Spiritual Preparation

Spiritual Preparation

Matthew 25:1-13

This scripture is about being prepared, isn't it? Jesus tells this parable about ten bridesmaids to explain yet another way and from a different perspective, what the Kingdom of heaven is like. Jesus is telling us across the milennia, through the Holy Scriptures to prepare yourself for something new, something different, something wonderful.

We know about preparing for wonderful things. In just a few weeks the season of advent will begin. This is the season of preparation to celebrate Christmas. The question that we ask each other is, “are you ready for Christmas.” because we know that it does take a lot of preparation to celebrate Christmas in Western culture. Generous giving has come to be the norm for us. Unfortunately generous sometimes turns into extravagant. And sometimes we put so much pressure on ourselves to give extravagantly that we lose sight of the relationship with Jesus. We lose sight of honoring God with our gifts. Then there is the beautiful simplicity of Christmas morning when everything is quiet and hopefully, if we had been distracted before, now we can contemplate the fact that God is in our midst. Hopefully all of our preparations pointed us to that moment of realization.

Christmas morning naturally is connected to Easter morning in that we would not have a resurrected Lord if he had never been born. We celebrate the resurrection every Sunday. This is the day we set aside to Worship the Living Lord. We live in a world that is not yet perfected. We live in a world that draws our attention away from God. We have to prepare for things that are not so wonderful.

I was not prepared for the events of September 11, 2001.

I was not prepared, in 2005 for the news that my Dad, who I had only seen a handful of times in the previous decade, was taken in for emergency Brain surgery.

I was not prepared to be asked to officiate my 42-year-old cousins funeral on my 40^th birthday this summer.

But in all those situations God was there. On September 11, 2001. I was going to college at Central Michigan University. When I heard the news I went to the Sanctuary of the Mt. Pleasant United Methodist Church and prayed. And I read psalm 27 The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

In 2005 when I drove from Greenville to Traverse City to be with my dad, I didn't know it then but my dad would live for three more months, during which time we were reconciled.

And this summer when I officiated my young cousins funeral. God gave me the strength in a very difficult situation to proclaim the Gospel about Jesus Christ to nearly my entire family.

In these situations I was not initially prepared but God found ways to bless me.

However the consequences of not being prepared for the Kingdom of God means that we will not be able to participate in that new creation. Not because we deserve to be punished. Not because we didn't live up to a particular set of rules but because we didn't have a relationship with Jesus. At the core of who God is, is Love. If you don't have love then, you don't know God. That is the beginning of being prepared. If we are unprepared then when the time comes he will say “I never knew you.”

We talked last week about the fact that ultimately it is just between you and God. You have a choice in every moment to seek God and live for God. You may come from a long line of Christian believers, but if you don't seek a relationship with God, it wont matter. God wants your heart. God wants you to love him. We have this gift of scripture. We have this gift of a parable that Jesus taught 2000 thousand years ago what was remembered by his listeners, written down by the disciple Matthew, hand copied, and now we have it before us today. The words of our Lord Jesus. And he is telling us to “be prepared.”

Keep your lamps lit. or at least keep on hand enough oil so that when you need the light you will be able light your lamp. Scripture tells us that, “all things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being, in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” (John 1:3-5)

Our bodies are the lamp and the oil is Jesus. We need to have Jesus living in and through us to be prepared for eternity. This means we need to submit to the Lordship of Jesus in our lives. This means we need to seek Jesus with our Heart and not just our intellect. When we seek Jesus in earnest he will come to us, and the Holy Spirit will live in us.

When we have that kind of intimacy with God, we will readily recognize the love of God in our lives. We will see the blessings that God is giving us. When we see and recognize God's love in our lives we will be all the more ready to return that love and worship God with all that we are. This is what it means to have a relationship with God.

When we share Holy Communion we are in the presence of God who feeds us and who also feasts with us. God is both above everything and in everything. This is a glimpse of the banquet that we will gain admittance to if we have the light of Christ burning in us at the end of this life.

Holy Communion is but one of the many ways in which we experience Christ in our midst. Another is in the fellowship of believers. When we gather in Christs name and keep Jesus at the center of our attention. He is present in and through us and we are blessed.

Jesus is calling us to be prepared.

So...How is it with you today? If you were to show up at the banquet of heaven tonight would your lamp be lit or would Jesus say “I never knew you?” Would you pray with me?