November 6th 2011:
Potsdam and WS
Call: Revelation 7: 9-17
Text: Matthew 25: 1-13
Read: Liturgy from Joshua 24
Will It Be Shut?
I am distressed.
For I learned this week that certain well respected people in this congregation,
Misread, misinterpreted, and misconstrued
My words as put forth on the sign in front of the church,
Seeing the letter "U" as a different vowel
And wondering not only why I give my sermon such a title
But also why I would then put such a title
Right out front
Where the entire community had to see it
I am distressed because the "U" is in the title's most crucial word.
I am distressed
Because the title's question is for you and me
And there is no way I would want to drop "U"
From it.
And I am particularly distressed
Because the scripture inspiring the title
may be the most powerful and dramatic story that Christ told.
But our God is a merciful God
And our God is a God of Second Chances.
So we begin correcting the error by reading
from the correctly spelled and pronounced scripture
From Matthew 25: 1-13 ...
"Slam!" "Bang!"
the door closed in front of the bridesmaids
"Slam!" "Bang!"
the bridesmaids who had not seen fit to prepare themselves
were left outside
And then,
much more softly, but much more cuttingly
than either "Slam!" or "Bang!"
came the bridegroom's words
"Truly I tell you, I do not know you."
The bridegroom, of course, is Jesus Christ.
Can you imagine any sharper dagger to the heart
Than those words of Jesus Christ
Being spoken to you
Or being spoken to someone you love?
"Truly, I tell you. I do not know you"
Imagine
Standing outside that closed door
Wanting to be let in, but knowing it was our own lack of preparation that put us on the outside
Imagining that should call us
to want to look back and to reflect
And I believe that call to look back and reflect
Is why we encounter this scripture
At this time of the year.
For you see, three weeks from today
Is the first Sunday in Advent
Thus the first day of the new Christian year.
That means that today and next Sunday are all we have
To look back and reflect
Before our New Years Eve celebration of Christ as our king
On the 20th
And the beginning of the new year on the 27th.
We have now had nearly the entire Christian year to prepare
And so I ask
Are we better prepared today than we were 12 months ago?
Or have some of us wasted the year?
And taken the risk that if Judgment Day were tomorrow
They (we?) would be finally filling our lamps with oil
At the time the door closes?
And so what we are asking is whether when we get to the door,
Will it be open? Or will it be shut?
We begin our look back
By remembering a few things that we encountered
In the first part of the year that is nearly over.
This year began over 50 weeks ago
With an Advent whose theme was
"We wait for our Lord with
alertness, repentance, inquiry, and example
And so now, all these months later, we ask,
Have we during this year been alert
To God's message, God's command, God's call?
Have we repented
In deed as well as in word?
Have we inquired
As to what God wants and expects from us?
Have we followed the example of Christ
And have we been examples of Christ to others?
When we get to the door, Will it be open? Or will it be shut?
In early January - more than a month into this Christian year -
We saw the humility with which Jesus conducted himself
When he underwent baptism by John.
Are we more humble today than we were when we looked at that story and reflected on that example?
Or are we still focused on status, slights, and perceptions?
When we get to the door, Will it be open? Or will it be shut?
At the end of January, we found the gypsy woman Esmeralda in the Cathedral of Notre Dame (in Paris, not South Bend)
And we joined her in praying
God help the outcasts the tattered, the torn
Seeking an answer to why they were born
Winds of misfortune have blown them about
You made the outcasts don't cast them out
The poor and unlucky the weak and the odd
I thought we all were the children of God.
Have our lives since then reflected the love and compassion behind that prayer?
Have we treated the poor and unlucky, the weak and the odd
As bothers and sisters and children of God?
Or have our lives shown us to be witnesses against ourselves
As Joshua warned that we might be?
When we get to the door, Will it be open? Or will it be shut?
In February, on my 65th birthday, I asked us - you and me -
Whether we would choose God or the field.
Now, as we approach the completion of the year we look back
Did we choose God?
Did we choose the field?
Or Did we still hedge our bets by making no choice
And risk making us too late
And unknown to Christ?
When we get to the door, Will it be open? Or will it be shut?
And all through Lent our theme was,
"God is in charge - you and I are not."
Did that part of the year
Make us open to and embracing of
the opportunity to confess and repent
the opportunity to be strengthened
the fact that God is in charge
And thus the opportunity
To choose humility over self promotion
To choose obedience to God
over thinking that God should be obedient to us?
Or did we say, "there'll be more time later."
Let's be selfish for a while
And by doing so, again take the risk of the shut door?
And speaking of Joshua, as we prayed,
all of us proudly responded by joining him in declaring,
"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord"
Well, this year, how seriously have we taken that promise?
When we get to the door, Will it be open? Or will it be shut?
We look back and reflect
Not as an exercise or as an amusement
But as a prerequisite to looking forward and living.
We have to let the answers we give today
Impact on how we live our lives,
Serve our God,
and give of ourselves
tomorrow and tomorrow's tomorrow.
As we continually ask ourselves,
When we get to the door,
Will it be open?
Or will it be shut?