Readings: Matthew 25:1-13
Where: Trinity Worship, College Road 12.11.2017
Minister: Rory Grant
Sermon:
- Festivals of the church year
- Christmas
- Easter
- Pentecost
- Am I missing any?
- One we’ll be celebrating in a couple of weeks time – the reign of Christ
- Christmas and Easter commemorate the events of Jesus’ life and ministry on earth
- Pentecost commemorates the presence of the Holy Sirit in our lives
- We can give thanks for and remember Jesus’ life and ministry. We can celebrate the experience of God’s presence with us through the Holy Spirit here and now, but what gives us hope for the future?
- Communion liturgy: Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again.
- The reign of Christ is the culmination of the church year. The coming of reign of Christ gives us a telos, a purpose, a hope for the future. So often we get so caught up in what God has done in the past, we get so caught up in what God is or isn’t doing in the here and now, that we forget all about the promise that we have been given. If we lose our hope, then we lose our way
- Strange parable
- Full of details that just don’t make any sense to us
- Is it about strange first century marriage rituals?
- I had a wedding last Saturday, and I have a wedding next Saturday. Both of them have had brides organized for some time in advance.
- Is it about the patriarchal hegemony of the church?
- Is it about Competition for God’s love?
- There’s something about this parable that really jars.
- What’s going on?
- It would be possible to go through this story with a fine tooth comb, looking for subtlety of meaning in the fine details.
- There may be merit in that, but first and foremost this story is a parable. An allegory. A metaphor. A story told to teach. A story told to challenge us. A story told to change and shape the way that we see the world.
- Perhaps it’s not surprising that we find this story jarring. Perhaps we are nto the only ones who do. After all, Jesus’ teaching in Jerusalem did not immediately lead to enlightenment for all of his listeners, but to his imprisonment and death.
- There is something strange here, but also something vitally important.
- So what is Jesus trying to teach us through this parable?
- All about context
- A few weeks ago I preached about Jesus and his place among the Rabbis – so many of the questions asked of him attempt to locate him in the rabbinic tradition.
- Culminates in his teaching in Jerusalem
- Jesus takes these Rabbinic links as far as they go, then he goes off on another tangent, criticizing the hypocrisy of the religious leaders of the day, and setting a new vision for God’s people, a vision based around his own example, a vision located in the coming kingdom of heaven. A vision firmly located in hope for the future – the kingdom of heaven, the reign of Christ
- His disciples, quite naturally, I think, ask him when all of this will come to pass.
- At that point Jesus delves deeply into apocalyptic the apocalyptic language of Matthew 24. One weakness of the lectionary is that there is a tendency to skip over some bits that are more awkward or difficult. It says something about Matthew 24 that the lectionary skips over that part and lands us in this strange parable at the start of Matthew 25.
- This jarring little parable.
- Ten marriageable maidens who are not good at sharing.
- A story of the coming kingdom of heaven
- A story for us.
- What is Jesus trying to teach us here?
- How is he challenging the way that we see the world?
- Parables are less about the fine detail, and more about the general principle
- The kingdom of heaven is not literally a mustard seed, but it is something small that grows and grows until it is the biggest thing in the field, the most important thing in your life
- The kingdom of heaven is not literally a pearl of great price, but is more precious than anything we can imagine
- This kingdom of heaven is not literally a wedding where the bride is the last thing to be organized, but the coming kingdom of heaven is something we need to be prepared for.
- Some of the virgins are prepared for the wedding, some are not. We’re not preparing to get married, but Jesus is calling us to prepare ourselves to live in the kingdom of heaven.
- One of terrible mistakes we have made in the church over the years is to think that once we have signed out statement of faith and received out ticket to heaven, then we can get on and live just the same as everybody else.
- Jesus calls us to something different
- Jesus calls us to live as if we are preparing for life in his kingdom, the kingdom of heaven.
- What does that look like?
- One way of interpreting the New Testament is to read it as the Church wrestling with the answer to that question as they live somewhere between the stark realities of this world, and the hope of the kingdom of heaven.
- Love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and strength
- Love your neighbor as you love yourself
- That’s the start of it
- Live as citizens of the kingdom of heaven – Ephesians 2
- Live as the body of Christ – 1 Cor 12
- Meeting together and encouraging one another Hebrews 10: 24-25
- 1 Thess 5 – build one another up in love
- 2 Cor 5 – participating in Christ’s ministry of reconciliation with the world – taking that love beyond the church in all that we do
- We are citizens of a different reality – no longer are we to live according to the zero sum game of this world, but we are called to live into the reality of the coming kingdom of heaven.
- This is our purpose. This is our hope. This is our future, and we’re called to live into it. Starting now. Amen
