Advent I B [Mark 13:24-37] (3-Dec-2017)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 10.30am.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Today is the First Sunday of Advent, which is the first Sunday of the Church Year. The calendar year begins on January 1, but the Church Year begins on December 1. Advent is a short season in the church year which leads up to the celebration of Christmas. Advent, though, is not Christmas yet. Already for a month now, there have been Christmas decorations in the shops, and Christmas events and Christmas shopping has already begun. But the church is not celebrating Christmas yet—but Advent. Advent means “coming”, and over the next few weeks we will be hearing a lot about Jesus coming: his coming to earth as a baby, his continual coming to earth to be with his people, and also his appearance at the end of the world.

In our Gospel reading, it is this last coming, the second coming of Jesus, that we read about today. Today in the creed, we say: He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

Just before our reading begins, Jesus is talking about the terrible hardships that will occur, and how there will be many false prophets and even false christs will that come, performing false miracles. Then Jesus says: But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. Jesus tells us here that before he comes, that the sun, the moon and the stars will be affected in very strange ways. If we are going to understand what this is about, let’s read from Genesis chapter 1, about when God created the sun, moon and the stars. It says: And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. We can see that the reason why the sun and moon exist is not just some kind of accident of the universe, but they have a particular purpose to mark times and seasons, days and years, and to shine light upon the earth. But Jesus now is pointing forward to the end of the world, where there will be no need anymore for a sun or moon, because there won’t be any need for time anymore, because he is talking about his eternal kingdom, which will have no end. In Revelation 21 it says: I saw a new heaven and a new hearth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away…And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. And so Jesus says: In those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven. Even Jesus says: And the powers in the heavens will be shaken. When the bible talks about “powers in the heavens” it is often talking about angels. And so, in this passage, we read that even the angels will be shaken and moved and disturbed and amazed by what is about to happen. So what is this thing that Jesus is talking about that is about to happen?

Jesus says: And then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with power and great glory. And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

This is an amazing passage. Jesus says the sun, the moon, the stars, the angels will all be shaken and disturbed, and then he will appear. Jesus will outshine the lot of them. And it says that he will come in the clouds with power and great glory. Now in the Apostles’ Creed, we say that Jesus ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, from thence he will come to judge the living and the dead. What this means is that just as Jesus ascended into heaven, so he will also appear from heaven again to judge the world. In the book of Acts, where we read about Jesus’ ascension into heaven 40 days after Easter when he rose from the dead, it says: When [Jesus] had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

So just as Jesus entered into heaven on a cloud, so also he will return at the end of the world in a completely miraculous and supernatural way, on the clouds, with power and great glory. Just as it was the same Jesus that had lived among his disciples and had died and risen again who entered into heaven, so also it will be the same Jesus—the Son of Man­—who will return at the end of the world. We see here that Jesus is both true God and a true man. He will not return like some kind of ghost, but he will return in his human flesh, because it is Jesus’ in his human flesh that sits at the right hand of the throne of God. But he is also true God: he will not just return like any man, but with power and great glory, and he will also send his angels. The angels only belong to God. And so Jesus, who is both true man and true God, sends out his angels. He says: Then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. Now when we read about “the elect”, it means all those people all throughout history who have heard and listened to God’s word and the Gospel, and then the Holy Spirit has created faith in their hearts and caused them to trust in that word and God’s promises. Even we believe that those who believe in Jesus were chosen right from the beginning of the world. Now, sometimes people think, “But who are the elect? Maybe I simply haven’t been chosen, and I’m going to hell, and there’s nothing that I can do about it.” No—that’s not what Jesus wants you to believe. He calls you through his word to recognise first of all that you are completely and totally a sinner. Even your good words and good thoughts are tainted by sin, and that there is nothing good in you that can save yourself. But then he calls sinners like you to trust in him, and to believe that he is a faithful Saviour, that he has died for you, that he has paid not only for your sins but for the sins of the whole world on the cross, and that he has risen again from the dead for you. The Holy Spirit creates this living faith in you, and calls you to persevere in this faith every day of your life until your death. Even we ask God to keep us in this faith, because we don’t keep going in it in our own strength, but in God’s strength and in the power of the Holy Spirit. And so, trusting in Jesus and his righteousness and his holiness, and his atonement and his sacrifice, we look forward to that time when he will then send his angels to gather his elect from the four winds.

