New Book now Available Here is an anthology of over 1100 brief prayers and thought-starters, for each day of the year, with almost 400 original prayers by Bruce Prewer. Included is both a subject index and an index of authors-- an ecumenical collection of about 300 different sources. |
Title: Brief Prayers for Busy People. Author: Bruce D Prewer ISBN 978-1-62880-090-6 Available from Australian Church Resources, web site www.acresources.com.au email service@acresources.com.au or by order from your local book shop or online on amazon. |
6-12 November
Matthew 25: 1-13
(Sermon
2: “Something about Virgins”)
1 Thessalonians 4:
13-18
Joshua 24: 1-3a,
14-25
(Sermon
1: “Faith for This Day”)
Psalm 78
PREPARATION
What a mixed bag we are! How diverse are the twisted strands
of our various lives that gather in this house of prayer!
Maybe some of us have arrived feeling sluggish and unfocussed after a difficult week,
or have been through household tension before the family got ready to come.
Maybe some have come wondering whether the really church needs them or they it,
or have come so filled with doubts that they wonder whether they are hypocrites.
Maybe some have entered this place desperate for some light and joy and peace,
or have arrived with hearts bulging with thankfulness and praise.
Let us offer this diversity of thought and feeling to God.
OR
Put aside the distractions of this world’s many gods,
stand in awe before God’s love,
prepare to worship in sincerity and faithfulness.
The Lord Jesus and his God, we will
serve,
and his voice we will trust and
obey.
that generations to come may know
their God.
Stand up and celebrate the good news this day
so that others may set their hope in the living God.
We will not hide our thanks and praise,
but tell of the glorious deeds of
the Lord
and all the wonders God has done for
us.
PRAYER OF APPROACH
Most holy Friend, we bring to you
all that we are and all that we hope to be. With your quiet skill and strength,
please take both the bright strands, together with the tattered and faded
threads of our lives, and weave from them a pattern lovelier than anything we
thought possible. Deal with each of us, deal with all of us, so that the one
and the many may rise up with refreshed love to praise to worship you without
hesitation. Through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Amen!
CONFESSION
AND ASSURANCE
Most of us have a tendency to criticise others `rather than face our own faults. No here now. This is a time for confession.
Let us pray.
Whenever we try to evade our own failures and sins by becoming critical and outspoken about the wrongs done by others.
Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy.
Whenever we slip in to a state of boredom and apathy, and seem to lose the will to break free into vigour and delight.
Christ have mercy. Christ have mercy.
Whenever we get our “kicks” out of the superficial and tawdry pleasures, yet neglect the deep joys of mind and spirit that arise from aspiring for beauty, mercy and truth.
Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy.
Merciful God,
please cleanse us from
the things that pollute us,
forgive us for the things
that hurt others and insult you,
rescue us from the
things that degrade the church,
deliver us from the
things that place the world in bondage to the Evil One.
By your astringent
love, please restore to us the joy of salvation.
Through Jesus Christ
our Saviour. Amen!
FORGIVENESS
Repentant family of God, hear again the gospel of love: “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” “If the Son shall set you free you are free indeed!” Jesus came with “peace to those who are near and peace to those who are far off.” Your sins are forgiven!
Thanks be to God!
PRAYER FOR CHILDREN
The things you have done, loving God,
are so cool!
Trees and flowers, mountains and rivers,
platypus, bilbies, wombats and whales,
are so cool!
Our eyes and our fingers, our brains and our feelings,
games to play and things to learn,
are so very cool!
Jesus and his disciples, parables and healing lepers,
loving us to death and rising up to be always with us,
is so really, really cool!
Please help us to be worthy
of so many great ideas
and so much wonderful love.
Help us to look after your world
and to care for each other.
Through Jesus Christ our Saviour.
Amen!
PSALM 78: 1-7
Listen, my people, to the message I tell,
turn and hear what I have so say.
Maybe I will have to speak in parables
for dark is the Mystery from the beginning.
Such things you should have heard and known,
enlightenment your parents offered you.
We must not deny our children their heritage,
it belongs to the coming generations;
the stories of the glories of our Lord,
the wonderful things God has made happen.
How Jacob’s children were called to be witnesses,
and Israel received a law that led to a better life.
