You are beloved and trusted to be able to serve God’s healing of this world, and encouraged that, despite the time it will take, that healing will come.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary 32 A
Texts: Matthew 25:1-13; 1 Thessalonians 4:18

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

All ten bridesmaids were prepared for this wedding.

Honored with such a role, these close friends and family were excited and ready to do their job, to process the groom and his party to the wedding place. All ten had their lamps filled and lighted. All were ready. At least at mid-afternoon.

Then an hour went by. Another. It started to get dark. Sitting and waiting for hours makes you sleepy. Finally at midnight they wake up, disturbed by the noise of the approaching people.

That’s when five realized they had a problem. They weren’t ready for a delay like this.

That’s this parable’s crisis: being prepared to serve is one thing. But what if there’s a long, interminable delay?

Jesus speaks to the depths of our reality. 2,000 years later, we’re still living in a world with injustice, suffering, oppression. We stand between the pain and evil we see in the world and our hope that God in Christ will bring healing and restoration. It’s exhausting to work and stand in that in-between space.

Because no matter what the outcome of Tuesday’s election, huge work was going to be there for all of us. The work of building a better society, working for the common good of all, would still be there. The work of trying to rebuild our cherished institutions of free and open elections, checks and balances in our government, accountability of our lawmakers and law enforcers – the list is long and the work will take time. So many in this world ask, “How long, O God, how long?” Many give up on the bridegroom, abandoning faith in God. It’s hard to blame them. How long can we wait for God?

It’s easy to be energetic when you first serve God, when you see places you can help.

We remember moments of high excitement and energy for being Christ in the world, making a difference. We remember elections, or moments in our society and culture where great hope dawned and it looked like we were turning a corner to being a caring society, a world like God envisions in Scripture. But the longer things take, the bigger the problems, the more daunting the political landscape, the easier it is to lose hope, to lose energy, to lose the will.

“Save us from weak resignation to the evils we deplore,” we plead in a beloved hymn, because weak resignation is all we can muster sometimes. Our country is clearly still deeply divided, polarized, demonizing each other. Do we even want to be engaged, we wonder, if evil is so strong?

And we’re not sure what it is to have enough oil, or if we can get it.

What is it to be prepared? The next two parables in Matthew 25 help. Next week, having enough oil is using the talents we’ve been given – time, wealth, gifts – to serve the Bridegroom. In two weeks we’ll hear that having enough oil is caring for those in any need, because that is caring for the Bridegroom, for Christ.

But do we feel we can get enough oil for what’s needed? What can any of us do?

Some of us are retired; how can they engage? Some of us are homebound, not getting around; how can they make a difference? Some of us have small children, lives filled every second; where can they find the time? And who of us has the leverage, the influence, to make a difference? Name whatever problem our society faces and our hope from God, and most of us get stuck here: I don’t know if I have any ability to help.

It’s not that we don’t want to store up extra oil for the delay; we’re not sure we can get any.

This is a wake-up call from Jesus – he literally says “stay awake” – a reminder that God’s restoration is happening, but it will take time.

Jesus says in this parable, be ready for that delay. Keep it in your heart that you might not see it all in your lifetime. Jesus tempers the hopeful encouragement that the Bridegroom is coming, God’s healing restoration is coming, with honesty about the timing. But that helps, doesn’t it? If you know it will take time, you can prepare better for that.

Jesus also says in this parable, waiting is not passive. Make sure you’ve got oil set aside, be of service. And if you’re concerned you can’t help or aren’t sure what you could do, remember Jesus assumes all the bridesmaids had it in them. Jesus assumes you can find the oil, too. There are things you can do that will bring about the promise God is making, using your talents, caring for those in need.

And if you think this wake up call is Jesus threatening you or me, think again. Remember, the true Bridegroom, a day or so after telling this, lets us slam the door in his face, kick him out of our party, saying, “Truth is, we don’t know you.” The Bridegroom allows himself to be killed by those he’s come to celebrate with. And in rising from the dead, the risen Bridegroom says, “I love you, but we’ve still got lots to do to prepare, so get your oil and lamps ready.”

“Therefore encourage one another with these words,” Paul says today in a different context.

Here are your reasons for courage today:

Jesus loves you enough to make you one of the beloved ones chosen to serve the coming of the Triune God, and to die and rise for you so you’re not terrified of punishment, but live freely as God’s beloved.

Jesus trusts you enough to believe you have the oil you need to be ready.

Jesus cares for you enough to alert you to the delay so you can be ready for that.

And Jesus believes in you enough to trust that if you, and I, and all God’s children, live such prepared lives, the healed, restored creation God is making through the true Bridegroom will come to pass.

Therefore, encourage one another with these words.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen

God’s vision for the world, God’s values, are radically different from much of the world, but in them you find you are blessed and you are a blessing to others.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
All Saints Day
Texts: Matthew 5:1-12; 1 John 3:1-3

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Do you sometimes feel poor in spirit?

