Living in the Spirit
November 8, 2014

Scripture Reading: Matthew 25:1-13

‘Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a shout, “Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.” Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise, “Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.” But the wise replied, “No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.”— Matthew 25:1-9

The weather forecast today said the first cold spell of the season was coming next week. We might even get some winter precipitation. I made a mental note to go to the grocery store this week and stock up. Back in the 1980’s, I failed to respond to the warning of an impending blizzard and got iced in for four days. Now I was far from starving, but I was also very hungry for fresh fruit and vegetables by the time I was able to shop. The recent Ebola scare has resulted in hospitals beefing up their contagion precautions and it seems we now must be alert to terrorist attacks as a normal part of our everyday life.

In such an atmosphere of fear and self-preservation is it any wonder that we do not invest a lot of time and energy in awaiting the coming of Christ much less making preparations for it? The irony of this reality is that if we invested our time and energy in doing our part to be the Body of Christ in the world today our concerns about self-preservation would dissipate.

There is a ninety year old man in Florida who is actively engaged in waiting for Christ. He has recently been ticketed for feeding the homeless in places in the city that make the presence of the homeless inconvenient for the tourist industry. The man has pledged to continue feeding the homeless wherever they need to be feed so he may go to jail for his actions. He has been doing this for 20 years. Isn’t it sad that after twenty years the community has not seen the needs of the homeless until they interfered with the tourist industry? This man has the extra oil he needs to wait however long it takes for Christ to come. Do the rest of us?

Prayer: Lord, help me to understand what it means to be actively engaged in waiting for your future. Make your future mine and help me live the future that is yours today.
Give me oil for my lamp, keep it burning
Give me oil for my lamp I pray*, Amen.

*http://www.hymnlyrics.org/hymns_camp/give_me_oil_for_my_lamp.php

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.