Virtual Worship - 15 August 2021

Service Sheet (pdf)

Introduction

Good morning, welcome to worship in Bradford North Circuit of the Methodist Church. I am Mervyn Flecknoe, one of the Lay Pastors at Baildon Methodist Church, which is a member of the Circuit. We are nearing the end of a worship series about Parables. On the circuit website, you will find, and be able to print out, a booklet that describes the whole series.

You are welcome this week, whether you feel elated or a bit down, whether, like the wise bridesmaids in today’s parable, you feel that you have spare oil to make your lamp burn brightly, or whether you are running a bit low on oil these days. Whatever your situation, the church and the world have need of you, you are an important child of God, worthy of love and respect.

Last week, Deacon Merry Evans took the parable of the corrupt business manager, next week Rev Phil Drake will take the Parable of the Talents. My subject this week is the parable of the wise and foolish bridesmaids. The title, “Virgin”, which is usually used, is a common mistranslation of a Hebrew word meaning “young woman”; whereas in English, the word is used to define previous sexual activity, which has no relevance to almost anything, so I won’t be using it.

Deacon Merry, in his introduction to this worship series on the parables of Jesus, taught us, well, taught me certainly, that we had to understand the situation of the people listening to the parables so that we could understand how powerful their message was. The gospel writers clearly did not know the context in which most parables were told, so we must work it out, otherwise the parables are just memorable, but stories irrelevant to our own lives.

We understand that Palestine was a land under occupation. The Roman administrators were a clever, cruel people, usually giving their subjects just enough incentive to comply; small rewards that did not detract from the huge amount of wealth that came to the ruling class. The Roman aim was to make subject people feel helpless and compliant with authority, so that they, the Roman elite, might plunder the world for its riches. Sometimes, we also feel a little crushed and unimportant in the great scheme of things.

The local puppet rulers, called Herods at the time of Jesus, were given a small slice of this wealth in return for compliance with Roman rule. They were unaccountable, out for what wealth they could make from political office, they had no interest in serving the people, no interest in raising the poorest to decent living conditions. In fact, they depended on the poverty of the meanest citizens to provide a cheap source of labour. The poor had just enough not to regard themselves as slaves, perhaps a self-employed van driver today, or a single parent with three cleaning jobs, would understand the desperation of their lives.

We know that, when people are poor, they make poor decisions. It is not that people who are poor are the sort of people who make poor decisions, it is that when people become poor, they start making poor decisions, short-term decisions, not looking to the future. So, it must have been that most of the people who lived in first-century Palestine were short-term people. On the other hand, we know that for some people, the injustice and inequality foment revolution on their hearts and drives them to opposition. Some of the songs of that oppressed group, American black slaves, illustrate this feeling: The Golden Gospel Singers have a very moving version of a song called Freedom, in which they mournfully lament that they will only be free when they are in Heaven.

Collect for the day

God of wisdom and thoughtfulness, help me to understand that I am to use all of my talents and skills to make this world a better place for myself and for others, following in the example of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen

Reflection

In the oppressive circumstances of the Roman occupation, the people of Palestine separated into two groups. First, there were the followers of the establishment, led by pharisees, linked to the puppet rulers, who advocate a deeper dependence on religion, on ritual, on a reward in heaven, in fact anything that did not rock the boat. On the other hand, just like the rebellious black slaves of the West Indes, there was a more non-conformist wing that advocated self-help, community cohesion, even rebellion. Jesus numbered Simon the Zealot amongst his disciples. The Zealots were the last-ditch defenders at the fall of Jerusalem in 70AD. There were parallels with the situation of revolution that John Wesley created from what was the then shambles of the corrupt Anglican Church in the 18th century. The Primitive Methodist Church, which resulted, bred many shop stewards and revolutionary leaders from amongst its local preachers.

The Spartacus rebellion of former slaves against the might of the Roman Empire, ended in 71BC, when Crassus crucified 6000 people, one every 40 yards, along the Via Appia into Rome, and God did nothing to stop him. In this sort of oppressive situation, the religious establishment took the view that planning for your own success was pointless, the key was to keep your head down. They urged their flocks to believe that God would save his people if they kept the law. The Old Testament is full of such promises, and some people took them literally, there was no other hope. The same feelings came naturally to some of the black slaves in the West Indies, who were bound to crushing servitude while they laid the foundations of the wealth that you and I enjoy in Britain. Think of the words of the Spirituals that they sang: “Didn’t my Lord deliver Daniel, Jonah from the belly of the whale?” What was the point of planning for your future? Either God would save you, or not; as the case may be. To these people, Jesus told this story:

Bible Reading

Matthew 25: 1-13

The Wise and Foolish Bridesmaids

“God’s kingdom is like ten bridesmaids who took oil lamps and went out to greet the bridegroom. Five were silly and five were smart.

The silly bridesmaids took lamps, but no extra oil. The smart bridesmaids took jars of oil to feed their lamps. The bridegroom didn’t show up when they expected him, and they all fell asleep.

“In the middle of the night someone yelled out, ‘He’s here! The bridegroom’s here! Go out and greet him!’ “The ten bridesmaids got up and got their lamps ready. The silly bridesmaids said to the smart ones, ‘Our lamps are going out; lend us some of your oil.’

Reflection

So, Jesus got his audience to laugh at the foolish bridesmaids. Jesus then turned the story onto them: Stay alert! The Bridegroom will come and you must be ready! What he went on to say is then lost, those who reported the story to the gospel-writers either forgot it or took the context for granted. The message, which must have shaken people, was that, despite being ground beneath the Roman heel, despite being toads beneath the harrow, they should always be prepared for the future, for expected and for unexpected events. Keep your pride! Stay prepared! I think that Jesus may have been an early Primitive Methodist. The shock for his listeners was that this Teacher, this Guru, this religious man, was actually one of them, a revolutionary, an activist, and his mantra was love, love, love.

