The World Waits

Introduction

Let us pray.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD my rock and my redeemer. (Ps 19:14)

Amen.

2020 has become the year where “the world waits.”

For many of us, we have spent much of our lives in a pattern of waiting.

Whether you are a child waiting for Halloween night or Christmas morning and looking forward to the treats or presents we will receive.

Or a student or professor waiting for the semester to end and looking forward to a well-deserved break.

Or an expectant mother awaiting the arrival of her child and looking forward to the joys of motherhood.

This has become even more evident in the past 8 months.

We have all waited for the threat of the Coronavirus to diminish looking forward to a return to normalcy.

Some have waited for justice looking forward to the day when human beings will not terrorize one another or treat them differently just because of their culture or skin color.

And even this past week, we have waited for the results of our national elections, looking forward to a time when our own values will be upheld in government.

Our second reading today, the Parable of the Ten Virgins, is one of waiting as well.

This morning, I would like to walk through this parable and address three questions:

What is Jesus telling us to wait for?

What does this parable teach us about Christ’s return?

How, then, should we wait?

What is Jesus telling us to wait for?

First: “What is Jesus telling us to wait for?”

Our parable tells of a great wedding feast.

But, first century Jewish weddings were nothing like ours today. They would often last an entire week. Vendors would stay open late to serve the needs of the wedding party and guests. The bride and groom would be the queen and king of their little community. All were invited to celebrate with the couple.

In the parable, Jesus is the bridegroom and the Church is his bride.

This is a theme repeated throughout the Scriptures. The marriage feast is the culmination of Jesus’s second coming.

St. John describes this feast in Chapter 21 of Revelation:

... I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Rev 21:1-4)

What a glorious picture of Christ’s return. Definitely something to look forward to.

What does this parable teach us about Christ’s return?

Now that we’ve established what we are waiting for, what does the parable teach us about how we are to wait for it?

Our story tells of ten virgins (or young maidens) preparing to escort the bridegroom to the wedding feast when he arrives. Some are prepared for his coming, but some are not. Those that are prepared are invited in, those who are not prepared are left on the street.

The procession of the wedding party was an important part of the Jewish wedding tradition. They would light the way for the bridegroom to travel to the bride’s house and then follow them both to the wedding feast. All would be prepared in advance, but in may cases, the bridegroom could be delayed for hours or even days. (Brand, 1664)

Thus, the couple’s friends never knew when the bridegroom would come. All they knew was they needed to be ready regardless of when he arrived. If he showed up in the dark of night, they must have lamps ready to light the way.

The Wise Virgins

The wise virgins were prepared for the long haul. They had their lamps ready and kept their lamps lit to keep from having to relight them.

They had anticipated that the bridegroom might be late. So, they brought extra oil so they could be ready whenever he did appear.

When the bridegroom did come, they were able to join the procession and light his way to the festivities and join in the feast.

The Foolish Virgins

On the other hand, the foolish virgins started out ready. They also had their lamps ready and they had also kept their lamps lit. But they had only prepared if he were to arrive that day.

When night came, and their oil ran low and they heard the bridegroom was coming, they were forced to leave to buy more.

By the time they returned, the procession had reached the wedding feast but they were not allowed to join in the celebration.

It seems clear then, there are three things Jesus teaches us in this parable:

Like the bridegroom, Jesus’s second coming will arrive when we least expect it.

It is something that we must prepare for.

If we do not adequately prepare, we may no longer be welcome into the wedding feast.

How, then, should we wait?

So, finally, we come to our last question: “How, then, should we wait?”

There seems to be a difference in accepting an invitation to the wedding feast, and the preparation needed to be able to attend it. We may see this as the difference between faith and faithfulness. The foolish virgins had faith that they could attend and made half-hearted gestures to prepare. But the wise virgins responded in faithfulness to make all the necessary preparations to attend.

Jesus’s message seems clear throughout Scripture:

Faith in the gospel is not the same as our faithfulness in response to the gospel. Faith amounts to only simple belief. Faithfulness is bearing fruit with the gifts that God has given us and doing so with constancy and perseverance in expectation of Christ's return.

Godly Love

So, how do we go about living out faithfulness to God’s calling? The first, is with godly love.

St. Paul tells the Corinthians:

If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not love [ἀγάπη], I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. (1 Cor 13:1)

The word love here is ἀγάπη, but is a special kind of love. We might call it “godly love.” It is a love that does not care for another simply because of who they are or what they can do for us - but it is a self-sacrificial love that cares for others without any obligation. This love is not just a feeling, but rather it results in action.

This ἀγάπη love is seen in our works. They are faith expressed in action. St. James, in his epistle, states:

What good is it, my brothers [and sisters] if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” (Jas 2:14-17)

Thus, our faith must be joined with godly love that serves others while we await Christ’s coming. That is the first part of faithfulness.

Constancy

But godly love is only one part of faithfulness. There must also be a constancy (or perseverance) in that expression of love.

