A, Post-Pentecost 24 Proper 27 - Matthew 25:1-13 "Expectation"

What do you expect from this day?  We all live with expectations everyday of our lives.  What are expectations and from where do they come?  To where do they lead?  Are your expectations healthy or unhealthy?

Expectations change from person to person, from place to place, and they vary in different times of life throughout the ages.

Our expectation for a meal, a bed in which to sleep tonight, an enjoyable day amongst likeminded folk, seems reasonable to us.  But, for those in war-ravaged places perhaps these expectations would lead to disappointment, resentment, and further hopelessness.  Our expectations might be quite trivial to those whose very existence hangs in the balance! 

The expectations we place on others can differ too.  What you expect of your parents or children changes over time.  Children learn to expect parents to care for them when young, but they expect to escape from their authority when they’re teenagers and young adults!  Likewise, parents expect to care for their children when young, and our mums and dads expect to be cared for, when they grow old!

Expectations are buried in our being from the time we’re born. 

Expectations remember the past, in the present, and furnish one’s future. 

Depending on the culture into which you’re born, will usually dictate the expectations you have of others, and yourself.   What you did and do, dictates what you will do.  Enjoying what you ate encourages what you will seek to eat.  Where you live, who you serve, who serves you, who and what you trust and don’t trust are learnt expectations.

Another word for expectations is wants!  Wants or expectations are fuelled by something deep within each of us.  Examining our inner wants and expectations can tell us a lot about ourselves.  Learning of another person’s wants, or a group’s expectations, can also help us discern much about the person or group.

For example, those who expect the world to continue to evolve into a better and better place, might have an expectation of society learning from its mistakes and not making them again.  There’s an expectation of humanity cycling round and round in an ever-rising series of events towards perfection.  On the other hand, those who expect the universe to one day spiral and explode into a chaotic oblivion will have very different expectations.  Both are expectations, both are not right, but they affect how humanity acts and reacts to events and other people.

So, what or who fuels your expectations?

Are your expectations, or wants, a false god?   Are your expectations premeditated resentments?  Setting yourself up, or others, for hurt and failure?

What do you expect of God?

What does God expect of you?  You might be surprised what God expects of you, written in his Word!

What fuel’s your expectations of God, and your understanding of his expectations of you?  It depends on whether your expectations submit to the Word of God, or you try to make God submit to your expectations and wants!

Ten virgins expect the coming of the bridegroom.  In this parable Jesus says five were wise and five were foolish.  The wise were those who have considered bringing extra fuel for their lamps.  The foolish have not thought things through and don’t have extra oil to fuel their lamps.

Jesus teaches the parable to prepare us for his coming and what we should expect.  So, what is the parable of the ten virgins teaching us to expect about Jesus’ return?

At the end of the parable Jesus says, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” (Matthew 25:13 ESV)  This sudden surprise is made explicit in the midst of the parable.  All ten virgins are asleep and startled when the cry comes for the bridegroom’s arrival.

Jesus previously says, “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.”  (Matthew 24:36 ESV)  Not even Jesus knows, only the Father in heaven.  Obviously when Jesus is sent by the Father, he will know, but not beforehand.

Notice that in the parable all the virgins fall asleep, and they cannot lend their oil.  This is so, because when we fall asleep in death, what we believe and trust, is the fuel of our faith, and it’s this light that will expose us as followers of Christ.  What you believe, or what you expect when you die, cannot be changed when Christ returns.

When we think of lamps, we might assume that lamps were used to see the way.  They may have been, if the lamps were rags soaked in oil on sticks, but the parable tends to suggest a lamp that’s not a temporary torch to see the way, but a lamp made of clay with a reservoir to hold the fuel and a wick to draw the fuel and burn a flame.  Much like a candle would burn and produce a small amount of light.

This type of lamp is not for seeing the way, but for being seen.  Virgins walking in the evening moved about with lamps to illuminate their faces, so they could be plainly seen.  Women who moved around hidden within the cloak of darkness, were usually anything but virgins.  The virgins needed the fuel for their lamps, to be seen by the bridegroom on his arrival, not to see the way to the bridegroom. 

