READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Isaiah 65:17-25
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
- St. Matthew 25:1-13
Grace to you and peace from Him Who is and Who was and Who
is to come; from Jesus Christ the faithful Witness, the firstborn of the dead,
and the ruler of kings on earth.
Who speaks to you this Ultimate Sunday saying,
“The kingdom of
heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the
bridegroom.”
Thus far from our Gospel reading, written for us to hear of
how Jesus will be victorious over sin, death, and the devil and that He will
accomplish that victory through His Church. He has purchased and won the
visible means to locate His Church, for us, so that we may be bold to assert
that we have God’s own truth and are right to hold onto this faith He gives to
us.
The fourth and final phase of our spiritual and physical
war, will bring the final clash. There can be no other eventuality than the
full and absolute defeat of Satan and his cronies. "The devil who
seduced them was cast into the sea of fire and brimstone”, says Revelation
20, “where the beast and the false prophet were, there to be tormented day
and night forever and ever" (Rev. 20:10). And heard in St. Matthew 25,
"Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil
and his angels” (v.41).
Afterwards, all war will cease, and God will reign alone in
peace. And we will never again have to worry about whether or not we will make
it to the Last Day properly or if the devil has infiltrated our church and if
we should stay or go.
But that is not this day, though there is plenty of time
left for Jesus to arrive today, it is not this day so far. This day, we are
faced with 10 virgins, a wedding, and a bridegroom. And the problem we have
with them is that we cannot see them. We cannot interact with them. We cannot interrogate them; ask them "why?" They are just characters and events in a
story.
And yet, the questions still come: how can the same group of
virgins not be monolithic, as in how can they not all think and believe the
same? Also, how can a marriage feast have a door that works for some but not
others? And if the Bridegroom is so important and central, where is the Bride?
It’s importance is given by Who tells us and why He tells
us. Since Jesus is taking the time, just before His crucifixion to tell us
about this scene, we must carefully think about it. And since we have come to
believe that the war in heaven and earth is taking place in the Church, we
should understand what the Church is.
What she is not, is some sort of good luck charm. As in you
sign up for it once, and you’re good for life. As in, you graduate, and there’s
now just maintaining your certificate. As in, we went through all the motions, so
now we can set it and forget it.
This is the faith of the 5 foolish virgins. They had the
lamp, the symbol of participation and the cracker and juice box, what else did
they need? They did not need vigilance, or care, or involvement. They simply
needed the laminated card that proved “they belong”.
But the card only produces a locked door. All that effort and the return is zero! Being a virgin is no
small thing. I’m sure they are raised from their youth to such a vocation and
virtue. Nothing like a lifetime of effort come to nothing.
Repent! The devil has set himself up in the Church. We said
that last time. So of course, there is going to be a wrong way to “do church”.
Part of it is this quote from a famous actress:
“I like believing. I believe in all of these Irish myths,
like leprechauns. Not the pot of gold, not the Lucky Charms leprechauns. But
maybe was there something in the traditional sense? I believe that this stuff
came from somewhere other than peoples’ imaginations.” (Megan Fox, allegedly)
In our sin, belief becomes something intriguing, but not
something worthwhile or physical. We think that, at first it’s great, but we
bore of it. Then we think there may be something ancient, something old behind
it, so we seek out its real meaning and real purpose, to which the devil
cackles in delight. And in this secret knowledge, we become puffed up and
boastful.
Return to the source! What is the Call, what is the command? “Here is the
Bridegroom! Come out and meet Him!” Your command is not to find secret
knowledge, to fill your lamp, or to find the devil, wherever he is in Church.
Your command is to hear the call. Your command is to come and meet Him. Your
command is to believe.
This is the heart of the matter when it comes to answering
the question “what is the Church”, especially when we must be weary of the
devil’s doctrine. The Church is not some outward membership or association with
a certain group or man. It is the sum total of the Communion of saints, as our
Creed teaches.
To find the true Church, you need to find three things:
Believers, something for them to believe in, and Jesus
giving that thing to believe in. So, Jesus preaches and we hear and believe
what He says. You gotta have the Good Shepherd, His voice, and the people
hearing and believing.
The Church is not a building, not an organization. It is the
sum of all those believing in Jesus, living and dead, earth and heaven.
But, there’s a problem: you can’t see belief, you can’t see
faith. Some say the visible element of unity for the Church is a pope or some
other figurehead in front, like a man. Others say you find the Church where you
find the fruit of faith, the good works.
The problem with these things is you end up with 10 virgins. You end
up with things anyone can accomplish. You end up with wishful thinking and good
luck charms. Any religious organization can put a man in front and say he was
called by God. Any gathering of the super-spiritual can do charity work and
call it heavenly holiness. “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up” (1 Cor
8:1)
For Christians, Lutherans, you find the Church where you
find the tools that the Holy Spirit uses to create the Church. Finding the
Church is finding the Holy Spirit is finding the Word and Sacraments. In other
words: the Gospel purely preached and the Sacraments ritely administered.
You can’t see faith, but you can see the Holy Instruments. Of
course, Jesus knows this and of course He would make provisions for us to be
able to endure to the end. He does not leave us orphans or comfortless, but
houses us, cleans us, and nourishes us.
That is, just as our salvation is hidden in His wounds, so
is His Bride, the Church, hidden in plain sight in His Gospel and Sacraments.
That is our division between our virgins and that is our division our Lord
gives to us to mark out His true Church, related to the false church:
Faith alone.
Hear what Jesus has to say about the devil’s church, from
Proverbs 9:
“The woman Folly is loud; she is seductive and knows
nothing.
She sits at the door of her house; she takes a seat on
the highest places of the town,
calling to those who pass by, who are going straight on
their way,
’Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!’ And to him who
lacks sense she says,
‘Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is
pleasant.’
But he does not know that the dead are there, that her
guests are in the depths of Sheol” (v. 13-18).
Folly is the devil’s church, because all he does is ape and
mimic what Christ has purchased and won, already. And what is purchased and won
already, needs no work or to be left to luck, but faith. Hearing and
believing.
But the devil unwittingly reveals the true Church on earth.
For, what he goes after is what God is actually doing. He goes after the water,
the bread, and the wine. That must mean they are important, but we don’t have
to take his word for it.
God already speaks in terms of Word and Sacrament being the
saving medicine needed to keep us in the faith. The Gospel shows this very
clearly today: “The Bridegroom is here. Come to meet Him!”
So we run to the Call of Christ, not because it’s nice, but
because the world is falling apart. We run to the Bridegroom’s marriage feast,
not because we prefer it, but because our food is fragile and perishes. We run
to the Promise made, “He is here”, because there is none other on earth Who
could fight for us on that Last Day and every day till then.
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