Wise and Foolish (Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost)

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One of the challenges we sometimes face when reading Jesus’ parables is that he often tells stories that involve cultural traditions that most of us aren’t familiar with.  And so, it can often seem to us that the situations people face in these stories must be as odd and confusing as there are to us.

But in fact, Jesus’ first hearers knew exactly what the traditions were that he was talking about.  And that’s true of today’s parable as well.  The wedding tradition was that, after a potentially long period of engagement, the groom would come to the home of the bride and a multi-day wedding celebration would begin.  As part of the welcoming tradition, bridesmaids would greet the groom and escort him to the home of the bride in a sort of parade, no matter what time the groom arrived.

And because there were no cell phones or flight tracking software, there was no way to know exactly when the groom would show up.  You had to wait and you had to be prepared.  You might be waiting for days. Everybody knew this, and that was because everybody had been to weddings.  Many of them had been bridesmaids themselves.

And this is crucial to remember, because since the time of the King James Version of the Bible, every English translation I’ve ever seen renders the two groups of bridesmaids as the “wise” and the “foolish.”  And so sometimes, because WE aren’t familiar with these traditions, we end up thinking that the “wise” are somehow super-smart and deeply insightful in figuring out what nobody else could.

And maybe they were smart, but the actual word Matthew uses to describe them is “phronemoi” – and it simply means “prudent”; or “attentive”; or “thoughtful.”  Before they ever became bridesmaids, they knew the drill.  They paid attention.  And they acted accordingly.  And that meant that the “phronemoi”:

• Considered what it meant to be a bridesmaid – that is, they weren’t just guests at the wedding – they had a job to do; they thought about that job, and they considered what it was that would be expected of them, and how they could make the wedding better by how they participated…

• Planned ahead – they knew they couldn’t just show up; they needed to do stuff, just like modern bridesmaids often have things to do to help the bride before the wedding.  And in this case, it meant taking time to go and get extra oil (among other things) that they’d need to have as they waited and as they paraded the groom to the bride’s house…

• Appreciated the fact that this had some cost!  Today, we’ve all heard and read horror stories of the costs some brides inflict upon their bridesmaids!  Oil was pretty cheap, and by today’s standards, the cost of a little extra oil for their lamps was almost negligible.  But they went and spent that money, because that was the cost of being part of the wedding…

What they did was absolutely normal and expected, and their actions wouldn’t have surprised any of Jesus’ first hearers.  These “phronemoi” were “wise” simply in the sense that they paid attention and thought about what they were doing.  They were not the surprising or unusual characters in this story.

The surprising bridesmaids were the first five morons!  And that’s actually the word Matthew uses to describe them.  They’re called “moronai,” and it’s the Greek word from which we get the English word “moron.”  And in Biblical Greek, it has the same connotation as it’s colloquial use in English.  It does not mean that these five are just a little silly, or naïve; or that they’re uneducated or that they have some kind of learning disability that might prevent them from understanding the drill.

Whenever “moronai” is used in the New Testament (and it’s almost always translated as “fool” or “foolish”) it refers to somebody who should know better.  Somebody who’s capable of doing better.  Or somebody who simply doesn’t pay attention.  Basically, the person who knows darn well they shouldn’t text and drive, but does it anyway.  Those are people who would be called “moronai”!

What is wrong with these “moronai”?!  That, actually, is one of the questions we’re supposed to ask when we consider this parable.  And the problem with calling them “foolish” is that it’s a cutesy word in English, which makes it easy for us to dismiss these five as simply a bit silly or naïve.  But the problem is much bigger than that.