One cannot work their way to Jesus.  Just as he came the first time, he will come the second time.  We didn’t find him the first time, and neither will we find him when he returns.  What will be seen of you when he returns?

This is a key part of the parable because if one does not have the good oil, so to speak, when the bridegroom arrives, we cannot expect to bargain our way through the door of eternal life to be with Jesus.

Like the virgins who went to find oil and returned to begged to enter, Jesus also says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” (Matthew 7:21, 23 ESV)

If we have an expectation that we can change our story on judgement day, Jesus clearly tells us it doesn’t work like that!  The fuel of faith we need when we die, is the fuel of doing God’s will, or what God expects and wants. 

He wants to see us waiting for him, illuminated by his presence, and not the back of us working, or changing, to get the good oil.  He wants to see the radiance and joy of our hopeful expectation in which we will enter the grave and will be woken at his coming.

So, what is this fuel?  The good oil of expectation!  It’s not an idol of our works, or a belief in a false image of God we’ve concocted in our hearts.

What is this fuel of faith that God expects to see in you?   It’s the fuelling trust in God’s Word, looking not to ourselves or finding our way to eternity.  It’s allowing the fire of the Holy Spirit to illuminate Christ’s death for our daily death of self.  This fuel of faith lets him shine his holiness in us.  So, when the Father sees us, our lamp of faith shows Jesus the bridegroom, shining for us, in his resurrection glory.

God expects you to be a sinner!  If he did not expect this, he would not have sent Jesus to be the only sacrifice for sin!  But God also expects you to be an enlightened repentant sinner, who despite knowing your sinfulness, willingly stands in his presence to confess, be forgiven, and forgive as Jesus has forgiven us in his death and resurrection.

Like the wise virgins whose faces are lit up with hope and joy at his coming, our wisdom is not so much about you or me, but about the wisdom of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, working and waking us with the Word of God.

God expects us humans to have doubts and troubles with faith.  Every day you can expect the old human self will seek its resurrection.  That, you can count on without a skerrick of doubt!   This is not a time to forget the oil reserve that is being deposited in you through God’s Word. 

When you have doubts, let the eternal resurrected bridegroom pour his Word into you with the Holy Spirit.  When you doubt, bash on God’s door in prayer for the Holy Spirit to open Godly expectations of his Word in you!  When you pray, trust the Holy Spirit to give you a desire and joy in God’s Word.  When you receive God’s Word as the good oil, expect this oil to be the oil to keep your lamps burning.

God wants your greatest expectation, to be of him. 

He wants your expectation of him alone.  

He expects you, to expect him, to be your God.  Amen.

C, Maundy Thursday - The Lord's Prayer #7 - Matthew 6:11 "Give us today our Daily Bread"

This is the last sermon in the Lenten series and as you can see by the diagram, we come to the crux of the Lord’s Prayer.

From the outset, theological language scholars struggle to know what the Greek adjective “daily” actually is.  There are several possibilities such as: give us this day the bread of existence; give us this day the bread for today; give us this day the bread for tomorrow; or give us this day the bread for the future.

Within the context of the Sermon on the mount, Jesus talks about the things we need for survival, saying…

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,  but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  (Matthew 6:19–21 ESV)

And, “…if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.  But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.  Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”  (Matthew 6:30–34 ESV)

Every day has enough of its own trouble, so we pray to our Father, “give us what we need every day.”  So, what do we need every day from our Father who is in heaven?  Or put better, “What does God require of us every day?”  What does God require of you if every day has enough of its own troubles and deceptive treasures?

Jesus highlights the troubles of the day, as working for treasures that leads your heart away from the true treasures of heaven, as well as being anxious and distracted in one’s desire to have what one decides to be enough of these treasures.

It’s here you’re called out of trusting yourself, back to trusting OUR father in heaven.  You are called to know that Jesus not only teaches God’s children to pray this prayer, but has been praying these petitions for you, and on your behalf before the Father.  He has proven himself 100% faithful to the Father, even unto death, and is now raised in victory over death, and intercedes on your behalf, before the Father, for your victory over death.

Our Father in heaven, Jesus the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit want God’s kingdom, power, and glory, to be your eternal reality in community with them.

