Sunday, November 12, 2017 Dr. Jan Rivero preaching
Will you wait with me in prayer? Holy God of heaven and earth, let the words of my mouth, the meditations of our hearts and the works of all of our hands be pleasing to you, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
I want you to hear another rendering of Psalm 133, this from The Message.
How wonderful, how beautiful,
when brothers and sisters get along!
It’s like costly anointing oil
flowing down head and beard,
Flowing down Aaron’s beard,
flowing down the collar of his priestly robes.
It’s like the dew on Mount Hermon
flowing down the slopes of Zion.
Yes, that’s where God commands the blessing,
ordains eternal life.
In a denomination that seems on the verge of splitting, not over theology but practice, and in a culture increasingly polarized, mostly over how we treat one another, these words from the Psalmist could inspire us. It’s
such a beautiful image, this notion of harmony being like an anointing. But the juxtaposition of Psalm 133 with the parable of the ten bridesmaids presents us with a fascinating challenge.
On the one hand, we hear of the prospect of God’s people dwelling in unity – an idea as sweet, as rich, as warm, as lovely as any image the Psalmist could imagine. It makes me wonder what was going on in the temple at the time. With the disunity we feel as a nation right now, the thought of any kind of common ground seems illusive if not impossible. The perplexing possibility that we might find a way to live together harmoniously evokes a longing that is deep in the core of the human soul, and as rich as the image of being doused with costly oil.
On the other hand, this parable of the ten bridesmaids confronts us with a a case study of disunity right out of the box. First of all, it is about a wedding. Weddings, as you know, can be the most stressful, emotionally laden events of life. They are so often the perfect example of Murphy’s Law. You remember it: anything that can go wrong will. They are a recipe, if not for disaster, at least for maximum conflict. They set up the antithesis of unity — what with all the money invested in one day, the stereotypical expectations on the part of the bride and very often on the mother of the bride, the pressure often put on the groom to be perfect as God in heaven is perfect. It’s a wonder couples make it past the honeymoon. For all the expense and build up for one day, too often precious little is invested in building the bonds of relationship and harmony and unity to last over a lifetime.
Isn’t it interesting that so close to the end of his life Jesus would use this framework to speak of the kingdom of God? Consider for a moment the wedding customs of his time. It is safe to assume that in Jesus’ day, marriages were arranged. It is likely that the bride and groom had little to do with the preparations for the day. Guests typically assembled at the home of the bride where they were entertained by her parents until the groom arrived. As the groom approached, the guests would go out to greet him, including the bridesmaids, all carrying, dare I say it, lighted torches. And in a festive procession the entire wedding party then walked to the groom’s home where the ceremony took place. After that, a party that lasted for days. There were then, as there are today, so many moments along the journey where war could break out or disaster unfold. Think Romeo and Juliet.
Now in this parable, the groom is late. We don’t know why. Why are grooms ever late? I do not know. I’ve never been one. But I know of one who was late because he forgot to bring his mother with him from the hotel to the church. That was a day. But I digress.
As Jesus told the story, the groom was so late that the wedding party fell asleep. Now you know that was an unimaginably long delay. By the time he arrived, half of the bridesmaids discovered their lamps would not light because they had run out of oil. The women who brought with them an abundance of oil were not at all empathetic or generous, and the unprepared bridesmaids ended up missing the festivities altogether.
The fact of the matter behind the story is that the people who waited for Jesus, who played the bridegroom in this parable, those waiting for him to return were getting impatient. And in their impatience things began to fall apart. People failed to remain on high alert. They began forgetting the lessons Jesus had taught. Spats broke out. People crossed and betrayed one another. Priorities changed. Anxiety rose. The culture crept in. And before long that unity around the good news of Jesus Christ, that harmony as sweet as anointing oil, was lost to self-preservation and acculturation. Living expectantly, hopefully, living as if the kingdom had already come on earth, grew increasingly difficult. And Christian harmony, once based on trust that the God who created the world would continue to love the world, became a dim and distant memory. This, my dear brothers and sisters, is the state of Christianity today.
So on the one hand, the Psalmist pines for unity, for a consensus if you will. Not uniformity, where everyone agrees. But the sharing of common values that work together for the common good. And on the other hand, the parable of Jesus that urges us to stay the course of faithfulness, even in challenging times, employing those Jesus values, those kingdom ideals that work together for the common good.
I wonder: do we have it in us? Do we have the audacity to live as if the kingdom of God is in our midst? Do we have the resolve to dwell together as people of God, even when we disagree about earthly things? Are we willing to risk our individualism enough to promote the common good, and to experience the bliss of God’s anointing of the human family? You see, that is how we bless the world as followers of Jesus. That is how we anoint the world with the goodness of God. That is how we demonstrate to the world that God’s love is truly poured out for and on the human family.
How good and pleasant, what wonder and beauty, how sweet and precious it is when the people of God live together in unity! In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.