Our ancestors were given a high responsibility,
commanded to teach their children God’s ways,
If we want a new generation to understand,
and children yet unborn to give praise
then get moving and teach your children
to fix their hopes on the Holy One
and not neglect God’s commandments.
Ó
B.D.Prewer 2004
LAMPS ?
Matt. 25:1-33
Lamps without oil make ornaments
that often are admired
but should a neighbour need some
light
the lamp cannot be fired.
Lamps without oil make fine
antiques
for dilettantes to hoard
they make a conversation piece,
when guests are getting bored.
Lamps without oil polish up well
and shine in borrowed light
but when you need to find your way
the path stays out of sight.
Lamps without oil are useless
things
their purpose has been lost,
yet Pharisees collect them still
and pay an awful cost.
Lamps without oil are fine by day
some bear the best hallmark,
but when your power at midnight
fails
they leave you in the dark.
Lamps filled with oil are lovely
things
and don’t fail expectation,
they lead the Bridegroom to the
feast
and shine with celebration.
© B.D. Prewer 1993
COLLECT
Most generous God, by the light
of your indwelling Spirit keep us alert from the comings of your true Christ
into this present age. When we grow careless, or imagine he has been much
delayed, give us the courage to go out into the darkness and meet him among the
meek and the poor, the merciful and the persecuted. Let us live for him and
beside him, to your eternal glory.
Amen!
NB. A brief version
follows this first draft.
SERMON 1: FAITH
FOR THIS DAY
Joshua 24:15
“If you are unwilling
to serve the Lord, chose today whom you will serve, whether it is the gods you
ancestors served in the land beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites in
whose land you now live. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
It is a struggle keeping the faith among people who despise or ignore your God, and who offer many exotic alternatives.
These days, when we see the multiple temptations among the glitter and boasting of contemporary life, we may imagine that things are much more difficult than they used to be. For example, our grandparents did not have to cope with poker machines and casinos, or deal with a pervasive drug sub culture, or contend with internet love affairs leading to broken marriages. This era seems a tough environment in which to try and keep the faith.
However I suspect it has always been tough. Living the faith this very day is both a joy and a challenge. A lot of diversions and temptations are always around. The outward forms certainly change but it has always been difficult to remain true to the One God in the midst of a people with other ideas.
AFTER THE EXCITEMENT IS OVER
Joshua and the people were at first on a roll. Remarkably they crossed the Jordan, which stopped flowing for a while. When they entered that promised land, and soon found the walls of Jericho falling before them, they may have thought their worries were over. That early period of occupation was exciting: plenty of cause for praising, celebrating and feasting. They had arrived!
It reminds me of new converts or folk who have recently been baptised or confirmed. They have taken the big step and wow! They have arrived! They are surrounded by family and friends, and the people of the church hug them or shake their hands, and rejoice with them.
But after the excitement is over, ordinary life must go on. Things settle down. Old temptations still exist. Battles must be fought to establish one’s Christian identity day by day. The adrenalins rush dies.
I don't think I have ever counselled a convert or new communicant member who has not felt a let down some time after that day of celebration. They ask: where has the joy gone? Or in the words of a hymn writer: Where is the blessedness I knew when first I saw the Lord?”
Those of you who know the story of the founder of Methodism in England, John Wesley, may recall how a critical turning point came to him in a house-church run by Moravian Brethren from Europe. Wesley, a religiously austere, Anglican clergyman, records that: “I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt that I did trust in Christ; Christ alone for salvation: and an assurance was given me, that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”
As people today might describe it: Wesley was “on cloud nine,” or perhaps “he was high as a kite!” He was enraptured with an experience of the intimacy of God which would change his life and that of England.
Nevertheless if you read his dairy over the next week, you will discover that he was sometimes feeling as flat as a tiger snake run over by a road train.(Not his language of course!).A negative voice in his head kept niggling about some of the “down” moments he was experiencing.
That is the way it goes! My friends, the battle is not over when you (symbolically) cross the Jordan and set foot in the Promised Land of God.
THE SPIRITUAL STRUGGLE WAS THE HARDER ONE
It was like that for Joshua and the tribes of Israel. Crossing the Jordan was critical first step in what was to be an ongoing struggle for at two levels: One for the possession of the land, and the other for the purity of the faith.