All ten of the virgins had prepared in some sense for the return of the bridegroom. Just some did not prepare with perseverance in mind. They were all prepared to welcome the bridegroom. But, some were not diligent enough to be prepared to welcome him whenever he came.

What makes the foolish virgin’s rejection all the more painful is that they were never denied the opportunity to get the oil. Instead of sleeping, they could have run to the vendors and been ready when the bridegroom did come. The stores were obviously open.

Like Christ’s promise to all who would believe, no one is denied the opportunity to live in faithfulness. The difference was “that they troubled themselves about the oil too late.” (Lange, 439)

Many of us have experienced the joy of knowing of the salvation promised by Christ. Yet, Jesus tells us that we cannot wait until the day of judgment to take on the mantle of God’s work in the world. As St. Augustine tells it, we are living in a “time of mercy,” where we can put on this mantle. But when we reach the “time of judgment,” the door will be shut on us never again to be opened. (Schaff, 405) We cannot wait until our death beds or Christ’s return to translate our faith into action, it must be done with constancy throughout our lives. Those who do not may not enter the marriage feast.

If we want to enter into this glorious future, we must engage in the mission of Christ in this world: to wait, but in doing so to act in love and constancy.

Conclusion

In summary, we have answered our three questions:

What are we waiting for? We are waiting for the great wedding feast - the second coming of Christ .

What does the parable teach us? We must prepare for the wedding feast even though we do not know when the bridegroom will arrive. Those who do not prepare may not be able to enter into that feast.

How, then, should we wait? Our preparation must involve waiting and acting in godly love and constancy.

To conclude, I would like to share a personal story.

Our family just moved into a new house and a new neighborhood about 3 months ago. Sue and I were both looking forward to Halloween to meet all our neighbors and getting to know them a little bit more. My 4-year-old daughter, Hannah, was even more excited about the arrival of that day, looking forward to running around and get all the yummy treats.

We prepared her in every way we could, practicing knocking on doors or shouting “Trick or Treat” as loudly as we could to ensure that we stayed socially distanced. We had been practicing for weeks. Every day we would hear, “Is it Halloween yet?” The waiting was driving her crazy.

Well, the day arrived, she got all dressed up in her Elsa costume, put on her glow-in-the dark nail polish, and was ready to go out into the world.

And yet, that evening, as the time approached, we discovered that she had gotten a stomach bug. In our health-conscious climate, we thought it better for her not to participate, just in case it was something else.

Surprisingly, she seemed to take the news without a fight. So, she gloomily dressed in her PJ’s as Sue and I prepared for the trick-or-treaters to come to our house. One of us would stay inside with her, while the other greeted our guests.

She was devastated. We were devastated. Sue and I were looking forward to seeing her joy as she bounced down the street screaming “Trick or Treat” in her cute costume. And we were looking forward to meeting our neighbors.

A little while later, she began to feel better, but we still felt it better to keep her in. Despite her disappointment, we turned this setback into an opportunity for her enjoy the night another way. The whole family set up shop in our garage. We set up a nice 6-foot line on the driveway behind which our guests could see us. When they arrived, we all tried to throw candy into the buckets from a distance and wish them a Happy Halloween. We even had a dance party. We had so much fun doing this all together as a family.

It really turned out to be a precious night of spending time together. Hannah’s disappointment did not go away, but the opportunity remained to make this a night to remember. I know Sue and I will remember it. I hope Hannah will. When we were forced to wait on something, we made the best of that situation.

The Jewish people knew that God would be returning in glory one day. Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection were like the signature on that contract. After Jesus ascended into heaven, the disciples must have been looking forward to that great day coming. Maybe it will be today or tomorrow. Disappointment must have stirred in their hearts as another day or year passed with no sign. But, in their waiting they also heard Jesus’s words to go out and spread his ἀγάπη love to the world.

In their waiting, they acted and spread his good news throughout the earth.

The Church has seen the days, years, decades, and millennia pass without Christ’s return. It is easy to despair. But Jesus’s call to the disciples also applies to us - wait and act.

I think about our current state of waiting - with the Coronavirus, or social justice, or even our national political situation. We remain a world that waits.

What are the things that we can do share God’s love in our waiting. What neighbor can I reach out to? What mission can I support? What is one thing that I can do to bring God’s ἀγάπη love into the world while I wait? This is the call of Christ to us today.

Let us pray:

Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long. (Ps 25:5)

Amen.

Bibliography

All scriptures are taken from the The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016.

Brand, Chad, Charles Draper, Archie England, Steve Bond, E. Ray Clendenen, Trent C. Butler, and Bill Latta, eds. Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003.

Josephus, Flavius, and William Whiston. The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged. Peabody: Hendrickson, 1987.

Lange, John Peter, and Philip Schaff. A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Matthew. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2008.

Schaff, Philip, ed. Saint Augustin: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels. Vol. 6. A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series. New York: Christian Literature Company, 1888.