[Isaiah 65:17-25 / 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 / Matthew 25:1-13]
Pastor Nicolai’s parish in Unna, Westphalia (near to where so many founding members of St. Paul’s parish originated) was being destroyed. Plague had arrived. Between July of 1597 and January of 1598, Pr. Nicolai buried no less than 1,400 of his parishioners– 300 in the month of July alone. He could have fled the plague, but he didn’t. He stayed put. He preached. He celebrated the Sacrament. He prayed. He buried, and he prayed some more. And he did one more thing. He wrote a book. A book he called The Mirror of Joy. It was all about the joy that filled his heart as he thought of the heaven his Savior had won for all upon His cross and to which He would one day bring His people as they share His risen life in the New Heavens and the New Earth. At the tail end of his little book, he put three poems he wrote, two of which he also set to music. One is called: Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern (How Lovely Shines the Morning Star) and the other? Well, you just sang it: Wachet Auf, Ruft uns die Stimme. Wake, Awake! For Night is flying.
In the face of unspeakable tragedy, to families where mothers had lost their sons, daughters their fathers, sisters their brothers, brothers their sisters, husbands their wives - with no family left untouched by the horror of death- faithful Pastor Nicolai sang the hope of heaven into his people as they waited for the day of the Savior’s return and learned to sing in hope along with him even with tears in their eyes.
Isaiah in today’s first reading spoke of how that Day will be a new creation –how all that’s awful and wrong in OUR world will be done away. Gone the weeping, gone the death, gone the sorrow, gone the pain, gone the loss. It will be a world where family is never gathered around a coffin ever again. A world where the Lord is nearer than our own voices and where there is no more blood-dyed tooth or claw, for “they shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain.” It’s not a fairy tale. It’s God’s promise that His original plan for this creation will not be sidetracked forever. What He intended it to be, it will become again: a world without fear, without sin, without death.
Any wonder that the Church prays so often, then: “Come, Lord Jesus!” When the sorrows of this world press hard, and we don’t know if we can take it, we fall to our knees and pray: “Come, Lord Jesus!” When the darkness grows and the cold steals across our heart, we fall to our knees and pray: “Come, Lord Jesus!” When change and decay in all around we see, we fall to our knees and pray: “Come, Lord Jesus!”
We long for that Day, but we know that that Day will not be joy to all. Those who are unprepared for it, who really don’t welcome it and who rather relish THIS age as it is, for them that Day will come like a thief in the night bringing sudden destruction, and there will be no escape. To meet that day without faith in the Savior, is to meet that day as the Day of Doom, of irretrievable loss.
Faith in the Savior is the key. That’s the whole point of WHY the five wise virgins couldn’t share the oil with the five foolish. Faith in Christ is something that God longs to give to each and every person in the world, so that they might escape the destruction that is coming. But only God can give that faith. No one can believe for another. On that day, my faith won’t help you; your faith can’t help me. Each must receive the gift of faith for her or himself.
The five foolish with their lamps going out did not have the faith that made it through to the end. They thought “good enough” was “good enough.” But it never is. God wants you to have faith through to the end – and He can and will supply it to you, if you will but let Him. He is eager to. After all, there is not one soul for whom His Son did not shed His blood. There is not one human life whose sins were not atoned for on Golgotha’s wood. There is not one human being whose death was not destroyed by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Your heavenly Father longs to give you the faith that this is so; He delights to do so.
Extra oil in the flasks? That means that you live your life at the receiving end of God’s giving. People loved by God, as your pastor I can't say anything more important to you than this: You can’t keep faith going on your own. It never was something you came up with by your own doing and it won’t last in you by an effort of your will or trying. Only God’s Word can give you faith in the first place ("faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ"); only God’s Word can keep your faith alive and burning bright until that joyful day arrives so that you will be ready to enter with Christ into the marriage feast.
When St. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, he told them that he knew that God did not destine them for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we might live with Him. That holds for you too. You are not destined for wrath; you are destined for life with Christ. The key to your faith staying alive and growing ever stronger, ever brighter in the growing gloom and darkness, is to let HIM be pouring that faith into you as you give your ear to His promises and let Him even pour His body and blood down your throat as the guarantee that His life triumphs over all your sin and and all your death.
That’s why Pastor Nicolai wrote his little book and composed his hymns – he wanted the people to know that in Christ God had given them a life that no plague could rob them of. Not now. Not ever. And so:
Zion hears the watchmen singing
And all her heart with joy is springing;
She wakes, she rises from her gloom.
For her Lord comes down all-glorious,
The strong in grace, in truth victorious.
Her star is ris’n, her light has come.
Now, come, Thou blessed One!
Lord Jesus, God’s own Son!
Hail! Hosanna! We enter all
The wedding hall
To eat the Supper at Thy call.
What are we waiting for? Let’s go! Joy awaits! A foretaste of the Feast to come! Amen.
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