Those of Jesus’ listeners who were wedded to the establishment view that holding on to the laws of Judaism was the best that they could do under the heal of the Roman boot, they were shocked to hear themselves compared to the foolish bridesmaids; they had not been preparing for opportunities, they had not been preparing for disasters, both expected and unexpected, they had not been using their God-Given talents. We would nowadays say that they had been ignoring the wisdom and guidance of the Holy Spirit in preference to an exclusive dependence on the words of scripture. Scripture being only one of the four sources of Grace in the Methodist Quadrilateral: Scripture, Tradition, Reason and Experience.

Hymn

You will know the next song “Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning” Singing the Faith 76; but perhaps you are not familiar with all the verses: “Wesley’s Wuppets” include the verses “Give me gas for my truck keep me trucking for the Lord” and “Give me gumption in this Unction let me Function”.

Reflection

There will always be some people better prepared for emergencies than others, we are not equal in any respect other than that we are all children of God equally deserving of support and help when disaster strikes, sometimes disasters even more important than the late arrival of a bridegroom.

Gareth Southgate has done a great deal for English football. One of the keys to his success is his openness to new ideas, rather than surrounding himself with football specialists, he consults with specialists in other sports. He has embraced the Maori philosophy of Whakapapa (Fakapapa), which says that each one of us is part of the unbroken chain of humanity, “when the sun shines on me, it is my turn to serve and to improve the lot of everyone else”. So, he has supported his squad when they have campaigned for free school meals, for racial justice, and for tolerance of gay minorities. Their behaviour towards the other teams is tough but also warm and kindly.

The parable highlights that different people react to situations in different ways. Sadly, when most people react in one way, they tend to look down on the minority that react a different way.

We all know that children grow up differently. Our friend Gordon has grandchildren who are triplets. From birth, they have been different, they have behaved differently in response to the situations that they meet.

Those of us who have children know that some are compulsively punctual, others compulsively late. Some are very tidy, some leave their bedrooms like a whirlwind. These bridesmaids in the story are at opposite ends of a spectrum that stretches from the hoarder to the serendipitous. Hoarders often have great resources, if only they can retrieve them; serendipitous characters are happy-go-lucky and travel light, to the envious stares of the rest of us.

The success of the Church in serving God’s people may well rely on us embracing the talents of people living differently; people with autism or dyslexia, because they have had to find novel solutions to the problems that we find easy; and of black and gay people, in fact with all have been targeted by bullies and by the media, being made to suffer for aspects of themselves over which they have no control. Their view of problems is different and valuable, we need them. We need both wise and foolish bridesmaids if the church is to succeed in leavening the world.

Prayers

God and creator of all your children: black, white, gay, straight, normal and oddball, we pray that you will allow us to work together to support each other and to save this, your world.

We plead for forgiveness from all those we have considered to be our inferiors, whether by harsh words or by silence. We need this forgiveness, from you and from ourselves, if we are to rise again as newly Christian people, reborn to love.

We ask for eyes wide open to see the potential of other people.

We ask for ears attuned to listening to criticism and different views.

We ask for loving hearts to understand the hurt of rejection and criticism.

We pray for all those today who mourn. We ask that, whatever we do, might help fill the empty pits of anguish and anger that bereavement brings. We pray for those whose marriages and friendships are failing. We ask that we may be sensitive to their needs for company and involvement.

We ask for the inspiration and wisdom of the Holy Spirit that we may be alert to threats against the welfare of your other children and against those creatures with whom we share this Earth.

Now please join me in saying this Maori version of the Lord’s Prayer

Eternal Spirit, Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver,
Source of all that is and that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all, Loving God, in whom is heaven:
The hallowing of your name echo through the universe!
The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world!
Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom sustain our hope and come on earth.

• With the bread we need for today, feed us.
• In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
• In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
• From trials too great to endure, spare us.
• From the grip of all that is evil, free us.

For you reign in the glory of the power that is love, now and for ever. Amen.

Hymn

Michael Foster’s hymn No 615 in Singing the Faith, Let Love be Real

Reflection

On the night after the gloriously narrow defeat of England at the hands of Italy in the European Cup, Adidas published a full-page advert featuring the legend: “We haven’t come this far just to come this far”. I did not make the full connection of this statement with the selling of plimsoles, but the legend stuck in my mind. When I was a child, there were a number of sinful activities to avoid: Playing football on Sundays, drinking alcohol (smoking was never mentioned, smoking pipes were approved of), and of course sex of any sort before marriage. Homosexuality was both sinful and illegal for men. Now, half a century on, football is routinely played and watched on a Sunday, alcohol is still frowned up on in the Methodist Church but although widely used by Methodists, it still wrecks lives, smoking is definitely sinful now, sex outside of marriage is promoted everywhere.

On the other hand, when I was a child, my church had nothing to do with feeding the poor, except via missionaries hoping to convert people, our church did not provide space for communal activities, it was empty during the week, and has now closed.

Our church today has now approved marriage between any two people who love each other. We take an active part in supplementing the failures of the welfare state, there are many community groups that bring people together from places of loneliness into places of laughter and productivity only because the church provides spaces for them to do so.

We have not come this far just to come this far. We must always be prepared and on the look-out for opportunities to serve our Master, some Christians will be well resourced, like the wise bridesmaids, but the foolish bridesmaids also have their part to play.

Blessing

Let us close with the Jesus-Shaped People benediction:

Come with us, Lord Jesus;
Fill us with your Spirit;
Shape us to your likeness;
Use us to enfold with love our needy world