This revision reflects more consistent use of the imagery.
ER
Sermon for the Twenty-Sixth Sunday After Pentecost
The LORD My God Lightens My Darkness
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ!
Amen. As we draw near to the end of the Church year, which will close in
less than one month, each of the Gospels for these last few Sundays of the
year will focus our attention on the end of all time. Today's Gospel is your
Lord's parable of the Ten Virgins or the Ten Bridesmaids who await the
arrival of the Bridegroom. Some bridesmaids are ready and some are not. All
of these lovelies are looking directly at you. They want to know from you:
Are you wise or are you foolish? Are you prepared or are you unprepared?
Will you enter into the wedding feast of eternal life with Jesus, or will
you be locked out?
All of these questions boil down to one question, and sooner or
later you will be required personally to answer this one question-whether
you wish to answer it or not. Wise or foolish, prepared or unprepared, it
all comes down to this: do you have oil in your lamp or do you not?
The bare reading of this Gospel has already alerted you to how
serious this question is for you:
When the foolish [bridesmaids] took their lamps, they took no oil with them,
but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. And while they [the
foolish ones] were going to buy [more oil], the bridegroom came, and those
who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast and the door was shut.
Your Word is a Lamp to My Feet (Psalm 119:105)
God your heavenly Father gave your oil-filled lamp to you on the
day He baptized you, adopting you to be His own dear child. The lamp God
gave to you is His life-giving and miracle-producing Word FOR YOU, complete
with His promise to forgive all your sins and give you life everlasting
through Christ Jesus. The oil-filled lamps in this Gospel may be compared to
God's living Word because it is written in the Psalms, "Your Word is a lamp
to my feet and a light to my path" (Psalm 119:105). The oil-filled lamps
compare God's Word because your Lord Jesus is the Word (John 1:1) and it has
been written concerning your Lord Jesus:
a.. "You are my lamp, O LORD, and my God lightens my darkness" (2 Samuel
22:29).
a.. He is "a light of revelation to the Gentiles" (Luke 2:32); "light to
those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death" (Luke 1:79); "the
light of the world" (John 8:12).
a.. "This is the message we have heard from Him and proclaim to you, that
God is light and in Him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:6).
God your heavenly Father gave you His Word-that is, He gave you your
oil-filled lamp-on the day He baptized you. Stated another way, when you
were baptized, your heavenly Father applied individually to you all the
promises He has spoken in His Bible. On the day you were baptized, God's
Word became God's Word TO YOU and FOR YOU. On the day you were baptized,
God's
promises became His promises TO YOU: forgiveness of sins became forgiveness
of YOUR sins; rescue from death became YOUR rescue from death; life without
end became YOUR life without end. At your Baptism God's Light became YOUR
Light.
So here you are in the company of the ten bridesmaids. You hold
your oil-filled lamps as you await the arrival of your Bridegroom, your Lord
Jesus, on the Last Day. It is vitally important that you were given a lamp
to hold while you wait. You were NOT given a stick, or a cinderblock, or
something else that you can throw off to the side and forget about. At your
Baptism you were given a lamp. Unlike a cinderblock, your lamp requires your
ongoing attention. The wick must be trimmed, the oil replenished, and the
flame shielded against the wind.
The Unfolding of Your Words Gives Light (Psalm 119:130)
Some people will object to my comparison of God's baptismal Word
and promises FOR YOU to the oil-filled lamps in today's Gospel. Some will
argue that God's Word is eternal (Psalm 119:160, Revelation 14:6) and
therefore it cannot to lose its power in the way that an oil-filled lamp can
burn dry and go out. I will not protest or argue one bit that God's Word is
eternal. Yet I will declare that the personal benefits you individually
receive from God's eternal Word and unshakable promises can most certainly
run dry and burn up. Because of your sin, your struggle, and your hardships,
God's Word and promises can most certainly go cold FOR YOU. Stated another
way:
· Unless you continually hear God tell you that all your sins are
forgiven, you will begin to doubt whether you truly are forgiven. (Or in
some cases, you will doubt whether you really even need to be forgiven.)
