· Amos 5:18-24
· Psalm 70 (5)
· 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
· Matthew 25:1-13
I love Amos. He's my second favourite prophet, after Ezekiel. And I love this warning Amos gives us, because it is just as timely now as when he wrote it down more than 2700 years ago. "Why do you want the day of the Lord? It is darkness, not light; as if someone fled from a lion, and was met by a bear; or went into the house and rested a hand against the wall, and was bitten by a snake." Many Christians today have not heard this message, or have put it out of their minds. Many, perhaps most Christians, are looking forward to Heaven as a place where everyone will be happy all the time, and where happiness will be the same material glut as we think it is here on earth. There is a song, which passes for a Christian hymn, which says "when the roll is called up yonder I'll be there."
Is that so? What did Amos tell you? The day of the Lord is darkness, not light. And it is as if someone fled from a lion, and then thinking he was safe, ran into a bear. Or someone goes into a house and thinks he's arrived, he can sit down, put his feet up, rest from his daily toil... and when he puts his hand on the wall, perhaps for balance while he takes his shoes off, a snake comes out of the wall and bites him. This might make no sense to you because there aren't a lot of snakes coming out of the walls in modern Canadian houses, but most of mankind lives and always has lived in houses made of some variation on dried mud. In fact when my brother was in Afghanistan, almost this exact thing happened. His patrol came under fire and took cover in an empty house; a scorpion came out of the wall, stung one of the men and killed him. This man was the only casualty in the patrol in the entire time they were deployed. He thought he was safe from gunfire in the house, and a scorpion came out of the wall and killed him.
And so it is on the day of the Lord. You might think you're safe, and when you lean against the wall to catch your breath, a snake or a scorpion comes out and kills you. And you dare to sing your little song about "when the roll is called I'll be there?" Didn't Amos write down "take away from me the noise of your songs?" You don't know whether you'll be there or not, and no one can say who will and won't be there. Not you, not your pastor, not those who criticize you or those you praise you, not evangelists or born-again people, no one but the Lord. Only the Lord will say who will be there on that day. This is why we say we are saved by grace. Not by anything we do, but purely by the grace of God.
Now Jesus gave us some information on the kingdom of heaven, but a lot of it is quite cryptic. Like this thing about the ten bridesmaids. I was online looking at what other preachers were doing with the ten bridesmaids, and one guy said "what's the deal with the oil? Does the oil have some secret symbolism? Why do they need so much oil? Why ten lamps instead of one?" Well, it's not really a secret meaning. You have to remember that in the ancient world, as in much of the modern world, there are no street lamps, and no electricity. Here, in peaceful Canada, people are scared of walking the streets at night, even with cell phones, pepper spray, police everywhere, and street lamps. Imagine if there were no lights, no police, no cell phones, and you're ten pretty girls walking around the streets of some middle-eastern town. Does that sound safe? Not so much. So you need light. The more light, the better. But that's not the only thing here. These girls are not alone anyway; notice how someone else is there who warns them when the bridegroom is coming. So probably they have an escort of strong men, who might have torches. Why then the oil lamps? Because oil is precious. That's why it's always used in the Bible as an offering. Nobody offers a piece of wood to the Lord, even though that too can be used for making light. Because wood is cheap and oil is expensive. So these ten bridesmaids with ten oil lamps are there not so much to light the way, but to show the glory of the bridegroom. He can afford all these lamps, plus he can afford enough armed men to protect ten pretty girls walking around at night. He's a rich man. People respect him.
So the guy had planned ten pretty girls with oil lamps to give him a glorious procession to the place of his wedding, and when he shows up, five of them don't have any oil. So the foolish ones say to the wise ones "give us some oil", but the wise ones can see that there isn't enough to light all ten lamps all the way to where the wedding is to be. They refuse. Are they uncharitable? Are they making their sisters look bad? Are they unchristian? Perhaps. But that's not the important thing just then. If they share their oil, there will be no procession for the bridegroom, because the light will peter out halfway. It will look ridiculous instead of glorious. It's not the end of the world for those five foolish girls to be out of the procession; but it is disrespectful to the groom if through bad planning there is no procession at all. So the wise girls do the right thing and give honour to the bridegroom, while the foolish ones go running around town, after midnight, trying to find someone to sell them oil. By the time they find someone who's open, buy oil, chase after the procession, well, the bridegroom is already at the banquet and the doors are locked, and he says to them "I don't know you."
So is this about the glory of God again? Maybe. But again, God does not need us to make him feel glorious. God already has seraphim, cherubim, thrones, dominions, virtues, powers, principalities, archangels, angels and who knows what else to give him glory. God isn't after more glory; he's already got lots of it. What he's trying to do is to have us manifest his glory. How? With singing and assemblies? Putting money in the plate? Telling yourself that "when the roll is called up yonder I'll be there"? No! This is not manifesting the glory of God. It's all just self-congratulation. Again, the glory of God is in what Jesus taught us: "sell what you have, give it to the poor, then come, follow me." Look at what Amos wrote down: "I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream."
Justice and righteousness are the glory of God. Not retributive human [scare quotes gesture] "justice", not tort law, not whatever we think of as the opposite of "it's not fair." This is God's justice, which is social justice, equality, peace, brotherhood amongst all men. This is what God is working on through us. When we sit here feeling smug singing our little songs, are we working for God? No! This is the locker room of God's team. Here we prepare to do God's work. We regroup. We debrief and brief again. We build up team spirit and put our game faces on. But all this is pointless unless we go out and do God's work outside the doors. Not in a remote way by making offerings or speaking pious words or feeling self-righteous, but by helping our neighbour, literally the person next to us, whoever he or she is, whatever he or she needs. See a need and step up to help with your own hands. Give first aid. Help a person who has fallen. Give up your seat for an older person. Every moment of every day, your neighbour might be needing your help. If you make your eyes blind and your hands busy with your own works, and you are not ready to serve when God wants to put you to work, you have no oil in your lamp. So why are you talking about your faith and your salvation? If you have faith, if you are saved, why are you not ready to help your brother, every moment of every day, when the need arises? Is that not what God called you to?
"Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour." Any moment of any day, Christ might be right beside you, in the shape of a neighbour who needs help. Are you ready? Are you even going to hear the call? Or are you too busy telling yourself how righteous you are?
Praise be to God, the Giver of life, the Causer of death, the Ever-Living, the All-Perceiving, the First, the Last.
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