Jesus up until this point has been talking about things that are almost impossible for our tiny little earthly minds to comprehend. It’s hard enough for us to imagine what it must have been like at the beginning of the world, and now Jesus is talking about the end of the world! And so, now Jesus tells us a little parable from every day life, to help us understand what he’s talking about. He says: From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates.

Have you ever heard Aboriginal people (maybe on TV) talking about how they want to pass on their culture and their knowledge? I once saw something on the Aboriginal channel about a man in Arnhem Land talking about a certain flower on a certain tree, and over the centuries they had worked out that when the tree flowers, the crabs in the sea are ready to be fished for and caught. Isn’t that amazing? This is a bit like what Jesus says here. He says that when a fig tree’s branches become tender and put out its leavens, then you know that summer is near. In the same way, when we see the sun, and moon and stars being affected like this, and when the world gets worse, and when the world’s suffering gets worse, and when there are more and more false prophets and false Christs, then we know that Jesus will return soon. But when Jesus will return, for us who trust in him and his sacrificial death and resurrection, it will be like a glorious summer. What is happening in the world will look like a long, slow winter—but in actual fact, it is simply a reminder from Jesus that summer is not far away.

Jesus then says: Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. Now this is the heart of our reading today, and is a very important passage for us as Christians today. Jesus says: This generation will not pass away until all these things take place. What does he mean when he says: “This generation”? Who is “this generation”? He is not talking about the people who were alive back then: they have all died now. He is not talking about the apostles. He is talking about his own Christian people, made up of believing Jews and Gentiles all throughout the world, and all throughout history. Jesus promises that there will always be a church on his earth. This is the generation of people that will not pass away.

Now, this is so important for us today. Many people say that the church is old-fashioned, and needs to keep up with the society. No—it doesn’t. All throughout church history, where Christians have tried to keep up with society, the church has died out. The church has outlived many civilisations. In the year 300 or so, North Africa—today’s Tunisia and Libya—was one of the strongest places for Christianity. Not any more—there are very few Christians in those countries today, and most of the people there are Muslims. But the church on earth didn’t die out—the church is still here. And so it’s of such great importance for us today that we keep the faith, and pass it on. Who knows where the people we pass it on to will take it? Jesus says: Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. What makes a church survive? If we want to make allegiances with this earth, then we will pass away with it. The thing that makes the church the church is God’s word. God’s word will not pass away. The world will pass away. Australia will pass away. Queensland will pass away. Maryborough and Childers will pass away. But not God’s word. And so at the beginning of a new church year, it’s of such great importance that we build our lives and our church on this foundation and on no other foundation, because when we stick with the word—with God’s law which shows us our sin, and with the Gospel which shows us the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world—when we stick with this word, then we will be part of that generation that will not pass away until the end of the world. As Jesus says: Behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. And also, when Peter made a faithful confession of faith that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, Jesus said to him: On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

Now, at the end of our reading today, Jesus says: But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. No-one knows when the end of the world will be. Only God the Father knows, not the angels and not even the Son. Now—here’s a question? If Jesus is true God, and knows everything, how come he doesn’t know that day or that hour? Well, let me try explain. Jesus is true God, and he has every right to know everything that there is to know. But also, when he became man, he chose to become like us, in such a way that he would have had to learn things from his mother, like how to talk, how to feed himself, how to wash himself, and so on. He could have done these things without being taught, but he chose to learn them. As soon as Jesus was born, he didn’t begin preaching sermons, even though he could have, because he was true God. But Jesus chooses to put away certain knowledge from himself, such as when the end of the world will be. He has every right to know, but even if he did know, he wants to make it very clear to us that we will not know. And when Jesus says to his disciples: I don’t know, it means that the disciples won’t ask him. If Jesus said, “I know, but I’m not telling you,” then they would beg him to tell them. Imagine if I put some chocolate at the back of a cupboard, and said to my children, “I know where it is, but I’m not telling you”. They would beg me to tell them. But if I said, “I don’t know where it is,” then they wouldn’t bother asking me. Now, Jesus isn’t lying to us here, but even though he has every right and every power to know as true God, there are many things he choses not to know when he became man, and this was one of those things.