Then your lamp will begin to flicker in the wind of your ongoing struggle
against your sin.
· Unless you continually hear your God assure you that He will always
be with you (Matthew 28:20) and never forsake you (Hebrews 13:5), you will
begin to wonder whether He truly is with you always. (Either that, or you
will stop being concerned that He remain with you always.) The untrimmed
wick of your lamp will grow crusty and ashen, impeding the flame.
· Unless you continually replenish the oil in your lamp of God's Word
and promises TO YOU-that is to say, unless you continually return for more
of God's nourishing Word and strengthening promises-you will quite possibly
run out of you life-giving oil. But you will not even know (or possibly not
care) that you have run out until it is too late. Then where will you be?
That is why five bridesmaids in today's Gospel are called wise:
When the foolish [bridesmaids] took their lamps, they took no oil with them,
but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. And while they [the
foolish ones] were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were
ready went in with him to the marriage feast and the door was shut.
God your heavenly Father wants you never to run out of oil as you
await the arrival of your Bridegroom, your Lord Jesus, on the Last Day. It
is for this reason that He has commanded you, "Remember the Sabbath day, to
keep it holy" (Exodus 20:8). The holy apostles of our Lord do not want you
to be found empty at the coming of the great feast, and for this reason they
implore you:
. hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised
is faithful. .consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,
not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging
one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near (Hebrew
10:23-25).
The ancient saints of the Book of Acts do not wish for you to be separated
from them on that Great Day. They call you to follow where they first have
walked, joining them in devoting yourselves "to the apostles' teaching [that
is, the New Testament], and fellowship [that is, the worship of the Church],
to the breaking of bread [that is, the Holy Communion of our Lord] and to
the prayers" (Acts 2:42). Five foolish bridesmaids hold empty lamps in
today's
Gospel. These ladies really do not want you to be locked out along with them
and they do not want you to be told by the Lord Jesus, your returning
Bridegroom, "I do not know you."
I Hope in Your Word (Psalm 119:114)
It always feels kind of strange for me to preach about the
importance of worship to those who have gathered for worship. But there is
much more to preaching than correction and rebuke (2 Timothy 4:2). I am
telling you these things for your comfort, in order that you will NOT change
your regular habits of coming to worship. Dear saints of God-lovely
bridesmaids, every one of you-think of Sunday morning worship as nothing
other than your heaven-sent flask of replenishing oil. "When the foolish
[bridesmaids] took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise
took flasks of oil with their lamps." With the lamp oil that your God gives
to you in this place-that is, with the forgiveness of your sins and the
promise of life that are declared to you here-the oil-lamp of God's Word and
promises FOR YOU shall not run dry. The door shall not be closed to you and
you shall "always be with [your] Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4:18).
Today's Gospel is your Lord's parable of the Ten Virgins or the Ten
Bridesmaids who await the arrival of the Bridegroom. Some bridesmaids are
ready and some are not. All of these lovelies are still looking directly at
you. They still want to know from you: Are you wise or are you foolish? Are
you prepared or are you unprepared? Will you enter into the wedding feast of
eternal life with Jesus, or will you be locked out?
Don't answer these questions by looking into your heart or mind.
Don't base your answer on how you feel at any given moment. Answer these
bridesmaids by looking ONLY at the oil-filled lamp that God your heavenly
Father gave to you on the day He baptized you, adopting you to be His own
dear child. Answer the pretty girls by looking at your own flask of oil,
which your God miraculously replenishes for you with each liturgy, each
absolution, each sermon, and each Holy Communion. Answer them without
blushing: "Yes, I am wise; my God has made me 'wise for salvation through
faith in Christ Jesus' (2 Timothy 3:15). Yes, I am prepared; "everything is
ready [for me to] come to the feast" (Matthew 22:4). Yes, I will enter the
wedding feast of my Lord; I shall without doubt 'dwell in the house of the
LORD forever' (Psalm 23:6)."
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