Speaking of Life 5051 | You Don’t Have to Be a Girl Scout
This week we’re sharing a Speaking of Life message from our archive as a supplemental resource. We encourage you to use this for reflection and preparation, or small group discussion. For your worship gathering, consider how a call to worship from a local voice or contextualized introduction to the theme might serve your congregation well.
Watch video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuNDW4Kfo-Q
Program Transcript
Speaking of Life 5051│You Don’t Have to Be a Girl Scout
Michelle Fleming
I was involved in Girl Scouts when I was younger. Maybe you were a Girl Scout or Boy Scout, too. The motto for Scouts is “Be Prepared.” This reminds me of the way Christians have been warned to be prepared for Christ’s return. One example that’s often cited is the parable of the Ten Bridesmaids where Jesus is telling his disciples what the kingdom of heaven is like.
The story goes like this:
Ten young women took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those young women got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise replied, ‘No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet, and the door was shut. Later the other young women came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’ Keep awake, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.
Matthew 25:1-13
Passages like this one have often been plucked from scripture without thinking about them in the context of other direct commandments Jesus said or the way he behaved in the world. This story sounds out of character for Jesus who told us to love and serve others and put them first.
We don’t base theological doctrine on a parable because a parable wasn’t meant to be used that way. It’s a story that offers us the opportunity to consider truth from the point of view of different characters. In this parable, we see that the five bridesmaids who had plenty of oil believed that being self-reliant was more important than helping others. The five bridesmaids who didn’t prepare believed they deserved help from the ones who prepared. I mean, they had fallen asleep, waiting. But what if the parable isn’t about what the bridesmaids should have done or shouldn’t have done? What if it isn’t about the bridesmaids at all? Let’s consider a different perspective.
We assume that the five bridesmaids who ran out of oil are called foolish because they ran out of oil. But what if the reason they’re called foolish is because they listened to the other bridesmaids who told them to go buy more and then ended up missing the wedding? Maybe they were foolish because they forgot who the Bridegroom was and what he was capable of. This bridegroom was The Light of the World, and he didn’t need their lamps. They were foolish because they allowed their shame over running out of oil to drive them to try to fix it, and thus they missed the wedding banquet.
When the Bridegroom says, “I don’t know you,” he’s also saying that they didn’t really know him. And this is part of the lesson of this parable. When we focus on Jesus, we know he is the one who makes us enough. He is the light we need when our own lamps run low. He is sufficient.
May we be blessed with the understanding that we are made whole and enough in Christ.
I’m Michelle Fleming, Speaking of Life.
Program Transcript
Speaking of Life 5051│You Don’t Have to Be a Girl Scout
Michelle Fleming
I was involved in Girl Scouts when I was younger. Maybe you were a Girl Scout or Boy Scout, too. The motto for Scouts is “Be Prepared.” This reminds me of the way Christians have been warned to be prepared for Christ’s return. One example that’s often cited is the parable of the Ten Bridesmaids where Jesus is telling his disciples what the kingdom of heaven is like.
The story goes like this:
Ten young women took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those young women got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise replied, ‘No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet, and the door was shut. Later the other young women came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’ Keep awake, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.
Matthew 25:1-13
Passages like this one have often been plucked from scripture without thinking about them in the context of other direct commandments Jesus said or the way he behaved in the world. This story sounds out of character for Jesus who told us to love and serve others and put them first.
We don’t base theological doctrine on a parable because a parable wasn’t meant to be used that way. It’s a story that offers us the opportunity to consider truth from the point of view of different characters. In this parable, we see that the five bridesmaids who had plenty of oil believed that being self-reliant was more important than helping others. The five bridesmaids who didn’t prepare believed they deserved help from the ones who prepared. I mean, they had fallen asleep, waiting. But what if the parable isn’t about what the bridesmaids should have done or shouldn’t have done? What if it isn’t about the bridesmaids at all? Let’s consider a different perspective.
We assume that the five bridesmaids who ran out of oil are called foolish because they ran out of oil. But what if the reason they’re called foolish is because they listened to the other bridesmaids who told them to go buy more and then ended up missing the wedding? Maybe they were foolish because they forgot who the Bridegroom was and what he was capable of. This bridegroom was The Light of the World, and he didn’t need their lamps. They were foolish because they allowed their shame over running out of oil to drive them to try to fix it, and thus they missed the wedding banquet.
