Sermon: "That's Not the Point"
This week, I’m feeling a bit like Harry Potter, when Dumbledore had Harry look into the pensieve at the memories Dumbledore had collected; but one memory - Harry could tell - had been tampered with. Dumbledore then instructed Harry to go retrieve the true memory; and he sent him out on a quest for the truth.
Today’s Bible story has been tampered with. Someone has meddled with it. First, let me tell you how I know; then, together, let’s go on a quest for the truth.
According to this story in Matthew's gospel, there were five wise bridesmaids and five foolish bridesmaids, all waiting for the groom to arrive.
In verse five, Matthew says that the groom was delayed, and all the bridesmaids became drowsy and fell asleep. Then, at midnight, the groom finally arrived (late for his own wedding party), and the five bridesmaids who had oil for their lamps went in, but the five bridesmaids who had no oil for their lamps had to go and buy some; and when they returned, the groom said, “I don’t know you;” and they were not allowed in to the feast.
And then we’re told that the moral of this little Bible story is this: “Keep awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”
But… do you see what’s so strange? Do you see how this story has been meddled with? We’re told to keep awake - but no one in this story keeps awake. All the bridesmaids - the ones called “foolish” as well as the ones called “wise” - fell asleep. This conclusion to “keep awake” doesn’t fit.
Which leads me to believe that someone has tampered with this story.
If the moral of the story was, “Keep your lamps filled with oil,” that would have made sense. It would have fit the story. If the moral of the story was simply, “be ready,” even that would have fit.
But “keep awake” doesn’t fit what actually happens in the story!
So, where did it come from? Well, best as I can tell (from my own reading of this scripture, as well as the writings and commentaries of scholars I’ve read), what happened is that Matthew heard the story, either from Jesus or from someone who heard it from Jesus, and before even reaching the end of the story, Matthew (or the person Matthew heard it from) said to themself: “I know where this is going…” and they finished the story in their mind before they actually got to the end of it.
And I can understand how that happened. Because people do it all the time. They read a passage of scripture, or part of a passage, and they quickly think, “Oh, I know what this is saying… I know where this is headed…” and they draw a conclusion in their own mind, without actually paying attention to the conclusion that the story itself is making.
Or they take a verse or two out of context, and say to themself, “I know what this is about,” but because they have failed to understand the context, they end up failing to understand the story.
Much of the time, their failure to understand scripture is an accident. They don’t mean to misinterpret scripture. But they jump to conclusions about what it means, and they are often led to those conclusions by their own unexamined biases and prejudices.
We all have biases and prejudices. And biases and prejudices aren’t entirely bad things. Our brains are more efficient when they can generalize things and people into categories. Biases and prejudices are often a byproduct of that process.
But we need to be aware of our biases and prejudices. Otherwise, we end up making the Bible say what we want it to say, rather than what it actually says; and we end up creating a God who is more like how we think God should be, rather than how God actually is.
As Anne Lamott once famously said, “you can be pretty sure you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.” You can be pretty sure you’ve created your own image of God when all of God’s biases and prejudices are the same as yours.
When we aren’t aware of our biases and prejudices, we unintentionally, accidentally misinterpret and misunderstand scripture. It happens all the time.
But sometimes, people will intentionally misinterpret or misunderstand scripture. They’ll change the meaning of scripture on purpose.
In 2018, Attorney General Jeff Sessions sought to defend the Trump administration's immigration policies, especially with regard to separating families. At one point, Sessions stated, "I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13 to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained the government for his purposes."
Using this verse from Romans 13 to justify separating families at the border was an intentional misinterpretation of scripture on his part. He wanted to defend President Trump’s actions by using scripture, without knowing or caring what the scripture actually meant.
Because if you go on a quest for the truth, and you examine the context, and explore deeper into scripture, you find all sorts of holy, righteous people who do challenge the governments of their day. Even the apostle Paul, who wrote that particular scripture, was thrown in jail on multiple occasions, for engaging in actions and proclaiming things that went against the governing authorities.
And sometimes, whether it’s accidental or intentional, we see this same type of misinterpretation happening within the pages of scripture itself.
Most scholars believe that the moral to today’s Bible story - “keep awake” - wasn’t something that Jesus actually said, but rather, something that Matthew added. Matthew tampered with this story, meddled with this story, by attaching a conclusion that misses the point of the story itself.
There are other examples of this in scripture.
The apostle Paul wrote in the book of Galatians that, in Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, but that all are one in Christ Jesus.
That. Statement. Is. radical.
Society was built on these distinctions. Distinctions between Jews & non-Jews, distinctions between people who were slaves and people who were free, and distinctions between men and women. Society was built on these distinctions. But Paul says that all these distinctions are done away with in Christ.
And, elsewhere, Paul gives instructions about how both men and women are to teach and preach.
But other writers of scripture just couldn’t bring themselves to accept this; even some who wrote in Paul’s name. So when they put to paper what they believed were ideas and teachings of the apostle Paul, they also added that women were to keep silent in the church and were to have no authority over men.