Now, this is also very important, because we often hear about people who think they know when the end of the world will be. We always know that they’re wrong, because Jesus says here in our text that they don’t know. Even some people think they have a secret method of reading certain numbers in the bible, and in the book of Revelation, or they make certain predictions, like horoscopes, about the stars, and all kinds of things like that. Even this year, there were some people who thought that the world would end in September. Well—they were wrong! But we should have known that they were wrong before September, because fortune-telling, or divination, as we might call it, is forbidden in the bible. It’s even forbidden to use the bible in a mystical, secret way, to do fortune-telling. This mystical numerology and astrology and horoscopes are also forbidden. The word “occult” means “secret” – it means when people want hidden power and information that God hasn’t told us. We can’t use the devil’s means for God’s purposes. So if anyone is saying that the world will end because “Jupiter is in Pisces”, don’t listen to them. Deuteronomy 18 says: There shall not be found anyone among you who…tells fortunes or interprets omens…for whoever does these things in an abomination to the LORD. And also in Isaiah 48, we read where the prophet speaks about those who divide the heavens, who gaze at the stars, who at the new moons make known what shall come upon you. So when Jesus spoke at the beginning of our reading about the sun, moon and stars, he’s not telling us to listen to horoscopes.

So what is he telling us? He’s telling us to watch. Jesus calls us to watch very carefully that we don’t mix in anything with the Word of God that doesn’t belong there. Otherwise, we will mix in false belief with our faith. Our faith needs a solid, pure, completely trustworthy word to hang onto. And so, Jesus says to us: Watch. Watch. Stay awake. He says: Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning—lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.

And so this watching, this staying awake, means, being stubborn in the faith. It means, hanging on to Jesus and his words that will never pass away. It means, testing and sifting things and checking to make sure we have not muddied God’s word with our human opinions. It means, to keep coming back to Jesus again, to remember the wonderful gift of baptism, to receive the forgiveness of sins, and to receive afresh his body and blood in the Lord’s Supper. We will never know when the end will come, but in the meantime, we hold to his word. And we hold to this word, because it contains the Gospel, and the Gospel is the power of God for salvation. Let’s place ourselves in Jesus’ hands at the beginning of this new church year, on this First Sunday of Advent, and pray that he would bless our lives, our homes, and our church with his Holy Spirit, that we may stay awake and stake our lives on the pure clear word of God and the wonderful message of the Gospel of the free forgiveness of our sins. Amen.

Dear Jesus, keep us steadfast in your word, your word that will never pass away. Create in our sinful hearts a living trust in you and forgiveness, so that we may look forward to your glorious appearance at the end of the world. Amen.

Pentecost XXII (Proper 27 A) [Matthew 25:1-13] (12-Nov-2017)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 8.15am (lay-reading), and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 9am.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

In our Gospel reading today, we read a very rich parable of Jesus, the Parable of the Ten Virgins. We read: Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. The scene that Jesus paints here is one of ten virgins who are bridesmaids waiting for the groom to arrive so that they can go into a wedding reception, or a wedding banquet. At weddings, it is always important that things run on time, and there are a lot of jokes about brides running late. If a bride arrives early, the car might drive around the block a few times so that they arrive at the church at the right time. But in our parable, it is a groom—a bridegroom—that everyone is waiting for, and he is so late that everyone falls asleep.

In our reading, we read that the ten virgins went to meet the bridegroom. And later we read: At midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ So who is the bridegroom in this reading? The bridegroom is Jesus himself. One of the first things we read about in the book of Genesis is the marriage of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden with God himself as the match-maker and the celebrant. And then, right at the end of the bible, we read in the book of Revelation: I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. A couple of chapters earlier, we read where an angel says: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Right back in the Old Testament, in the prophet Isaiah, we read about a faithful servant of God speaking of God like their husband: I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. In Ephesians, Paul has a lot to say about this: Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendour, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

And so you can see this wonderful reality described in the bible here of Christ as the bridegroom, and the church as his bride. St Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11:2: I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. He is not speaking only to the Corinthians who were outwardly celibate and virgins, but to the whole church here. And in the church at Corinth, there were virgins and widows, married people, and also people who had converted to Christ from prostitution, who were adulterers and who had slept around, and also Paul even mentions people who had converted to Jesus after having committed incest. But when these people repented and turned to Christ, they became virgins again, not because of themselves and their own righteousness and purity, but because of Christ’s righteousness which covered them. As it says in Isaiah: He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

In our reading, we read about the ten virgins: 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.

