Let's go back over the story from the gospel real fast here. There was a wedding planned for just after sundown. There were 10 young women, acolytes, whose job it was to hold lamps for a wedding procession, light the way for the bride and groom to come into the wedding celebration. Like most weddings, the wedding was delayed, one thing and then another, the dress needed to be taken up, the shoes weren't quite right, it started to rain. An aunt got lost on the way to the celebration and on and on until it was way past twilight and inching on toward midnight. So late! But the party must go on so everyone, finally ready, made their way to the groom's house in a procession, tradition at the time.
Finally it was those ten young acolytes' time to shine! Time for them to get up, wake up, because they had fallen asleep waiting, get their lamps going nice and bright and lead the way into the prepared hall. Oh but oh, some had been those types of people who are always ready for anything. The ones who seem to always have it together, especially when you don't really have it together. And others were, well...less prepared, they had come with lamps and plenty of oil for the wedding that was scheduled, but as time wore on, as it took longer and longer for the wedding to begin, their oil started to run out and they had no more. They asked for some from the others, asked if they would share but they said no, no way. We brought what we needed you didn't, go get your own oil. So the five bridesmaids without oil, went off in the middle of the night in search of oil. The text says that five of these bridesmaids were wise, and five were foolish. My question for you today is which ones were foolish? Which ones made the worse decision?
Here is another story for you. Once there were eight children on a playground. Four had remembered to bring a ball out for recess, four had been in such a hurry to finish their assignments before recess that they had forgotten to grab any toy or game. When they all got outside the four with the ball set up to play a game and the four without a ball realized that they didn't have anything to do. They asked the other kids, can we join your game? The first four said no, we brought the ball out and we don't want to play with people like you, especially ball forgetting people who took to long to do the same work that everyone got and finished. Go find your own game to play. So the four without a ball wandered away sad and sat out the rest of recess and when recess was over the four with the ball were scolded for not sharing with their fellow students. Who made the more foolish choice in this story?
Or how about in this case. Once there were four very hungry people. They had always looked out for each other and pooled what they had and never went hungry for very long. But one day someone gave two of them a huge sack of rice and promised them another at the end of every two weeks, totally free. It would feed all of them sufficiently until the next bag came but the two who recieved it decided to take it with them and hide from their friends. More for them that way and it was a more sure thing, just in case the next bag never came. But without the group of four life became much more difficult for the other two, now there were many nights when they went without anything at all to eat. At the end of the two weeks when the first two got more rice there was still some left over from the first sack, they had much more than they had needed but they had lost track of their two friends and now couldn't share even if they wanted to. Who made the foolish choice in this story?
Now a story from the New Testament, with a few extra details, one of the disciples was traveling on a road and he came upon another traveler, they rode together and they talked about the new church that was starting and finally they came up to some water. The traveler said here is water, what is to keep me from being baptized. But the disciple was going to be late for an important meeting, if he stayed to baptize this man, he wouldn't make it to worship on time, maybe not at all that day and he would miss the meal that the church shared, plus he was just so tired from traveling and he preached and baptized all the time, travel time was supposed to be time for him to relax. So he thought to himself, I don't have to share salvation, no one will know if this once I don't, besides God came to the people in Jerusalem, not to this traveler from Ethiopia. But then he thought to himself Jesus gave me very few commandments, mostly just to love my neighbor as God loves me and to go forth baptizing. I could stay and baptize this man making us both right before God or I could go and make it to worship on time and look right before God which would be the foolish choice? He was a wise disciple, he stayed and he baptized the man even at the risk of missing a worship service and a feast!
So the question again.
There were ten bridesmaids waiting for the bridegroom to come. He had promised them all a place at the wedding feast but some ran out of oil in their lamps just as the wedding party was near, as they could see it coming up the street. The five who were out of oil asked of the other five, please, can we borrow just enough to make it inside where there is more light but the first five were proud of how prepared they were, they were tired from the wait, they wanted to be absolutely sure that they had enough oil and they felt no responsibility for the other five so they said no. And the five without oil went out on a futile mission at midnight in ancient Palestine to try to find an oil merchant. They didn't find one, and when they got back they had already been left out in the cold, unable to take part in the feast and utterly shamed. Who made the foolish choice in this story?
The prophet Amos in our old testament lesson speaks for the Lord saying. I don't want your festivals or solemn assemblies. Almost literally the Lord says through Amos, I'm not worried about the candles that you light before the wedding feast or the other ceremonial stuff. All that I desire of you is Justice and Righteousness. To receive the great gift of salvation from the Lord your God and share it with all of those who don't have enough or fall short at a crucial moment.
God requires these things of us as Christians, to share God's love with our neighbor at every opportunity, to do justice, to love righteousness and to share what we have. We can sympathize with the five bridesmaids who didn't share. Perhaps they didn't know that there were better lamps filled with oil just on the other side of that gate, that all they ten would have needed to do was keep their little lamps burning for a few minutes longer, just long enough to light the way for others, and they would receive all that they needed.
But don't sympathize too much because we don't have that problem. We know that we have plenty of this proverbial oil. We aren't being asked to share literal oil from a meager supply but rather the love of God with our neighbor and we know before we are ever asked for it that it comes to us in great abundance. It comes in the ever flowing waters of baptism, it comes in the ever ready feast at the communion table and most of all it comes in the comfort, love and sustenance that we can share this week, this day even, having come away from this place hearing God's promise that there will always be enough for us, that the more love we share, the more comfort we share, the more abundance we share and the more peace we spread, the more love, comfort, abundance and peace there will be in the world for God to share with us, we won't run out, we will never run out. This is good news, thanks be to God. Amen.
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