Week 3, Thursday December 15
“Stranded on a desert island”
Vs. 25:2, “Five bridesmaids were foolish and five were wise.”
During this back-to-school season, our youth have been walking through a series called “Youth Alpha” which is designed to excite and engage youth in conversations about faith. In this series, youth watch videos on certain topics and then engage in small group discussions with questions provided by the creators. One of these lessons was on the Bible, “why and how do I read it?” One of the questions was, “Imagine you are stranded on a desert island and you can only bring 3 things with you. What would they be?” All without exception said, “my cell phone.” I chuckled to myself because they failed to grasp that there wouldn’t be any electricity to charge it or wi-fi to promote a signal. Poor poor kids.
The ultimate question here is what would you take for survival and it reminds me of the bridesmaids. Some recognized the need to be prepared, and others either failed to recognize that or were just too lazy to gather what they needed. Kind of like taking a cell phone without a way to charge it. It’s going to eventually give out and will no longer be good for anything except maybe to kindle a fire.
Five bridesmaids were foolish and five were wise. What separated the two groups? Oil? Beauty?..... Preparation! Jesus remains in a discourse with the disciples about being prepared for the coming kingdom. In other readings from this week’s gospel, he’s tried all these different approaches or examples to help them understand the only way to ensure you won’t miss it is to be prepared. Those who are wise will be ready and waiting when Jesus comes; those who are foolish may fail to prepare for the long haul or they may mistakenly think they can always rely on others. Like the bridesmaids, the wise - those who have prepared - will be admitted into the glorious kingdom, while the others will be shut out.
We might blame the wise for not sharing and in today’s culture, that would certainly be acceptable. But the point Jesus is making is not about being selfish, but each of us, having free will, has to make the choice of how we’re going to respond to this instruction.
Weddings are so much fun! And we’ve all been invited to the wedding banquet. Let’s make sure our lamps are filled by attending Sunday worship, the wicks are trimmed by not getting ahead of ourselves while we wait for the second coming, and we have plenty of extra oil by being faithful in study and prayer. So when the doors to the wedding banquet are open, all we have to do is enter. Amen!