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So, Jesus and his peeps are walking out of the Temple at the end of what was probably the most tediously irritating day of his life. He had been put to the test by all the religious authorities and they all just want him dead. He shut them all up quite authoritatively I might add; but to no avail. They just want him dead all the more. So as they were walking out, the disciples quite bizarrely begin to comment on how magnificent the Temple was. “Look at that organ, those stained-glass windows, and those ceiling fans…ooo, Holy, Holy, Holy.” With a hint of frustration, Jesus began to sing: “If I had my way. If I had my way, in this cruel world. If I had my way…I’d tear this old building down.” That wasn’t quite what he said, but he did say not one stone would be left on top another. They would all be thrown down. In 70 AD the Romans did just that.
They walked on up to the top of the Mount of Olives to overlook Jerusalem. Lit a campfire, put on a pot of beans, and reminisced about that scene from Blazing Saddles. Small talk done; the disciples wanted to know when all the destruction was going to happen. When’s the end going to be? Like a good youth pastor, Jesus picked up a guitar and began to rap an almost incoherent rant, probably something like this:
That's great! It starts with an earthquake
Birds and snakes, an aeroplane and Lenny Bruce is not afraid
Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn
World serves its own needs, don't mis-serve your own needs
Speed it up a notch, speed, grunt, no strength
Tell me ‘bout the rapture and the reverend in the right, right
You vitriolic, patriotic, slam, fight, bright light
Feeling pretty psyched
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
And I feel fine.
Well, something like that. Maybe y’all just don’t know the song – It’s the End of the World as We Know It (If Feel Fine) by a band called R.E.M. In its full version it’s about four minutes of rapping and almost incoherent stream of consciousness rant about the state of the world in the 80’s. A couple of its lines about low flying planes seemed to come true on 9/11 adding a bit of Twilight Zone effect. But, comparing it to what Jesus said to his disciples about the end, I imagine what he said probably sounded just as much like an incoherent stream of consciousness rant about the state of their world at the time as did this song back in the ‘80’s. But Jesus’ rant also pointed forward to THE END in which we could expect him to return to put the world to rights. But when that day would occur was a big unknown even to him. Only God the Father knows. Until then they were going to have to wait faithfully, keep hope alive, spread the Good News, and keep awake. And then he picked up his guitar again and began to sing.
Keep your lamp trimmed and burning.
Keep your lamp trimmed and burning.
Keep your lamp trimmed and burning.
See what the Lord can do.
God’s people walked through the water.
The people walked through the water.
God’s people walked through the water.
See what the Lord can do.
Jesus walked on the water. Jesus walked on the water.
Jesus walked on the water. See what the Lord can do.
Jesus raised ole’ Lazarus. Jesus raised ole’ Lazarus.
Jesus raised ole’ Lazarus. See what the Lord can do.
Sister don’t stop praying. Sister don’t stop praying.
Sister don’t stop praying. The work is almost done.
Preacher don’t stop preaching. Preacher don’t stop preaching.
Preacher don’t stop preaching. The work is almost done.
Now children don’t you worry. Children don’t you worry.
Children don’t you worry. Jesus a-coming soon.
Keep your lamp trimmed and burning.
Keep your lamp trimmed and burning.
Keep your lamp trimmed and burning.
See what the Lord will do.
Well, so here we are some one thousand nine hundred and ninety years later and Jesus has still yet to return to set the world in order. Over the years there have continued to be wars and rumours of wars, earthquakes, disasters, famines, plagues, and a whole lot of what would be called apocalyptic movements. These are groups led by very charismatic leaders who believe we are at the end. They are masters of taking a weird sounding Bible verse from here and another from there and use them to build a road map to the end times and this is where we’re at and these few things have yet to happen. There was a lot of that going on back in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s, but we’re still here. The Berlin Wall came down. The war to end all wars still hasn’t happened.
