This post will be updated later tomorrow with the Worship Service taped at St. Matthews Church in Welland.

Bulletin: Worship Guide

Prayer, Gospel Reading and commentary (PDF)

Prayer of the Day

O God of justice and love, you illumine our way through life with the words of

your Son. Give us the light we need, and awaken us to the needs of others, through

Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. Amen.

Gospel: Matthew 25:1-13

[Jesus said to the disciples:] 1 “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten

young women took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them

were foolish, and five were wise. 3 When the foolish took their lamps, they took no

oil with them, 4 but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. 5 As the

bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. 6 But at midnight

there was a shout, ‘Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ 7 Then

all those young women got up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish said to the

wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ 9 But the wise

replied, ‘No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the

dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ 10 And while they went to buy it, the

bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding

banquet, and the door was shut. 11 Later the other young women came also, saying,

‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ 12 But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’ 13

Keep awake, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”

A bit of commentary:

The parables Jesus tells illustrate his words about the destruction of the Temple and

the final arrival of the “on of Man” in glory. The parables in chapters 24 and 25–

the fig tree, people taken while others remain, the unfaithful steward, and the

bridesmaids point toward the end of time and the restoration of all things. The last

parable Jesus tells is the one about sheep and goats where nations will be judged by

their treatment of the refugee, the poor, the sick, and the unjustly imprisoned.

Matthew’s Gospel is written to the church—in its early days, some forty years after

Jesus’ death. So the message about preparedness is for the church. So the question

for the church has always been and continues to be “how does the church prepare

for the return of the Messiah?

”Robert Farrar Capon (of blessed memory) imagines the parables being different

colours; green for growth, like the parable of the mustard seed, purple for passion

and selfless grace and finally white suggesting a white hot ultimate love. The

parable of the bridesmaids is one of the last stories Jesus tells and it carries urgency

because he knows his own days are numbered. Capon’s take is that the parables are

the judgement of ‘faith-in-action’.

You might recall “The Last Lecture” delivered by Professor Randy Pausch who

was dying from ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease. He wanted to say all that needed to be

said while he was still able. His lecture was formatted into both a book and a

video. Jesus’ last parables are his attempt to say all he needs to say before his

death.

Capon describes the message thus, “Since Christ has already made me new—since

there really isn’t any of the old me to get in my way anymore—why should I be so

stupid as to try to go on living in terms of something that isn’t even there?”

(Parables of Judgement, page 157). I am reminded of those Jesus heals. The one to

takes up his mat and walks doesn’t need to lay back down on it for the rest of his

life. The very act of getting up and walking because he’s healed is the man’s ‘faith

in action’. Paul writes in Colossians 2:6 as we have received Christ therefore we

walk in him (literally walk around, live our lives in the newness he brings).

So the word to the church is one of remembering who we are and to live out what’s

already true—by living the new life the risen Christ has already created for us.