23rd Sunday after Pentecost
Notes
Transcript
Introduction -Huck Finn
Introduction -Huck Finn
Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot. By order of the Author.
In the parable of the 10 virgins there is a lot happening and it’s tempting to make a lot to apply. Problems: (we’re not fundamentalists or literalists, we are also not going to read this like a book of mythic poetry) Genre!
“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.
WILL BE LIKE
No direct application (unless you’re a virgin in a wedding with 9 other gals)
Also not a total throw away story.
We don’t know all that much about Palestinian wedding rituals
There is no bride! The door is shut? Who shut it?
What is the OIL??? (Jesus, Works, Evangelism, Grace? Alms?)
Today is simply about preparedness - not for Covid, or Thanksgiving or Xmas though my lights are up already.
How do we prepare?
Prepared by what?
Prepared by what?
Isaac watts - handel
Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let ev’ry heart prepare Him room
And heav’n and nature sing,
And heav’n and nature sing,
And heav’n, and heav’n and nature sing.
This is a question you must answer. Scripture suggests a few things- primarily:
Vigilance (general malaise)
For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them,
They were caught unprepared.
Hard truth. Some things are moronic. Jesus is exhorting us to not be morons.
Notes on Biblical Readiness:
Notes on Biblical Readiness:
It comes ahead of time
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
If we are to be ready that means we take action TODAY.
2. It has a goal (Searching for a future)
Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
3. It takes real effort (repeated)
Natalie has a classmate whose name I can never remember (It’s because I don’t care - Don’t know this person so I unfortunately don’t care about them)
Our churches are vacating because people have no idea what they are missing!
How do our kids learn to love? It is not as much taught as it is caught (I don’t know why the liturgy has sustained us)
In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
These patterns establishes a faith routine in the soul.
Bible Reading (Newsletter, Readings Slide, Mark the pages!)
Advent Website. WROTE LEARNING)
Concordiapullman.org/advent
Daily devotions - may feel awkward the first time - know what is more told you are a fool by the King of Kings and Lord of Lords when it was entirely avoidable.
Christian readiness is early, regular, searching.
It’s not necessarily what you do- it is that you do something.
Prepared for what?
Prepared for what?
The coming king
“Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”
At times we the church have confessed grace so much that we have eclipsed the judgement of God. Grace without wrath is cotton candy- there is no substance to it.
And He will come again with Glory to Judge both the living and the dead.
Typically Matthews Gospel is split into about 150 pieces 60 of them are about the final judgement. We too should hold that level of awareness.
Matthew: A Commentary, Volume 2: The Churchbook, Matthew 13–28 Chapter Twenty-Five: The Sermon of Judgment: The Doctrine of the Last Judgment (Eschatology, II)
Does the absence of judgment make grace unreal? I think so. Only where there is real judgment can there be real grace. “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.” Only where we know our real (and not merely rhetorical) wretchedness before God is grace ever amazing.
What happens if we’re not ready? AMOS!
Woe to you- Dark/Light, Lion/BEAR, safe @ home/SNAKE (echos of eden)
But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’
This is the question at the end of our stories, at the end of our lives - when the end draws near, will the Lord know us? What will the testimony of our lives be?
St John the Elder - ‘Little Children love one another’
What are you preparing your soul for? How?
The grace in this message is that we are ready for God to arrive with a tattoo on his thigh and a sword in His hand in fierce wrathful judgement. When does arrive he comes to claim His kingdom by leaving His seat of Judgement and becoming the one who is judged.
Christian readiness is early, regular, searching for the King who gives us life itself.
This week study yourself and resolve to do one act to prepare your soul for its ransom. Amen.