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Watch out for not watching!

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Sermon for the Last Sunday of the Church Year (Trinity 27)

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11  +  Matthew 25:1-13

I wonder, when you woke up this morning and started getting ready for church, how long was it before you said your first prayer? How long before you thought to yourself, “The Lord may well return today. I’d better make sure I’m ready for His arrival!”? Did it take until you until you got to church? Until you sang the opening hymn? Or did even the words of today’s hymns and Scripture readings not break through all the other thoughts going through your head? How often throughout the week do you give a thought to Jesus’ warning to watch for His return?

You see, different people need different warnings from God, at different times. Atheists and idolaters and all who are outside the Christian Church need to hear one kind of warning, that their sins have separated them from God, that their notion of themselves as “good people” is laughable in God’s sight, that they are bringing God’s wrath down upon themselves with their idolatry and unbelief, and that a Day of Judgment is coming which they will not escape. If they take those warnings seriously, then they need to hear another kind of warning, a hope-filled one, to take refuge in the Lord Jesus, who died for them and who wants them to be saved. Meanwhile, those who are inside the Christian Church need to hear other kinds of warnings, and Scripture provides plenty of examples of them. Watch out for false teachers and false teachings! Watch out for lovelessness! Watch out for pride! Watch out for temptations! Watch out for carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life (as we’ll hear during the Advent season)! Today’s Gospel is a warning for those who are inside the Christian Church. It’s not a fire and brimstone kind of warning about gross and obvious sins. It’s a warning about a danger that’s much more pervasive and much harder to detect. It’s a warning to watch out for failing to watch, issued through the parable of the wise and foolish virgins.

Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. The ten virgins in Jesus’ parable represent the kingdom of heaven, that is, the Christian Church here on earth, in its outward form, those who have been baptized into Christ and who confess Christ Jesus as Lord. They take their lamps, with oil in them, and go out to wait for the Bridegroom, so that they can meet Him when He arrives on the last day, and, with their lamps glowing in the darkness, join in His joyful procession into the wedding hall, into heaven. All ten go out the same way. Pay attention to that. It’s important. All ten are eager to go out, eager to wait, eager to receive the Bridegroom when He comes. All ten go out with lamps that are lit and burning and ready to light the way. In other words, all ten begin as genuine Christians. All ten have faith.

But five of the ten are foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps but took no oil along with them. They’re not wicked, these girls, not prostitutes, not murderers, not drug addicts. And also not unintelligent. Simply unthinking. They know that the Bridegroom will come that night, that He could arrive shortly after sunset or as late as midnight. They know that they might need more oil than their lamps can hold. But they don’t act on that knowledge. They don’t give it any thought. So they’re prepared for a short wait, but not for a long one.

But the other five are wise. The wise, on the other hand, took oil in their vessels, together with their lamps. These girls are not morally “better” than the other five. They’re simply wiser, because they’re thinking ahead. “Sure, the Bridegroom may come within a couple of hours. But He may come as late as midnight! We’d better make sure we bring everything we need both for a short wait and for a long one. Not only our lamps filled with oil, but vessels with extra oil, just in case. Because we know that the oil that can fit in our lamps isn’t going to be enough if we have to wait until midnight.” They’re thinking ahead. They’re waiting intentionally. They’re waiting with purpose.

The foolish virgins represent the foolish Christians who are excited by the Gospel at first and eager to spend eternity with the Lord Jesus. But they ignore His warnings to keep watching. They may still attend church, but they’re more interested in entertainment-style worship than in hearing the preaching of God’s Word and receiving His Sacraments. They think less and less about living in daily contrition and repentance, or about growing in their knowledge and understanding of God’s Word. Their focus turns from heavenly happiness to earthly happiness. They don’t necessarily become wicked people. They just drift away from the faith. Because faith, like fire, needs to be fed continually, or else it dies.

