Please Note That Most Messages Follow
The Revised Common Lectionary

"Is Your Lamp Lit?"
Matthew 25:1-13

Some years ago I took a leave of absence from the pastorate for health reasons. I opened my own investment office where I had the ability to sell Mutual Funds and other investments. Whenever someone would call my office to inquire about making an investment they were always interested in how much of a profit they would experience because of their investment. My words to them were always "You have to remember that when you make an investment you must to be willing to commit yourself long-term. You have to realize in order to maximize your investment we are talking about years - not months, days, or hours. If you want to make money instantaneously then I suggest you either take a trip to Las Vegas or apply for a position with the United States Mint."

Most of us, and notice I said "us," are more interested in short-term commitments than we are long term commitments. As a child, I use to get tired of hearing my parents talk about "when they were a child." "You young people today have no idea what it means to grow up hard! Why when I was your age I use to walk five miles in four feet of snow just to get to school! Then we’d all sit there by the pot-bellied stove and warm up by that fire we all took turns building. THEN after school I’d walk five miles home in five feet of snow (it snowed another foot while we were in school), I’d do all my chores, eat supper, do my homework, go to bed, wake up with ice on my covers and do it all again!"

Now I find myself telling MY children "Young people today have no idea what it means to grow up hard! Why when I was your age I use to ride a school bus twenty one miles to get to school! When I got home I was made to do my homework and then if there was any daylight left my Father would always have something for me to do! I use to stand in a garden and hoe out weeds until I had blisters on my hands!"

I can just hear my children talking to my grandchildren: "Young people today have no idea what it means to grow up hard! Why when I was your age I didn’t even have a computer! I had to ride a bus for ten minutes just to get to school and when I got home I wasn’t permitted to watch the cartoon network until all my homework was finished!"

We laugh but that’s the way it was, the way it is, and the way it’s going to become! The same is true of the church. Many years ago when I was serving a church in the mountains of North Carolina, I lived in a parsonage that the church rented from an elderly farmer. Often he would walk over and together we’d sit in the living room and I would become totally intrigued as I listened to him tell about the way things "use to be" at the church.

"People would come from all over just to go to church. They would come as families in horse pulled wagons. Why preacher there were times that so many people were in that place I couldn’t venture to guess how many it actually was! They’d stay all day too! Not like it is today - no sirree. Why now people are runnin’ over top one another to get out the door. But back then preacher, church was the center of what you’d call our social get-togethers. That’s all we had, all we knew. People didn’t have a thousand other things to do - we just had church and that was about it."

As he’d tell about the way things "use to be," I’d sit there somehow wishing we could go back to those times. I’d ask myself the question: "What have we done to ourselves? What have we done to our children? What have we allowed ourselves and our society to do to the church?"

Bill Easum says that years ago the most committed church members would give the church two hours of their week, being Sunday morning and either Sunday night. Today he tells us that we are fortunate to even get one hour a week from those very people who would call themselves "committed Christians."

What has happened?

Many years ago, a pastor was sitting alone in his Church, quietly reflecting on a theological tome he had been reading. Suddenly, his reverie was interrupted by the noise of a sparrow banging in terror against a stained glass window in the sanctuary. Somehow the bird had found itself trapped inside the Church and desperately wanted out. After freeing the bird, the pastor pondered the theological significance of the event. And this led him to the discovery that there are a number of funny birds fluttering about the Church. Tongue-in-cheek, he then began to name these strange birds by species. Among them was the "Great Speckled Pew Snoozer," which he described as follows:

"Great Speckled Pew Snoozers are members of a very large family. An easily domesticated breed, they take readily to captivity and settle down contentedly in any suitable sanctuary.

Once they are perched for Sunday's worship event, they surrender to some primeval instinct and immediately drop off to sleep. The characteristic is not readily noticeable for, unlike many birds, Pew Snoozers can sleep without putting their heads under their wings.

These birds are very faithful members, loyal to the flock and wouldn't miss Church for anything. They can't afford to miss all that sleep."

From the story of the "Great Speckled Pew Snoozers" I personally get three very clear pictures of what I would call the "Church of Today."

First I, of course see the church has fallen asleep. Coffee shops are filled every morning with people who discuss the appalling condition of our world. We talk about the man who walked into a church on Palm Sunday and abducted a little girl out of church, raped her, and dumped her out of the road. We talk about how frightened we parents are to simply send our children to school - something that was once considered a safe activity and now possible life-threatening. Let’s face it - the world is a very frightening place.

We blame politicians and world powers and game creators, television, radio, we blame anything, everything, and everyone we can for the present condition of our world. Yet I have to ask: What kind of world would this be if the church had not fallen asleep? What kind of a world could this be if the church would wake up and do that which Jesus has commanded us to do?

I also see the bird caught in the church desperately trying to find a way out. In here this morning we bask ourselves in the Glory, Grace, and Truth of God. In here we experience the presence of God. In here we experience the Holy Spirit of God. In here we pray, we sing, we read the Word of God, we listen to the voice of God. Yet all of that which we might call "experiencing God" is fluttering against these beautiful stain-glass windows in a desperate effort to escape from this sanctuary and become released into the world.

The heart of the Gospel is this: That God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whosoever believes in Him will never die but have everlasting life. It is THAT message that will change our world and make it a better place for our children and our grandchildren. The Gospel is personified in Jesus. The Gospel message is like a bird fluttering with all of it’s heart to get out of the comfortable confine of the church and into the dangerous world that men, women, and children might come to know this Jesus that we experience here in this place.

The world needs to know that Jesus saves. The world needs to know that to know Jesus is to know peace and love and grace and truth. The world needs to know that there is a real answer to the real problems and his name is Jesus. The world needs to know that Jesus is alive and coming again. The world need to know that Jesus brings Light in the darkness.

Five maids this morning have enough oil in their lamps to last no matter how long Jesus may take. The other five are running out of oil. They have given up. They have gone to sleep. We ought to be going forth from this place with Lamps filled with oil. Lamps that are Lit and providing Light to a world filled with darkness. Some of us I’m afraid have grown comfortable, fallen asleep, and allowed our lams to run out of oil. They no longer provide light.

Have we come together in this way to truly prepare ourselves and only ourselves for another week of living in this world? Or have we come together in this way to prepare ourselves to prepare others for another week of living in this world? Or are we perched for today's worship event like "Great Speckled Pew Snoozers" waiting to surrender to some primeval instinct and drop off to sleep?

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