For this to happen, God gives us access to him through his holy name, to call on him, to deliver us from every evil within and from without.   Having begun the work of moving us from evil to holiness, he continually seeks to lead us away from all kingdoms, which lead to evil and death, to his kingdom.  This is a kingdom of holiness and peace, set apart for you to be with him in all his power and glory.

While we are here on earth, he forgives us our sin.  It is his responsibility and pleasure to do so!  Because he is a steadfast loving God, we have a right to receive his forgiveness and a right to be able to forgive others.  He gives us the freedom and the will to accept that responsibility of passing his forgiveness onto others. 

As Christians, or, children of a loving God, we give the right to others to receive our forgiveness.  When we struggle to forgive, God gives us the responsibility to ask him to help us forgive as he has forgiven us.

If these are not enough troubles for each day, then we can add on what we need to eat, wear, and sleep.  But as we have heard he wants us to seek first his kingdom and the treasure of his holy righteousness and will.

Each day it pleases God that we ask him for the bread to sustain us now, tomorrow, and forever!

In fact, when we pray for our daily bread, the Lord’s Prayer names the treasure or bread of eternal life in our praying for deliverance from evil into the holiness of God’s name.  The Lord’s Prayer names the treasure or bread of eternal life which leads us from the temptation of building our own kingdoms into his kingdom of peace and sabbath.  The Lord’s Prayer names the treasure or bread of eternal life which restores in us the will of God, so, in prayer we can confess our sin, praise him for our forgiveness, forgive others, and confess our unity as his children through our common forgiveness of sins.  These are our daily bread. 

Therefore, our daily bread and true treasure of the heart is Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ gives us himself in this prayer when he gives us the words to pray it.  Jesus’ prayer, our Lord’s Prayer to his Father and our Father, is the word of God given to us from he who is the Word made flesh.  The Lord’s Prayer is taught by Jesus, the source of grace, who fulfils grace, at the cross!  The Lord’s prayer is both treasure from the mouth of God, and treasure in the ear of God, for all who receive it from Jesus, believe it in the heart, and pray it to the Father with the mouth.

If it’s our Father in heaven’s good pleasure to give us eternal rest in his kingdom of power and glory, how much more will he give us our daily bread each day of our troubled life on earth?  Therefore, Jesus tells us to seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and his righteousness, his treasures, and everything we need for this life, like, food, clothing, and shelter will be supplied by our Father who loves us.

If God would go to such lengths to provide for your salvation, by having his Son die for you, and raise him, why would he then not provide the lesser things for you? 

Furthermore, why would Jesus, who faithfully died for you, mandate for humanity on Maundy Thursday, a new covenant to receive his body and blood for the forgiveness of sin, life, and salvation?  As well as command us to do this eating and drinking of his body and blood in remembrance of his birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension, if he would then go on to not give us the things we need for this life? 

Also, why would Jesus tell his disciples and then after his resurrection and ascension, send the Holy Spirit to guide us in all truth, give us understanding in his word, engage faith within us, creating the will in us to do the greater work of confessing our sins, now that he has gone to the Father and prays ceaselessly for us, if he wasn’t sustaining us in this life? 

And why would the Holy Spirit move us to baptise in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and believe in our baptism into God’s kingdom, if he weren’t going to lead us through this kingdom of life, and away from all its troubles that end in death?  Only then not to raise us from death into his kingdom of eternal life, peace, and holy community!

Every time you pray the Lord’s Prayer you are in community with the Triune God, glorifying him in his presence and fulfilling your function in creation with all others who believe and pray.

Every time you pray the Lord’s Prayer you pray a Holy Spirited lifegiving prayer, because you are allowing God the Holy Spirit, to turn you from your helplessness, and place you in Jesus Christ the Son of God, and he in you.

Every time you pray the Lord’s Prayer you are forgiven and fed on God’s holy eternal living bread. 

Jesus Christ is our most treasured and holy daily bread.  Amen.   

Come Lord Jesus, be our guest, let all your gifts to us be blessed, blessed are you our daily bread, may the world be clothed and fed.   Amen.