On one hand, in the bible, the church is always depicted as Christ’s bride. But in this reading the bride isn’t mentioned, only these virgins, these bridesmaids. And so, we learn from this that in this life, in the church on earth, the bride of Christ is hidden, veiled. The church is often not a glorious place at all. It often seems quite ordinary, even a bit uninteresting and boring and commonplace. Sometimes in the church, there are fights and disagreements. From the outside, the church seems to have a lot of hypocrites. Many people don’t want anything to do with the church, because they see a community of ordinary sinners, and if God were really in charge of the world, why would he bother wasting his time with that lot?

But in this life, we don’t see the bride in all her glory. We only see ten virgins, five of them are wise and five of them are foolish. On one hand, the church is found wherever Christ’s word and the Gospel is preached in its truth and purity and where his sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper are carried out according to Christ’s command and institution. The Word and the Sacraments are the Holy Spirit’s means that he uses to create faith in people. But on the other hand, not everyone who hears the gospel believes it. But faith is not something that you produce in yourself, but it is something that the Holy Spirit works in your heart. You might even think: “I want to believe, but I can’t”. St Paul writes that God wills and works in us to his good pleasure. If you want to believe, it means that God is already working in you, and you didn’t even know it. Thank him for working in you—he will continue to work in you, and he has already produced faith in your heart.

Now, the Holy Spirit is not a toy. He is the living God himself, and the Spirit of the Living God, and the Spirit of the living Jesus, who has risen from the dead. The Holy Spirit will not be manipulated. And so he works whenever and wherever he pleases in those who hear the Gospel. In John we read: The wind blows where it wishes and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. What this means is that just as we might be sitting inside one day and can hear the wind outside, so also when we hear the Word of God, we are listening to God’s own wind, the Holy Spirit. But just as you don’t know where the wind comes from or where it is going, so also we can’t see the Holy Spirit coming, and we can’t see the Holy Spirit working in this person and that person. As Paul says: I preached, [someone else] watered, but God gave the growth.

And so, we see this happen on the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit comes down upon the disciples, but not everyone who sees this happening believes it or recognises it. We read: All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.” Some were interested, but some mocked. When Paul preached in Athens, we read: Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” So what we learn here is that we never know how the Holy Spirit is going to work. We should never second-guess him and say: That person’s never going to listen. We simply speak the word and go home, but the Holy Spirit then continues to work and create faith in people.

So on one hand, the word of God and the Holy Spirit comes to us from outside of us. And all of us hear the word of God altogether. But God doesn’t speak his word in such a way that it hits you on the head like a rock and bounces off. He calls you to believe it. And so, even though all kinds of people might come to church and hear the word, God calls each individual to be saved personally. Later in our reading we read: 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. Afterwards, the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’

We learn a few things here. Firstly, we learn that Christ calls us to receive the gift of salvation personally. When the time comes, it will be too late for the individual virgins to share their oil with each other. We can’t rely on others. We can’t say: I’m saved, because I go to church with bla-bla-bla, and he’s a good guy. Or: I’m saved because my grandma is a Christian. Or: I’m saved, because my grandfather, or my son, is a pastor. Or: I’m saved because I go to the church Martin Luther started, and he knew what it was all about. Or: I’m saved because come from such-and-such a country. No: we can’t get our righteousness from each other. We can only receive our salvation from Jesus and him alone. Now, sometimes, when a person dies, we don’t about their salvation, and so we might commend them to God in prayer and to his mercy. But this does not mean that our good works or our prayers can earn salvation for someone else. Some of you might have a relative or a friend who is not saved and is an unbeliever. Of course, we should pray for them every day and not give up. But we don’t pray that we would be their saviour, but that Jesus would be their Saviour. So salvation is through Jesus and Jesus alone. Peter says in Acts: There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. So the oil cannot be shared between fellow virgins. It can only be received from Christ and the Holy Spirit, through the living and active word of God.