The wise virgins represent the wise Christians who listen to Jesus’ warning and prepare for a long wait. They know their faith needs to be fed, so they seek out the ministry of the Word and Sacraments and make use of it regularly. They know the Christian life isn’t flashy or exciting or entertaining, that it’s full of ups and downs, joys and sorrow, and that Christ has called them to simple works of love and obedience in their day-to-day lives, and so they repeat the same simple mundane works over and over again, but keeping one eye on the heavens, waiting for their dear Savior to come. These are wise Christians who hear their Savior warning them to watch out for not watching, and they take His warning to heart.

Sure enough, the Bridegroom took a while. He didn’t come early in the evening. And all the virgins fell asleep, for which they are not criticized. Now, in today’s Epistle, St. Paul referred to a kind of spiritual sleep that is unhealthy and bad. Christians should be awake, should be sober, not asleep and oblivious to our duties. But that’s not what this sleep is. This sleep in Jesus’ parable represents the sleep of death. Some Christians die still holding onto the faith, because they were wise. They watched, as Jesus urged them to do. They made use of the Means of Grace, and pursued a Christian life. Others, tragically, die without faith, because they stopped making use of the Means of Grace and ended up pursuing an earthly life instead.

And at midnight the cry rang out, ‘Look! The bridegroom is coming! Go out to meet him!’ Then all those virgins arose 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, ‘No, there may not be enough for us and for you. But go instead to those who sell, and buy some for yourselves.’ It wasn’t until the Bridegroom arrived that the five foolish virgins realized that they had made a terrible mistake. Only then did it hit them, “He’s here! But we’re not ready!” And by then, there was no solution, nothing to be done. If they had thought about it before they fell asleep, they would’ve still had time to go get more oil. But now it was too late. They tried to go buy some more oil, but while they were gone, they missed the Bridegroom’s arrival.

The wise, on the other hand, are ready with their lamps. They fall right into the Bridegroom’s joyful procession, and they go into the wedding hall with Him and with His bride, a beautiful picture of the joyful wedding banquet in heaven and the eternal joy that believers will have with Christ, our heavenly Bridegroom.

Those who were ready went in with him to the wedding celebration. And the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins also came, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ But he answered, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’ Watch, therefore! For you know neither the day nor the hour when the Son of Man will come.

Watch, therefore! See how Jesus pleads with His disciples, pleads with you and me, to take this parable to heart, to take His warning to watch to heart, to avoid missing out on eternal life, because He died for you. What’s more, He saw to it that you were baptized in His name, that you’ve had countless opportunities to use the ministry of His Word and Sacraments. And He’ll continue to provide every opportunity you need to remain faithful until the end. He’s given you His Holy Spirit, who is always with you, urging you back to the Word, urging you to set your mind on the things of God, to keep an eye on the sky, as it were, waiting intentionally for the Lord Jesus to come, waiting with purpose, carrying out His instructions while you wait. He wants you to be with Him. He wants you to be ready.

Because the last thing Jesus wants to say to you on the Last Day is, “I told you so! I offered you all the help you needed. I warned you, over and over again, and still you didn’t watch. Still you didn’t pray. Still you didn’t make the ministry of the Word a priority in your life. Still you drifted away from Me.” That will, tragically, happen to many. But it doesn’t have to happen to any of you. You don’t have to hear those tragic words from Jesus. It’s not too late. Not yet. This parable, this Gospel, this last Sunday of the Church Year is God’s gift to you, to keep you watching, to keep you close to Him and His Word, and to encourage one another, in this Christian family, to keep watching, too.

Because, what are warnings for? They’re to spare you from danger. They’re to keep you from harm. They’re to make sure you stay on the right path and guard you against taking the one that would lead to your death. Warnings are there to bring you safely home. So be wise, dear Christians. Heed the Bridegroom’s warning as we close out another Church Year and prepare to start at the beginning again next Sunday. Make it your goal throughout the coming year to keep oil in your lamp, right up to your dying day, to cling in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ, and to watch continually for His coming! Amen.