In contrast to the “phronemoi”, these “moronai” are people who:

• Are busy thinking about how much fun the party will be, without considering the fact that THEY are supposed to be helping with the party; they seem excited to be invited to the party, but don’t consider what it means to be a participant in making the party happen…

• Never get around to preparing – it would have been completely, totally and in every other way inconceivable to Jesus’ first hearers that these five wouldn’t have known they needed to get extra oil.  They knew it.  But they never got around to it.  After all, they were busy with other stuff.  And their problem wasn’t that they had less time than the others (who would also have been busy).  It’s just that they didn’t really make preparing for the party a priority in their lives…

• Figure that somebody else will cover for them – “hey, just give us some of your oil”, they say to the others.  And the problem isn’t that the “moronai” don’t have the money to buy the oil; they just assume somebody else will have bought enough.  But for the party to have the 10 lights that the bride wanted, there needed to be 10 lamps, and the “phronemoi” (who again are the thoughtful ones) realize if they enable the “moronai” there may be no lamps at all.  But even at the end, the “moronai” don’t seem to appreciate this fact…

But of course, the point of this parable isn’t wedding etiquette.  Jesus compares the kingdom of God to a wedding celebration.  And part of the point of this parable is that if you know how to prepare for a wedding party, you should do those same things as you get ready for the coming of God into your life.

And among other things we might learn from this parable, this means that, like the “phronemoi” we should understand ourselves as people who:

• Are not only invited to God’s party, but people who are called to be participants in the party right now.  The thing about the “phronemoi” is that they consider what it means to be part of the party before the fullness of the party arrives.  They think about what they have to do right now to get ready.  And for us, that often means considering what Jesus is calling us to do right now to help share a foretaste of the coming of the kingdom of God, even if our role doesn’t seem that big.  And sometimes, we can get distracted from doing that.  Other things in the party may seem more interesting. I know for myself, I often get caught up reading my news apps and getting distracted by all the stuff going on in the world that I can’t really change so much so that I may miss the thing in front of me that Jesus is calling me to do.  Each of us, in baptism, is called to be a “bridesmaid” who in some way shares the light of God’s love; it’s not about sitting around dreaming about how great heaven will be someday, but about envisioning how we can get ready right now by making the kingdom of God a reality in the lives of others around us…

• Make the time to do things God wants us to do, even when we’re busy.  As we get ready to serve our Adopted Families for Thanksgiving, we’ve created ways for people to help by simply clicking a link or adding a few items to your regular grocery list. And this is great!  But it’s important to remember that these kinds of things don’t happen unless there are also folks who make the time to make phone calls; and deliver the food; and do the shopping; and set up the signup genius.  Often, it’s easy for us to think that there will be “somebody else” who has the time to do this kind of stuff.  But those kinds of jobs are the ones that are almost always the hard ones to fill on the sign-up genius! Everything we do requires some of us (and hopefully not the same ones of us!) to make the time and do the prep work…

• Contribute to the cost of the party – The 80/20 rule has always been a problem for churches.  That is, in most congregations, 80% of the income has come from 20% of the households.  At Prince of Peace, we’ve been marginally better, but not much.  Many of us are often tempted to figure that somebody else will have a little extra oil to contribute if things get tight.  But as fewer people contribute larger sums, it’s going to take all of us being willing to accept the responsibility of contributing a bit more.  This year, if you’ve read the Council reports, you may have noticed we’re running a small deficit.  It’s not horrible, but it’s not a good trend.  And in fact, if every household in this congregation kicked in an extra $20 per month, we’d be running a small surplus. It wouldn’t take that much extra oil.  But as in the parable, if we want to keep all of our “10 lamps” lit, we need everybody to kick in some extra oil…

Today’s parable concludes kind of harshly.  So do the next couple of parables that follow this one!  But the parable is rooted in some really good news.

And that good news is the reminder that Jesus has not only invited us to be part of his coming kingdom, but that he’s made us bridesemaids – participants in that party who have an important and valuable role to play.

And in order to be the kind of participants Jesus calls us to be, we don’t have to super smart or possess some kind of deep spiritual insight that others don’t.  Instead, being participants is often simply about paying attention each day to what Jesus is doing and calling us to do.  It’s about caring about the coming party enough to do the prep work now to share the party with others.  And it’s about investing ourselves and our resources in such a way that we’re ready for the future.

Amen.