There was much warfare and skirmishing, battles and treaties. After a time the mixed populations started to co-exist and intermarriage must have been a factor. Once land had been secured it was divided up among the twelve tribes. This did not happen quickly. Joshua was an old man before the physical conquest was anywhere near completion.
The harder task was the spiritual one. As years went by and the Jews become a part of the general scene. There were new gods, shrines and sacred objects everywhere; fertility cults and exotic rituals of worship performed before golden and silver idols. Temptations aplenty!
IDOLS AND SACRIFICES
Many of these gods were thought to demand costly sacrifices. Some groups carried out human sacrifices to placate their idols. Should that surprise us? Isn’t that always the case?
We live among many idols. Idols still demand sacrifices. What are idols? Idols are the things to which people really give their worship; the things that truly matter most to them. Like money, success, wining and dining, work promotions, power over others, fame, drugs, alcohol, gambling, sport, sexual promiscuity, travel, and so on.
You do not have to look far to see these idols demanding monstrous sacrifices. People’s health, their children, their marriages, their personal dignity and integrity are sacrificed to the contemporary idols. Idols still call for human sacrifices. The wreckage caused by worshipping false gods is littered around us in this society in which we live. Make no mistake: idols damage people!
There are some Christians who get “het up” about the threats of unbelief; the danger of question-asking agnostics, or the aggressive disbelief of atheists. I am convinced that the bigger threat is always from the lure of the idols in the world around us. These are what seduce us. These are what cause havoc among individuals, families and communities.
Sometimes the switch to idol worship happens by deliberate choice, in a moment of acute temptation. There can be a spiritual arm wrestle for a few hours or days, before faith in the One invisible God is jettisoned in favour of an idol.
But more often. it takes place slowly, almost imperceptibly like the growing dusk in a Hobart summer. The idols seduce us little by little. We make a small compromise here, and look the other way there. We come up with superb rational arguments for our small side steps and back flips. We are very sophisticated in the way we give God’s ground away to the many lesser gods of the community. The gods are seductive, and we are too cunning and slippery for our own good.
More people lose their love of God by surreptitious dilution rather than by open and dramatic conversion to the idols. Spiritual adultery leads inexorably to idolatry. Many folk could not put a date on when their first faith lapsed, and when the worship of many gods took over. It just happened by insidious adulteration.
THEY HAD TO CHOOSE
I reckon that is how it was with the people who with Joshua entered the promised land. As time went by and they settled down in their new home, millimetre by millimetre some surrendered their soul to the gods of the land, and some even returned to the idols they had once worshipped in the land of Egypt.
They either wilfully made bad choices, or allowed bad ones to happen.
Joshua would have been heartbroken to see it happen. Therefore the white haired old man summoned a gathering of the leaders of the clans to Shechem. There he put the hard word on them: Was it to be happiness and well being with God, or corruption and chaos with the many gods? Choose, Joshua demanded; choose!
I don’t know whether he drew a line in the sand and asked to clans to stand one side or the other, but certainly he made them make a choice. Choice is one of the hardest things in life. We would rather no choose; far rather put off the hard decisions; wait until we have more facts, wait until we have thought more about it, wait until we are in the right frame of mind, wait until we are older and wiser, wait until we see which way the majority wind is blowing, wait until things are not like a hard choice but more like a dead certainty.
But Joshua demanded: “Choose now.”
Will it be the new gods of Canaan, among the people the Bible calls the Amorites, or the old gods of Egypt and the Sinai, or will it be the one, holy Yahweh who had delivered them from slavery and given them the land flowing with milk and honey?
If you are unwilling to serve the Lord,
chose today whom you will serve,
whether it is the gods you ancestors
served in the land beyond the River,
or the gods of the Amorites in whose
land you now live. But as for me
and my household, we will serve the
Lord
Choice goes on and on: It is not something done and never revisited. It is a daily affair because all around us are the alternatives that whittle away at our first allegiance
They may have chosen sometimes in the past, when the crossed the Jordan and set up a memorial cairn in the Promised Land. That was not enough. Choice had to be up to date. Now. Where did they stand now!
As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.
We are told that the heads of the clans crossed the line and stood with old Joshua. They chose the Lord God, their Saviour. Joshua could do no more. He then sent them back to their people with a warning that they had better keep their word and bring their followers into line. For Jahweh would not be fooled. To slip sideways or backwards would mean an inevitable plunge into disasters.