Source: Sermons

State of Readiness: Alert

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Sermon for the Last Sunday after Trinity

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11  +  Matthew 25:1-13

Today is the last Sunday of the Church’s year. We’ve followed and studied the life and teachings of Jesus the Christ for another year. We’ve heard His continual call in the preaching of the Gospel to repent of our sins and to believe in Him, the crucified and risen One, for the forgiveness of sins. We’ve received that forgiveness in Holy Baptism, in the Absolution, and in the Sacrament of the Altar, where He’s given us the communion of His very body and blood. We’ve taken counsel from His warnings, we’ve taken comfort in His promises, and we’ve taken guidance from His Holy Spirit, who has renewed and strengthened us in faith, in hope, and in love. And starting next Sunday, we’ll do it all over again. And we’ll keep repeating this blessed cycle until Christ, the heavenly Bridegroom, finally comes to take His Bride, the Church, into the new heavens and the new earth.

On this last Sunday of the church year, Jesus pleads with His dear Christians once more: Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming. Watch. Keep watching. Be alert at all times. The day is coming like a thief in the night.

Those who have had any firearms training are probably familiar with something called the levels of awareness or states of readiness. There are four such levels: unaware, aware, alert, and alarmed. I’ll spare you the firearms applications and apply it directly to the state of readiness for Christ’s coming.

Some—those who don’t believe in Christ or care about His Word—are living in a perpetual “unaware” condition. They’re oblivious to the truth about who God is, who Jesus is, and what He has done for us. They don’t believe He is coming for judgment at all, and so they go on living in their arrogance, idolatry, and unbelief. They are “in darkness,” as Paul wrote in today’s Epistle, and the day of the Lord will come upon them for their eternal destruction.

Many Christians also fit into that category of unaware. They are the Christians in name only, who know nothing and who care to know nothing of the doctrine of Christ. They have an idea of who Jesus is that they’ve made up in their own heads, and they’re content to know their made-up version of Jesus and consider themselves Christians, but they have no awareness of their great need for the forgiveness of sins, nor faith in the blood of Christ to cleanse them of it. They think of Christianity as one valid religion among many. They would hate the real Jesus, if they knew Him. Such people are unaware that Christ is coming like a thief and unaware of what is necessary to be prepared for that day.

But we are not like those who don’t know the thief is coming, are we? We are sons of light, and sons of the day. We do know, for sure, that the day is coming, even though we don’t know exactly when. We know who Jesus is. We are aware of His coming.

How foolish we would be, then, not to keep watch, not to also be alert, focused, prepared to meet the Bridegroom when He comes.

Like five of the ten virgins in Jesus’ parable were unprepared, not watching, not alert. The ten young ladies all knew that the Bridegroom was coming. They were aware. They were eager to go out and meet Him. But they did not all keep watch. They did not all prepare for His coming. Five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Half of them were not ready when He came, and were locked out of the wedding feast forever—half of those who started off well, eager to meet the Bridegroom.

Stop and take note of that. As Jesus describes the times leading up to His coming at the end of the age, He doesn’t depict for us a Christian Church that is mostly prepared, in a state of readiness, where practically all Christians are going to go out to meet the Bridegroom with joy upon His arrival, with just a few stragglers who are oblivious and unprepared. No, what picture does He paint? He shows us a Christian Church in which a full half of the Christians are caught unalert and unprepared at His Advent. This is nothing for us to pass over lightly and pretend that we can just go on with our earthly lives and stop caring about it, stop thinking about it, stop preparing for. That would be foolish, not wise.

Now, what did the five wise virgins do? What made them wise? The wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. They were aware that the Bridegroom was coming. They were aware of their need to have burning lamps in order to meet Him and accompany Him upon His arrival. They were aware that they might be waiting awhile, and they were aware that the oil that was in their lamps would eventually be consumed by the flame. That’s how fire works. It consumes fuel. We’re all aware of that, aren’t we? Putting all those things together, they became alert—alert to the necessity of bringing more fuel along with them, enough to keep their lamps burning, enough to get through the night. And it did get them through the night, so that, when the midnight call rang out, they were ready to go straight out to meet the bridal procession.