When the Bridegroom says, “I don’t know you,” he’s also saying that they didn’t really know him. And this is part of the lesson of this parable. When we focus on Jesus, we know he is the one who makes us enough. He is the light we need when our own lamps run low. He is sufficient.
May we be blessed with the understanding that we are made whole and enough in Christ.
I’m Michelle Fleming, Speaking of Life.
Psalm 78:1–7 . Joshua 24:1–3a, 14–25 . I Thessalonians 4:13–18 . Matthew 25:1–13
This week’s theme is he who promised is faithful. In our call to worship psalm, we have the psalmist urging Israel to pass the story of God’s faithfulness from generation to generation so that hope in his promises remains alive. In Joshua, we have the people of Israel gathered at Shechem where Joshua rehearses God’s faithfulness to every promise he made to Abraham, reminding them that their entire history is the evidence of a God who keeps his word. In 1 Thessalonians, we have Paul anchoring grieving believers in the faithfulness of a God who raised Jesus from the dead and promised that those who belong to him will not be left behind. And in our pericope in Matthew, Jesus tells a parable about a bridegroom whose arrival is certain, illustrating that those who truly trust his promise will be found ready when he comes.
Reminder: This introductory paragraph is intended to show how the four RCL selections for this week are connected and to assist the preacher prepare the sermon. It is not intended to be included in the sermon.
How to use this sermon resource.
He Who Promised is Faithful
Matthew 25:1–13 NIV
[Read or ask someone to read the passage.]
“At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’ Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’ ‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’ But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’ But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’ Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.” Matthew 25:1–13 NIV
Introduction
One of the oldest and most beloved stories ever told is the Greek epic known as The Odyssey, written by a poet named Homer nearly three thousand years ago and read across virtually every culture and continent on earth ever since. At its heart it is a story about a man named Odysseus who goes off to fight in a great war and spends twenty years trying to find his way home to his wife Penelope and his son.
Twenty years is a long time to wait. As the years stretched on, most people around Penelope assumed Odysseus was never coming back. A crowd of men known as the suitors moved into his home, ate his food, drank his wine, and lived as though the master of the house was never returning. They had decided the promise of his return was worthless and lived accordingly.
But Penelope never stopped believing. She waited. She held onto the reality of her husband’s promised return even when everything around her suggested she was foolish to do so. She inhabited the promise even in the long silence of his absence.
And then one day, unexpectedly, in a form no one recognized at first, Odysseus came home. His return was both a moment of joyful reunion for those who had remained faithful and a moment of profound consequence for those who had lived as though he was never coming back.1
He came back. Exactly as he said he would. This story resonates because we long for others to faithfully keep their promises. Don’t we?
Every promise creates a season of waiting. And what we do while we wait often reveals what we truly believe about the one who made the promise.
How do we live while we are waiting for a promise to be fulfilled? Jesus tells a parable about ten young women with lamps to help us answer that very question.
Jesus begins our parable this morning with words that should immediately tell us something important is coming: the kingdom of heaven is like this. What follows is more than just a nice story. It is a window into how the kingdom of God (an expression used by the other gospel writers) actually works. So let us lean in and listen carefully.
Already Included — The Grace That Goes Before Us
“At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise.” Matthew 25:1–2 NIV
Now when Jesus talks about the kingdom of heaven, also called the kingdom of God, he is not talking about a country with borders or a place you go when you die. He is talking about what life looks like wherever God is in charge and his love is the way things work. And here is the remarkable thing, Jesus kept insisting that this kingdom was not far away. It had arrived. It was breaking into the world right in front of them; it was in their midst — in him.
The first thing worth noticing in this parable is something easy to miss because we tend to jump straight to the difference between the wise and foolish virgins. But before we get to that difference there is something far more important to establish. All ten virgins are already at the wedding. All ten of them were invited. All ten are carrying lamps, waiting for the same bridegroom, part of the same wedding party.
Jesus does not open this parable with insiders and outsiders. He opens it with ten people who have all received the same invitation and are all standing in the same place. Whatever else this parable will go on to say, it starts here, with an invitation to every one of them before the story even gets moving.
This is absolutely critical to understanding what Jesus is illustrating about the kingdom of God. The kingdom is not a place you earn your way into through effort and achievement. It is more like a party that has already been thrown on your behalf — a celebration that was always intended to include you — a grace that went before you ever knew you needed it.
