Sermon: We Have All The Oil of Anointing We Might Need!

 

Sermon. St Mary’s and St Michael’s Little Ilford (Live-Streamed Worship only)

8 November 2020

3^rd Before Advent / Remembrance Sunday

 

Gospel: Matthew 25:1-13

 

What is going on in today’s gospel? In the first place, Jesus tells the story of a wedding. In Palestine in the first century, you didn’t get married by going to synagogue, or even to a lovely country house. A man may get married simply by going to fetch his bride, and bring her to his home. But, of course, since a wedding is the by far the very best excuse for a party, a meal was made out of each stage. So it’s very credible that a groom might say: “Right, I’m going to fetch her”, and then depart, and those left at home would have no idea when he’d be back. Because the couple are making a big procession, and calling in on people all the time. So, then, indeed, it might well be dark by the time the couple arrive, and then some form of light will be called for. Why not let the unmarried girls and women in the family have this task, again, to make a meal out of it? It’s probable, by the way, that the light in this story [sing. lampas] means torches, in the sense of tight bundles of sticks soaked in oil, rather than lamps or lanterns. It’s the same word that is used in John for the torches the Roman police bring to the garden of Gethsemane [John 18.3].

 

What is going on in today’s gospel? Jesus teaches as he so often does, by telling a story. A simple story to those who know the culture, but not necessarily with one simple meaning.

 

What is going on in today’s gospel? Jesus tells what this story is there for, he gives us the “therefore”. “Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour”. But what does this mean? It is unlikely that it is against sleep, literal sleep, loss of consciousness at night. There are, it is true, some spiritual traditions that are suspicious of sleep, and certainly suspicious of lie-ins, but that’s scarcely the focus here. Notice that in the story the bridesmaids are not criticised for getting drowsy and taking a nap: the foolish do it; the wise do it too.

 

Is it, then, about being expectant? Are we being called upon to expect the return of Jesus-our-Bridegroom at any minute? Any minute now. Any minute now. Are we meant to encourage each other with these words: “Jesus is coming – any minute now?” I doubt it. Of course, we have the advantage of being able to look back on 2000 years of Church life. There it’s pretty clear that communities which make a meal of the idea that we are in the last days, and “Jesus is coming – any minute now”, do not flourish, over time. It’s hard to stay intensely expectant in that sense, over a long period of time. It’s hard to live that way.

 

We know this ourselves. We might indeed have tried to encourage ourselves a lot between Wednesday and Saturday, by keeping the television on a news channel, and saying: “Any minute now, we’ll know who is the next President of the USA. Any minute now.” But if we had done this, we would have grown weary, and even jaded. Even more pertinently, we might indeed seek to encourage each other with “Any minute now, lockdown will be over – any minute now.” Or “Any minute now, they’ll find a vaccine – any minute now”, but if we do so, we find that what starts as encouragement becomes discouragement, and we become weary, and even jaded. It can be harmful.

 

And again, I say: the wise bridesmaids in the story are for their part not criticised for getting drowsy and taking a nap. So the message is not: “sleep is bad”, but nor is the message: “adrenaline is good, keep in a heightened state of awareness, always”.  

*

If we stick with the wedding story itself, another message emerges. 

It’s not about literally keeping awake. It’s not about keeping expectant, straining your neck to see a couple who simply must be around the corner. It is about being prepared. Yes (let me say it) we are all to be (as it were) boy scouts, and “be prepared”.

 

The foolish bridesmaids were not those who had a nap (to say it one last time), but were those who were not prepared, on waking. Who, on waking, were not prepared. This message also makes more sense. If we look back on those 2000 years, we surely do see that churches which sustain a lively sense that they must be prepared, prepared for the next thing Gd is going to do, because Gd really is active among us – these churches do tend to thrive (in one way or another). And we might hope to be such a church.  

 

How were the bridesmaids to “be prepared”? It’s not a difficult question. They are to have plenty… of oil. To keep a torch lit for a protracted length of time, you need a lot of oil. You need oil to spare. And of course, this isn’t Castrol GTX oil, this is olive oil, or similar.

 

[Shows oil]

 

And once we let the oil in the story move into view, we see something more. With biblical sensitivity, we see that this oil is the oil that enables light, yes, but is also the oil that enables anointing. Prophets and priests (sometimes) and kings (especially) were anointed with oil. And remember that the word “Christ” is not a name: it’s a description, a title; it means “anointed”, The Anointed One.

 

So we too are to be prepared, prepared by having plenty of the oil-of-anointing, by having our oil-of-anointing, and oil-of-anointing to spare.

 

Can we get a feel for this? That Jesus is saying by means of this story that there is plenty of the oil-of-anointing, there is oil-of-anointing for us and for all. Get as much as you need and want; it is there to be got. We are, after all, to be expectant, but not expectant in the sense that we keep going on about how Jesus is bound to return next week, or at any time soon, but expectant in the sense that we are to look within our lives for where Gd already is anointing, with the touch of his Spirit. The oil of the Spirit is with us. We have our supplies, and more than our supplies, if we only trust it.

 

So much is uncertain. Now, it is true, and importantly true, that we do not live with that bundle of agonising uncertainties that come under the heading of “war”, still less “World War”. We are conscious of this especially today, and we will remember the victims of wars, near and far, in just a little while, giving thanks for our peace. But much is uncertain here and now, for us, too. It is natural that for us, too, the adrenaline will flow, and we may fall into anxiety at least in that sense.

 

But here is one thing we need not be anxious about. We can let this anxiety fall away.  The oil of the Spirit is with us. We have our supplies, and more, if we only trust it.

 

We in our church here and now have, I think, a lively sense of this; we know we are on the cusp of change, and we pray that it will be anointed change, the change of the Spirit, and in so praying we do trust that our prayer will be answered, affirmatively. May we also know it throughout our lives, our own lives as workers (whether paid or not), as family members (as spouses as parents as children as siblings…), as people who play, and may we know this in the secret place of our own heart, in our own praying.

 

Keep awake, keep alive to the truth that we already have all the anointing of the Spirit we might need. Find it. Cherish it. Hold it. Let your light shine. Amen.