"Use Your Oil" Sermon on Matthew 25:1-13

Sermon: Use your Oil.

Text: Matthew 25: 1-13

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who holds an overflowing jar of oil for us.

I’m not a good waiter, not talking working at a restaurant here, waiting for things to happen. I tend to get antsy when I have to wait for something to happen. I just want whatever it is to start now, or get here now rather than later. A rather apt comparison to this weeks text happened on Wednesday. I was a home for lunch and prepping for confirmation. I ended up being ready about an hour early. And I decided to lay down for a few minutes since I was otherwise getting antsy like I said, about 3:15 getting here and school getting out. And I ended up falling asleep, and woke up at 3:05, just in time to get over here and get doors open and arrange things.

It’s a rather close situation to what happens in our Gospel text today. We have 10 young bridesmaids, the Greek word actually refers to un-wed virgins, which at that time would be young girls 13-14 years old. And they are invited to a wedding feast, chosen to be the honored girls who will escort the Bridegroom into the party. Normally these party’s would start mid-day and go to early evening, so the oil that fills a lamp is way more than enough. So, if we were to look at just the first part of this text, and see the two groups the foolish girls who don’t bring extra, and the wise girls who do, it would actually seem to be reversed. The ones who bring extra would seem to be the foolish girls, why are they lugging that extra jug of oil around with them if we know for certain that they won’t need it.

But, something odd happens, seemingly unexpected, the bridegroom is late. And not just a little late, but way late, the girls wait until evening comes and then they have to light their lamps, and wait some more, and then it get’s later, and they all end up falling asleep, both groups.

And then at midnight, the cry comes, “Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!!” All ten girls startle awake and go to light their lamps, but they are all out and empty. The girls who brought extra are able to fill their lamps and light them, but the foolish girls? They don’t have any oil to light, and have to head out to buy some more. And when they return they find that they are shut out. “Lord, Lord, open to us.” “Truly I tell you, I do not know you.” And Jesus closes, “Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”

Ok, first things first, in your baptism which connects you to Christ’s death and resurrection, your lamp is full, and your jug is overflowing. None of you have to worry about your jug being empty or running out of oil. We want to make this parable about who’s worthy and who’s not, but it’s not about that. All ten girls are invited to the party, their all worthy. So, the parable is not about that. It’s a parable about waiting, and faith.

Let’s move back to waiting. As I said, I’m not a good waiter, and I don’t think all that many people are. Especially when we look at the kind of waiting that is being talked about here. This is not really the same waiting as I talked about, waiting for confirmation to start, or waiting for Christmas or Thanksgiving to get here. We know when all those will take place, sure we may be bad at waiting for them to get here, but they’re not really crisis’ of faith. This is the waiting of not knowing what’s going on. Starting with a simple example, it’s the waiting that takes place when on a Wednesday 3:30 or 3:40 rolls around and no confirmation students have shown up yet. And I start to think, uhoh, are any of them going to show up? Is something else happening I didn’t know about? What if they all hate it and they’ve all decided to not come? This is not the waiting that happens normally as life moves along normally. This is the waiting that happens when a wrench gets thrown in the gears, life is flipped upside down, and we have no idea what to do. It’s the waiting to hear about cancer results, it’s the waiting to see an ultrasound, the waiting to be with family in the midst of a death. It’s the not the waiting for what we know will happen, but the waiting when we have no idea what to do, or where to turn.

This is where we can see the difference in the wise and the foolish girls. The foolish girls think things will always go as planned, that life will always work the way they want it to. They think they can indeed rely on their own strengths and abilities to get through with it all. But, the wise girls have this jar with them, filled to the brim with oil, ready to help them light their way.

That jar? That’s their faith, that’s their trust in God. The foolish girls go about thinking that they have everything on their own, they don’t need anybody else’s help. And most of the time, sure that will get them by. But, then that situation arises. And they don’t know where to turn, and they can’t see their path. The words from the Lord at the door, “Truly I tell you, I do not know you,” really are saying, you didn’t know me. You looked everywhere else, trusted in everything else, and never took the time to know me.

The question arises, why didn’t the wise girls give their oil to the others? I don’t think we can give our faith. We can certainly share our faith, we can tell others and our children about our faith. But, they receive faith only through Christ himself. What we do is show them that Christ is standing by their sides, and has been their whole life, holding a jar of oil, waiting for them. That’s faith. When life flips upside down, and we don’t know where to turn, trusting that Christ is indeed with us, holding a jar of oil so we can see where we need to go.

And as we wait, we can do one of two things. We can take for granted that Christ is always ready with that jar of oil, and we can fall asleep and waste that oil. Or we can put it to use, shining our light in this world, so others can accept their own jars of oil. If they had stayed awake the wise girls could have told the foolish girls to get more oil earlier. That's how they use their oil.

I read a story this week of two pastors and a 90 year old man from Fort Lauderdale, Florida who were arrested for feeding the homeless. The local authorities recently started an ordinance saying that you couldn’t feed the homeless in public, but based on the scripture of feeding the hungry, and taking care of the least, they continued to do so, even as they were arrested. That is using your oil, showing your faith.

Going to visit those who are sick and dying, that’s using your oil.

As our reading from Amos says, it’s letting justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. It’s using your oil.

It’s using oil from a jar that will never empty, that will never even go below overflowing. And if that weren’t enough, we are fed and nourished and replenished through the meal of Christ’s body and blood. With that, and with Christ’s presence with us, we can certainly overcome all earthly lamentations and sing out, and use our oil.

Let us pray,

God of grace, you give us the oil of faith, and we hope to respond, to be wise and use our oil. Help us to do so, help us feed the hungry, visit the sick, care for the least. Help us use our oil.

Amen.