as William Miller was
about the date of Jesus’ coming,
you’ve gotta say this for him,
he was waiting.
He was ready.
He was looking eagerly for that day
when our Lord would return.
Martin Luther once said
that we’re all like a bunch of drunken peasants:
we either fall off one side of the horse or the other.
Some of us get all caught up
in trying to predict and know the details of the end time.
We try to know something that is unknowable.
But a lot of us,
and this is more my tendency,
fall off the other side of the horse.
We get all wrapped up in today.
And we forget that there is an ultimate tomorrow.
We forget that Jesus is coming again.
Thomas Long writes this about our Gospel reading:
Perhaps a significant clue to interpreting the parable
surfaces when the wise bridesmaids are described
as “those who were ready”.
Ready for what?
The bridegroom?
No, the foolish bridesmaids were eager
for the groom to arrive, too;
the wise bridesmaids are distinctive not because
they were ready for the groom
but because they were ready for the groom’s delay.
Many of the people in Jesus’ time
thought that Jesus would return within their lifetimes.
And now, 2000 years later,
we’re still waiting.
And the story of the bridesmaids is a reminder
not to give up.
Not to lose hope.
Not to think God has forgotten us.
But to be prepared.
To live, ready for Christ’s coming.
And that leads to the second question:
What shall we do while we wait?
A man visited a famous teacher
and was astonished to see
that his home was just a simple room
filled with books.
The only furniture was a table and a bench.
“Teacher, where is your furniture?”
asked the visitor.
“Where is yours?”
replied the teacher.
“Mine? But I’m only a visitor here.”
“So am I,”
said the teacher.
“So am I.”
The things around us aren’t without importance.
But they are not of ultimate importance.
What’s ultimately important
is our relationship with God,
and the relationships with other
that flow from God’s grace.
It’s easy to focus on the stuff around us.
A house—and all the projects that brings.
The yard—and leaves that fill it up
as soon as you’re done raking.
A car.
Your favorite TV shows.
Food.
When we live prepared for Christ’s coming,
something changes—
--and I’m not so sure it’s always very visible.
We still work on our house
and our car
and cook food
and rake leaves.
But the attitude of being ready
changes you on the inside,
and gives a sense of purpose and direction to your activity.
One of the joys of my recent sabbatical
was having quiet time at home.
There were times that I missed the activity
of having family around.
But there were also times that I treasured the quiet—
--with the boys at college,
and Ruth at work.
Each day, I set aside some time
for prayer,
to listen for God’s voice.
And one of the things that I found myself wondering in those times
was about the Bible reading that tells us to pray constantly.
And I started wondering,
as I moved from my prayer time to my chore time—
--I started wondering,
--how can I fix a meal in a prayerful way?
--how can I do the laundry in a prayerful way?
--how can I go shopping in a prayerful way?
--how can I spend time with family in a prayerful way?
I think that’s what it means to be prepared for Christ’s coming.
To be filled with God’s grace
in such a way that each moment
and each of the day’s little activities,
is lived in response to God’s love.
Is lived in a prayerful way.
What is our mission statement?
Following Christ,
Growing in Faith,
Sharing God’s Love
One way to look at that mission statement
is that the way we follow Christ
is by Growing in Faith
and Sharing God’s Love.
That means we never arrive.
We’re always growing in faith.
And that’s good news.
Because I can easily see the ways I fall short.
I constantly have room to grow—
--to more fully follow Christ.
To be prepared.
To live as we are created to live while we wait.
A university professor was going to speak
at a military base one December.
That’s where he met Ralph.
Ralph had been sent to meet him at the airport.
He was standing there with a sign with the professor’s name.
After they introduced themselves,
they headed toward the baggage claim.
As they walked down the concourse,
Ralph kept taking little detours.
He saw an older woman whose suitcase had fallen open.
He stopped to help her gather her things.
He saw two little ones straining to see Santa Claus.
He stopped to lift them up to see.
Someone looked confused.
He stopped and helped them find their way.
Each time he came back with a smile on his face—
--his life enriched by helping someone else.
“Where did you learn that?”
the professor asked.
“What?”
Ralph said.
“Where did you learn to live like that?”
“Oh,” Ralph said,
“during the war, I guess.”
He told the professor about his tour of duty in Vietnam.
It was his job to clear mine fields.
He watched friends die as landmines exploded before his eyes.
“I learned to live between steps,” he said.
“I never knew whether the next one would be my last,
so I learned to get everything I could out of the moment
between I picked up my foot
and when I put it down again.
Every step I took was a whole new world,
and I guess I’ve been that way ever since.”
That sounds like being prepared to me.
Sounds like a good way to live while we wait.
Following Christ.
Knowing that Christ will come.
At the end of time.
Or at the end of your life.
And we don’t know when either one of those will come.
Keeping our eyes focused on Christ.
Growing in Faith.
Sharing God’s Love.
Another airport story…
On our way to Kenya,
we were in the Chicago airport.
Excited about our journey.
We went through security.
And we ended up behind a family
from Mexico.
And the wife and daughter didn’t speak English.
So when they took the husband
to ask some further questions,
the wife and daughter were left sitting,
not really knowing what was going on.
And none of the security folks there at the time
Spoke Spanish.
I don’t speak Spanish either.
But our son Brent does.
And when he saw what was going on,
he went over,
sat with the woman and daughter,
talked with them,
found out what was going on,
helped them understand,
comforted them.
And their tears dried up.
And they had smiles,
even before the husband returned
and they moved on.
Frederick Buechner says that your calling from God
is where your deep gladness
meets the world’s great need.
We each are given different gifts,
different interests,
different abilities.
While we wait for Christ’s coming,
we use those gifts to share God’s love
as we continue to grow in faith.
So Brent helped out in the airport,
and is now volunteering as a tutor
for a Spanish-speaking boy in Decorah, Iowa
who needs help with his studies in English.
How about you?
What gifts do you bring?
Where is God calling you?
Whatever the specifics,
live each day with Christ’s coming in mind—
--keeping Christ’s love at the center
--living each moment of each day in a prayerful way.
We don’t know when the end will come—
--the end of time
--or the end for each of us.
But we wait with anticipation,
being prepared by living each moment in God’s love,
reflecting God’s light.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen
