Does Luck Favor the Prepared?

Lectionary Link

21 Pentecost, Cycle A proper 27,  November 6, 2011

Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25  Psalm 78

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 Matthew 25:1-13

  When we read the Bible it is important to know when and how to be literal.  If we are literal in the wrong way, we can come up with presenting biblical faith in some very unbelievable ways.

  In the Bible we can the find the writings of people of faith who were dealing with the great issues of life.  How do we express our faith when we are confronted with the great issues of life?

  The church members in Thessalonica in the time of the Apostle Paul were confronted with a faith dilemma.  They lived in a time when St. Paul had taught them that the Day of the Lord would soon occur.  But before this day occurred, some of the members of the Thessalonian church died and this troubled the surviving Christians.  What would happen to those who died before the Day of the Lord occurred?  Would they not experience the event of the Day of the Lord with those who still lived?   St. Paul wrote a letter to address the worries that the Thessalonians had about their faithful departed brothers and sisters.

  The issue of the death of our loved ones is always a poignant issue.   And it is hard not to think about their continued existence in some manner.

  As parents we often had to deal with questions about death posed by young children about a grandparent or a pet.  And what is the motive of our hearts when we try to comfort our children?  Our motive is driven by the desire to comfort our children, but what sort of language do we often produce?  Where’s grandma?  She’s now in heaven baking cookies.  Where grandpa?  Papa is playing golf with Peter in heaven.  And Rover, he’s retrieving balls thrown to him over and over again by St. John.

  And when we produce such language, where is the literal truth to be found?  How could we know about Grandma making cookies in heaven, or Papa playing golf with St. Peter, or Rover retrieving balls thrown by St. John?  We can’t know such things so where is the literal truth to be found?  The literal truth is to be found in the motive that we have to want to comfort our children; not in the statements that we produce.

  St. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians about the call of the archangel and the sound of the trumpet and the living and the dead being caught up together in the air to meet the Lord.

  But what is the literal truth of this writing of St. Paul?  Since a literal rapture did not occur in the time of Paul, it turns out that they just feared fear itself.  Is the literal truth found in the phrases of imagination or is the most literal truth of this writing Paul’s concern about his grieving friends?  I would assert to you that it is Paul’s desire to comfort his grieving friends.  With wisdom, we can discern what is truly literal about the Bible and in this case, it is Paul’s desire to comfort his grieving friends.

  With wisdom Jesus told parables about an issue for all people of faith.  Can we encounter God in our lives?  How does it happen?  Is it just a matter of good luck?  The literal meaning of the parables of Jesus was his effort to convince his listeners about the kingdom of God.

  One of the most important cultural events and rites of passage in any culture is a wedding.  Jesus told parables about weddings to give insights about the kingdom of heaven.  One can imagine that in his time people were most confronted by the oppressive kingdom of the Roman Emperor.  King David was just an ancient legend for the people of Palestine but who inspired imaginations about a future Messiah.

  Jesus taught the kingdom of heaven as an event of discovery which people could experience even while it seemed as though other kings controlled this world.

  He used the climactic event of the wedding to illustrate his point.  In a Middle Eastern wedding the party of the groom would go to the home of the bride to bring her back to his home.  One of the roles of the bridesmaids would be to form a gauntlet of light for the immediate procession into the home of the groom.  The five wise bridesmaids were prepared and had enough oil in their lamps to fulfill their duties.  The five foolish bridesmaids did not fulfill their duty because they did not have enough oil.  It does seem rather selfish that the five wise bridesmaids would not share their oil, but then it could be that if they had, the oil of all of the lamps may not have lasted through the grand entry of the bride and bridegroom.

  In sports, coaches often speak about luck favoring the prepared.  In any effort one needs to be prepared to take advantage of fortune and opportunity.  People who do not have the light of wisdom often cannot see the opportunity when it arises.

  There is a degree of serendipity in the special events of knowing the kingdom of heaven.  How does one prepare for serendipity in life?  How does one prepare for the good opportunities in the spiritual break through events in life?  It may have something to do with the famous saying by Thomas Edison about invention: "Invention is 98 percent perspiration and 2 percent inspiration."  One must be prepared and do the work to be in the condition to experience the inspired event. 

  The hundredth Archbishop of Canterbury, Archbishop Ramsey taught at our seminary and when asked how much he prayed each day, he replied, “I pray about two minutes” (and while he was waiting for our jaws to get off the floor) he said with a twinkle in his eyes, “but I spend two hours practicing.”  Prayer too, involves practice and preparation.

  Christians have often tried to divide events of grace and events of good works.  It is true that we cannot earn God grace and favor, but we can work and prepare ourselves as a way of being able to perceive the event of grace when it happens.

  It is true that all that we do in the work of faith does not always seem inspired.  We can get weary in our prayers, in our corporate worship and in our outreach efforts and we can forget about luck favoring the prepared.  The event of grace favors those who are prepared.

  Today, let us not grow weary in our preparation for the God-events in our lives.  The literal meaning of the parable of the five wise bridesmaids and the five foolish bridesmaids is that Jesus is concerned that we be prepared for the serendipity of our next God-event.  Amen.