Sunday: 26th Sunday after Pentecost
Reading: Matthew 25:1-13
Preacher: Peter C. Lane

June 19, 1936. A sold out Yankee Stadium. The young undefeated hope of America and the black community Joe Louis was set to fight Nazi Germany's one time heavyweight champion Max Schmeling. It was supposed to be the up and comer against a fading star. But round after round, Schmeling confounded Louis with his jabbing style before knocking him out in the twelfth, Louis's 1st loss by knockout. Those of you who know something about Joe Louis weren't probably expecting that story. You were expecting to hear about Louis' victory two years later. Why start with Louis' defeat? Because our text this morning is all about expectant waiting. The bridegroom was delayed.

"Jesus said, "Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a shout, `Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.'... The bridegroom came and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet.""

I suggest that it is the waiting in this story, the time elapsed while the ten virgins were sleeping, that is significant. Realize, none were reprimanded for falling asleep, for waiting. Some got in trouble for not being prepared, but none for sleeping. For it wasn't until late that the bridegroom came. Certainly worth waiting for-these are virgins after all. They were taken to the wedding banquet. Here's my point: Expectant, faithful waiting culminates in festive celebration. For those who don't merely bide their time, but prepare-work-for change, the wedding feast awaits.

Some of you might be thinking that my reading skirts the text. You all remember the part where the five virgins who did have oil refused to share their scarce resource. You remember that when the others finally had retrieved oil, the door to the banquet was shut and the Lord said, "Truly I tell you, I do not know you." I am not skirting the issue. I read that doomsday stuff as apocalyptic, hyperbolic filler. And not just because I am a lakeside liberal. I also read Matthew. I read Matthew 7 where the door will be opened for whoever knocks, Matthew 20 where the 11th hour workers gets a full days' pay, Matthew 28 where in the resurrection we see that what looks like the end is never really the end. The interesting part of this parable is the waiting.

To understand the context of our parable, we have to know that for the early Christian community, the reality that Jesus had not yet come back and might not come back in their lifetime was a big problem. So towards the end of his gospel, in what has become known as the apocalyptic discourse Matthew tries to answer two questions: When will Jesus come in glory? What shall we do in the meantime? The first half of this apocalyptic discourse is like the book of Daniel or Revelation, reading as if it knew divine secrets about God's plan for the end of history. It is the part of Matthew that inspires those bumper stickers that say, "In case of rapture, this car will be unmanned." After that, Matthew gives three parables, including ours, that try to explain what shall be done while waiting.

Our parable says that there are different kinds of waiting-prepared waiting and unprepared waiting. Oil and no oil. Christians have been waiting 2,000 years. If we just wait looking for the rapture, for ½ of humanity to be whisked up into heaven, that is not prepared waiting. That is not having a flask of oil. St. Paul and the Redeemer has been waiting here for 149 years, I hope waiting in a different way-working for the lame to walk, the lepers to be accepted and welcomed, the poor to be given opportunity to flourish. I fully expect us to be expectantly, faithfully waiting like that for another 149 years.

That gets me back to Joe Louis and Max Schmeling. Louis would become the heavyweight champion the year after getting knocked out in the Bronx. Immediately after becoming champion he announced that he would not consider himself the champion until he had defeated Schmeling. In 1938 he got his chance. Again they fought in a sold out Yankee stadium, but this time with different results. Louis came out punching and knocked down Schmeling three times in the first round-the last time for good.

Why all this about boxing? Because of the events of Tuesday. I had read our passage last week and knew that it was about waiting. But I didn't know what to say. And then Wednesday morning I read an article by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. titled "In Our Lifetime." [1] In the article he highlights four "extraordinary, ritual occasions" in African-American history. Reading it I knew that I was reading about expectant faithful waiting. I knew I was reading about the five virgins who brought along flasks of oil for their lamps and went to party at the wedding banquet with their bridegroom. Now, there is some danger for a white, son of privilege to preach about the African-American experience, but I learned from Dr. Gates and from Principal Watson over at Shoesmith and from Colin Powell nearly crying on CNN and so here it goes. Gates' first event was New Year's Day 1863. He describes how African Americans all over the North huddled together hopefully waiting to see if Lincoln would sign the Emancipation Proclamation. The 3,000 people who waited in Tremont Temple in Boston broke out in song when a messenger burst in after 11 o'clock p.m. to announce Lincoln had signed it. "Blow ye the trumpet, blow...the year of jubilee is come."

For the 2nd event, Gates describes how his father and his friends gathered around the radio to listen to the call of the 2nd Louis/Schmeling fight. He then talks about those gathered around black and white television sets watching Martin Luther King tell about his dream in 1963. Then he describes what happened when Barack Obama was elected President. He says, "My colleagues and I laughed and shouted, whooped and hollered, hugged each other and cried." I heard the same thing over at Shoesmith where a teacher described a spontaneous dance that she and another teacher did meeting in the halls on Wednesday. I had a parishioner tell me that she called every body she could think of after the Grant Park speech. Even my own mother called me excitedly at 10:02 p.m. Tuesday night.

You see, the virgins in our story are not waiting fearfully, hoping to avoid some terrible fate. They are waiting for a great party, a wedding feast, an opportunity for intimacy with their bridegroom. I want to say with all of the humility I can that that is what I read about and heard about it this week. I learned about expectant faithful waiting and joined in the festive celebration.

Life can sometimes feel a lot like the first Louis/Schmeling fight-15 rounds of slogging it out, trying to keep our feet moving and our hands up while our eyes begin to swell. What Matthew was saying was that that is not the end of the story. There is a glorious party in our future. Think it will never happen? Well, a black man is going to be President of the United States. "Lift every voice and sing till earth and heaven ring, ring with the harmonies of liberty. Facing the rising son of our new day begun, let move on till victory is won."

[1] Henry Louis Gates, Jr. "In Our Lifetime," http://www.theroot.com/id/48731 accessed 11/7/08.