Wake Up! See The Banquet!
This parable about people waiting for the arrival of a
bridegroom so that the banquet may begin has been rendered throughout the ages
as an allegory seemingly concerned with ten bridesmaids, or virgins. [Matthew
25:1-13] Usually five are described as wise, and five as foolish. Which is to
miss the deeper sense of the original Greek. Not to get too deep into the
weeds, five are described has having the well-honed ability to navigate in the
real world, making the best of quick decisions that end up guiding a
surprisingly chunk of a person’s life” – in a word, “prudent,” one of the Four
Christian virtues. The Ruling Cardinal Virtue – the one virtue that rules them
all! Whereas, the word for the other five bridesmaids is the Greek root for the
English word, “moron,” which carries a sharper bite than the frivolous sounding
“foolish.” To identify both groups can be problematic, as it causes us to think
of them in particular ways that is often unhelpful.
The standard interpretation, based on which bridesmaids had
enough lamp-oil to last all night and greeted the bridegroom, and those who did
not, leaves us with the simple notion as the Boy Scout motto: “Be prepared.”
Or, Don’t leave the task at hand to go out and find an all-night lamp-oil store
– or you may be sorry. Which on the face of it, does not sound very much like
Jesus who forever is assuring one and all, wise or foolish, not only that all
shall be well, you are well, you are welcomed, you are beloved just the way you
are.
It has been suggested that the oil in the story represents
doing the work of God’s kingdom, which, by the way, is the subject of the final
parable in Matthew 25, which says that one serves Jesus himself when you care
for others, especially hungry, thirsty, imprisoned (for debts), naked, sick,
and resident alien others – strangers fleeing dangerous places. All this is
meant to be the hallmark work of communities, churches, who follow Christ –
along with disciplines like regular prayer, scripture study, and sharing
resources with others as well. But to say this is the essence of the story
sounds too much like the bumper sticker that says, “Jesus is coming – everyone
get busy!” As if busy-ness itself is more important than the four Cardinal
Virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude,
and temperance.
No. The story ends, “Stay awake, therefore, for you do
not know the day nor the hour.” Which he already had said just 21 verses
earlier when discussing the trials, warfare and tribulations that may precede
the arrival of a Christos, a Christ, or in Hebrew, a Messiah. In fact, there
will be many false Christs. So, “Keep awake, for you know not when your Lord
is coming.” [Matthew 24:42] Meanwhile, “this generation,” he says, will not
pass away before all this chaos comes down. Indeed, those who first read
Matthew’s gospel around the year 64 CE were already suffering the trials, tribulations,
and persecutions under the Emperor Nero!
“Stay Awake,” then, appears to be the central
message. And has remained the central message of mystics and people of faith
throughout the generations of human development and human suffering. I remember
my seminary advisor and Church History professor, Fred Shriver, suggesting that
the breaking of the bread, the Body of Christ, in communion, calls us to a
moment of waking up – the “crusts” that keep us asleep snap open! We mostly
tend to be sleepwalking through life, he said, and rarely awake to the Good
News of God in Christ; in fact, rarely awake to who we really are. It has been
suggested by many, that until we solve the problem called “you,” we
simply spend time trading one problem for another problem.
Anthony de Mello, S.J., was a Jesuit priest and psychologist
from India. He also maintains that we are mostly sleepwalking through life.
That we need to wake up, and hopefully stay awake once we do. He writes, “Many
think the most important question in the world is, “Who is Jesus Christ?”
Wrong! Many think it is: “Does God exist?” Wrong! Many think it is: “Is there
life after death?” Wrong! Nobody seems to be grappling with the problem: Is
there a life before death? Yet my experience is that it’s precisely the ones
who don’t know what to do with this life who are all hot and bothered about
what they are going to do with another life. One sign that you are awakened is
that you don’t give a damn about what’s happening in the next life. You’re not
bothered about it. You are not interested, period.” [de Mello, Awareness,
Doubleday, p.42]
To change the world as Jesus calls us to, we must first be
transformed ourselves. We do this, says de Mello, through observation and
understanding. With no interference or judgment on your part. Because what you
judge you cannot understand! When you call someone a communist, understanding
has stopped at the moment you slap a label on him. “She’s a capitalist.”
