Nov 12, 2017 - Matthew 25:1-13. 25:1 "Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and
WISDOM AND WONDERS SCRIPTURE: WISDOM OF SOLOMAN 6:12-21; MATTHEW 25: 1-13 GRACE COVENANT PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ASHEVILLE, NC November 12, 2017 The Rev. Dr. Marcia Mount Shoop, Pastor Wisdom of Solomon 6:12-20 6:12 Wisdom is radiant and unfading, and she is easily discerned by those who love her, and is found by those who seek her. 6:13 She hastens to make herself known to those who desire her. 6:14 One who rises early to seek her will have no difficulty, for she will be found sitting at the gate. 6:15 To fix one's thought on her is perfect understanding, and one who is vigilant on her account will soon be free from care, 6:16 because she goes about seeking those worthy of her, and she graciously appears to them in their paths, and meets them in every thought. 6:17 The beginning of wisdom is the most sincere desire for instruction, and concern for instruction is love of her, 6:18 and love of her is the keeping of her laws, and giving heed to her laws is assurance of immortality, 6:19 and immortality brings one near to God; 6:20 so the desire for wisdom leads to a kingdom. Matthew 25:1-13 25:1 "Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. 25:2 Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. 25:3 When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; 25:4 but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. 25:5 As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. 25:6 But at midnight there was a shout, 'Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.'
25:7 Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. 25:8 The foolish said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.' 25:9 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.' 25:10 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. 25:11 Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, 'Lord, lord, open to us.' 25:12 But he replied, 'Truly I tell you, I do not know you.' 25:13 Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour. Our moment in American history has been described for some time now as “postChristian”—signaling an end to the primacy of Christian beliefs and practices in the life of our country. “Post-Christian” does not mean Christianity is dead. It means that the Christian practices and values that linger in our society are not connected to a deep and shared understanding of why and how those aspects of our society are Christian. Post-Christian America isn’t all-bad for us practicing Christians. We’re being forced to distinguish ourselves, to understand who we’re called to be in new ways. Retrieving our faith from blind acceptance and oblivious appropriation is a good thing. The challenge is that we’ve got some things we need to figure out together, some challenges that are formidable that we need to, as people of faith, respond to in new ways. We could also describe our moment in history as “post-wisdom”? It’s hard to find wisdom in our civic and religious discourse. I can’t remember a time when reading the paper felt so demoralizing and disappointing. And sometimes it is our brothers and sisters in Christ who are saying the most disturbing things. This week has been bewildering when it comes to wisdom. Are we really using Mary’s age, for instance, to normalize a grown (an old) man dating a 14 year old? Have mercy on us, God.
And another Sunday in our country has been desecrated by a shooting. Little did we know last week as we gathered for All Saints what was happening as others gathered for worship in that little church in TX. Our country’s response to these mass shootings is wearying in its repetition. We continue to be captive as a culture to a foolish refusal to seek new wisdom about gun violence—since 1997 the Dickey Amendment has been in force—effectively barring the Center for Disease Control from using any of its funds to do research on gun violence that could lead to gun control.1 And lest any of us be tempted to think this foolish behavior only shows up in one political party, please work on letting go of that unhelpful way of seeing this problem. Bill Clinton signed that bill into law. And while there is political rhetoric about finding new ways to address gun violence every time there is a shooting, there has been no real momentum from our elected leaders to get rid of this law. And there are many, many gun owners who think this block on research is foolish. We can’t make this about gun owners vs. non-gun owners either. We continue to look foolish as a country every time we wake up to another shooting—unprepared, unready to respond any differently when tragedy strikes. And it’s not just about gun violence where our repeated incredulity seems foolish. Why do we continue to express surprise about how rampant abuse of power is in our culture? These are not new habits—powerful men have been harassing and abusing women for centuries. So why are we surprised that these things keep happening over and over again? Wisdom, we have to wonder, may have given up on us somewhere along the way. Did we stop pursuing her? Is it the injustice we’ve grown accustomed to that has estranged us from wisdom? Scripture has been weaponized by many to reassert Christian identity in our postChristian moment. But if Justice and Healing are our aspirations instead of 1 ‘The amendment, which was first tucked into an appropriations bill signed into law by
President Bill Clinton, stipulates that ‘none of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be used to advocate or promote gun control.’ A similar provision was included in the Appropriations Act of 2012. Named for Republican Rep. Jay Dickey of Arkansas, a self-proclaimed ‘point man for the NRA’ on The Hill -- the Dickey amendment does not explicitly ban CDC research on gun violence. But along with the gun control line came a $2.6 million budget cut -- the exact amount that the agency had spent on firearm research the year prior…” http://abcnews.go.com/US/federal-government-study-gunviolence/story?id=50300379
judgment and exclusion, then a weapon is not what we need. What we need is wisdom. Scripture is not something we can, as Christians, decide whether to seek guidance from. Scripture is a singular resource for us. And scripture is a source of wisdom— the kind that doesn’t always give us black and white answers, but the kind that invites us to come closer to who God is calling us to be. We have to come wise to scripture in that we have to know our limits and we have to know how much we don’t and can’t know. We have to come to scripture trusting the Spirit to help us hear and receive the wisdom we need the most right now. We have to come to scripture trusting in the wonders of God’s love. Our search for wisdom in scripture today takes us first into a little known book with a complicated history, the Wisdom of Solomon. And then into a well-known story in the Gospel of Matthew that actually isn’t as straight-forward as we’ve been made to think it is. Let’s start with the Wisdom of Solomon. The complicated history of this book includes church Councils and church fathers disagreeing over whether it should be included in the Canon or not. As early as the 2nd century it was seen by some Christians as canonical. (Interestingly enough, it shows up early in church history as a part of the New Testament Canon, instead of in Hebrew Scripture.) It has been included in the Old Testament Canon of the Roman Catholic Church since the Council of Trent in the 16th century (1546 CE). It has been included in the Canon for Orthodox Christians since the Council of Jerusalem in the 17th century (1672). But Martin Luther believed in a shorter Canon, harkening back to church teachings from the 4th and 5th centuries (of Jerome). And so, as Reformed Christians, our reading from Wisdom of Solomon shows up in the lectionary today a stranger to us—a scriptural curiosity that we’re not sure how to handle. While Luther felt apocryphal books like Wisdom of Solomon were inspired, he stopped short of giving them the same authority that books in the biblical canon have. But here it is today—in our post-Christian moment—in our post-wisdom moment— asking us to listen, asking us to receive. The first mark of wisdom is knowing how much we don’t know—and so why not open our spiritual ears to a voice we haven’t heard much from until today.
