Ten Lamps

What happens when we die, and what determines the outcome?

Some people might say that it is faith alone that determines it.

Others might argue that it is mostly works that determines it.

Others still might believe that it is ultimately God's goal that we all be redeemed and that we all be reconciled and that nothing - not even death, not even our lack of repentance on earth would keep God separated from us forever.

Still others would contend that the weight of the sin of humanity is great, and our ability and our desire to repent of it is so small, and that it is ultimately up to God to figure out what to do with us when our lives have ended.

It's one of the jokes of my campus ministry that when you ask "what happens when we die?" of Pastor Ethan, you just kinda like pull the string in my back like Woody from the Toy Story and I'll say the line: "what happens to me when I die is none of my business". And I say that about 50% joking, mostly as an intervention against a kind of Christianity that is chiefly and only and urgently preoccupied with matters of heaven and hell. Some churches you go to - and many of my students went to them growing up - where if you listened to the sermons week after week, you might think that the ONLY thing Christianity cares about is heaven and hell - not love, not the care of your neighbor, not the care of the vulnerable, not patience or modesty, not the care of the earth or of animals or of children - JUST that you don't go to hell. To which I say, soteriology matters! (Soteriology is like the seminary word for Matters of Salvation) but we have other things to say besides it, and many of my students have never gotten an honest crack at talking about the other stuff at church.

But sometimes, I wonder if, the mainline falls into the other camp a little too gleefully and sorta just never really brings up matters of salvation at all - for fear of alienating people? for fear of discomforting people? for fear of bringing the mood down in the room? And yet there are just so, so many passages of the Gospel where Jesus talks about Final Things. For as many places where he talks about feeding people, healing people, tearing the rich and powerful down from their thrones and their high places of authority, he does also spend a lot of words teaching and warning about what happens to those who go unrepentant of their harms. And for people who want Christianity to be some version of "be kind" "love wins" "golden rule", the Gospel sure keeps a knife in its boot that it brandishes whenever we get a little too comfortable.

This Gospel passage is one of those passages. It describes this sort of elaborate metaphor that I feel like we might be lacking some of the cultural context to understand. There are ten bridesmaids and one bridegroom (who is returning with his bride?) and their work is to welcome the bridegroom BACK! But they fall asleep. And when he arrives back suddenly in the middle of the night, five find themselves prepared and five ill-prepared, meaning they get left out in the cold and can't get into the banquet. I just don't think we really have a parallel in our modern weddings to this type of circumstance, I just don't think there is a point of the wedding where you can end up getting left out for the rest of the party, or that happens in the middle of the night. But I think the point of this metaphor is to say that there are stakes to what we do as Christians.

But again, this is where Christians differ - this is the breadth of a metaphor like this. What does it mean to be ready for God, or for God's judgment, or for Jesus' return? Is it a matter of faith? is it a matter of works or of preparation? is it grace alone? Is it possible that God really will leave us out in the final judgment or if he will, how bad do we really have to be for that to happen to us? And our answer to all of these questions can create really different motivations and really different outcomes for how our Christian lives play out. Is your belief in God out of fear or out of hope? Are your good works in the hope of a reward or in the fear of a punishment or out of a desire for a better world or simply because you can't imagine acting otherwise? Do you think God is looking for an excuse to save us or looking for an excuse to condemn us or is otherwise perfectly neutral? All of these beliefs are represented across the vast spectrum of Christianity and they - as you know - produce really different kinds of Christians and really different kinds of churches.

We don't have to come to an agreement about the answer to those questions today, but we do get to name that what this story points to is that there is something urgent about our call - by God - to be good, to be ready, to show up. God doesn't call bystanders. God didn't create this faith so that it could live in our minds only or so that it could be an identity for us only. There's a lot of work out there in the world to do. There's a lot of hope for us figure out how to have about a world that almost never hands us hope on a silver platter. There's a lot of grace available to us and that we've got to make way for. And at the end of the day, it's not enough just to say "I'm a Christian" - you've gotta show up and do the things that Christians do: be forgiving, be generous, be patient, give care, give love, give of yourself, sacrifice, look out for the least among us, search your hearts and understand what is standing in the way of you caring for the people who you've decided don't deserve it and figure out how to change it. Otherwise, you will be like a lamp in the middle of the night without oil, without a light of your own to show.

And regardless of if that "no light to show of your own / left out of the party" line is something literal, something metaphorical, something spiritual, or something soteriological, I simply don't want that to be an outcome for you or for me or for any of us really. Thank God we have churches full of people who are, together, trying to figure out how to do this stuff better and who can uphold and support one another in those efforts. Amen.

Matthew 25:1-13

Jesus said, “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.”