The Light Inside You

I have to admit that this is not one of my favorite parables of Jesus.  It always seemed a mean of the wise not to share their oil with the others. It seems contrary to the Christian message.  We should give to those who are in need.

5 of the virgins were prepared. They had enough oil.  The other five were unprepared and asked if the others would share.  They would not.

So when you need a lamp. I would say a flashlight nowadays. You should have batteries and a backup set.  If you don’t, don’t go expecting me to share mine.  Is that the message? That you should hoard batteries? That’s what it seemed like to me and so I usually read past that parable and went on to something else.

But this parable has nothing to do with sharing resources. But has everything to do with bringing honor and praise to God. It is impossible to bring honor and praise to God if you don’t even acknowledge him. It is impossible to acknowledge him if you don’t know him.

Do you know God? Do you want to know God?

The light of God’s love is shining and all you need do is to seek it and God will reveal it. When you start on that intentional path of spiritual growth you will find purpose and direction in your life. Spiritual growth happens in a lot of different ways and can mean a lot of different things but Spiritual growth has something to do with focus.  Spiritual growth is a God thing first and last. Spiritual growth is what happens when God gets ahold of you and lives in you.  Spiritual growth is not a program or a class; spiritual growth is growing up in God. Spiritual growth is stepping out of darkness and into the light.

We can learn all there is to humanly know about God and there will be no spiritual growth if we choose to stay in the dark.

We can choose to believe a narrow set of things about God, about Jesus and about church.  But God is bigger than any ideas about God.  I had very positive (although very limited) experiences with the church as a child. But for some reason as a young adult I started to have less positive feelings about it. As I look back it was probably because my life choices didn’t match up with what I perceived to be the opinion of the church. When I expected to be judged for my lifestyle choices that is what I felt. After my first son was born and Diane and I were living in the upstairs of her grandmother’s house the church was the one place we found love in a world that seemed terribly harsh and dangerous. 

When I sought love and nurturing that is what I found.

The church is the best human manifestation of the ascended Christ but it is still human. God’s light shines despite our failures. We are the walking wounded looking for healing. We are beggars looking for bread. We are the dying looking for eternal life. When we focus on what we are looking for we will find it.

The problem is that we might look for the wrong things sometimes. You ever see a wounded chicken in a chicken coup? The other chickens will peck and peck at the wound. The wound will be made worse. The wounded chicken dies apart from the flock.

When we are focused on the wrong things wounds are made worse. When we focus on the wounds, the hunger and the death that is all we will see.  When we focus on the healing, the nourishment and life we have in Jesus, God is glorified!

Our focus should always be on glorifying God not on the failure to do so.  Honoring and praising God for what God is doing in our midst is the focus of our worship and our work.  Our lives are dedicated to doing as Jesus taught and teaching others to do the same. Our lives should be the light that lights the way for his return.

In our Gospel lesson Jesus tells this parable about the 10 virgins.

The wedding Ceremony

Avoid circumstances that will diminish your ability to bring glory to God.

Your oil is your ability to do that.

How does it diminish?

1.       Not having your spiritual house in order (sin).

2.       Condemning others for sin (log in your eye).

3.       Downplaying others sin (Millstone?)

But avoiding the wrong is the point of bringing glory to God!  What will set you on the path of bringing honor and praise to God?

1.       Receive forgiveness for your own failures

2.       Let God guide you in the course you know is right

3.       Love and forgive others despite their failures.

We could focus on the 5 virgins who were unprepared to receive the bridegroom. We could use this as a cautionary tale but as we prepare for the Christmas season I suggest we focus on the 5 who were prepared and do the same.

Our lamps our full of oil. We have the ability to light the way for our returning Lord. Let’s light our lamps and look with anticipation to his coming.