Stay Awake!
Advent A: Isaiah 64:1-4 and Matthew 25:1-13
Pastor Deb Troester, STHPC, December 3, 2023
How often we wish that God would intervene in the events of this world. Like Isaiah of old we cry out to God, “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down.”
When we see the continuing violence and bloodshed in the Mideast, with so many innocent people on both sides killed, we cry, “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down.”
When we remember the war in Ukraine, which has been going on for nearly two years now, we cry, “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down.”
When we hear of more villagers killed or abducted in Cameroon, even this past month: we cry, “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down.”
When we read about Sudan where over 6 million people, half of them children, have had to flee their homes due to the continuing civil war, we cry: “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down.”
Here at home, some half a million people are unhoused in the U.S. and 34 million are food-insecure, lacking consistent access to enough food to live a healthy life, we cry out to God, “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down.”
It is easy to feel helpless when faced with problems of this magnitude. We weep with those who weep and feel sorrow for those who suffer. Even if we are not personally affected, something about the human heart longs for justice and peace. It is only natural that we should lament these tragedies, as Isaiah laments the aftermath of the Babylonian invasion of Israel in his day: “Your holy cities have become a wilderness…Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and beautiful house, where our ancestors praised you, has been burned by fire.”
The presence of so much lamentation in the Bible – even a book named Lamentations – should assure us that it is all right to mourn that which we have lost, to mourn the victims of war and violence, hunger and homelessness.
Isn’t Advent a time of hope? Why does the lectionary force us to read such depressing scriptures at such a festive time? Yet Advent itself reminds us that God did come down and enter human history – not as a powerful supernatural judge, but as a helpless baby, born to a poor family in a poor country, at a time of upheaval and oppression caused by the Roman Empire. Jesus came - Emmanuel, God with us, Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace. He came to walk among us, to bring us into relationship with God, and to teach us God’s ways.
And that gives us hope. For, as the angels said to the disciples as Jesus ascended into heaven after his resurrection: “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come [back] in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” When will this happen? Jesus told his disciples, “About that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert, for you do not know when the time will come.” In the meantime, we wait. Advent reminds us of that waiting for the final day when Jesus will return.
This brings us to the parable of the bridesmaids. John J. Pilch, in his book The Cultural World of Jesus, explains that in those days, “the high point of the [wedding] ceremony occurred when the groom, accompanied by his relatives, went to the family house of the bride to transfer her to his home…[where] the rest of the wedding ceremony and celebration took place. This is the point at which Jesus begins his parable. The groom has gone to fetch his bride. Ten young teenagers, very likely the groom’s sisters and cousins, are awaiting his return…the role of the teenagers…is to greet the groom and the entire wedding party when it returns and to participate in the celebration…” A village wedding ceremony in those days would have been a big occasion – the entire village would have been invited – so everyone listening to the parable would have been familiar with this event.
Maybe some of them had even fallen asleep themselves while waiting for the bridegroom and bride to arrive.
To understand the symbolism in this parable, we need to know that in the New Testament, the church is referred to as the bride, and Christ as the bridegroom. When people asked Jesus, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” Jesus replied, “The wedding attendants cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? …The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.” Rev. 19:7 reads, “Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.” The parable of the bridesmaids refers to the end times, when Jesus will return to claim his people, and a great celebration, a wedding banquet, will be held in heaven. In the meantime, the parable warns us, “Keep awake, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour” of Christ’s return.
The early church expected that Jesus would come back soon, that the end of days was near.
By the time Matthew was writing, about 50 years after Christ’s death and resurrection, some Christians had begun to doubt Christ’s return and started to fall away from the faith. This parable encouraged them not to give up hope. It specifically says, “The bridegroom was delayed” but he was still coming. The imagery of the bridal attendants falling asleep and waking unprepared, with no oil for their lamps, refers to Christians who had become complacent in their faith. The parable seems to say that some were failing to refill the lamps of their souls by prayer, listening to God’s word, and serving others in the name of Christ. It reminds us of Jesus’ teaching: “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” Don’t let your lamp run out of oil!
The season of Advent reminds us to keep awake, to be attentive to what God is doing, so that we will not be found unprepared when the bridegroom comes. As Isaiah proclaims,
“From ages past no one has heard,
no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
who works for those who wait for him.”
God works for those who wait for him. That is a comforting thought.
Dr. Rebecca Blair, stated clerk of my former Presbytery, recently wrote “…we are called to live as a people of hope. After all, waiting does not imply that we simply sit and do nothing. Waiting itself calls for a particular way of being, a particular set of preparatory activities. [It means] …to trust, to hope, to expect. The coming of Advent reminds us to trust that a faithful God will fulfill God’s promises…, to hold hope that lives in our actions and travels in our stories, and to live in alert expectation of the sign that our hope is fulfilled, shining in a bright morning star.”
The anthem sung earlier by the choir borrows from a 19th century poem:
Watchman, tell us of the night
What its signs of promise are
Traveler, what a wondrous sight:
see that glory-beaming star.
We, too are watchmen – we are a people who watch and wait and anticipate God’s future.
Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer observes in his book, God Is In The Manger, that “our whole life is an Advent season, that is, a season of waiting for the last Advent, for the time when there will be a new heaven and a new earth.”
“Keep awake,” Jesus says, for God’s new world is coming… He is calling us to prepare ourselves for God’s eternal reign to break into the world, to watch for what God is doing in our lives and all around us. Campus minister Melissa Bills writes: “Jesus urges us to be attentive, that we remain prepared for the full and final in-breaking of God’s reign when it comes. When we do this, when we commit to the spiritual practice of paying attention, we find that we catch glimpses of God’s reign every day…
This week Joe and I watched Meg Ryan’s new romantic comedy, What Happens Later. Meg’s character, Willa, is stuck in an airport during a winter storm when she randomly runs into her old college flame. Their flights are canceled and they get snowed in for the night.
In the movie, the airport P.A. system becomes a kind of omniscient character, giving specific directions for what Willa should be doing. At a pivotal point in the film, the P.A., booms out, like the voice of God, “This is an important announcement. Look up! Pay attention!” That is good advice for us all this Advent. Look up! Pay attention! Stay awake and watch for what God is doing in the world. Keep your spiritual lamps filled with oil. We may see only the very beginnings of God’s kingdom, as tender green shoots sprout after the first rain of spring, but God’s reign is coming. Let’s get ready to join the celebration!
©Deborah Troester 2023