OUR CHOICE NEEDS UPDATING
Choice was and in a habitual requirement for those who would live by faith. This choice must be current. We cannot live on memories of choices made in the past. It must be now. Not even yesterday’s choices are sufficient. We must all choose this very day whom we will serve. A choice that is not up to date puts us profoundly at risk. We cannot live in the past. Now is the crucial event.
John Wesley, from his own experience, knew how important this was. The members of his Society (not a church as far as John was concerned, but a society) were asked to meet in groups each week. An extremely sound strategy. This was called the “class meeting” and as well as prayer and instruction, each member was probed with question like this: “How has it been with your soul since we last met?”
Wesley knew that each day was one when Joshua’s question had to be answered. A conversion at one of his mass, open air meetings, was not enough. That first choice was a critical turning point, but not enough. The choice went on, and on, and on.
A ‘decision for Christ’ is a life long project. Not what happened ten years ago, or three months ago, but today.
WHAT PLEASES GOD?
This is no Methodist class meeting here this morning (For which some of you may be thankful!). Yet I put it to you, and to myself, that the issue that Joshua made the tribes of Israel face over three thousands years ago, and Wesley in the 18th century, is the same issue we confront. Whom or what do we serve, really? How is it with your soul?
What gods or god has the first priority in our lives? Indeed, what are our priorities, our real goals, that for which we live? Where does the God of Joshua and his namesake, Jesus, come into our priorities?
The choice is about whom we will serve, not what will serve us or please us best. Worship is not about pleasing us but about pleasing God with the best we have to offer!
An Australian writer (memory lapse: which one?) had a description of the then (in the 1950’s) respectable Melbourne on a Sunday morning. He wrote a sentence which went like this: “The clock on the town hall struck twelve midday, and well dressed people emerged out of their Gothic churches from worshipping the god with whom they were well pleased.” If that was even partly true, I find it a damning indictment on what some of us have done with our religion, turning it into “consumer goods,” a god who is there to please us. The choice must always be about the One whom we will serve. The One whom we set out to please.
Paradoxically the secondary thing (i.e. what will serve us best) happens to flow from putting God first; from making the choice to put our own needs second to that of loving and serving God. It is that foundational paradox central to Jesus; that in losing your life for Christ’s sake you will indeed find your life in authentic fullness.
In my book More Australian Psalms, I wrote this about choice and struggle.
It was never easy!
This life of faith
lived freely and lovingly
despite contemporary pride
and age-old enigmas,
has always been tough;
for Abraham, Sarah, Job,
Thomas, Mary, Augustine,
Luther, McKillop, Flynn.
Lord we believe.
Save us from unbelief!
Pity the overt
arrogance
of modern culture
drunk on small achievements
thinking that our era
has put paid to faith;
throwing away God
as a superstition
clutched by the ignorant.
It was never easy!
Choice, commitment;
whether to gamble one’s all
on current self-adulation
or plunge into the Under-Swell
of hope and faith,
spirit and truth,
flowing with creative love,
rampant with celebration
and the glory of Christ.
It was never easy!
Lord, we believe.
Save us from unbelief.
“More Australian
Psalms” (page 86
© B D Prewer & Open Book Publishers
SERMON 1: FAITH FOR THIS DAY
Joshua 24:15
“If you are unwilling to serve the Lord, chose today whom you
will serve, whether it is the gods you ancestors served in the land beyond the
river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live. But as for me
and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
It is a struggle to keep the faith
among when you live among people who despise or ignore your God, and who offer
many exotic alternatives.
These days, when we see the multiple
temptations among the glitter and boasting of contemporary life, we may imagine
that things are much more difficult than they used to be. For example, our
grandparents did not have to cope with poker machines and casinos, or deal with
a pervasive drug sub culture, or contend with internet love affairs leading to broken
marriages. This era seems a tough environment in which to try and keep the
faith.
However I suspect it has always been
tough. Living the faith this very day is both a joy and a challenge. A lot of
diversions and temptations are always around. The outward forms certainly
change but it has always been difficult to remain true to the One God in the
midst of a people with other ideas.
