Tuesday, April 16, 2013

The wise and the foolish

I can't recall any sermons going into much detail about the parable of the 10 virgins. Maybe my memory is taking a long lunch, but the most that comes to mind are assertions about having faith and "being ready." Whatever "being ready" means.

So, context, context, context. The parable is part of a response to a question about the end of the age. The first two parables in the set warn of unexpected judgment and then compare alert and lazy servants surprised by the master's return (judgment of discovery). The third (the virgins) compares thorough and incomplete preparation. The fourth (talents) says our lives can be judged by what we did with what we were intrusted with. The last parable (sheep and goats) gives a clue as to what kinds of preparation and service are expected.

So perhaps the context gives a little color to the story. When the virgins "woke" some found that the light they'd had before was no use. What they had been entrusted with was taken back; what had they created with it, and how had they helped Jesus with it? They'd had the lights of knowledge, godly friends, intellect, good digestion...

We see only the results which a man's choices make out of his raw material. But God does not judge him on the raw material at all, but on what he has done with it. Most of the man's psychological make-up is probably due to his body: when his body dies all that will fall off him, and the real central man. the thing that chose, that made the best or the worst out of this material, will stand naked. All sorts of nice things which we thought our own, but which were really due to a good digestion, will fall off some of us: all sorts of nasty things which were due to complexes or bad health will fall off others. We shall then, for the first time, see every one as he really was. There will be surprises.

Jesus talked a lot more about doing things than a lot of preachers I grew up hearing.

Update: Afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. Most of us need to be prodded, some of us are over scrupulous. Jesus had words for both.

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