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Sermon for the Last Sunday of the Church Year (Trinity 27)
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 + Matthew 25:1-13
The end of all things is near. But the question is, how near? I don’t know. No one knows, except for God alone. It could come at any time. The more important question is, when the end does come and the Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus, enters the wedding hall of eternal life, will you be among those who go in with Him, or will you be shut out forever among those to whom He says those tragic words, “Truly I tell you, I do not know you”? Jesus Himself is not indifferent to how you answer that question. He has no desire to shut people out of eternal life. On the contrary, He earnestly pleads with all who have ears to hear to hear, to prepare, to think ahead about the things you will need and to bring them along with you throughout this life, so that, no matter how long the Bridegroom delays, you will be found among the ready.
The parable Jesus tells in order to drive home the importance of thinking ahead is very simple. Ten virgins, ten chaste young women are assigned a task: “Go out and wait for the bridegroom to arrive at the wedding hall. When his wedding procession comes near, go out and meet him, with your lamps brightly burning, and join the festive procession into the wedding hall. The bridegroom is coming sometime tonight, but he hasn’t said at what time. So be ready!”
They all go out to wait, excited to carry out their task. But five of the virgins are wise, while the other five are foolish. The wise ones take along a jar of oil, along with their lamps, in case the bridegroom delays. The foolish ones take no extra oil—only the oil that’s already in their lamps. They wait, and wait, but he still doesn’t come, so they all drift off to sleep. Suddenly, the cry rings out in the middle of the night, Look! The bridegroom is coming! Go out to meet him! The girls wake up and trim their lamps. The wise are ready, but the foolish are not, and it’s too late, at this point, to do anything about it. The wise join the procession and enter the wedding hall with the bridegroom, and then the doors are shut. When the foolish virgins finally arrive, they are denied entry. I do not know you, the bridegroom says.
The meaning is simple. Jesus, the Bridegroom who came the first time to suffer, to give Himself for the Church, that He might sanctify her and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that is, in Holy Baptism, is going to return at the end of time (once all the elect are baptized into his Church) to bring an end to this world and to bring His Church with Him into the new heavens and the new earth, the home of eternal righteousness, and joy, and peace. He’s told His people to be ready when He comes, with faith burning brightly, a living faith, a working faith, and He’s given us all the opportunities we need to have that brightly burning faith when He comes. He has warned us to be ready for a long wait. And He has also told us ahead of time that many Christians will not be ready when He comes, because they failed to take His warning to heart.
So the question before each one of you today is, will you take His warning to heart? If you’re determined to do that, then consider what you will need to be doing. Consider what wisdom looks like, how to be wise like the five wise virgins in the parable and not foolish like the other five.
When the trumpet sounds suddenly on the day of Jesus’ return, heralding His arrival, you will be surprised. Everyone will, because He will come unexpectedly, like a thief. But surprised doesn’t have to mean unprepared. Being prepared means being found with a penitent heart, a believing heart that is sorry for sins committed against God and clinging to Jesus alone for mercy and for salvation, a heart that is devoted to keeping God’s commandments. In other words, you will need to have a living faith. Not the faith you once had as a child, or that you once had years ago, but then wandered away from it. Not the faith that simply remembers who Jesus is but that no longer clings to Him for dear life. Not the faith of head-knowledge only, but of knowledge combined with confidence and trust in God’s goodness, mercy, and promise of forgiveness for Jesus’ sake.
How does a Christian prepare to have that kind of faith, not only now, in this moment, but in a week, in a month, or a year, or 70 years in the future? How do we live in a state of preparedness? Some people like to prepare for a future crisis with an emergency food supply, not unlike having extra oil on hand for an oil lamp. Emergency food storage is not a bad analogy, except that food storage is for a possible crisis, whereas what Christians are preparing for is a future certainty, even though we don’t know how far in the future it will be.
So how does one do “faith prep”? How do you bring along extra oil for the extended wait? You start by taking Jesus seriously when He talks about His second coming and when He urges you to prepare for it. That seems like a no-brainer, but, as the parable of the Ten Virgins reveals, many who initially go out to wait for the Bridegroom won’t take that extra oil along.
But, having determined to take it along with you, you do that by using the opportunities God gives you now, and for as long as He gives you such opportunities. Which opportunities?
Well, let’s start with the opportunities to read your Bible, the very Word of God that sits in every home and on every electronic device. Judge for yourself how often you have made use of those opportunities. If you have made good use of them, don’t stop. And if you find that you haven’t used them very faithfully, do better. There’s still time!
We can talk about the opportunities to not only read but to study God’s Word, even to commit some of it to memory. It’s why we have Bible class in addition to our weekly services. Judge for yourself how often you have made use of those opportunities. If you have made good use of them, don’t stop. And if you find that you haven’t used them very faithfully, do better. There’s still time!
We can talk about the opportunities to hear the preaching of God’s Word and to receive His Sacraments from the ministers who have been sent by God for the very purpose of keeping His people prepared for His coming. Are you not yet baptized? Don’t wait! Are you baptized? Remember it every day and think about what it means. Are you able to receive the Lord’s Supper on a regular basis? Receive it! Or, if you’re not able to receive it very often, being far away from your church, that’s okay, but as soon as you do have the opportunity, be eager to receive it, and, in the meantime, be sure to look for ways to use the ministry of God’s Word in whatever ways are available to you and your family. Are you planning a career, or a career move, or a physical move, or a family? Don’t let God’s Word and Sacraments become an afterthought.
Finally, let’s talk about the opportunities you have to pray—something we can all do throughout the day, every day. But do we? If not, let us all determine to do better—to do all these things better in the coming Church Year. That’s the wise thing to do. Prepare for Christ’s coming by making the most of every one of these opportunities. Prepare today. And when today turns over to tomorrow and tomorrow becomes today, prepare today again. And be assured that God is not leaving this all up to you. He knows what opportunities each person needs, and He knows well how to provide them. He has made you children of the light and children of the day and has given us all we need to be prepared for the day of His coming. And so, Paul urges us, Since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, in order that, whether we are awake or asleep, we should live together with him. Amen.
