Matt’s Musings

Dear St. Paul’s Friends and Family,

Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour. (Matthew 23:13)

I was way over prepared for my first week of Boy Scout camp.  Mom’s motivation was two-fold.  She didn’t want her 11-year-old, new to the troop son to want for anything, and even more importantly, she didn’t want this rookie camper to appear inept or unprepared for his first big camping trip.  After all, a scout’s motto is “Be prepared.”  The only thing worse than forgetting something, in my mom’s mind, was ignorance.  

I didn’t have a camping backpack, so we borrowed a huge military pack from my Uncle Bill who was in the Navy Seabees.  We stuffed it full of the usual things: plenty of clothes, a change of shoes, shower shoes, rain gear, a flashlight, a back-up flashlight, copious amounts of bug spray, and a homemade first-aid kit.  The items that really filled out the pack were the little extras that my mom deemed necessary for the successful completion of my merit badges: a mountain pie maker and the “M” volume of our encyclopedia set.  She figured that the pie maker would come in handy for the cooking badge, while one of the thickest books of our home reference library would be needed for me to complete a report on the moon that we were both certain I’d need to do to satisfy the requirements for the rocketry merit badge.  Long story short, I was way over prepared for a week at camp.  My subconscious has blocked out the details of my arrival at camp, likely to protect my mental well-being, so I don’t remember how I ended up carrying the pack from the parking lot to our campsite.  I just know that it was a requirement that every boy carried his own pack and that my pack ended up with me in the tent. 

Being prepared seems to be on Jesus’ mind in this Sunday’s reading from Matthew.  The text famously recalls Jesus’ parable of the 10 bridesmaids.  Their job was to await the arrival of the groom and then escort him to bride’s home, and finally to the home that would host the wedding.  Inexplicably, the groom has been delayed, but the bridesmaids persisted in their vigil late into the night.  As the hour grew late, we learn that 5 of the bridesmaids are ill-prepared for an all-nighter.  They were running out of oil for their lamps and were deemed as foolish by Jesus, while the other 5 were proclaimed as wise for being prepared.  The 5 foolish bridesmaids made a late-night run to their local oil dealer for more lamp oil, but in the process missed the groom’s arrival and ended up locked out of the wedding celebration.  Jesus’ cautions his listeners to “Keep awake…” for the day and the hour of the Kingdom of God’s arrival is unknown.  

We would be mistaken if we thought that this parable was only about being prepared (having enough oil).  Rather, being awake implies alertness and an acute perception of the situation in which we find ourselves.  Maintaining such an awoken state means that we are not only alert but prepared to do the things that are required of us.  Jesus wants us to be prepared for God’s Kingdom to unfold in our midst.  How can we be wise, awake, and prepared for God’s realm to arrive?  It’s tempting to throw everything into the pack that is our spiritual and faith life.  We can toil to be certain to include everything that we might need for the journey and in the process miss the necessities for serving God and our neighbor.  

As we consider our readiness for God’s arrival it might be helpful to remember that wisdom is not only a key attribute of God but is understood as the very essence of the Holy Spirit.  In other words, we aren’t only trying to be wise in our living, but to be in relationship with Wisdom, walking hand in hand as we live out our days.  Wisdom in the Bible teaches us that the very essence of God is love, therefore the work and trade of the Spirit is love.  Our calling in preparing for God’s Kingdom is to love as best as we can.  Our love of God inspires us to love others and ourselves; to work for a more compassionate, merciful, and just world for everyone.  We don’t know when Christ will arrive to complete God’s kingdom, but we do know that our calling is to continue his work of love.  Such loving work is the oil of healing for all our sins and the suffering of humanity.    

Blessings on your journey!

Pastor Matt