A Fourth Church Sermon by Alice M. Trowbridge

November 9, 2008 | 6:30 p.m. Vespers

The Foolish and the Wise

Alice M. Trowbridge
Associate Pastor, Fourth Presbyterian Church

Psalm 78:1–7
Matthew 25:1–13

The writer of the Gospel of Matthew records several stories as part of Jesus’ final discourse to his disciples, clarifying what it means to be ready for his return and how to live until he comes. In tonight’s story of the ten maidens, we are taught that every person is responsible for his or her own spiritual condition. The story of the talents that immediately follows tonight’s story is about using well what God has entrusted to us. And the parable of the sheep and goats stresses the importance of serving others in need. All of these stories are about preparation—about how to live our life of faith.

Tonight our task is to explore the parable of the wedding. We know that these ten maidens are waiting for the bridegroom’s procession in order to join in the festivities. Five prepare for the delay of the bridegroom by bringing sufficient supply of oil, and five do not. And so the five who anticipated the long delay of the bridegroom are referred to as wise, and those who did not, the foolish. Our conclusion is to say that those five who were attentive to the long haul of the wait and who prepared themselves are the ones who could, in the final analysis, join the party. The other five—the five who are also part of the invited guests but who did not have what they needed—paid the price in the end. They were not invited in to the party.

Five were wise in their faith life; five were foolish. Half of them exercised obedience and preparation and daily maintenance of their spiritual relationship with God, and the other half, while they counted themselves as part of the wedding gathering, were sorely left out and treated like strangers, having ignored the necessary preparations.

The wise and the foolish: where do we count ourselves to be? Frederick Buechner defines foolishness as a certain way of life. He says the life you save is the life you lose. In other words, the life you clutch, hoard, guard, and play safe with is in the end a life worth little to anybody, including yourself, and only the life given away for love’s sake is a life worth living (Wishful Thinking).

So what made five of those maidens foolish? Where were their priorities? Was their spiritual life in good order? All we can say about them in this parable is that they were not prepared to receive Christ when he finally came. Whatever they were doing, they were not prepared.

Let’s point the spotlight on our own spiritual preparation for life’s peaks and valleys. Are we neglecting the nurturing of our faith life in ways that will leave us out of that gathering in the end? Where do we invest our time? If we think about our weekly calendar, what occupies the most of our time, and what does that tell us about what we worship? What about our money? When we think of the checks we have written recently, or the bills we are paying, do we learn there about what it is we worship? What can get in the way of our readiness to remember that we are dust and to dust we all will return? A job can promise security, and a house can promise comfort, and a portfolio can promise protection for the future, and here we are in the hardest economic time in seventy years. Where have we invested our security, comfort, and protection? And in our relationships, personally we look for safety, and in community we look for ways to contribute. These are not bad pursuits, but are they nudging out ahead of the one pursuit to which we are called—the preparing for and the pursuing of God?

There is a very fine line between the foolish and the wise. The foolish can go about daily life pursuing their work, their ambitions, and going to bed at night with a strong sense of security. A house, a car, a good job, even good health—all of these can offer us satisfaction for a time. Even for a long time. Until we lose that job, or until our health takes a turn, or until our marriage ends, or the economy turns and we can’t afford our mortgage or the provisions for our family. Then where are we when the system we have built, which is dependent upon results in these tangible realms, falls apart? And what are we to make of our system of values?

What do the wise know? What did those five maidens know that we can learn tonight? As Peter Gomes puts it, wisdom is related to virtue, and virtue has to do with “who you are, what you know, what you do, and where you do it.” Wisdom remains the means to that ever-elusive goal, the welfare of the world, and thus we continue to do what we do, not discouraged by the lack of immediate result but living truly as a learning community, a community of faith looking ahead, forward, and not resting, or recollecting, or reminiscing, but looking ahead to that which has yet to be achieved. Wisdom, Gomes, believes, has to do with celebrating the possibilities of what yet remains for us, even amidst the present distresses, the past histories, the current challenges of our lives. (Biblical Wisdom for Daily Living, p. 190). The wise have an eye on the horizon and a priority list that begins with God.

In the end, whether we are counted among the foolish or among the wise is our own choice. We can turn toward that which is known, safe, secure as far as our human eye can gauge, or we can turn to the rugged wide open spaces where God may be found and where we are invited to choose between that which gives us life and that which does not. In choosing life, we are involving ourselves in the daily reminder that things are not always what they seem, and only our trust in God can grant us the ultimate moorings of our lives. If, on the other hand, we decide to carry on with blinders, to choose to elevate the here and now to a status not unlike a god, tonight we have received at tip-off: we are forewarned that the deep wells in our life of this world can run dangerously dry. They may be serving us well now and even in the coming times, but tonight the message about choice is clear. The opportunity to dig more deeply into the well of God’s provisions is before us. When we dig deep in the daily life of faith and obedience to the values and ways of God, we may live fully, loving the Lord our God, obeying Christ’s ways, holding fast to him, and enjoying the days yet left to us with a deeper measure of assurance and peace.

So we too are in the know. We know we have a choice. Will we count ourselves among the wise or the foolish? Whom will we serve? In whose hands will we place our trust? Amen.