2045AFC110620 – Using Wisdom to Light the Way
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Matthew 25:3-4 – 3 When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; 4 but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.
Wisdom 6:14-16 – 14 One who rises early to seek her [Wisdom] will have no difficulty, for she will be found sitting at the gate. 15 To fix one’s thought on her is perfect understanding, and one who is vigilant on her account will soon be free from care, 16 because she goes about seeking those worthy of her, and she graciously appears to them in their paths, and meets them in every thought.
Matthew 6:10 – 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Aloha pumehana, a me ke akua ho’omaika‘i ‘oe, ʻŌmea! Warmest Aloha, and may God bless you, Belovéd! Before I get too far into this I need to ask a favor of each of you. I’m going to put a hyperlink here and ask you to share it with anyone you can. We’ve all heard the passage from 2 Chronicles 7:14 – 14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. I am asking you to pass along this link: https://www.catholic365.com/article/11824/a-prayer-for-national-repentance.html. If you have a Twitter account (I’ve never taken that step – too “sticky” for my tastes), please send it out that way and have others re-Tweet. Maybe it will eventually get to @POTUS or @realDonaldTrump. Regardless of how this General Election turns out, the only way we can be assured that we have done all we should to make things right is to carefully heed the content of this passage from 2 Chronicles. Thank you in advance for your help with this!
Let us begin our study with an appeal to seek and utilize Wisdom. Scripture teaches us that Wisdom was with God during creation, and accompanies God in all his Works. Sunday’s gospel is the story of the ten virgins – five wise and five foolish. I am trying to be ready for God’s will in all things. Being ready means you don’t just assume that when the time comes you’ll be prepared for whatever happens. You have to be paying attention to “the little things.” Jesus taught several lessons on being ready. We will hear one such lesson this weekend – the 10 Virgins at the Wedding Feast. That’s the reason for today’s Key Verse.
In this story, there are 10 virgins who are waiting for the bridegroom to return so that the Wedding Feast can start. All of them fall asleep. Five of them have brought extra oil; they are referred to as the wise virgins. Five of them did not bring extra oil; they are referred to as the foolish virgins. When the bridegroom arrived, the wise were ready to go into the feast with him because they could refill their lamps and trim their wicks. The foolish ones begged the wise for more oil. The request was not granted. Instead they were sent out into the darkness to attempt to correct their foolishness. The wise went in with the bridegroom. The foolish were locked out. Although the parable does not say it directly, we can come to a reasonable assumption that the door was locked by the bridegroom after he entered the feast with the 5 who were ready. It is very apparent in this parable that Jesus is the bridegroom and the 10 virgins represent his followers – all 10 are invited to the feast. Only 5 were prepared to continue to be in the presence of the bridegroom because they were wisely prepared. Today, we know that we must also be prepared to pray and believe our prayer when we recall Matthew 6:10 – 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
We must be prepared to anticipate God’s will (be prepared) and to obey God’s will (carry out). Philippians 2:14-16a – 14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing. 15 Then you will be the pure and innocent children of God. You live among people who are crooked and evil, but you must not do anything that they can say is wrong. Try to shine as lights among the people of this world, 16 as you hold firmly to the message that gives life. Contemporary English Version (CEV) Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society
We must be those lights, those lamps set on a lampstand, those souls filled with Hope and Peace. Do you recall what the Apostle Paul said in Romans 15:13? He said, 13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Beloved, do not let the present times confuse you with stories about “The End” or messages about foolishness, or quarrels and disputes about the stark differences between the World and the Kingdom. Find someone who needs help – be it food, or prayer, or work, or comfort, or just a smile or a thank-you – then give that which is needed and move on to the next one. If you’re not sure who to pray for, pray for everyone. If you’re not sure what to pray, ask the Holy Spirit to pray within you. As St. Mother Teresa told us, “If we want a love message to be heard, it has got to be sent out. To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.” The wise among us will not only bring that oil, but also know where to get it. Remember the foolish virgins had to go out in the middle of the night to find someone to sell them\ what they needed. We get our Light – and the oil in our lamps (↔ Music Link) – from the King who is the Light of the World.
Christians everywhere know that the Holy Spirit is actively countering the massive attacks against righteousness all across the World. If ever there was a time for us to exercise our spiritual authority, NOW IS THE TIME! (↔ Music Link) We have the authority of the Children chosen by God just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. (See Ephesians 1:2-4) How do we know we are chosen? Because we believe (John 3:16-19), and because by baptism and the Holy Spirit we are children of God as we learn from John 1:12 – 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God …
Often reviewing this verse leads to a discussion of how to survive those tests of faith we encounter so often in our lives. Sometimes things happen that we just cannot understand – like the death of a child, the betrayal of innocence, or pointless violence. These things are often difficult to comprehend even within our Christian understanding of life. This too is something about which much has been written – why bad things happen to good people (and the converse of that, why good things happen to bad people). Again, there is a short answer which is inadequate only if you don’t believe that the longer answer isn’t any different from the short answer. The short answer is, “with God all things are possible.” The good and the bad happen, but it all happens within God’s knowing of it. Victims exist and God knows the how and why of that existence. He does not produce the victim or the circumstances that result in victims. Regardless of what is happening now, we need not, must not, be victims. We can be, should be, witnesses – witnesses to the Wisdom of God by knowing we are intentionally praying “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
I have said recently that – as we watch this unique moment in history – about half of the Nation will see it as a slow-motion train wreck ending in disaster and the rest of the nation will see it as the Clash of the Titans with the few but the mighty prevailing. However we see it, it will not come to be without the knowledge AND WISDOM of God!
Belovéd, that’s good enough for everyone who is wise. James 1:5 tells us 5 If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you. Now that doesn’t mean we can just sit on our tushes and wait for God to crown us with Wisdom. We may have to seek her out, but that’s OK because 4 One who rises early to seek her [Wisdom] will have no difficulty, for she will be found sitting at the gate. 15 To fix one’s thought on her is perfect understanding, and one who is vigilant on her account will soon be free from care, 16 because she goes about seeking those worthy of her, and she graciously appears to them in their paths, and meets them in every thought.
Put a little oil in your lamp (hint: it’s FREE in the B.I.B.L.E.), and keep it burning. We know not the day nor the hour, (← Check it out!) but the wise can see that now is the birth pangs (← Check it out!) and we can proceed with confidence because we are prepared through God’s own Wisdom.
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
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Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Biblical languages inserts from Bible Hub (Bible Hub: Search, Read, Study the Bible in Many Languages) Visit at http://biblehub.com
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
Little clay lamps like this with a wick laid off to one side in a little trough were common in Jesus’ day. In this kind of vessel a piece of cloth or a bit of soft wood wicked-up (← Check it out!) the oil and provided light to the room. We can provide the Light of Wisdom in the darkness of this Age. Keep letting your little light shine!