But secondly, there is a very important teaching here that not everyone will be saved. This is a very unpopular thing to say, but we must learn from the Scripture and not from our own ideas that there will be a judgment, and that each person will be judged by God. There are a number of parables where Jesus teaches this: one of them is the wheat and the weeds, where at the end, the wheat and weeds are separated into different piles. Another parable like this is about the drag net which pulls in all kinds of fish, and then they are sorted into the good and the bad. And here in the parable of the ten virgins, there are two types of virgins: the wise and the foolish. The wise virgins are ready and prepared and they go into the wedding feast, but then there are the foolish virgins who are not ready and it is too late for them, and then the door is shut. So you can see that there is a judgment.

Now today there are many people who don’t believe this. First of all, many people say that there is no distinction between God and his creation. They say that God is everything, God is the universe, or that God is in everything. The first verse of the bible contradicts this and says: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. God is the creator, and the heaven and the earth are his creation. Second, many people say that the Holy Spirit is in everyone. This is not true. Everyone is born with a conscience, everyone is born with a soul, but to be saved, Jesus says you must be born again, a second time, in Holy Baptism, and God gives the Holy Spirit as a gift. Instead of being united around Jesus and his word, many people today just want to be united in their feelings and experiences, and so there would be no difference between the Christian faith and any other faith. But Jesus says: I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If this isn’t true, then Jesus is a liar, and he’s not the true God. If the words of Jesus are not absolute truth, then nothing in this world is right or wrong, there is no good or bad, no heaven or hell, and of course, the church has no mission, and the missionary zeal of the church completely dries up.

Instead, the bible teaches us that God is the Creator, and he has made heaven and earth as his creation, which is distinct from him. Jesus is true God who entered into this creation and took on human flesh, and then died on the cross and made a payment and an atonement for sin. Through faith in Jesus, we receive the Holy Spirit. In the end, we will be judged; but through Jesus, forgiveness and eternal life has been won for us, and is ours through faith. Jesus is our Mediator, our Advocate, our Defender. The Holy Spirit brings us the Gospel, and through the Gospel the Holy Spirit creates faith in us. The Holy Spirit is the oil in the lamps, and the light of the Gospel in our hearts is the light. And so while we have the light of the Gospel shining among us on this earth, we need to make good use of the time we have to fill up our flasks with God’s oil. If we leave it, and refuse to believe the Gospel, there may be a time, then, when it is too late for us.

And so, at the very end of our reading, Jesus says: Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour. Jesus here is calling us to repent and to reconcile ourselves with God now, in this life, while we have the Gospel. Psalm 95 says: Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Isaiah says: Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near. St Paul says in Romans: The hour has come for you to wake from sleep. And in Galatians we read: As we have the opportunity, let us do good to everyone. The time for acquiring faith, and believing in Jesus, and receiving the Holy Spirit is now. It is not next year, not next month, not tomorrow. When we hear the Gospel, we can’t guarantee that it will be there for us when we need it. We might say: I’ll read the bible at home another day, but who knows if later you’ll go blind in your old age? People might say: I won’t listen in church all that carefully, but then later on they go deaf and it’s too late? They might say: I’d like to come to church, but then later they find themselves unable to come when they want to.

Or someone might say: I’m going to church at Easter. I haven’t gone to church for a long time. And then they go along, and the preacher tells everyone that Jesus hasn’t risen from the dead after all. It’s too late – the Gospel isn’t preached in that church any more, and the glory of God has departed from that place. They rejected God earlier, and when they sought him later, they couldn’t find him anymore. They might call for a pastor to come and see them on their deathbed, but then they can’t find anyone to come, because by that time, either no Christians live there anymore, or the Christians who do are too lazy and apathetic to come.

The time of grace is now. And while we have the Gospel, our Lord Jesus doesn’t call us to be apathetic, but to fill up, to stock up our vessels, and to keep our lamps burning. And when our lamps burn brightly, and when they burn with the wonderful light of God’s word and his Gospel, then the words will be fulfilled: Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Others may see the light in the lamps, and will say: I want to go and fill up on the same oil as they. I want to fill my lamp with the same word of God, and the same Gospel, and the same Holy Spirit.

And so, let’s be ready and prepared. Let’s continually learn God’s word, receive the free forgiveness of sins, and to fill up our vessels continually, so that when the time comes we can wake from our sleep and hear the words: Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him’. And those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast. Amen.

Dear Jesus, our loving bridegroom, keep us watchful and ready, and continually fill our lamps with your precious Word and your Holy Spirit. Wake us up from our sleep, forgive us all our sins, and lead us into the wedding banquet of eternal life. Amen.