Did You Bring Enough Oil?

The Holy Gospel According to St. Matthew the 25^th Chapter

“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise,

‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ 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.’ And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut. Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’ Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

The other day I was at the doctor’s office and picked up a magazine.  It was a 2000 year old issue of Jewish Bridal Magazine.  They have some very old magazines there.  But it was a good thing, because I learned that back then, THE way to do a wedding was for the groom to go over to the bride’s house, get the bride and bring her back to his family’s house.  Along the way, they would gather up ALL the people in the WHOLE community to come to the wedding ceremony AND the party that followed.  Leaving anyone out was a huge wedding DON’T!  In the back of this issue of Jewish Bridal Magazine were more wedding DON’Ts.  Back then, there was nothing that could ruin a wedding faster than a patrolling Roman soldier and if you were out at night without a lamp you were assumed to be up to no good.  To keep the wedding party out of jail and to help everyone find the party, the bridesmaids were in charge of lighting the way.

That magazine helped a little with this parable, but this one is hard!  The usual take home message that most people preach is that we are supposed to be “wise” and not “foolish” in our waiting for Christ’s return and if we live life like the “wise” bridesmaids we’ll be allowed into heaven but if we are “foolish” and don’t bring enough oil, faith, goodness, morality etc. to sustain us while we wait, we’ll be stuck outside in the dark and locked out of the party.

Long about Friday, I decided I just couldn’t buy it.  It just doesn’t match with who Jesus is or what the Bible says it means to be faithful.  How is NOT sharing the oil you have with those who are in need, the “faithful” thing to do?  The “wise” Bridesmaids didn’t share their oil because, out of fear, they thought THEY would need it.  But true faithfulness is giving to those in need sacrificially, without fear!  Jesus didn’t just give us the “extra” part of his life, after all...  Jesus gave his WHOLE life!  Giving... faithful giving anyway... Biblical giving... THAT kind of giving... is recognizing that all we have is a gift from God and so we give not off the bottom after we’ve used what we needed, but off the top, BEFORE any other bills are paid.  It’s “first fruits” not “leftovers”.  So the “wise” bridesmaids were less than faithful givers; they were selfish and fearful and yet Jesus called them “wise.”  I just can’t believe he thought they were “wise” because of their selfish, fearful, hoarding of their oil.  So, there MUST be something else in this story that makes them “wise” to Jesus.

Then there’s the “foolish” Bridesmaids.  The tradition says that they were foolish because they didn’t pack enough extra oil.  I just can’t believe that is what makes them foolish!  It isn’t what WE do that gets us in the door at the party or keeps us out!  It is what God has done in Christ’s life, death and resurrection that gets me and you and all of creation into the party!  So, if it isn’t our failure to do the hard work, thoughtful planning, being morally “good” or remembering to pack enough lamp oil for the duration that keeps us out of the party, then what is it that made Jesus call this bunch of bridesmaids “foolish”?

If this parable isn’t what we always thought it was, then what is it that makes the “wise” so wise and the “foolish” so foolish?  Whenever I went to take a test in school, my dad would remind me to RTFQ.  I believe that meant, “Read The Foolish Question”.  He told me to do that because it wasn’t a good idea to ASSUME I knew what the rest of the question was just from how it started.  He told me that “ASSUMING” made... well it made a terrible mess.  Dad’s advise might not be worded in the most “churchy” way but it’s not wrong.  We THINK we know these parables because we’ve heard them so many times, but we really shouldn’t ASSUME.  Jesus doesn’t say they are locked out because they ran out of oil, or didn’t plan well or failed to do enough to find a 24 hour lamp oil store or even because they fell asleep for a while as they were waiting.  They are locked out because, “Truly I tell you, I do not know you.”

Here’s what I think is really going on here:  The groom in the story is Jesus and the wedding party is “THE” wedding party, the Kingdom of God, the Feast of food rich with marrow and well aged wines strained clear, Heaven or whatever else you want to call it.  Like ANY good, ancient Jewish wedding party, the Groom (Jesus) has invited EVERYONE... all of creation... to the party in his life, death and resurrection.  The Groom has asked you and me and all the Christians in the world to help light the way for the rest of creation to come to the party.  We have been asked to be the Bridesmaids BUT here’s the KEY... Jesus asks us to be Bridesmaids, to shine a light into the darkness of this world, not because we’ll do it perfectly or flawlessly but simply and ONLY because he LOVES US!  Think about it!  No one asks someone to be in their wedding for how well they’ll do the job!  We ask people to be in our wedding because they are the people we KNOW best... the ones we LOVE and that’s exactly what Jesus has done.  He’s asked us to be in his wedding party!  He didn’t ask the perfect.  He asked us!  Of all people, Jesus knows who we are... Sometimes we plan well and sometimes we don’t... Sometimes we react out of fear and become selfish and at other times we’re the most generous people in the world.  The Groom loves us and that is the ONLY reason he wants us to be in the wedding party regardless of the amount of oil we bring to the party!

We are loved when our lamps are shining brightly AND we are equally loved when our light goes out and we find ourselves in the most fearful, darkest moments of our lives.  What made the “foolish” bridesmaids truly “foolish” is that they did not believe that to be the truth.  They somehow, falsely came to believe that the Groom would love them ONLY if their lamps were full of oil and burning brightly.  They FOOLISHLY ran off to try to DO SOMETHING to get the Groom to start loving them again.  They were “foolish” and we are “foolish” only when we stop believing that God’s love for us is absolutely unconditional.  When we stop trusting that there is nothing we can do to get God to START loving us AND nothing we can do to get God to STOP loving us... THAT is when we stop being the people the Groom KNOWS we were created to be.

So, fellow Bridesmaids... Be Wise!  Stand firm and confident in God’s unconditional love for you.  Shine your light into the dark places of this world while you have oil.  Fearlessly share your oil with those who have run out confident that when your oil runs out (and everyone runs out of oil in this life) and your life feels like it is at the bottom of the darkest pit, stay right where you are... right there in the darkness and know that you are always and still wrapped in God’s unconditional love trusting that the light of Christ will shine in the darkness and the darkness will not overcome it.   Amen.