Pentecost 26

Parable means a parallel story with two meanings. Jesus used parables to show how secular matters are parallel to spiritual matters. The 10 virgins in this parable are divided into wise and foolish. The wise ones brought extra oil. Wisdom comes from experience and involves taking care of someone; Wisdom understands how our actions affect others. The Bridegroom is Jesus. The passage in 1Thessolians is not talking about the believers going into the sky and staying there. Paul is using Imperial language. In the First Century, the Roman Emperor would announce that he was coming to a city or town and the residents would work hard to fix and beautify their residence and public places. When he arrived trumpets would sound and the people would come to greet him outside the town and then proceed with him into the city limits. Jesus, the true Emperor, will descend from on high and those who are living will greet him in the sky and come to earth with him. Matthew 25:1-13. Being wise and gaining wisdom are not catch phrases in our culture. How to define Wisdom? Wisdom is experience and learning from it. It is being able to look ahead and seeing what happens. It is being compassionate. Wise people do not lead a lot of things, and they know what to expect. The fear of The Lord is the beginning of Wisdom and Wisdom gives insight. To be wise you don’t have to be wealthy. When you fear The Lord you fear nothing else. Wisdom allows you to multi-task while keeping the big picture in you mind so that it is understood how the pieces fit together. We are living in foolish times. It seems we are living the motto of the film Wall Street: Greed is good as spoken by Gordon Gekko as played by Michael Douglas. Oliver Stone’s message in Wall Street was that pursuing greed that everything falls apart around you. The virgins were foolish for not joining into the procession. The Bridegroom might have helped the situation by either giving them oil or pointing out that it didn’t matter. Foolishly it didn’t occur to them to show up anyway even if the didn’t have the oil. Our culture follows other gods such as, Mammon, Death, Terror and Aphrodite. Following other gods leads others away from Wisdom. Our job is to invite them in and meet the Bridegroom.