The habit of being prepared

“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten young women 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.’ Then all those young women got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise replied, ‘No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet, and the door was shut. Later the other young women came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’ Keep awake, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.                    Matthew 25:1-13 

As we move closer to Advent, when we focus on preparing for Christ to come to us, we have readings like this – about being ready for God, wherever, whenever.  Back then, the tradition was for the bridegroom to arrive at the home of the bride’s family, claim the bride, and take her back to his house.  That’s why the bridesmaids were waiting at the groom’s house, ready to welcome the couple and celebrate with the marriage feast.  Jesus often used wedding feast imagery to talk about God’s coming kingdom. 

This parable is about being ready to celebrate, about being prepared to be joyful.  Most of the time in our culture, though, joy seems linked to spontaneity.  But here joy, and readiness to rejoice at all times, is something that comes from the sort of holy life you develop when you’re fully engaged with God.  Some of the bridesmaids in the parable had anticipated the bridegroom might get delayed, so they’d taken the time and the effort to bring the extra oil they needed with them.  Because they were ready, they could rejoice: they were prepared and could be joyful when the bridegroom arrived.

The question this parable asks each of us is whether we’re prepared to fully engage with the God who wants to shower us with love and grace.  Do we recognise in ourselves the seeds of that readiness to rejoice whenever God comes to call us into a party?  Because a God-centred life doesn’t happen by autopilot. 

The Church’s been saying for centuries that Jesus will return.  We’re waiting for this to happen, but it’s taking a lot longer than anyone expected.  Given the length of the delay, and the sheer uncertainty about when the longed-for event will occur, how can we keep ourselves ready for when Christ does return?  We still don’t know exactly when this will happen – but it’s always been like that.  Living the Christian life is a long training in living with uncertainty over some of the details – the details about when and how – while living with certainty over other details – the details about who it is that we worship and serve.  But one thing is sure:  we are obviously closer to the time of Jesus’ return than the Christians of Matthew’s day – and that alone can encourage us to prepare ourselves, just as those five wise ones were prepared.

There’s perhaps another way to look at this parable:  as a story about our everyday lives.  We all know what it feels like to miss the moment.  The bus pulling away from the kerb just as we come round the corner, the test we were going to revise for tonight, only to find we’ve got the day wrong and it was actually this morning, the letter we were putting off writing to an elderly relative, who dies before we get around to it.  There are few regrets as deep as knowing the time has passed and you didn’t speak, you didn’t act. 

We never know when the moment is going to come, a moment when we might help someone else, or say something that will make all the difference to someone’s life that day.  We never know, so that’s why it’s important to be prepared, to keep ourselves ready.  And being prepared, when we have no idea when something’s going to happen, is largely about habits.  Sure, when something unexpected occurs we can wing it, and sometimes that works.  I’m guessing that the foolish girls in the original story had figured that the bridegroom would turn up fairly soon, and if he took a wee bit longer to arrive, they could just wing it.  Only that didn’t work.  It’s easier, and much less stressful, to be prepared in the first place. 

So what habits might we cultivate, so we don’t miss the moment?  Perhaps we can develop habits of prayer, of nourishing ourselves with God’s word, so that connecting deeply with God is something that comes naturally to us.  Perhaps we can get used to talking about God with others, as easily as we might talk about a good friend or a great movie we’ve just seen, so when someone asks us why we worship on Sundays we don’t get tongue-tied and switch to the weather or the latest rugby game instead.  Perhaps we can practice habits of paying attention to what’s going on around us, so we notice in time when someone needs our help. 

And remember how Matthew’s Jesus starts the story: “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this.”  When we live lives connected to God, sharing God with our friends, reaching out and helping those around us – well that’s part of what’s meant by the coming of God’s kingdom.  

Image credit: Dipu Chandran, Unsplash

(Reflection by the Ven. Dr. Deborah Broome)