Is faith that God is in the world and doing anything really hard to find sometimes? Are doubts that God loves you or the world piling up and anxiety twisting your gut?

That’s hard to be in this world. So many seem completely confident in their views, never wavering, and even people of faith can say that if you just tried harder to believe, you’d never doubt. Being poor in spirit can feel very lonely.

Well, good news. God’s values are radically different than this world. Jesus, the face of the Triune God, tells you today that when you are poor in spirit you are in the middle of God’s reign. That God’s way is found through losing, not winning, and those who struggle to see and believe find God because of that struggle, not by never doubting. When you are poor in spirit, you are blessed, because then you are with God.

Are you mourning right now?

On this All Saints Day we all remember and grieve those we love who have gone. But maybe grief doesn’t wait just for today for you. Are there moments, even whole days, where grief bursts your control and boils overwhelmingly into your entire life? It might have been ten years, or ten days, since your loss, but you still find yourself mourning?

That’s hard to be in this world. Our culture is uncomfortable with grief, people urge you to move on, get over it. So you either try to hide your grief or suppress it. Mourning can feel very lonely.

Well, good news. God’s values are radically different than this world. Jesus, the face of the Triune God, tells you today that in your mourning, God is there. And you will be comforted. You are blessed in your grief, because you are not alone, and God’s love and embrace will hold you through the worst of it and give you peace.

Do you hunger and thirst for righteousness?

Long for a world where your neighbors aren’t crushed by an unjust system because of the color of their skin or their economic class? Do you hunger for a world where all can earn enough to live and be housed and all can have the health care they need? Do you ache inside for this, and more, and despair it may never happen?

That’s hard to be in this world. Many say everyone should take care of themselves, and we don’t have a responsibility to help others. There’s an unprecedented level of hatred and disdain and abuse in our society for those who struggle, even from our leaders, and a lack of compassion threatens to dominate our culture. Hungering and thirsting for righteousness and justice can feel very lonely.

Well, good news. God’s values are radically different than this world. Jesus, the face of the Triune God, tells you today that your hunger and thirst will be filled, all of ours will. It may be hard to see, but there’s evidence in yard signs and social media and protests and neighbors helping neighbors that God is working to fill all who hunger for righteousness and justice. You are blessed, for all will be filled.

Do you aspire to be gentle and kind in a world of bullies, a peacemaker in a world of violence and hatred?

You may not always feel gentle or peaceable, but do you long for God to help you become that? To follow Christ’s example and be someone who brings gentleness and peace into this world? It seems much of our world doesn’t value such things.

Well, good news. God’s values are radically different than this world. Jesus, the face of the Triune God, tells you today that God will do what you long for. In your gentleness, you will experience all that God intends for the world. In your peacemaking, you will live into your identity as a child of God. You will be a blessed, and a sign of God’s blessing for this whole world.

Do you desire to learn to be merciful in this cruel world? To have your heart purified of that which would harm you and others?

You may not always feel merciful, especially to those who are cruel and hateful, and your heart might not always have pure motives and be centered in love. But do you long for God to help you find these things? To follow Christ’s example and be God’s mercy and God’s heart in this world? It seems much of our world doesn’t value such things.

Well, good news. God’s values are radically different than this world. Jesus, the face of the Triune God, tells you today that God will do what you long for. When you learn mercy from God, you will find that you are receiving God’s mercy at the same time. When your heart is purified of those things that pull you toward hate and away from love, you will actually see God. You’ll have God’s heart in you. You will be blessed, and a blessing to all you meet.

These are the first words Jesus teaches in Matthew, and they shape all his teaching afterward.

Jesus tells us what God blesses, what God values. God’s vision of how the world is and can be.

And we need these words today. We’re on the edge of an election in the midst of some of the worst public behavior many of us have ever seen, amidst the collapse of decency and civility in our public discourse. So many things in our society seem to be falling apart, injustice seems to reign, and so many things need to be rebuilt for the good of all people. We’re afraid and anxious, tired of all the anger, and fearful nothing will change.

Today Jesus gently offers a different vision. If you can learn to see as God sees, value what God values, you will see a path open that is abundant and hopeful, even in a world of grief and doubt and chaos and fear and struggle. You might suffer for this path, Jesus says today. But Jesus’ promise stands: God is always walking beside you, and you are blessed on this path, no matter what happens.

You can pray for this on this All Saints Day.

You can ask the Holy Spirit to help you to trust and take hope that God has called you blessed. God’s precious child. Beloved. So you can know that whatever you struggle with, grieve over, hunger for, God is always with you in love, filling, comforting, blessing.

And you can ask the Holy Spirit to help you become what God already sees in you. The elder in 1 John says today that we know we are God’s children, but we can’t yet see what we will be. But you can pray for that transformation. That you become the child of God God already sees: gentle, merciful, pure in heart, a maker of peace.

You can pray that God’s sense of what is valuable, what is blessed, might change you, change me, change all God’s children, until it spreads throughout the world, and all the world knows it is truly blessed and loved and lives that blessing for all.

In the name of Jesus. Amen