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• Biblical Hope, Matthew 25:1-13, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, Amos 5:18-24
  Rev. Karen A. Goltz
   
• Making Choices with Our Voices, Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25,
  by Rev Randy Quinn
   

• Ten Bridesmaids,  Mat 25:1-13, by Rev. Thomas N. Hall
   

• We're All in This Together, Ephesians 4:1-6, John 17:20-26
  by Rev. Frank Schaefer
   

• Promises, based on all lessons, by Rev. Brad Hall
     

• Giving of Ourselves, Mat 25:1-13, anonymous
     

• RP or PR, Mat 25:1-13, anonymous

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Biblical Hope
based on Matthew 25:1-13, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, Amos 5:18-24
Rev. Karen A. Goltz

When I read through today's lectionary texts, all I could think was, 'Wow!  How depressing!'  The reading from Amos talks about God ignoring the songs and sacrifices dedicated to him in worship, and says that the Day of the Lord is darkness, not light, and gloom with no brightness in it.  The reading from 1^st Thessalonians talks about dead people and whether or not they'll be able to participate in the Day of the Lord, and the Gospel reading seems to issue a stern warning about being constantly prepared.  It seems like it's saying you're out of luck if you're not completely ready at that unexpected time.

            But as I read the texts over, I began to realize that the readings together aren't proclaiming a message of gloom and doom.  They're talking about hope.

            Hope.  The word itself only comes up once in all our readings today, and that's when Paul cautions the Thessalonians not to be like those who don't have any.  But it's the undercurrent, the subtle theme linking all of today's lessons together.

            Hope is a nice word that conveys a nice idea.  We have hopes for our children, for our families, for our careers.  We hope that the stock market will recover enough so that we can retire as we'd planned.  Each and every one of us has a hope that's specific to our own wants and needs.  That's one of the things that's so great about hope: there's enough for everyone.

            My regular desk dictionary defines hope as "a wish or desire accompanied by confident expectation of its fulfillment."  Sounds good.  Only, that's not the kind of hope that's running through our texts.  That kind of hope applies to any wish we might have, as long as we expect it to happen. 

            Amos, Paul, Matthew, and even the psalmist are talking about biblical hope.  My Bible Dictionary defines this hope as "the confidence that what God has done for us in the past guarantees our participation in what God will do in the future."

            When we think of what God has done for us in the past, we might think about these antiquated old stories in the Bible that seem to have little to do with our lives today.  When we think of what God will do in the future, we might think about the much-talked-about second coming of Christ, maybe the way it's presented in the Left Behind series.  The present is what's most real to us, because it's all we've ever experienced.  And it seems so far removed from God's activities, past and future.  But the truth is, the present is just a tiny, slim little moving edge separating the vastness we call the past from the vastness we call the future.  Ten minutes ago my reading the gospel lesson was in the future.  Five minutes ago it became the past.  Even if I read it again now, it would be a different, separate event.  I can't bring the past into the future.  I can't transcend the present.  But God can.

            When we sing the Alleluia verse before the gospel reading we say to God, "You have the words of eternal life."  Not "you had the words" or "you will have the words."  Frequently we say, "the Lord be with you," as in "the Lord be with you now."  Same thing in the hymn of praise when we sing "Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world."  It's something the Lamb is doing now, on that thin little moving edge.  Only, the Lamb's saving act happened almost two thousand years ago, in the distant past.  But somehow, it's also happening now.  How can that be?

            Part of God's promise to Abraham was that in him all the families of the earth would be blessed.  (Genesis 12:3)  All the families of the earth.  Everyone.  And God has been fulfilling those promises ever since.  The promises God made to Abraham so long ago defined God's plan for the salvation of the world.  The return of Christ our Lord will mark the completion of that salvation.  We were included in those promises of old, and we are included in the plan of salvation that is occurring now and will be completed in the future.

            Our culture and our dictionaries understand hope as a feeling that what we want to happen will happen.  Our plans for our families.  Our careers.  Our stocks.  Our retirement plans.  But what would happen if we put our hope and our trust in God, rather than in the things and the people that God created?

            That's what Amos was talking about.  The people weren't trusting in God for deliverance from their enemies; they were trusting in rituals and sacrifices.  Those who love and trust God look forward to the coming of the Lord and the Lord's eternal reign.  Those who put their trust in other things will be sorry to find that everything they believed in is gone, and all that they trusted for deliverance has betrayed and abandoned them.

            Then we get to the Thessalonians.  They had their hope in God, but they had been expecting that hope to be fulfilled according to their timetable.  They were afraid that those whose lives ended before Jesus' return had hoped in vain, but Paul assures them that God's salvation transcends not only the barrier separating past and future, but also the barrier separating life and death.

            And the Gospel?  The Gospel lesson is a word of encouragement.  God doesn't go by our timetables, and we will encounter frustrations.  We'll have our times when we're caught up in the worries of this world and lose sight of the true source of our hope.  But even though we don't know the day or the hour, the fact is that the bridegroom will come.  And if we forgot extra oil for our lamps?  It occurs to me that ten people don't need ten separate lamps, if they stay together.  I wonder if the sin of the foolish bridesmaids wasn't that they forgot oil, but that they stopped watching for the bridegroom and instead gave their attention to the worries of this world.  Their hope wasn't in the coming of the bridegroom; their hope was in having enough oil.  Whenever we celebrate a baptism, the newly baptized is told to let their light so shine before others that they may see their good works and glorify their Father in heaven.  Others who at any given moment do not have oil in their own lamps can be illuminated by the lights of the baptized, and encouraged in their own faith to fill their own lamps with oil.  That is witness, and we are witnessing to the confidence that we are guaranteed participation in the completion of God's saving act by all that God has done in the past.

            Of course, if our hope truly is in God and his salvation through Jesus Christ, then we will have oil for our lamps.  But sometimes it's difficult to hold on to that hope, because there's so much in the fallen creation that can frustrate us and lead us away.  And it's in those times that it's better for us to be with someone whose light hasn't gone out and share in their light than to struggle alone in the darkness.  And the opposite holds true, too.  If you see someone who is struggling alone in the darkness, isn't it an act of cruelty to deny them your light?

            We can't make someone else believe or have faith, but we have been given a truly awesome gift, and we've been commanded to go out and share it with the whole world.  That's why the bride of Christ is the Church itself.  It's not so we can get together and sing songs and participate in rituals.  That's what God was denouncing in Amos' community.  It's so we can go out and share this wonderful gift we've each been given.

            If we're talking about literal physical lamps, then yes, the oil is limited.  But if we're talking about the light of faith, then I say the five wise bridesmaids were wrong.  There is enough to go around.  I once saw the flame from a single match light a candle, which went on to light another candle, which went on to light another candle, and so on, until there were over two hundred people standing in a circle, each with their own lit candle.  And it all started with a single little flame, just like that one right there.

            We are loved.  We are encouraged.  We are blessed.  We are participants in God's salvation which comes through Jesus Christ our Lord.  And we know this because we have gone to the Lord and received the word of eternal life.  And that word tells us what God has done for us in the past.  So we also know what God will do for us in the future.  That is the hope that we have now.

            May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.