Knowing what time it is

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Wisdom is knowing what time it is. (NTW) That is the essential truth behind all of today’s lectionary readings. In Joshua, he stands before the children of Israel as they prepare to cross into the Promised Land. He guides them into entering a solemn covenant with God. The reading is a conversation between Joshua and the people: “Joshua said:” “The people said:” At one point, Joshua bluntly tells them they aren’t ready, they aren’t holy enough and he issues that stirring question that echoes down through the ages: Choose you this day whom you will serve. It was time to cross over into this new land full of challenges and promise but it was up to the Israelites to decide what time it was, time to follow or time to turn away. Two of the tribes decided to stay on the eastern side of the river. They crossed over but then, when the country was secure, they returned to the eastern shore. Eternally, it seems to me, straddling the fence, trying to both live inside God’s promises and outside them. But wisdom is knowing what time it is, what decisions have to made in the here and now that must be lived up to and lived into in the future.

In Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, he mixes three different images of the end times in this short space of verses. If you unravel this tightly-knitted imagery, you hear the echoes of , in Exodus, Israel’s leaders going up the mountain to meet Moses. There is the echo of Daniel 7 and people exalted ‘on the clouds’ and the historic Roman Empire image of the people of a city going out to meet their ruler and escorting him back into their city. That was common practice in Bible times for the people of a city to go out along the road to meet the ruler, who wasn’t normally resident in the city, came to visit, to enforce the law and introduce new law, the people would go out to meet him on the road as he came and they would form a joyful procession back into the city and into the throne room. (My thanks to N.T. Wright for his pulling together of these exegetical threads. A Year of Sundays, Year A, pg. 123). Paul’s point in his description of this apocalyptic eschatology (which is a $20 term for discussions of what the end times will be like) is that it is vital to know what time it is. Paul’s point is to remind the Thessalonians that in the midst of their current problem: their impatience for Paul’s return to them. By using all of these images knitted tightly together, Paul is redirecting their focus from his return to the return of Jesus, the One for whom and with whom they are all waiting and working in the first place. Paul is reminding them that the wise choice is to know what time it is, in God’s time looking forward to God’s return.

So in turning to the gospel of Matthew and the parable of the ten bridesmaids, it is easy to see the point of the parable. As Brenda Lewis reminded us Wednesday night, parables are earthly stories with heavenly meanings. In this earthly story we hear again the echo of the ‘going out.’ The bridesmaids were waiting for the groom, some were ready, some were not. When they received word that the groom was on his way, they went out to meet him. Those that were prepared went into the house with him and the door was shut. Those who were not ready, who didn’t know what time it was, were left outside.

So wisdom is knowing what time it is. So what do we do with that wisdom? We make sure we are ready, make sure our lamps are filled, that we are listening for the voice of the bridegroom. The wise bridesmaids knew what was going to happen, they knew what their place in the ritual was and they were prepared to do what they needed to do.

Let’s take that to our level. Knowing what time it is means that we know that we are waiting for Christ’s breaking in to our lives. We know the Bible tells us that someday Jesus will return in triumphal glory but it is also true that He breaks into our lives every day when He asks us to choose whom we will serve. Christ calls us to come out and meet him, to move from where we are to where He is at work in the world. As Christians we know we are part of the Biblical story and that we each have a unique place, a unique part to play. We can discover that part through knowing God, studying the Bible and being part of a faithful Christian community.

So let me ask you this morning, do you know what time it is? And are you ready? Maybe being ready for you means accepting Christ as He is breaking into your life, asking for your heart, for your love. Maybe being ready for you is realizing that you have been using the oil in your lamp, your God-given giftedness in ways that are wasteful and don’t reflect God’s glory. Maybe it’s time to think again about what your life is really like, where you’re headed, what the goal is. Maybe for you being ready means making the commitment to this body of believers, saying that yes, I believe God is at work in the community here and I want to be part of it. Whatever ‘being ready’ means in your life, my prayer for you this morning is that you heed the question of Joshua, Yeshua, Jesus: Choose you this day whom you will serve, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.