A, Proper 27 Sunday, November 9, 2008 “Anticipation in our Spiritual Lives”

Mt. 25: 1-13 By the Rev. Blake R. Hutson

Prayer: O’ Lord to see you is the end and the beginning. You carry us and you go before us. You are the journey and the journey’s end. Amen.

Anticipation- can be defined as the act of looking forward. Is there something in your life that you can say you have anticipated? For some of us, it may be a career or an educational goal, it may be a family dream that you have always had, it could even be an event such as marriage, the birth of a child, for some it may be retirement . So what is it for you, what is it in your life you would say you have anticipated or what are you anticipating right now?

If you still can’t put your finger on it- what is it that creates a sense of excitement when you talk about it? A smile comes to your face if it comes up in conversation. Maybe it is a goal to be achieved or maybe a “one day” event.

Planning, work and time have all gone into creating this sense of anticipation- to make what ever it may be a reality.

It may be the type of thing that the night before it happens you may not be able to sleep from the excitement that comes from the anticipation.

In today’s gospel, there is a much anticipated event. The anticipated event is a wedding and the reception. Weddings as we all know, involve planning, effort and time. The wedding ceremony has already taken place and the bridesmaids are awaiting the Groom and the bride, to go to the reception. The bridesmaids have gotten dressed up and they are ready to celebrate. The bridesmaids are anticipating the arrival of the bride and groom. But as they wait, time begins to pass with no sign of them. The afternoon becomes the evening. Then the evening becomes the night time. Then the night begins to drag on—and still no sign of them.

As they wait, I imagine their sense of anticipation would begin to change. They were excited and had looked forward to this day of celebration. But as the minutes and hours wore on I imagine they may have become upset and maybe a little angry. They have looked forward to this day of celebration. But who knows where the Bride and Groom are or what they are doing!? Reading between the lines, their feelings of anticipation begin to turn into disappointment.

Finally, the groom comes in the middle of the night. But by this time, the bridesmaid’s anticipation has waned. The groom and his bride finally come, but by this time, the bridesmaids aren’t expecting it. In the middle of the nighttime darkness, some of the bridesmaids are prepared to travel in the night, but some aren’t. Because they aren’t prepared to travel in the darkness, some of them end up missing out on the party.

As we look at this story, the figures represent different things. In Jesus’ story when he was talking about the Groom, he was talking about himself. So in this story the groom represents Christ and the bridesmaids represent you and I, the followers of Christ.

There are several levels of meaning to this story one of which is what theologians call the eschatological or end time event of Christ’s second coming. So, on one level this story speaks to our belief as we affirm in the Nicene Creed that “Christ will come again.” But for our purposes this morning, I would like to focus on two aspects of this story about anticipation that relate to our daily spiritual lives.

First, as the story begins, the bridesmaids are waiting with anticipation. They are looking for the bride and groom. This relates to our spiritual lives in that, like the bridesmaids in the story, we know what it is to anticipate and to look for the presence of God in our lives. As Christians we are people of faith who look for and I think we anticipate the presence of God being in our lives. We look for and expect good things to happen in our spiritual lives.

Now, sometimes we have a million things on our minds, we are stressed out, we are worried about a variety of things and so we may not consciously anticipate or be aware of God being ‘with us’, but we can look for and we can encounter God every day. The reality is the spirit of God is with us every moment, every hour, every day. Beyond our Sunday morning worship here at St. Philips, we anticipate encountering God at other times and places. Maybe we notice the love of God expressed in someone we speak with, or maybe we notice the beauty of God in an evening sunset, or maybe we hear the words of God in a beautiful poem. As Christians, we never know how or where we will encounter God from day to day, but this is something we as people of faith anticipate. We hope. We wait. We look for the presence of God in our lives.

The second implication for us relates to the time and the way in which the Groom appears in Jesus’ story. Did you notice when the Groom finally came? The Groom comes in the middle of the night when things were the darkest. Speaking of himself, Jesus said the Groom came at midnight.

Like the bridesmaids in the darkness, there is the sense in which all of us go through dark times and dark moments. On occasions there is the sense in which we go through the ‘midnights of life:’ times of fear; times of worry; times when we face very hard things. When we go through the ‘midnights of life’ our feelings of anticipation and hopefulness about the future can turn into disappointment. Our feelings of hurt and disappointment can lead to frustration and anger.

Some of us might be facing the ‘midnight darkness’ right now. One thing is for sure, the ‘midnights of life’—the hard times and dark moments are not easy to face.

Our first impulse may be to turn inward and focus on the situation. Maybe all we can see is the darkness of the situation we are facing. In the ‘midnights of life’ we can feel lost and we can become afraid. We can be confused by the situation and not know the way forward. Things may get turned upside down in our lives. We may be left to do our best to cope with our circumstances.

In the ‘midnights of life’ we are left to wait. Like the bridesmaids waiting for the groom, some of us may be waiting for the calming, assuring presence of God to come into what we are facing. We may be waiting, but for the time being—the best we can tell—all we can see is darkness. The presence of God is nowhere to be found.

One thing about the ‘midnights of life’: the darkness of our situation can cloud our hope, our the darkness can cloud our joy and even our ability to see the presence of God in what we are facing.

Remember: in Jesus’ story, the Groom came! The Groom came at midnight when the bridesmaids weren’t expecting it. Like we can experience from time to time, they may have lost their sense of anticipation. They may have been frustrated, discouraged, disappointed and they may have given up.

This part of the story speaks to God’s faithfulness and the fact that we don’t face the midnight darkness alone. Part of the message is for you and I to be prepared and even expect the presence of God to come in our dark times and dark moments. Part of the message is this: Be prepared to meet the presence of God in the ‘midnights of your life.’

This morning’s Gospel story is about anticipation. It is about anticipation in our spiritual lives. in our spiritual lives. This story that Jesus told to his listeners was one of hope and assurance.

This story reminds us that as people of faith, we expect and look for the presence of God in our lives and we can anticipate the presence of God being with us during the hard times, the ‘midnights of our lives.’

As you go about your week, look for the presence of God in those you love and those who love you. Look for the presence of God in the world around you, especially in God’s creation.

If you are waiting to see the presence of God in a situation you are facing…do your best to be patient. Pray to God. Ask for God’s presence to be revealed to you. Then, as you wait, pray that your eyes will be opened and that you will be able to see through the darkness. Because, as people of faith, like the bridesmaids in the story, we never know when we will encounter and see the presence of God.

Amen.