6:12 Wisdom is radiant and unfading, and she is easily discerned by those who love her, and is found by those who seek her. Wisdom is God’s gift to us, and God made us to yearn for more wisdom. It is when we seek her, when we are hungry for wisdom that she seeks us out. Wisdom and justice are intimately connected. Those who live a life of injustice are living a lie—living a life contrary to how we are made. Injustice adversely affects our ability to seek wisdom. This book was written for kings, for judges, for monarchs—and promised that seeking wisdom (like Solomon did) would lead to a long reign and to proximity to God. Wisdom is drawn toward those who know they need more of it. Not toward those who think they already know everything. Wisdom is a gift to those who know their limits. The beauty of wisdom is in how she pursues those who yearn for her. She is not elusive, she is not manipulative; she is attentive, she is responsive, she is God’s desire to connect with us. Now let’s take what we just heard about wisdom into more familiar territory. Into Matthew’s Gospel and a story the church has been telling on a regular basis for generations. Perhaps we’ve heard it too many times for it to startle us into hearing anything new. Take a closer look. This is a bizarre story—unique to Matthew. And as familiar as it may be, it really makes no sense at all. The kingdom of God is like this, the story goes. 10 bridesmaids took their lamps to meet the bridegroom. 5 wise, 5 foolish—the wise ones took extra flasks of oil. The foolish ones just took the oil they had in their lamps already. The bridegroom was late and they all fall asleep. He rolls in at midnight and they all wake up and trim their lamps—the foolish ones realize they are out of oil. They ask the wise ones if they will share. They say, no, go to a dealer (remember it’s midnight). The foolish ones rush out, get some more oil, come back to the banquet and the door is shut. They knock on the door and the bridegroom says, “I don’t know you.” And he doesn’t let them in. And the moral of the story is: stay awake because you don’t know the day or the hour. I can imagine the looks on the faces of those listening to this story—that’s it? That’s your story? Maybe there was something about marriage customs back then that
gave them a few more clues than we have about what this story is actually saying, but I am feeling that way myself—that’s it? That’s your story about wisdom? This week in the Bible study we explored the passage’s idiosyncrasies and wondered together what it might be saying to us. Scholarship doesn’t give us much to go on in terms of answers. One big question we all had: would an oil store really have been open at midnight for the foolish bridesmaids to run out and get more oil? And the seeming moral of the story doesn’t really fit the story— “Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” When apparently neither the wise nor foolish bridesmaids stayed awake. They were all asleep. Matthew uses the story allegorically—the bridegroom is Jesus, the bridesmaids the church, the wedding banquet is God’s kingdom. Those things seem clear enough. The most difficult question we struggled with at Bible Study was: what is the oil in the allegory? Is it faith? Is it good deeds? (And if it’s good deeds, why didn’t the bridesmaids with enough oil share their oil?) Is it grace? (And if it’s grace, why weren’t they given any grace and allowed to come in when they came back with more oil?) What is the oil that the bridegroom would shut the door and say, “I don’t know you”? This story has been used to threaten and to induce fear. Get right with God or else— or else the door to the banquet will be shut, or else you will be left behind, or else you will stand outside of God’s grace, you will not receive Jesus’ salvation. If this passage is there to help us learn to be wise, it’s certainly not as satisfying as the Wisdom of Solomon passage where all we need to do is want to be wise, to seek after wisdom and she will be eager to find us. Matthew seems more like a trickster story—the moral ends with stay awake, but that’s not really what was required in the story to get in to the banquet. Wisdom doesn’t seem so eager to connect those who seek her. So we’re left wondering about wisdom. And we’re here standing in great need of her to help us. And that is, indeed, where we are as a nation, as a faith these days—standing in need of wisdom, showing up with too little, too late, fools for sleeping when we needed to be getting ready, to be getting wiser about who God is calling us to be.
One person in Bible study suggested we explore ourselves in all the different characters to see what it teaches us. Another suggested we need to keep seeking more oil—and the oil is whatever makes our faith endure and be ready for whatever comes. I confess that I don’t know what the oil is, but I hear this story calling me to pay more attention to what makes my faith stronger, wiser, more ready for what is happening all around us. How have I let my faith get depleted? How have I neglected the readiness of my faith? I confess, I feel more hopeful when I read the Wisdom of Solomon passage than I do the Matthew passage. I believe that God wants to connect. God wants us to be wise—wise people are who we are meant to be. The wonders of God’s love even defy reason sometimes. Maybe the oil is wisdom itself—the wisdom to know what we don’t know and the wisdom to know how much we need God’s help, how much we need to be able to shine light on the long-awaited one when he arrives—so we can really see him and welcome him and make room for how he can change us, for how he can set us free. If we really want to be wise, brothers and sisters in Christ, I say we stop trying to be right, and put our energy into how God is calling us to be ready. Thanks be to God.