The bias they had against women in the church kept them from passing on what Paul actually taught, which is that men and women were equal in the body of Christ.
Let’s take another example. If I were to ask almost anyone what the story of Sodom is about, they would say that it’s about homosexuality. But to say that Sodom is about homosexuality is to attach to that story a meaning that isn’t actually present in the story itself. It’s taking one’s own prejudice and bias, and inserting it into the story, and coming to the wrong conclusion.
In the story, a man offers hospitality to two immigrants who had just arrived in town. He offers them a place to stay, and in doing so, extends to them his protection, as the ancient codes of hospitality required.
Then some townspeople show up at his door. These townspeople believe that all immigrants and foreigners are thugs and criminals, and they demand that these two immigrants be given over to them, to rape, abuse, beat and torment. These are acts of violence and terror and control, and have absolutely nothing to do with sexual orientation. But God sides with the immigrants, as God almost always does, and they and their host are protected.
And then there's the book of Revelation, perhaps the most misunderstood book of the entire Bible. This book uses fantastic imagery to help followers of Christ living at the end of the first century to stay strong in the midst of Roman oppression and persecution.
In Revelation, the number 666 is used to refer to Emperor Nero, the same way that some today use the number 45 to refer to President Trump. The mark of the beast was the mark attached to goods for sale to show that proper tax and allegiance to Rome had been given - and the author of Revelation wants to encourage believers to keep resisting Rome and to give allegiance only to Christ. And the Roman government was a many-headed beast, since it oppressed people economically, terrorized them with military might, and persecuted them for their religion.
That's what it's about; but many want to make Revelation into something else, something that fits their own biases, their own prejudices, their own desire for power.
As for this story from Matthew: looking closely, we can see how it has been tampered with. “Keep awake” just doesn’t fit as the lesson to be learned. I did say that “be ready” would have made a little more sense as an ending, but even that has its problems.
The reason is that this story is a parable told by Jesus. And in every parable Jesus told, the conclusion always shocked his listeners by challenging their biases and prejudices. For example: the Parable of the Good Samaritan shocked and challenged people to think of their enemy as the one who does what is good and right.
But a parable that has, as its lesson, “be ready,” isn’t a parable that shocks or challenges. No biases or prejudices are confronted. “Be ready” or “be awake” is just good advice.
So: can we discover the truth here? Can we embark on a quest that leads us to the point of the parable as Jesus might have told it two thousand years ago?
I’m not sure. But I do know that we can compare this story to others Jesus told, and that can help.
For example: Jesus told the story of a son who made one bad decision after another, first demanding his share of his father’s inheritance, then wasting that money in frivolous and even immoral behavior…
When he returned to his father, did his father shut the door on him, and say “Go away, I don’t know you.” Because, you know, that’s what happened to the foolish bridesmaids in today’s story. But no; the father flings open the door before his son even reaches it, runs out to his son, embraces him, and welcomes him home.
And we also have a story of when Jesus himself was out in the wilderness, teaching a great crowd of people, when it became late. The people were hungry - evidently they had not thought to bring any food with them. Did Jesus chastise them and call them foolish, and say that they should have kept awake, that they should have been ready?
No.
He feeds them. He feeds them, after they find a boy who is willing to share his basket of loaves and fish.
It makes me wonder if Jesus, when he told this story about the bridesmaids, had a different point in mind. Instead of “keep awake” or “be ready,” maybe the point was, “share what you have?” If five bridesmaids have oil and five do not, wouldn’t the “Christ-like” thing be for those who have to share with those who do not have?
This is certainly a more challenging conclusion. Sharing is not easy. Some might even say it’s socialism. And some might argue that it’s their own fault that they came without oil, or that they came without food.
In today’s story, it doesn’t say why five bridesmaids don’t have oil. But that doesn’t stop Luke from calling them “foolish.”
A lot of people today have biases and prejudices against the poor. There is a story that’s been told, that those who can’t make it in society are to blame for their own misfortune. According to this story, they’re poor, because they have acted foolishly.
That story is a lie. It began to be told in the 1980s, when Ronald Reagan started making up stories about “welfare queens,” and that story has been with us ever since.
And we’ve seen our tax code completely reworked so that the tax burden on the wealthy has been eased, while extra burdens have been placed upon the poor … as more and more people believe the lie that poor people are to blame for their own misfortune.
It’s a good story: that those who are poor are the ones to blame. But it is a distortion of the truth. Poverty is linked with racism and classism and economic injustice, and the obstacles people in poverty have to overcome are great. These are obstacles that have been put in place by society, by politicians - the same politicians who tell you that the poor have only themselves to blame.
A story about sharing would certainly be a challenge, if we were to take it seriously.
Another one of the lectionary readings for today comes from the book of Amos. There, the prophet says: “let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.”
Justice and righteousness will not be realized if we don’t search for truth. Justice and righteousness will not be realized if we don’t become aware of our own biases and prejudices, and learn how those biases and prejudices can distort truth.
Only when we examine our own biases and prejudices, and only when we embark on a quest for truth, will justice and righteousness prevail.
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