“The Delayed Host”
November 12, 2017
Proper
27 A
Homily
preached at Trinity Parish Church
Ashland,
Oregon
The
Very Rev. Fr. Tony Hutchinson, SCP, Ph.D.
8:00
a.m. spoken Mass
“At that time the kingdom of heaven will be
like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise.”
This parable is strange, even
for Matthew. Look at its shape and tell
me what is wrong with this picture.
There is a clear social hierarchy, a pecking
order. A male holds the ultimate power
and is called “Lord” in Greek. In this
pecking order, there are two groups of women, identified as parthenoi, or
“virgins.” They are not married,
attached to a husband in the subordinating chattel marriage of that age. But they are still low in the pecking order. All are without power. Five ask to be let into the party, and are
refused. Another five are admitted, but
unable or unwilling to help the other five get in. Those excluded are called “foolish,” morai, the
word from which we get our word “moron,”
which captures the harshness of the word in Greek. The other women are called “wise,” phronimoi,
which means something more like “prudent,” evidenced by their planning
ahead. “Wise” here does not mean kind,
generous, or empathetic—they refuse to help the fools by sharing their oil with
them, and then remain silent as they are excluded from the party, though the
delay, the running out of oil, and the falling asleep are all really the fault
of the delayed host, who refuses the fools entry with the brutal words, “I have
no idea who you are!”
Strange. The bridegroom or his master of ceremonies might
be unacquainted with the friends and family of the other side of a new
marriage, but getting to know them is the point of the wedding feast, isn’t
it? Why doesn’t he just ask the bride or
her clan to identify them rather than simply assuming they are wedding
crashers?
The whole story depends on the
exclusion of the five foolish: the
closing of the door to those who have gone off to buy oil provides the occasion
for the punch line or moral of the story, “Stay awake, for you know neither the
day nor the hour.” This is not the only
one of Matthew’s parables that depend on exclusion. Remember the guy from a few weeks back who
showed up in the wrong clothes for a wedding party and was thrown out, even
though he had been dragged in off the street as a back-up party stuffer because
the invitees had blown the event off?
Remember what happened to those original invitees? Massacred, together with their villages. Of course, they had killed the messengers
sending the to-remind invitations.
Exclusion is a way for Matthew
to express his need for boundaries, for basic standards to be shared with
gentiles coming into the Church after the destruction of the Temple in
Jerusalem. That’s why he often adds this
element to parables that on the lips of Jesus were focused on joy and
inclusion.
Clearly, for Matthew, this
parable is telling us to get ready for Jesus to come again. We must stay awake and watch, follow the
rules and spiritual practices that metaphorically trim our lamps and fill them
with oil so that we may not be asleep or off somewhere doing remedial work when
Jesus comes again.
But what would this tale of
excluded women and thoughtless powerful men have meant on the lips of
Jesus?
Jesus proclaimed the coming of
the reign of God, already here in some ways.
Look around—see that God is already at work, is already in charge, right
here, right now. A fool refuses to see,
and is distracted by the wait for seeing the kingdom come in full power, and in
efforts to prepare and make it happen. A
wise person accepts the fact that the reign is not yet fully here, acts
accordingly, and keeps fixed on the signs of God already at work.
As in other parables, Jesus here
is not saying God or Jesus himself is brutal and exclusionary. The contrast between this sad tale of late
arrivals and rude turn-downs at the door and the welcome and joy of God’s table
is perhaps what Jesus wanted us to see in telling this story. Jesus told parables; Matthew tended to make
them into allegories. A parable has one
point—and the point here is that once the door closes, it is closed. You can be late and miss the party simply
because you delayed in letting yourself see it.
It is like that other parable of
Jesus—the narrow gate and the tight path.
Jesus’ point is not that only the very few and blessed will get the
blessing while all the rest will remain in outer darkness. The point is that you have to give up what
encumbers you to get in, and it isn’t always an easy or soft path. But it’s the easiest and softest path
around—and it’s for all.
Think of the images in this
story, and how they show up elsewhere in Jesus’ teaching and life.
A
lamp: “No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel
basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives
light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may
see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. [Mt 5:15-16]
Foolish
and wise: You are the salt of the earth;
but if the salt has lost its taste [lit. "become foolish"], how can its saltiness be restored? It
is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot. [Mt
5:13]
Everyone
then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise person who built their house on
rock. … And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them
will be like a foolish person
who built their house on sand. [Mt 7:24-27]
“But if
you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you
may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.”
Getting tired and falling asleep during
a wait: In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus came
back from agonized prayer to find his closest disciples all sleeping: “So,
could you not stay awake with me one hour?”
Fear that the lamp’s wick will go
out: Jesus praised John the Baptist by
saying, “A smoldering wick he
will not snuff out.”
The “wise” virgins’ refusal to share
with those who ask: “Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone
who wants to borrow from you.”
The desire to keep
the lamps burning: “In the city of God,
they will not need the light of a lamp, for the Lord God will give them light.”
The “wise” virgins entering into the
banquet first: “But
many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.”
The shut door: “Woe
to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door to
kingdom of heaven peoples’ faces.
The host’s refusal to let the unwise
virgins in even when they beg him: “If a man shuts his
ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered.”
On Jesus’ lips, this story
is about how we react to Jesus’ announcing of the Kingdom of God. It is about decision, not preparation. That closed door at the end of the story on
Jesus’ lips says “Don’t wait until it’s too late.”
I personally think that
those wise virgins ought to have shared their oil and their light. The host ought to have let the moron girls
in, and probably apologized for being so late.
But that is another story. The
story here tells us: wake up and look at God at work in the world around us. Don’t put off such clarity of vision until it
is too late.
The foolish ones need to
stay put even with lamps sputtering out, rather than leave in search of
oil. Dry times will come in our
spiritual lives, be sure of that. But be
equally sure that leaving and wandering in the night on the off chance of
finding a store that is open that might, just might, sell you new batteries, is
not a good strategy for dealing with dryness and depleted spiritual life. Hanging in there is the smarter choice.
I pray that all of us can come to know
in our hearts that God knows us and loves us.
Know that you are beloved. God
has always loved you and has already done everything needful for you to know
this deeply. But we do have to shake off
the fear of sputtering lamps and darkness, and or being abandoned by what
appears to be a perpetually late host.
Blessed are those who suffer, Jesus says, for God is already with
them. “Rejoice, and be overwhelmingly
happy,” he says, “because this is the way it is with prophets and holy
ones.”
In the name of Christ, Amen.
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