AFTER THE EXCITEMENT IS OVER
Joshua and the people of Israel were
at first on a roll. Remarkably they crossed the Jordan, which stopped flowing
for a while. When they entered that
promised land, and soon found the walls
of Jericho falling before them, they may have thought their worries were over.
That early period of occupation was exciting:
plenty of cause for praising, celebrating and feasting. They had
arrived!
It reminds me of new converts or folk
who have recently been baptised or confirmed. They have taken the big step and
wow! They have arrived! They are surrounded by family and friends, and the
people of the church hug them or shake their hands, and rejoice with them.
But after the excitement is over,
ordinary life must go on. Things settle down. Old temptations still exist.
Battles must be fought to establish one’s Christian identity day by day. The
adrenalins rush dies.
I don't think I have ever counselled
a convert or new communicant member who has not felt a let down some time after
that day of celebration. They ask: where has the joy gone? Or in the words of a
hymn writer: Where is the blessedness I
knew when first I saw the Lord?”
Those of you who know the story of
the founder of Methodism in England, John Wesley, may recall how a critical
turning point came to him in a house-church run by Moravian Brethren from
Europe. Wesley, a religiously austere, Anglican clergyman, records that: “I
felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt that I did trust in Christ; Christ alone
for salvation: and an assurance was given me, that He had taken away my sins,
even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”
As people today might describe it:
Wesley was “on cloud nine,” or perhaps “he was high as a kite!” He was
enraptured with an experience of the intimacy of God which would change his
life and that of England.
Nevertheless if you read his dairy
over the next week, you will discover that he was sometimes feeling as flat as
a tiger snake run over by a road train.(Not his language of course!).A negative
voice in his head kept niggling about some of the “down” moments he was
experiencing.
That is the way it goes! My friends,
the battle is not over when you (symbolically) cross the Jordan and set foot in
the Promised Land of God.
THE SPIRITUAL STRUGGLE WAS THE HARDER
ONE
The harder task was the spiritual
one. As years went by and the Jews become a part of the general scene. There
were new gods, shrines and sacred objects everywhere; fertility cults and
exotic rituals of worship performed before golden and silver idols. Temptations
aplenty!
We live among many idols. Idols still
demand sacrifices. What are idols? Idols are the things to which people really
give their worship; the things that truly matter most to them. Like money, success, wining and dining, work
promotions, power over others, fame, drugs, alcohol, gambling, sport, sexual
promiscuity, travel, and so on.
You do not have to look far to see
these idols demanding monstrous sacrifices. People’s health, their children,
their marriages, their personal dignity and integrity are sacrificed to the
contemporary idols. Idols still call for human sacrifices. The wreckage caused
by worshipping false gods is littered around us in this society in which we
live. Make no mistake: idols damage people!
Sometimes the switch to idol worship
happens by deliberate choice, in a moment of acute temptation. There can be a
spiritual arm wrestle for a few hours or days, before faith in the One
invisible God is jettisoned in favour of an idol.
But more often. it takes place
slowly, almost imperceptibly like the slowly, growing dusk in a Hobart summer.
More people lose their love of God by surreptitious dilution rather than by
open and dramatic conversion to the idols. Spiritual adultery leads inexorably
to idolatry. Many folk could not put a date on when their first faith lapsed,
and when the worship of many gods took over. It just happened by insidious
adulteration.
THEY HAD TO CHOOSE
I reckon that is how it was with the
people who with Joshua entered the promised land. As time went by and they
settled down in their new home, millimetre by millimetre some surrendered their
soul to the gods of the land, and some even returned to the idols they had once
worshipped in the land of Egypt.
They either wilfully made bad
choices, or allowed bad ones to happen.
Joshua would have been heartbroken to
see it happen. Therefore the white haired old man summoned a gathering of the
leaders of the clans to Shechem. There he put the hard word on them: Was it to
be happiness and well being with God, or corruption and chaos with the many
gods? Choose, Joshua demanded; choose!
Choice is one of the hardest things in life.
We would rather no choose; far rather put off the hard decisions; wait until we
have more facts, wait until we have thought more about it, wait until we are in
the right frame of mind, wait until we are older and wiser, wait until we see
which way the majority wind is blowing, wait until things are not like a hard
choice but more like a dead certainty.
But Joshua demanded: “Choose now.”