There is an important difference between being invited to something and being included in something. An invitation can be declined; it assumes you are on the outside being asked to come in. But inclusion means something has already been done on your behalf. Grace has already gone ahead and made a place for you. This parable assumes that gracious initiative as it invites us to consider what it means to live in the light of the Bridegroom’s coming.
Before we ever seek him, God is already seeking us. This is the pattern of the whole New Testament. God moves first. The Father sent his Son into a world that wasn’t asking for him. Grace showed up before we ever knew we needed it.
This is what the Son of God accomplished when he came into our world, lived among us, died for us, and rose again. The Father’s heart has always been turned toward every person on this earth. The Son made that love visible and real in his own body. And what he accomplished was not a partial or conditional inclusion; it was a complete and total “yes” spoken over all of humanity. He who promised is faithful and his faithfulness has already reached everyone in this story before it even begins.
So, grace has already reached them all, and in that situation, there is something that distinguishes the wise virgins from the foolish ones, the oil. The wise took oil in jars along with their lamps while the foolish took their lamps but no oil.
The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. Matthew 25:3–4 NIV
Many Christians throughout the centuries have seen in this oil a picture of the living, sustaining presence of God’s Spirit within us. And while we want to be careful not to force a meaning onto every detail of a parable, that analogy has something important to commend it. However we understand the symbolism of the oil, it clearly represents something that cannot be borrowed at the last minute.
It speaks of the difference between knowing about God and actually living with him. Between being familiar with the idea of grace and genuinely drawing from that grace day by day. And that is precisely the kind of life Jesus promised when he told his disciples he would send them a helper after his departure. The Spirit takes the grace the Father purposed and the Son accomplished and makes it real and alive and personal within each one of us.
The kingdom of God is overflowing with grace. And we subjectively experience that grace by trusting and receiving it. The difference Jesus highlights is not that one group earned the Bridegroom’s favor while the other did not. The difference is that one group was living in readiness for his coming, while the other was not. The rest of the New Testament helps us understand that this readiness is not something we manufacture ourselves. It is the work of the Holy Spirit, who continually draws us into the life of Christ and keeps us participating in the grace the Father has given through the Son.
The Tragedy of Untouched Grace
At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’ Matthew 25:6 NIV
The midnight cry changes everything. Up to this point all ten virgins have been waiting together. Notice Jesus does not condemn them for falling asleep. The long wait is simply what human beings experience. That is not the problem. The problem surfaces the moment the lamps need trimming and the oil begins to run out, because it is only in the moment of crisis that what has been true all along becomes visible.
The delay in this parable is not a sign of the bridegroom’s unfaithfulness. It is simply the nature of the wait, and it is precisely in the long wait that the difference between becomes apparent. The kingdom of God does not always come on our timeline or in the form we expect. Think about how God has consistently moved throughout history — through a burning bush in a desert, through a teenage girl in an obscure village, through a cross that looked like defeat but was the greatest victory in human history. God comes in ways that confound our expectations. And those who have been living within that reality, drawing from the oil — are ready whenever he comes.
Robert Farrar Capon, a theologian who spent much of his life preaching and writing about Jesus’ parables, consistently argued that these kingdom parables are not primarily about God’s rejection of people but about the tragedy of people refusing what has already been freely given. Capon proposes that in these parables of judgment that the only outsiders at the end of Jesus’s stories were always shown as insiders at the beginning. Capon refers to this principle as “inclusion before exclusion”.2
Let’s hear that again because it’s important. The tragedy is not that God rejects people but when people refuse what God has already freely given. The grace of God is always the governing reality, the party is already happening, the bridegroom has already claimed his own. The emphasis of the story is not on a reluctant bridegroom looking for reasons to exclude people. Rather, it emphasizes the heartbreaking reality that some arrive unprepared for the relationship and celebration the bridegroom has been calling them toward all along.
When their lamps go out, the foolish virgins revert to a transactional mindset. Instead of simply waiting in the dark and trusting the Bridegroom’s goodness, in a sense, they run off to buy their way back in. Their failure is defaulting to their own preparation instead of relying fully on the grace they have already received — the faith and trust in the free grace of the Bridegroom.
This is the tragedy of untouched grace. Not a grace that was withheld or insufficient, but a grace that is all around the foolish virgins, available and abundant and freely given, and yet never truly drawn from. Never truly embraced or lived out in experience. The Father always purposed their inclusion. The Son accomplished everything necessary to secure it. The Spirit was present and ready to sustain them through the long night of waiting. He who promised is faithful.
