The First Reading: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
The Gospel Reading & Preaching of the Word: Matthew 25:1-13
On Sunday 8th November, the highlight for me was the Hymn TIS 154:
“Great is your
faithfulness”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTKIqmdfHSk
“Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father;
there is no shadow of turning with thee;
thou changest not, thy compassions, they fail not;
as thou hast been thou forever wilt be.
Great is thy faithfulness! Great is thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see:
All I have needed thy hand hath provided--
Great is thy faithfulness,
Lord, unto me!
The history of this hymn is not long, but it brings into our hearts and
souls a feeling of comfort in the everlasting and predictable faithfulness of
God and the joy of hope with the dawn of each new day - and the faith we can
have that everything will continue to “be right with the world” as long as God
is in control.
It is once again that beautiful time of year when the jacaranda trees
splash our streets with riots of purple to be admired against perfect blue
skies. November again! As I stand on my
front patio and look out I wonder at the miracle that unfailingly unfolds each
year and I cannot believe that another year has gone by already. I find I measure time differently as I grow
older and I take time to enjoy these annual miracles instead of rushing
thoughtlessly by. I was really excited a
few years ago when one of our daughters showed me a photo she had taken of a
beautiful rose she had seen in the garden of Auguste Rodin in Paris. “I remembered you told me before I left
for my trip to ‘take time to smell the roses’ so this rose reminded me of your
advice,” she said. We often wonder
if our children of whatever age take notice of those “throw away” bits of
advice on life which we randomly scatter to the wind.
Hymns are like prayers and I think the reason why everything seems to
fit together with such complete harmony in “How Great is Thy Faithfulness” is
because the writer of this beautiful poem/hymn, Thomas Obediah Chisholm, sent
it to his friend, the musician William Bunyan who felt the strength and the joy
of the words and prayed for guidance that he might write the perfect tune to
help others to experience the same feelings that overcame him when he read his
friend’s poem. William Bunyan first
published the hymn in 1923, but strangely, it was not until the Billy Graham
Crusades began to travel the world with George Beverly Shea making the hymn
“his own” as he and the Crusade choirs introduced the beautiful words and music
to “old” and “new” Christians around the world that its popularity grew. Thomas Chisholm died in 1960 and in his
lifetime he wrote 1,200 poems and hymns.
Perhaps you
have noticed that I have been avoiding moving on to write about the theme of
the reflection/sermon on Sunday 8th November. The Parable of the wise and foolish
bridesmaids has worried me for many decades now – in fact it has upset me since
I was a child. I have read and tried to appreciate and understand the various
theologically accepted meanings of the parable – yet it still suppresses my
faith and assurance about the love and forgiveness of God. It is a negative effect all round for me - as
are some other rather harsh bible stories; although I must confess I am not a
person who spends long periods of time in bible studies. My faith is strong – but simple. “Dear friends, let us love one
another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and
knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” 1 John 4: 8-9
Please stop
reading now if I have offended you; but if you read on I would like to offer my
suggestions and “alternate” thinking about the story which begins with such
authority; “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this.” Then the story is told and the conclusion is;
in verses 12 and 13; “But he (the Lord) replied, “Truly I tell you, I do not know you. Keep
awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”
In my 20th and 21st
century thinking, I can’t help wondering why any of the bridesmaids wasted
their oil by keeping their lamps alight while they were waiting and falling
asleep.
It would surely have been a better
idea to keep just a few of their lamps burning for safety or to make themselves
visible to the bridegroom in the place where they waited. Then there would have been oil still
available to be shared when the
bridegroom arrived. Or alternatively the
wise bridesmaids could have taken the arm of their less prepared companions and
showed them the way to the bridal feast along with the bridegroom. I am rather shocked that the wise bridesmaids
were selfish and made no attempt to share their light to go and meet God. I get a little confused when I view this
story alongside the one told only in Luke’s Gospel, where servants were sent
out twice “to the highways and byways” to bring in strangers to replace those
who ungraciously failed to attend or made insulting excuses. Going back to the story told this week, I am
appalled to contemplate that those bridesmaids who had failed to make
contingency plans in case the bridegroom was late were to be shut out by God
with no chance of forgiveness.
In his sermon, the Rev. John said; “The foolish attendants were unprepared.
They ran out of oil and were unable to obtain more. So, when their moment came,
they lost the opportunity to help light the way. They were unable to act out
their appointed role in the community. They lost the chance even to witness the
wedding.
I am puzzled by the context of the
following thoughts that the Rev. John expressed next; “Over and over again Jesus shows us what God is like. Today, he
illustrates the truth that God takes no vacations. God never takes a break from
offering love to us graciously. God is always prepared. God never stops
forgiving us. God never ceases to watch over us. God never rests from the desire
that we follow in his way. God never lets up on loving us, no matter how much
we may rebel and stray. God is always ready.”
I am not saying that I do not agree
with all those positive remarks about God’s love, forgiveness, constant care, presence
and Grace – I am just saying that I still have problems with the thought that
because we do not know when God will come; isn’t it possible that some good
people may not be ready at the exact moment God comes? I just have difficulties believing that God will
shut us out in the cold and the dark and will unequivocally reject us for ever if
we are not ready when He comes.
In my search for an answer to my
questioning of the parables and their interpretations I have read some articles
on Jesus' Ministry and Teaching. If you
have a computer and are interested, here is the link from which I will record a
couple of short quotes that I found interesting. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/jesus/ministry.html#parables
John Dominic Crossan: Professor
Emeritus of Religious Studies DePaul University. He has written eighteen books on the
historical Jesus and earliest Christianity.
He asked the question: Is this [style
of teaching] unique to Jesus?
“The parables are unique only in a very limited sense, in that the
primary teaching of Jesus is not taking texts out of the Hebrew scriptures and
explaining them, blasting them, commenting on them. What he is doing is telling
a perfectly ordinary story. And using that as the major teaching. "The
Kingdom of God is like this." Now you have to think, well, I hear the
story, but how on earth is the Kingdom of God like that? That's your job as the
hearer. So it's open to anyone. And that's, I think, the point of the parable.”
The next question: So right from the
start his teaching depends on interpretation?
“If you teach in parables, you give yourself to interpretation. If you
really want to tell people what to think you preach them a sermon. If you tell
them a parable then you're leaving yourself open, inevitably, to
interpretation.”
In the same way I worry about having
to interpret parables; I question the work of artists whose paintings or
sculptures require me to stand in the art gallery and listen to a long
recording on a hired electronic device which explains what the artist was trying
to express.
I think I will play the Youtube recording of Thomas Chisholm’s beautiful
hymn once more and “sign off” with the thought:
“Great is thy faithfulness! Great is thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see:
All I have needed thy hand hath provided--Great is thy faithfulness,
Lord, unto me!”
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