If you are unwilling to serve the Lord,
chose today whom you will serve,
whether it is
the gods you ancestors served in the land beyond the River,
or the gods of
the Amorites in whose land you now live. But as for me
and my
household, we will serve the Lord
Choice goes on and on: It is not
something done and never revisited. It is a daily affair because all around us
are the alternatives that whittle away at our first allegiance
Choice was and in a habitual
requirement for those who would live by faith. This choice must be current. We
cannot live on memories of choices made in the past. It must be now. Not even
yesterday’s choices are sufficient. We must all choose this very day whom we
will serve.
WHAT PLEASES GOD?
I put it to you, and to myself, that
the issue that Joshua made the tribes of Israel face over three thousands years
ago, and Wesley in the 18th century, is the same issue we confront. Whom or
what do we serve, really? How is it with
your soul?
What gods or god has the first
priority in our lives? Indeed, what are our priorities, our real goals, that
for which we live? Where does the God of Joshua and his namesake, Jesus, come
into our priorities?
The choice is about whom we will
serve, not what will serve us or please us best. Worship is not about
pleasing us but about pleasing God with the best we have to offer!
In my book More Australian Psalms, I wrote this about choice and struggle.
It was never easy!
This life of faith
lived freely and
lovingly
despite contemporary pride
and age-old
enigmas,
has always been tough;
for Abraham,
Sarah, Job,
Thomas, Mary,
Augustine,
Luther,
McKillop, Flynn.
Lord we believe.
Save us from unbelief!
Pity the overt arrogance
of modern
culture
drunk on small
achievements
thinking that
our era
has put paid to faith;
throwing away
God
as a
superstition
clutched by the
ignorant.
It was never easy!
Choice, commitment;
whether to
gamble one’s all
on current
self-adulation
or plunge into
the Under-Swell
of hope and faith, spirit and truth,
flowing with
creative love,
rampant with
celebration
and the glory of
Christ.
It was never easy!
Lord, we believe.
Save us from unbelief.
“More
Australian Psalms” (page 86
©
B D Prewer & Open Book Publishers
SERMON 2: SOMETHING ABOUT VIRGINS
Matthew 25: 1-13
Ten virgins. Five wise. Five foolish.
It has been cynically said that these days, one would be hard put to find 10 virgins to carry their lamps at a wedding celebration.
Maybe, maybe not.
It is true that those insatiable opinion pollsters have come up with a figure (for Australia) of 40% young people “sexually active” by the age of 15 years. Whether the figures would differ across the population of previous eras, I do not know. One thing is certain: our young people today are under far more overt pressure to experiment sexually.
Most of us in the church think that is very sad. Growing up has been a difficult process in any era. If we have made it harder today, then some repentance from the adult world would be in order. And I would hope that those who love Christ will stand by our young folk, no matter what occurs. They need our love and understanding, respect and support, more than ever.
But........................
That is not the key theme of this parable about the wise and foolish virgins.
Let me start with a general word about Chapter 25 in
Matthew’s Gospel.
Jesus at this stage of his final week is not speaking to opponents, and not even to the general crowd, but to all who are disciples or who want to be. There are three parables, one for each of the last three weeks of this church year before the New Year arrives with Advent.
Matthew sets these 3 parables in the context of the future comings of the Son of man. The holy One who comes to consummate the kingdom of God on earth.
Today’s parable is about being alert and ready for those opportunities.
Next Sunday takes up the theme of being diligent and trustworthy servants, or stewards, of the kingdom. Be ready to give account.
The third Sunday will feature the King who comes incognito, as we show practical love to the needy folk around us.
Let’s now concentrate on today’s parable: the 5 wise and
5 foolish young women.
It is a story which has become the subject for countless sermons, some classic music and poems, and even a ballet.
In the parable as Jesus told it we are in a different culture. The marriage customs were exceedingly different from ours today. To we expect bridesmaids to attend the bride, not ten maids attending the bridegroom. What is more we announce a set date and time for a wedding. (Or we are supposed to, as long as some selfish bride does not overstep the limits of propriety and deliberately arrive extremely late for her wedding. Upsetting all the arrangements for subsequent weddings that are booked to be celebrated in that church on that day!)
Evidently in the culture where Jesus lived, the time was not specified. Some Bible commentators have suggested that it was actually considered smart to trick the guests by arriving at an unexpected hour. Hence in this parable, the bridegroom’s party chooses to arrive at midnight and catch some folk ill prepared.