The foolish virgins, on the other hand, took no extra oil along with them. It doesn’t say that they forgot to take extra oil, or that they had no opportunity to acquire extra oil. No, they chose not to take it. They neglected to take it, even though they knew their lamps couldn’t possibly stay lit all night long. See, they were counting on the Bridegroom arriving early. They assumed they would have plenty of oil to last. But He didn’t. And they didn’t. And their lamps went out. And they went straight from being vaguely aware that He was coming, past alert, to alarmed at His arrival.

As well they should be. Because, while the five wise virgins accompanied the Bridegroom into the wedding hall, the five foolish virgins scrambled to find a seller of oil at that late hour. They were too late, weren’t they? They finally showed up at the wedding hall, where the door was already closed, so they knocked and said, Lord, Lord, open to us! But he answered and said, Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.

Locked out of the wedding hall, just like the rest of the world, even though they started out as friends and servants of the Bridegroom. Locked out of the wedding hall, no longer acknowledged by the Bridegroom, just as all those who fail to watch for Christ’s coming will be denied by Christ, locked out of heaven and sentenced to eternal darkness and torment in hell because they neglected the means by which they should keep their lamps burning.

What are these precious, burning lamps, which alone are required for entrance into eternal life? They are the burning lamps of faith. Not just any faith, of course, but faith in the true God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And not just the knowledge of who this God is, but the reliance on this God and the trust in this God to save us poor sinners, who deserve only His wrath and punishment, for the sake of Christ alone, who died for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. It’s as simple as John 3:16, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

But hear what the Holy Spirit teaches us in today’s Gospel. There is no such thing as “once saved, always saved,” or “once a believer, always a believer.” On the contrary, many who have made a good beginning, believing in Christ for salvation, have later made shipwreck of their faith, as St. Paul puts it. In order for faith to remain, in order to persevere in the faith until the end, a ready supply of oil is required.

That oil is the Gospel as it is preached and as it is administered in the Sacraments. The vessels that hold it are the ministers of the Word, whom God has called and given to His Church to, what did Jesus say?, “feed His lambs” and to “take care of His sheep” until He comes. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

Coming to church, to the Divine Service regularly, often, is an integral part of being, not just aware of Jesus’ coming, but alert and ready. Of course, not just coming, but listening to Jesus, trusting in Jesus, living in daily contrition and repentance. Holding out your beggar’s hand and seeking mercy and charity from Jesus—that’s being alert and prepared. I’ll warn you again, as I have warned you before: if it’s within your power, don’t move to a place where the pure teaching of the Word is absent. Don’t take a job that will prevent you from receiving the supply of oil your faith will need to keep burning bright. Don’t let the concerns and cares of this life keep you from hearing the Gospel. Don’t marry a person who does not adhere to the pure teaching of Christ and who will not help you keep watch for His coming. You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.

On the other hand, if you find yourself in any of these situations already and it’s not within your power or divinely given prerogative to change it, pray to God that He will provide the strength and the means for you to attend to the faith He has given. Use every opportunity that He puts at your disposal, including the Bible reading booklets that are being provided to you today, with their Bible readings and Confessions readings, and Small Catechism readings.

The Christian life is not like a flash of light that burns brightly for a moment and then you go to heaven. It’s the slow and steady flame of a lamp that needs to keep burning for years, for decades, as you walk in great weakness here below, fighting constantly against the devil, the world, and your own sinful flesh, bearing the cross patiently, always watching, always alert, knowing that Christ will come soon, and knowing that “soon” just might be today. Or it might be in a hundred years. You have to be ready for either scenario.

Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever. Take the wisdom God has provided again today. Take it into the new church year with you and use it. You’re aware of what’s coming. You’re sons of light and sons of the day. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober…Let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Amen.

Source: Sermons