Understanding has stopped the moment you slap a label on her – or on yourself!
Or, if you accept the labels people slap on you! You lose all true sense of
yourself. This is a new world of no judgment, no commentary, no attitude: one
simply observes, studies, listens, and watches without the desire to change
what is, because if you desire to change what is into what you think should be
you no longer understand – you no longer understand others or yourself. [ibid
p.38]
He goes on to say that Jesus and others are concerned with
this life, here and now. What Jesus calls “eternal life.” Eternal means
“timeless.” Or, no time. Which we find difficult to understand. Yet, Jesus and
mystics of all persuasions, tell us that eternity is “right now”! “How’s that
for good news? Eternity is right now…When you hear “Repent for your past,”
realize it’s a great religious distraction from waking up. Wake up! Wake up!
That’s what repent means. Not “weep for your sins.” Wake up! Repent =
Understand = Wake up!” [Ibid p.43]
To Wake Up, to Repent, is to put on a new mind.
You no longer see yourself as Red or Blue. As Male or Female. As OK or Not OK. You
are not OK; you are not not OK. You just are! Those labels only pigeon-hole us,
and others, in ways that keeps us asleep, hypnotized, so that we miss what is
really in front of us: that eternal life is now! That God’s kingdom is now!
That life is a banquet, now! We need not wait for it or for anyone for it to
start. The kingdom is here. As Jesus says it is “at hand.” My friend and
mentor, N. Gordon Cosby, long-time and founding pastor of The Church of the
Saviour in Washington D.C. describes our awakened self as if we are attending a
banquet that he calls a Grace Party:
“When we hear the invitation to
claim our membership in God’s family, it’s like we’ve stumbled onto a Grace
Party. We can hardly believe our good fortune. The sights and sounds of it are
pure delight. Abundance characterizes the whole shindig. The most delectable
manna is falling everywhere, and wine overflows as though from an Artesian well
Everyone is eating and drinking endlessly, yet not being harmed because this
food and wine are not of the world but New Life.
“And get this: Everyone’s invited!
That’s the really good news. No one has to crash this party. There’s no limit
to how many of my friends I can bring along with me. Or, my enemies for that
matter. It’s such a blast that I want everyone to come – those with wealth or
not a penny to their name, those who are down and out or who thought they had
some power. I do notice, though, that the so-called nobodies seem to be having
the most fun. It takes others awhile to lay down everything they brought with
them and start to play.
“What are people doing at this
party? That’s the funny thing – We’re not ‘doing’ much at all. We’re just
being. We’re being our real selves, relaxed and eager to help out with whatever
the host asks of us. Love is flowing all over the place. Whatever you need,
we’re ready:
“Do you want someone to listen?
We’ll hear whatever you need to say.
Are you bleeding from wounds of the
past? We’ll soothe and bandage your wounds.
Do you need to be held for a while,
just being quiet in a safe place? Not a problem.
We have all the time in the world.
Looking for respect, even
reverence? You’ll get such a dose of it you’ll wonder
if you can take it all in.
“In fact, there’s so much peace and
joy at this party that it can be hard to absorb. Some of us just aren’t able to
let in this much unimpeded Love and Goodness. That’s right. The host isn’t
pushy. We can come and go as many times as we need to until we can handle this
much joy.
“This is simply the nature of a
Grace Party. None of us is here because we deserve to be. We haven’t earned any
of it. And although some of us might keep turning down the invitation, the host
will never stop inviting. And neither will we who have decided to stay. We’ll
be spreading the news of this unbelievable Feast everywhere we go. Come to the
party! It won’t be the same if you’re not there.” – N. Gordon Cosby
Indeed, I have always felt the Resurrection was Christ’s Real Second Coming! He was here. He was gone, dead
in a tomb for three days. Then, voila, he was here again for the second time.
And if we remains asleep, we forget that Matthew’s story of Jesus concludes
unambiguously, “Lo, I am with you always, to the end of the age!”
This not only means he will not go away, but that we cannot
get rid of him! To be awakened is to know this, and to live accordingly. To be
awakened is to hear him calling us to his banquet, to his Grace Party, here and
now and to spend our eternal lives spreading the news of this unbelievable
Feast everywhere we go. Come to the party, he says! It won’t be the same
without you! Amen.