That is one cultural custom we should never adopt! The nerves of a bride’s parents can become stretched taught enough as it is. That might really go past breaking point.
These days, the maidens wait for the arrival of the bride and escort her. In Jesus’ time the bridegroom was to be met by the maidens with their lamps shining, to escort the bridegroom into the wedding ceremony and feast.
In Jesus’ parable, five girls neglected to have a reserve supply of oil. They waited a long time. Their lamps burned low, began to smoulder. They tried to borrow from the other five. No deal. At that critical moment the bridegroom arrived. The wise maidens who had back-up oil went into to the feast with the bridegroom. The other five, after rushing out to buy more, arrived back at the reception centre to find the door firmly shut against them
In a panic they knocked at the closed door and cried: “Sir, sir, please open the door for us.’ However, the voice inside replied. “Go away. I do not know you.”
They had missed their opportunity.
It sounds somewhat hard-hearted. All very final. Jesus meant it to be so. I think he is telling us that we must make the most of our opportunities and be always ready welcome him. If we miss the moment we may well miss out altogether.
It seems that God’s time table is not ours.
We would like to have God who fits in with our wants. One who is always on time for us.
Some tetchy churchgoers complain: “Where is God in today’s affairs? What is he doing? We need the help of the Son of Man right now. Why doesn’t he show his love? Why won’t he give us a hand when we most want it? Why keep us waiting. “
It is easy enough to get weary. The absence of God may seem prolonged indeed. It is an easy thing to grow careless and allow our lamp of faith grow dim. We give up supplementing our supply with new reserves. We may become negligent, apathetic, even faithless.
Pastors meet many who complain about God’s tardiness.
Some will tell us: “Well that’s it! I gave him some of the best years of my life and what has he done for me? Where was he when I desperately waited for him to come to my side?”
We notice the light of such people growing dim. They are prone to start complaining about a lot of things in the church. Nothing seems right in their eyes. Before long they are just a smouldering wick, giving off a nasty disgruntled odour. Or they fall asleep and miss out on the moments when the bridegroom comes with abundant blessings at the marriage feast.
It’s an all too familiar story to many church elders and ministers. Some cannot tolerate God having a different time table to theirs.
Keep awake then. for
you never know the day or the hour.
How do we top up our oil supply?
How can we become numbered among the wise who are ready whenever the Son of Man comes to us?
One thing is not on: We cannot borrow it from our fellow Christians. We can be encouraged by others, we may be inspired by the example of others, but we cannot borrow their faith.
We need to seek for ourselves all the opportunities we can to keep our faith alert and growing. There are some time-honoured ways of doing this.
The good oil can be found in worship and in the reading of the Scripture. Some will be found in Bible study and prayer groups. Our stock will be replenished in our private devotional life; the prayer and meditation of those who love the Lord. Other oil will come our way as we serve Christ in the rough and tumble of daily life.
Yet there are less recognised sources of oil for the lamp of faith. Some of us have received oil from most unexpected quarters.
It may flow from critics and unbelievers. Such unlikely folk can contribute to the resources of our faith. Sometimes our oil is replenished in the giving of ourselves to those in need, without any thought of reward. We unselfishly care for them and to our great surprise, discover the oil of happiness rising up within our own souls.
It is in giving that we receive. We find ourselves spiritually enriched by those whom we set out to serve with no thought of a reward.
And take note of this. For I know it is true. On occasions, your oil will be replenished when you undertake some task which you strongly dislike. Those times when you loyally, yet reluctantly, perform some service for Christ which you find personally frustrating or distasteful!
An example comes to mind (from years ago) from the writings of Joy Davidman, who married the English scholar and author C.S. Lewis. (remember the film “Shadowland?”)
Davidson was at her typewriter busy at writing an article about loving one’s neighbour. The telephone rang. Muttering words that were censorable, she broke off in mid sentence. The caller was the neighbourhood nuisance. A bitter women who had driven away her husband, children, friends and neighbours. Joy was the only person who had not cut herself totally off.
She later wrote:
“You think of all the
times you’ve tried in vain to tell her of God and repentance and love, only to
be jeered at as a credulous fool. You know all you will get this time is a
denunciation of other people........ and a series of small digs at yourself.”
