Claimed, gathered and sent

  This is the sermon I preached last Sunday at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The text is Matthew 25:1-13 . This is a seemingly clear, yet troubling parable. There are a few things scholars cannot agree on, even going back to Martin Luther. For instance, does the oil symbolize good works or faith as Luther believed or the Holy Spirit? We don’t know for sure. Another funny thing is the identity of the bridegroom. From other parts of scripture, we tend to believe that the bridegroom is Christ, and that this is about his return in the age to come. But one pastor says, “this Bridegroom simply cannot be an image of God. God the lurker; God the waiter-until-some-people’s-oil-is-spent; God the “gotcha! master”; God the forgetful – these are such unworthy ways of imagining God” (D. Mark Davis, leftbehindandlovingit.blogspot.com). Hmm, makes you think, doesn’t it? This passage is often referred to as a parable, but, nowhere, are we told that this is a parable. After all, it doesn’t have the ...

This is the sermon I preached at St. Timothy Lutheran Church last Sunday. The gospel was Matthew 25:1-13 . Have you ever been to a wedding like the one in today’s parable? While living in the Holy Land, my daughter, Sarah, and I had an opportunity to experience a wedding like this. We waited with the women at the bride’s house, not knowing exactly when the bridegroom and his men would arrive. We’d hear a sound. Excitement filled everyone. Maybe it’s him. Is it him? Someone would look to see. No, it’s not him. We’d wait longer and longer. Would the groom ever arrive? There was a shout. There he was! Finally! Like the bridesmaids in today’s gospel, we did not know exactly when the groom would arrive, only that he would.   This parable’s use of the wedding imagery infers joy and fulfillment, not sorrow or dread. We see so many scary movies about the end of time that stir up fear. Jesus speaks about the end, but his return is meant to bring joy and not fear for believers.   ...

Here are some thoughts on this Sunday's gospel text that I shared with the people of St. Timothy Lutheran Church. What do you think? Gospel: Matthew 25:1-13 [Jesus said to the disciples:] 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, a...