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 Matthew 25:1-13

Too often with this parable we like the judgmental ending. We can picture who we are judging as the ones with not enough oil. The thing is we are not the judge. Only God is. The parable doesn't speak to us really about the qualities which are needed, or what the lamp oil represents the only admonition is to keep awake.

What it is to keep awake? It is a constant practice. Prayer life, reading the scriptures, worship is only a small portion of what helps us to keep awake. Aware of the beatitudes given to these disciples in Matthew. Aware of the faith we have to keep alive in order to keep our oil well in stock. How often do you think on these things? 

When I sit in the morning and look out the window, unwrapping a day as it is revealed, step by step. Glory by glory, color by color, mist rising and revealing a landscape which was hidden, this to me is the journey of faith. We don't see it fully, we don't know it and learn it and have arrived at the place where we can take it easy and not pay attention. The journey of faith, the journey of keeping the oil in supply is a lifelong experience.

This week has been a hard week. We have watched and waited for results from the election. Some people are happy and some are not. What it has revealed to us is how divided we are and how much in need of the gospel we all are. We have wished people ill, we have wished people to take up arms against one another, when I heard that statement I realized just how much faith we have not cultivated. If we had attended to the oil we would realize how deeply God has called us in the prophets, throughout the Biblical story to attend to our neighbors.

Jonah only wanted judgment. He sits at the top of the hill sulking, awaiting God to rain it down on Nineveh for all the bad they had done. He had followed what God had sent him to do, but his oil must have been on low supply. Because he only wants punishment. Not forgiveness, not reconciliation, not what God had in mind. Instead, the people of Nineveh had their oil replenished and God forgave, because God is the judge, not Jonah. 

So exploring where we need to be filled up is where we need to start in order to keep awake. What do you do to keep your oil tanked up? Maybe it is in doing the daily office, or compline, or in reading the bible. Whatever it is make sure you are attending to it so you might be keeping yourself full. Full of the good things God wants for all of us. Not just the five who make it. 

One day as we were riding in the car, I was singing to the song on the radio and my son turned to me and said, "Mom, how many lyrics do you know?" I had never thought of it before, I know so many song lyrics: Christian songs, hymns from my childhood, pop tunes, a few classical I sang in college, an old choir tune comes to my mind with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s words. Do I know the Bible just as well? I hope so.

There are stories which come to me because we read from an old Taylor's Bible story book. I know Joseph, Moses, Naaman, and Jesus and the disciples fishing, the storming sea, and the beauty of Psalms I have taken into my heart. My professor of New Testament had us memorize scripture stories for a day long retreat we would do. You take it in a whole different way when you do this. Not only did we do the story with no changes, but we used props in one team, and in the last team we always made a contemporary rendering of it. 

I remember very few sermons I've heard, what I do remember is my Great Uncle in the pulpit reciting the first chapter of John by heart. It made an impression on me I've remembered since being in high school. I can still recite parts of it: In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was of God. or the Psalm I lift up mine eyes to the hills, from where does my help come? It comes from the Lord the maker of heaven and earth.

This is having a reserve of oil which won't run out. When I unpack the morning, I am thinking of this hill Psalm. When I see the grass and farms of Quebec province I think of the 23rd Psalm. When I see the waters flow I think of a song. It is a deep well-spring which bubbles out and gives life. Gives life in the midst of dark days. Changes the tone of a day when I am upset. Weeps with us, is angry with us, brings comfort to us. This is the oil which never runs out. So keep awake. Do the things to keep this oil in stock and you will find you have kept awake even on the days when it seems the least likely.