I see people wandering and hear people wondering if we might be at the end now. The war between Israel and Hamas threatens to become a much bigger animal…and then there’s Ukraine. Australia, the Western US, and great deal of Canada have been seeing wildfires of apocalyptic proportion. Weather events are getting profoundly more devastating.
Covid was a scary, deadly beast in its first year and a bit…and who knows when, not if, the next pandemic is going to hit. Some nasty virus came out of a rain forest that we shouldn’t have encroached on to eat a bat or an old virus coming from a methane belch in the permafrost thawing of Siberia or a newly engineered one coming from a lab accident because somebody thinks making and playing with deadly viruses is fun and apparently necessary for national security. Mother Earth is indiscriminate and brutal when she bites back and we got it coming.
In economics inflation is rampant and you probably didn’t know it but we are in the midst of a global food crisis. Today, right now, 783 million people are dealing with chronic hunger. 333 million people don’t know where their next meal is coming from. That’s inexcusable.
The higher up the food chain you go in the world of politics, the crazier it gets. It’s like Monday Night Raw with the WWE or media driven reality TV. The political life on planet earth is really just an episode of Survivor. The problems appear to be just too big to be solved without a major change to global lifestyle...and who wants that. Times are ripe for an alien invasion or a Zombie apocalypse or something…or maybe, just maybe, we human beings might rise to the occasion and prevent a catastrophe. We did it with the Ozone Layer. If it’s true that power corrupts and ultimate power corrupts ultimately, then we shouldn’t look for powerful people to solve the world’s problems. We should be looking for people like Rosa Parks who just wasn’t going to sit in the back of the bus that day.
I don’t know if it’s the end of the world or not, but if the world ends with Jesus coming back, then that’s a good thing…if you been minding your lamp. “This little light of mine”…we’ve all been given a light to let shine…a lamp. Lamps don’t burn on their own forever. They need tending, minding. Even in today’s world where we have electricity running on grids powered by nuclear power plants, lamps still need to be minded. The fuel source looked after.
Looking at the parable, what is the lamp and it’s light that we have? Well, it’s the faith, the hope, the love we have in order to show forth in hope-filled, love-filled acts of faithfulness, acts of loyalty to Jesus. By the lives we live people can tell whose side we’re on. Does the kindness of Jesus, the compassion of Jesus, the patience of Jesus, the generosity of Jesus, the forgiveness of Jesus shine forth in everything we do? That’s the lamp and the light it gives.
For the lamp to work, we’ve got to keep it fueled with oil. That’s an obvious reference to the Holy Spirit, to God’s presence in our lives. In the parable, the foolish folks didn’t get oil ahead of time and had to wait for the stores to open so they could buy some only to show up late to the wedding feast and be turned away by the bridegroom who says, “I don’t know you”. They think they know him but he doesn’t know them. “I don’t know you” is a phrase that indicates to me that the “oil” we’re talking about is found in relationship, in a relationship with God. Are we taking the time right now in the days that we are given to live to sit in the presence of God to pray and to read the Bible so that we can get to know God and know God’s voice? The relationship with God is where we get the oil that makes our little lights shine.
The point of the parable is that if we don’t mind our lamps right now, there won’t be time later. If you noticed there in the parable, everyone, both the foolish and the wise got drowsy and fell asleep. The call came to them all and they were all raised up from their sleep. That’s a death and resurrection analogy. The ones who had minded not only their lamps, but more so their oil-source went to the party. Those who didn’t…by their foolishness they made themselves unrecognizable to the wrong person.
The parable ends with the command to keep awake. That’s a reference to live the resurrected life now. Keep your lamp lit. Keep yourself well supplied with the oil. Mind the lamp by spending time now with the Lord. Build that relationship. For now, we have been given the time to do that. We don’t know when the time for that is going to end, so we best get on to it now. If people like Rosa Parks are our example, then it’s likely that the solution to many of the world’s problems will, for now, come from and through people who have been minding the lamp. Keep your lamp trimmed and burning and see what the Lord will do. Amen.
