The Wedding Feast in Heaven

The Wedding Feast in Heaven

November 9, 2008
The Twenty-Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
All Saints Sunday (Observed)

GOSPEL LESSON: Matthew 25:1?13 [The wise and foolish virgins.]
Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For 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, they all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, 'Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.' Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.' But the wise answered, saying, 'Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.' And while they 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. Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, 'Lord, lord, open to us.' But he answered, 'Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.'

Have you ever run out of oil? Have you ever worried about running out of gas? One time when my wife and I were driving in the mountains of Hokkaido, I looked down and the low-fuel lamp was blinking. The nearest town was 20 miles away, on the other side of the mountain pass. I figured we could coast down the mountain if we made it to the top of the pass, but then, since it was a national holiday, I was afraid that the gas station in the next small town might be closed! We said a prayer and we thanked God because it was open and we filled up and made it home safely. I should have checked my fuel gage before going into the mountains, and I began to feel like one of the five foolish virgins who didn’t take extra oil for their lamps. It is necessary to prepare for things in life, just as it is necessary to prepare for things in eternal life.

Jesus told many parables. Jesus told about six parables about the end of the world and the Last Judgment. A common theme is found in the last words of today’s Gospel reading. Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour. We do not know the date, but Jesus leaves no doubt about the inevitability of his Second Coming and of the suddenness of it. And so we must prepare and always be ready. We always need to have oil for our lamps, because we do not know when the Bridegroom will come. This is a parable: the Bridegroom is Jesus Christ who comes at the end of the world, the marriage feast is life in heaven, and the ten virgins are people who know about God and want to go to heaven. I am not sure just what the oil is: it could be faith, or wisdom, or living the Christian life. Wisdom might be active faith that really believes that Jesus will come again. But this oil cannot be shared. My faith cannot save someone else. Maybe we should not push the details, but rather focus on the meaning of the parable. When the door of the banquet hall is opened, we must be standing there, ready to go in. The time of preparation is over. At the airport departure lobby, if you are over in the souvenir stand or at the snack bar when the last call is announced and the door of the airplane has been closed, you are too late. Wait! Look, I have my ticket! Sorry, you are too late. Or as the parable says, Truly, I say to you, I do not know you. Your ticket is no longer valid.

How is your lamp? How is your oil supply? How is your relationship with God? Are you prepared? Today Jesus is telling us to get ready. He is telling us that the Bridegroom is coming. He is giving us time to go and buy oil before he arrives. If we prepare today, there is still time. Keep your lamps burning! Show in your lives that the Holy Spirit is burning in your heart! Then we will be ready to meet our Lord.

Today we are observing All Saints Sunday. We remember those who have died believing in Jesus Christ as their Savior. In other words, we remember those people who were wise enough to have oil for their lamps when the Lord opened the door and brought them into the banquet of heaven. The Holy Spirit gave them wisdom to prepare. It was the Holy Spirit who gave them faith and trust to know where the extra oil was to come from. It was from faith in God. The saints did not worry at the midnight of their lives, because they were ready to meet the Bridegroom. That faith was like a flame or light that glowed in their lives. Have you ever seen that in a person? Have you ever seen that in the hearts and lives of Christian believers that you know? I have. And that is why we observe All Saints Sunday today!

There are memorial days when people go out to the cemetery and put flowers on the graves of their loved ones. But today we remember them in church, here before the Altar. I recently read an article in one of my theological magazines that I subscribe to, the Lutheran Forum. In an article entitled “Abundant Death, Abundant Life,” Rev. Paul Robert Sauer wrote this:

………. Penned by one of my predecessors here in ministry, the Rev. Dr. Berthold von Schenk, The Presence has become the source from which I shamelessly borrow for each funeral sermon that I preach. It has been a helpful guide in trying to make sense of the living and dying that permeates so much of pastoral ministry. On death, he writes, there is great comfort:

Here at the Altar, focused to a point, we find our communion with the dead; for the Altar is the closest meeting place between us and our Lord. That place must be the place of closest meeting with our dead who are in his keeping… How pathetic it is to see men and women going out to the cemetery, kneeling at the mound, placing little sprays of flowers and wiping their teas from their eyes, and knowing nothing else. How hopeless they look. Oh, that we could take them by the hand, away from the grave, out through the cemetery gate, in through the door of the church, and up the nave to the very Altar itself, and there put them in touch, not with the dead body of their loved one, but with the living soul who is with Christ at the Altar. (1)

And about life there is this great description:

The abundant life is more than the forgiveness of sins. An adult Christian will not be contented with the mere assurance that he is not going to hell. He wants to swim in deeper water. Forgiveness is only the entrance to the ocean. The mature Christian wants to play around in the ocean of grace and exercise and have fun. (2)

(1) Berthold von Schenk, The Presence: An Approach to the Holy Communion (New York: Ernst Kaufmann, 1945), 130-31.
(2) Ibid., 32.

Today we are observing All Saints Sunday. It is a day of hope. It is a day of faith. It is a day to fill our lamps with the assurance of eternal life. It is a day to shine

Amen.

Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church

Sermon Index