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slast02
"The Last Things: Ready for the Lord's
Return"
laguna beach AND fake
Text: Matthew 25:1-13
Date: The Last Sunday in the Church Year 
11/24/02
The last word concerning The Last Things-the
second coming of our Lord, the resurrection of all flesh and the
final judgment of all who ever lived to eternal punishment or eternal
life. Now that we know who's coming and what will happen on that
day, the last word has to do with what we are to do today, and what
sort of people we ought to be as we wait and watch, ready for the
Lord's return.
What a glorious promise! No, not "pie-in-the-sky,"
no turning into disembodied angels when we die. The eternal kingdom
for which we long [Collect of the Day] is not the ethereal image
of floating on clouds (how boring!) but of both feet on the ground-human
feet, on new ground, in the "new heavens and a new earth" [Isaiah
65:17; 66:22; 2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1]. Here's the plan: the
Creator does not simply throw away his good creation. He reclaims
it; recreates it to be the way he originally intended it to be.
"For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of
the sons of God…[and] will be set free from its bondage to decay….
For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in
the pains of childbirth …until NOW" [Romans 8:19, 21, 22 (ESV)].
NOW, by repentance and faith, by baptism into Christ's death and
resurrection…NOW you are already a new creation [2 Cor. 5:17], though
"NOW for a little while you are grieved by various trials" [1 Peter
1:6 (ESV)]. And NOW, though "the heavens will pass away with a roar,
and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved" [2 Peter
3:10 (ESV)]-new heav-ens and a new earth by God's creative, redemptive
power! Wolf and lamb, predator and prey will eat straw and not each
other. The prophet speaks of a New Jerusalem, of building houses
and planting vineyards. And what of those good things man has shaped
in his God-given dominion: golf courses, for instance? I'm serious!
Why not? "Be glad and rejoice forever and ever in what I am about
to create," says the Lord. "I am about to create Jerusalem with
joy, and her people rejoicing" [Is. 65:18]. For whatever the details
and the mystery, the promise is for real, human life in a real physical
world. The apostle John wrote, "Beloved, we are God's children now,
and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when
he appears we will be like him, because we shall see him as he is"
[1 John 3:2 (ESV)].
While what we will be and what, exactly, the
new heavens and new earth will be like is still a mystery, we know
what we are now in a world still ravaged by sin and death. Saint
Peter, the Apostle of the Lord, asks, therefore, since you are waiting
for these things, "what sort of people ought you to be in lives
of holiness and godliness?" [2 Pet. 3:14, 11]. That you are saved,
that you are a people of faith is totally the result of God's ac-tion
through his Word in you. That we have the glorious promise of eternal
life in the new heavens and the new earth, too, is God's work. The
apostle, however, puts his finger on the greatest danger we face
as we await the Lord's coming and the fulfillment of his promise.
Know this, he writes, "that scoffers will come in the last days
with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say,
'Where is the promise of his com-ing? For ever since the fathers
fell asleep, all things are continu-ing as they were from the beginning
of creation'" [2 Peter 3:3-4 (ESV)]. And the danger is not just
from others, but we our-selves may begin to think like that and,
thus, fall away from the faith.
Like the virgins in Jesus' parable, the waiting
Church is sus-tained by the lamp of God's Word. "The kingdom of
heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to
meet the bridegroom." But five, we are told, were foolish, and five
wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but no oil for them. How
foolish, indeed! The wise ones did the only sensible thing, taking
flasks of oil along with their lamps. As the psalm says, "Your word
is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path" [Psalm 119:105 (ESV)],
so we can take this as a picture of the waiting Church, sustained
in the confidence of faith always and only by the Word of God. This
parable addresses the fact that the wait-ing church, outwardly,
will always consist of a mixture of true believers and hypocrites.
There are those that can be described, as the apostle Paul wrote
to Timothy, as "having the appear-ance of godliness, but denying
its power" [2 Tim. 3:1-5 (ESV)]. In other words, it is possible
for someone to attach themselves outwardly to the church, to become
members in name only, but fall away from faith and works of love.
The Kingdom of God, that is, his rule of grace in a person's life,
is always a matter of faith sustained by the Word of God and not
mere outward connection with the church.
Now notice that all ten virgins, both the wise
and the foolish, become drowsy and fall asleep. This, of course,
matches the fact that the coming of the bridegroom seems delayed.
This sleep, however, implies confidence and security. But, as we
see, the confidence and security of the five foolish ends up a false
security, while for the wise the only preparation needed to be ready,
that is, faith. For, when the midnight cry of invitation at the
Lord's promised return was signaled, the five wise rose and trimmed
their lamps. They were ready. The five foolish, how-ever, realizing
their lack, tried to borrow oil from the others. Faith is a gift
of God. Furthermore, it is a personal gift. You cannot be saved
on the basis of the faith of your father or your mother or anyone
else. Each person is called to believe for themselves and to confess
in the same words with the whole Church Jesus Christ, the content
of the saving faith.
When our Lord and Savior says to us today,
"Watch therefore," he summons us to remain steadfast in faith and
love, strengthened and sustained by the means he has given, his
preached Word and Sacraments administered. In this way alone you
are prepared and ready to meet the Bridegroom with joy in the eternal
marriage feast of the Lamb.
At the end of another liturgical year, another
round of telling the whole story of God's plan of salvation, and
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