But Joy went and visited the sour neighbour. She came back “with the old lady’s poisoned darts sticking
to your hide.” Yet, “nevertheless,
deep inside you, there is small, bright glow.”
If you “take a good look at the brightness you will recognise it for the
love of God. Your love for him and his for you...sweeter than wine and brighter
than the sun. For one moment you forget self and its desires and rights; you
gave a scrap of your life away, and in return, you get this incredible candle
in the heart.”
So unexpected love! Such a strange source for the good oil.
“Give me oil in my
lamp, keep me burning, keep me burning.”
[I guess that story from Davidman can also hint at the guise of bridegroom in Jesus’ parable. Perhaps sometimes the bridegroom (Son of Man) comes to us in the form of a cantankerous neighbour or work colleague? But we will leave that though for a couple of week.]
The glory belongs to God.
Focus on the main frame.
Oil. Let’s stick with oil and the wise and the foolish virgins, and most of all on the Bridegroom. When the oil tank is regularly topped up, the lamps warmly glow. They glow not just for our own satisfaction, but for the sake of those around us, and to the glory of the bridegroom.
Then it is that we can indeed recognise the privilege and honour that is ours. Jesus once expressed it this way: “Let your light so shine before all people, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
That is what is it all about.
Not our glory but God’s.
That is brilliant!
It is truly awesome!
But be alert and ready. It is God’s timetable not ours.
Keep awake then. for
you never know the day or the hour.
PRAYERS FOR OTHERS
We pray for the people around us in this world, and then for ourselves.
Holy Friend, in theory we know you love each one of us. Teach our hearts how much you really do love every other sinner on this planet; not just the believers but also the unbelievers, not just good folk but also the very bad.
Receive our prayers for the many kindly people we meet each week: At work and in the street, at sport and at the theatre, in service organisations, committees, and agencies that fight for the rights of the needy and exploited.
Bless them with the love they need,
and deliver us all from evil.
Receive our prayers for the many awkward people we meet: The painfully shy, the prickly characters, those who are always complaining, the quick tempered and those who don’t seem to be aware when their words and actions hurt others.
Bless them with the love they need,
and deliver us all from evil.
Receive our prayers for the people we thoroughly dislike: The manipulators who try to use us, the loud-mouthed whose language disgusts us, the greedy who are out to cheat us, the strong who try to bully us, the cruel whose deeds horrify us, and the “low-life” whose life-style revolts us.
Bless them with the love they need,
and deliver us all from evil.
Receive our prayers for the people who are easy to like and love: The generous ones, the folk who keep their good humour when under pressure, those who volunteer for the difficult tasks, those who bear no grudges and all who maintain integrity when others are being devious.
Bless them with the love they need,
and deliver us all from evil.
Receive our prayers for those who dislike us: One-time friends who turn against us, folk at work who make things unpleasant, relatives who try to put us down, neighbours who make a nuisance of themselves, and those types who go out of their way to ridicule Christians.
Bless them with the love they need,
and deliver us all from evil.
Receive our prayers for all who are miserable today: Any who suffer from depression or acute anxiety, any who have just received bad news about their health, people who have been spurned by a loved one, the many who are hungry or homeless, those imprisoned for crimes they did not commit, the drug addicts who can’t break free, the dying and the grieving who have no one to comfort them.
Bless them with the love they need,
and deliver us all from evil.
Holy Friend, please may the hands of Christ be upon of all these people, and on the millions whose misery is far beyond our knowledge. Lead this world away from all that is maimed and maiming, from all that is degraded and degrading. Hasten the day when we shall walk in the Promised Land where Christ’s love and joy is everywhere. In his name and for your glory.
Amen!
SENDING OUT
One small part of your worship is ending, the wider field of your worship now begins.
At large in the field of ‘dailyness’ you are to be ambassadors of hope and agents of love.
That you may greet each morning with gratitude, fill your hours with integrity, and exercise your abilities with humility,
I bless you!
Amen!
That you may treat your fellows with respect, enjoy your bread with thankfulness, and go to your bed in peace,
I bless you!
Amen!
The love of the Saviour,
The love of the Creator,
The friendship of the Counsellor,
will be
with you now and always.
Amen!
THREE BOOKS BY BRUCE PREWER
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