Matthew 25:1-13

Wedding customs of Jesus' day were quite interesting. Usually, the process began with a young man asking a girl's father for her hand in marriage. If the father was okay with the idea, and a dowry could be agreed upon, he would call the daughter into the room. Then the hopeful young man would hold out a cup of wine. "Take and drink," he would say.

If the young woman was willing, she would take the cup and drink from it. Then the young man would say something like, "I go to prepare a place for you, and when its ready, I'll come again and take you to it that where I am, you may be also." You may notice that these are the same words Jesus speaks to his followers in John 14.

And then the young man would go off to prepare a home for the future couple, often by building a house. And some period of time would pass, and everyone would wonder when the groom would be finished building. And when the house was complete, word would spread that the bridegroom was coming and the wedding would soon begin. And the young bride's attendants would go out with their oil lamps to light the way to the home of the bride. And the wedding festivities that followed would include dances involving the bridesmaids and their lamps.

In today's Gospel lesson, Jesus uses such an everyday event to teach us a deep truth. But its a parable with a twist, for in it, the groom's estimated time of arrival is delayed. And five of the ten bridesmaids don't bring extra oil for their lamps, and they run out. And by the time they go to the Seven-Eleven to buy more oil and then return to the bride's house, they've missed the joyful party.

It's a parable about a missed opportunity.

Now most of us don't need even a slight reminder that life is full of opportunities we manage to miss. One corporate executive told me that he awakened one day only to realize that his kids were all grown up and gone, and he'd missed out on all the important experiences of their growing up and on the joy of nurturing his children into adulthood. A woman once told me about how, in the days before her mother died, she was so busy with her own life that she never had the chance to talk with her mom about some things that really needed to be resolved. Some of us are folks who've experienced missed opportunities in business. Missed opportunities in relationships. Missed opportunities for forgiveness, for building a bridge to another person, for listening to someone who really needed to talk.

All of us have missed important opportunities.

But the one Jesus invites us to think about today is the missed opportunity with God.

The bridegroom in the parable represents Jesus. And what the bridesmaids miss out on is the experience of his joyful arrival in their lives.

There's something I'm learning about God these days. There is not a moment that goes by when God - in some way, shape, or form - does not reach out to me. In every moment of every day, God's love moves toward my life. In every circumstance and situation, God is there to offer guidance, strength, wisdom, and friendship. I cannot be sad without God placing his arm around my shoulder to comfort me and give me someone to lean on.. I cannot be glad without God rolling on the floor, laughing with me. I cannot lose a loved one without God pulling me in under his wing to comfort, and protect, and begin healing me through the grieving process. I cannot experience anything in life without the bridegroom rushing to be my partner.

But sometimes, I overlook the opportunity. Sometimes - too often, in fact - I miss out on the experience of God's coming to me.

And usually, its because I'm down a quart - or two.

Now the parable of the ten bridesmaids isn't all that complicated. The five foolish bridesmaids don't bring enough oil for two reasons. First, they can't imagine any possibility that the bridegroom might arrive at some time and in some way other than when and what the published schedule calls for.

One of the most significant experiences of my ministry occurred the first time I was asked to do a funeral service for a young man who'd died of AIDS. For some reason I can't quite figure out, my other clergy colleagues didn't want anything to do with it. This was, of course, back in the early days of AIDS when there was a great deal of confusion and fear. I guess I was just too naive to realize that I should have joined my colleagues and said "no". But I didn't.

The funeral service was held on a Friday night. We gathered in the apartment the young man shared with his partner. Present were this other man, the parents of the young man who'd died, and five or six older ladies who lived in the neighborhood. And from the moment I spoke the words of Christian hope, saying, "Jesus said, 'I am the resurrection and the life..." I sensed God's presence there! God's power seemed to filter deeply into the souls of the brokenhearted people in that room, and crushing burdens of shame and despair seemed to give way to the rush of God's redeeming love! Oh, there would be lots of healing that would need to come to those dear people, but that night, God started something in their lives!

I never would have believed it if I hadn't seen and experienced it myself. Because, you see, I held certain strong ideas in my mind about when and how God shows up. And none of those ideas included Friday night funerals in a place like that with people like those who were there. And yet, there he was - God, in all God's glory!

Sometimes we miss God's opportunity because our thinking is too narrow, and we run out of oil because God shows up at times and places and in ways we just don't expect.

Look at what God is doing these days with Lutherans and Catholics! A common declaration on justification by faith. Who would have believed it possible? Well, obviously some people saw a divine window of opportunity! But others missed it, because - well, you know - Lutherans aren't the easiest people to get along with...and Catholics...well...you know what Protestants say about Catholics.

If you want to experience and engage God at work in our world today - and if you want to be a part of it - you're going to have to step outside of the structures and schedules and presuppositions you've set for God. Why, God is not only at work here in the beautiful sanctuary of our church. God's magnificent presence is also there in the soup line at the Knox Area Rescue Ministry. You will find evidence of God-at-work in the lives of people serving time in prison just as readily - and maybe even more visibly - than in the lives of the people with whom you go to Bible Study. God is on the loose in our world, and sometimes we miss out on the opportunity of being with God because we've decided he's only going to show up at the 9 AM service on Sunday over at the Baptist church, and don't realize God is also working away in the atheist professor's office at the local university on Tuesday.

To experience God in all God's glory, you've got to bring LOTS of oil! Enough so your light can stretch into the darkest and most remote corners and times where nobody else expects God to be!

Are you willing today to let God depart from your schedule and itinerary? You're going to have to get yourself some extra oil!

Now the second reason the bridesmaids run out of oil and miss out on the arrival of the bridegroom is because they're simply too pressed for time to go and get some extra oil.

Episcopal priest Barbara Brown Taylor writes in The Christian Century about how life presses human beings into losing sight of what's important. In recent months, several of her acquaintances have made conscious decisions to slow down and limit their activities in order to tend to the more crucial things of life - like their families and their children. And that got Reverend Taylor thinking. As she celebrates her fiftieth birthday this year, Brown says she's decided to give herself a Jubilee year. In Judaism, the 50th year was to be a year of jubilee in which there could be no sowing, no reaping, no gathering into barns. It was a time for freeing slaves, and forgiving debts, a time for tending to what's most important in life. The much sought after speaker and writer notes:

What Barbara Brown Taylor is trying to do is to deliberately slow down her life. To remove from it things that stand in the way of experiencing the presence of God. And that's what you have to do to have enough oil in your lamp to see and engage God's presence. Nearly 700 years ago, Meister Eckhart put it this way, "God is not found in the soul by adding anything... but by subtracting."

What do you need to subtract from your life to not be so rushed that you have time to experience God every day?

I wonder if you'll make a pact with me today. Let's make this our jubilee year, too. Let's begin to put aside the limitations we place on God, and be open to discovering God at work in unlikely moments, unlikely places and among unlikely people - including ourselves! And let's make a list of some of the things we need to subtract from our lives, in order to tend to our relationship with God. Let's give ourselves a spiritual oil change!

For on a day like today - when we bring forth our pledges of time, talent and treasure - we need to fully understand that what happens in and through the life of our church, and in and through our own lives, depends not so much upon us as it does upon God.

Today is a window of opportunity for you!

Bring your oil, and let's greet the bridegroom with joy!