However we understand the symbolism of the oil, it clearly represents something that cannot be borrowed at the last minute. Jesus is pointing us toward a genuine participation in the life he gives rather than merely carrying the outward appearance of faith. The Father purposed it. The Son secured it. The Spirit makes it real within each one of us.
And it is right here in the middle of this tragedy that the missional heartbeat of this parable begins to beat loudly for those of us who are trusting the Bridegroom’s return. Because if grace is this abundant, if the kingdom is this saturated with the love of the Father, if the Spirit is this available to every single person, then we who have been given this good news cannot keep it to ourselves. The wise virgins could not share their oil just as we cannot share our personal participation in his grace. But, we can share the news that the bridegroom is coming, that the party is real, and that the grace of God has already gone before every person we will ever meet. That is the mission we have been invited into — not a mission of condemnation or ultimatum, but a mission of joyful announcement. Come and see — the bridegroom keeps his promises — and grace has already made a place for you.
The Tragedy of a Refused Party
But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. Matthew 25:10 NIV
The door was shut. These words have been used throughout history to paint a picture of a God who gleefully bars the door against those who failed to meet his standards. But that is not what is happening here.
The shut door is not the story of divine rejection. It is the story of a refused party. Grace was always available. The oil was always there. The Spirit was always present and ready to sustain. And yet, by their own way of living, the foolish virgins had positioned themselves outside the reality of what was always theirs.
“Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’ “But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’ Matthew 25:11–12 NIV
Jesus isn’t inviting us to imagine a God eager to reject. He is revealing the tragedy of failing to live within the life the Bridegroom shares with us.
This is the deepest tragedy in the parable. Not that the foolish virgins were wicked. Not that they were immoral or irreligious. It’s tragic that they were so close to the party, so near to the grace, so present at the wedding, and yet never truly inside the reality of what the bridegroom had always been offering them.
Like Penelope in the Odyssey the wise virgins sustained their faithfulness not through sheer willpower or moral superiority but by living within the reality of the bridegroom’s promise. They oriented their lives around the certainty of his return. That daily inhabiting of the promise, that simple drawing from the oil was what kept their lamps burning through the long night of waiting.
So here is my gentle encouragement to all of us as we leave this parable. Be among the wise. Not by trying harder or striving more. That was never what made them wise. Be among those who simply keep drawing from the oil that has already been given. Wake up each morning and receive the grace that is already yours. Lean into the presence of the Spirit who is already with you. Live each ordinary day within the reality that the Bridegroom is coming and that his promise to you is unshakeable. That is all the wise virgins did. They did not perform. They did not earn. They simply lived within what they had been given day after day, through the long night of waiting until the cry rang out and the celebration began. We can be sure that he who promised is faithful.
The kingdom of God is filled with a grace that goes before us. It was purposed by the Father before the foundations of the world. It was secured by the Son on the cross and confirmed in the empty tomb. It is made real and personal within each one of us by the Spirit who is always present, always available, always ready to fill our lamps to overflowing.
He who promised is faithful. The bridegroom is coming. And this — this is the breathtaking good news at the heart of this parable and at the heart of the entire gospel: the party is not a distant dream or a faint possibility. It is a certainty. It has already been prepared. It is already overflowing with a grace that has gone before every single person on this earth. The door is open. The oil is available. The Spirit is present. So, enter in and join in the party.
- The Odyssey by Homer Plot Summary | LitCharts
- Robert Farrar Capon, Kingdom, Grace, Judgment: Paradox, Outrage, and Vindication in the Parables of Jesus Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2022), 491.
Ted Johnston—Year A Proper 27
Listen to audio: https://cloud.gci.org/dl/GReverb/GR081-Johnston-YearA-Proper27.mp3
Program Transcript
Coing Soon!
Program Transcript
Coing Soon!
Small Group Discussion Questions
- The sermon says God is faithful and keeps His promises. Is there a specific promise from God that gives you hope right now?
- The sermon emphasizes that all ten virgins were already invited and included in the wedding party. How does this picture of God’s grace challenge or encourage your understanding of your relationship with God?
- The Church gets to announce that “the bridegroom keeps his promises” and that grace has already made a place for people. How might that shape the way we engage our neighbors, coworkers, friends, and family?
- What’s one thing from today’s message you’d like to remember this week?
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