Sermon November 9, 2008
“Procrastination: the Deadliest Sin?”
Joshua 24: 1-3a, 14-25, Wisdom of Solomon 6: 12-20, Matthew 25: 1-13

Let us pray.

            Out of the blue in the fall of 1981 a friend and client walked into my office in Washington and for no reason placed on my desk a bottle of one of the four great growths of Bordeaux wine. “Thanks for everything, I’ll see you soon,” he said, and just as quickly left to return to George Washington Hospital where he was a Professor of Pathology and head of the hospital’s labs. He was also quite a wine connoisseur and collector.

I was dumbfounded. In my life I had never owned a bottle of wine that valuable. I very carefully placed it in the passenger seat of my car braced by some soft items and took it home. Now I hardly had a wine cellar -- just a few bottles of under ten dollar wine -- “vin ordinare” -- resting in my “Crate and Barrel” wine rack. There I carefully placed this bottle of fine vintage wine, saving it for “later”. Special events – birthdays, anniversaries, graduations and the like -- came and went over the years but somehow that bottle never got opened. And when in 2002 we were moving from Washington, it was still there. It didn’t seem wise to pack and ship it so we opened it to say farewell. However, by procrastinating I had managed to let this amazing wine turn to an undrinkable brown liquid.   

Though it is not explicitly stated I suspect that the five foolish bridesmaids in today’s text from Matthew were also guilty of procrastination. They likely thought, “The groom won’t be late for his wedding. And if he is, the other bridesmaids will lend us oil if we need it.” Or perhaps “I’ll get the oil later, I need to finish up my outfit for the wedding” and they just ran out of time. And so when the groom was delayed – probably negotiating the wedding contract with his father-in-law – five of the bridesmaids -- the foolish ones ran out of oil for their lamps. Surprisingly, the others – the five “wise ones” with extra oil-- would not share.  By the time the “foolish five” bought some new oil -- apparently at an “all night” oil stand in the bazaar – they missed the very wedding they had wanted and planned to be a part of.  They just missed the boat -- for as you heard the groom wouldn’t let them – the door was locked.

To me this is a very strange and uncomfortable parable. It likely  reflects some of the wedding customs of the times – when the bride was brought to and became part of the groom’s family, when weddings went on for days and nights. But what of the groom coming so late, after midnight with no explanation. Where was the bride? We hear nothing of her. And what of the fact that the wise bridesmaids would not share their oil or even share their lamps -- the way we might share our umbrella with one who doesn’t have one during an unexpected shower. And further why does the groom refuse to let them in when they arrive back? Not much mercy, hospitality or understanding there. Quite clearly, this is not a report of anything that actually happened but an allegory.

Let’s briefly unpack the story. The groom -- who do you think he is? (Any thoughts)?  Biblical scholars suggest he is Christ. The bride is perhaps the church, while the bridesmaids are its members -- the followers of Jesus. The wedding is Christ’s return – the coming of the Kingdom of God with its moment of judgment. Remember Matthew is writing in 80 CE, nearly 50 years after the death and resurrection of Christ. The early Christians have been expecting the second-coming since the time of the Cross and are tired of waiting—feeling restive or worse, skeptical. This story in Matthew is a cautionary tale about being prepared. Matthew is telling the early Christians don’t procrastinate – don’t think you can figure out when the Day of Judgment will arrive – or in more current economic vernacular don’t think you can time the market. Be prepared -- bring extra oil for the groom may be late.

So what is this oil they are supposed to bring? It is quite simply living a loving and merciful life as Jesus did and taught. Understood this way the refusal of the wise bridesmaids to share their extra oil with the foolish ones makes sense. No, the wise ones were not selfish and mean – rather the point is no one can live our lives for us. There are no surrogates we can hire who can make up for our failure to bring our own oil. Moreover, sometimes it simply is too late. If you miss an important event like a wedding or a fiftieth birthday party– you cannot make it up later. You’ve missed that “market” forever. Matthew’s point is that there is a profound consequence to not having enough oil – having the door to the Kingdom of God locked and being barred from that royal banquet at the end of time.

                        x                      x                      x

I can’t think of anything that gives modern Christians more difficulty – except perhaps the Easter event – then the notion of the coming of the Kingdom of God with its Day of Judgment. At best we are skeptical. We do not dismiss it all together for many of us are sufficiently aware of mysteries that we cannot fathom.   Still that long off day does not serve as much of a motivator for faithful living. When was the last time you heard anyone say “I better not do that or else I might be a goat rather than a sheep at judgment day.” Should we, therefore, chalk this up to a quaint story with little relevance for us? Maybe not!

The concept of the Kingdom of God is more complicated than simply a glorious, yet daunting, time promised for an unknown future date. No, there is a reason, I believe, that this story from Matthew is not written in the future tense but in the preent one. There is an aspect of the Kingdom of God which is in the here and now – in this place and time. If we have oil in our lamps to see it, the Kingdom is here. Theologians have a big phrase for this “realized eschatology”. In normal parlance it means that in Christ – that is in what he said and did if we will faithfully follow him – the Kingdom of God is present now. It doesn’t necessarily mean that there is no day of judgment -- perhaps there is. But if you bring oil with you – if you are loving, merciful, generous, tolerant living a life of faith in Christ -- you are a guest at the wedding today. You and the world around you are transformed now-- not simply at some point in the future. The door to the kingdom is open for you.

What does this really mean for us in our daily lives?  In the early 70s Harry and Sandy Chapin wrote these famously, poignant lyrics to one of my all time favorite songs A Cats in the Cradle:  

My child arrived just the other day
He came to the world in the usual way
But there were planes to catch and bills to pay
He learned to walk while I was away
And he was talkin' 'fore I knew it, and as he grew
He'd say "I'm gonna be like you dad
You know I'm gonna be like you"

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin' home dad?
I don't know when, but we'll get together then son
You know we'll have a good time then

My son turned ten just the other day
He said, "Thanks for the ball, Dad, come on let's play
Can you teach me to throw", I said "Not today
I got a lot to do", he said, "That's ok"
And he walked away but his smile never dimmed
And said, "I'm gonna be like him, yeah
You know I'm gonna be like him"

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin' home son?
I don't know when, but we'll get together then son
You know we'll have a good time then

Well, he came home from college just the other day
So much like a man I just had to say
"Son, I'm proud of you, can you sit for a while?"
He shook his head and said with a smile
"What I'd really like, Dad, is to borrow the car keys
See you later, can I have them please?"

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin' home son?
I don't know when, but we'll get together then son
You know we'll have a good time then

I've long since retired, my son's moved away
I called him up just the other day
I said, "I'd like to see you if you don't mind"
He said, "I'd love to, Dad, if I can find the time
You see my new job's a hassle and kids have the flu
But it's sure nice talking to you, Dad
It's been sure nice talking to you"

And as I hung up the phone it occurred to me
He'd grown up just like me
My boy was just like me

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin' home son?
I don't know when, but we'll get together then son
You know we'll have a good time then

I can’t think of a more eloquent way to highlight the risk of procrastinating and what it means not to have oil in your lamps. When we procrastinate we fail to truly live. Why do we procrastinate? The list of reasons is long. Some times as in the song, we are just too busy – can’t get to it. The problem is we are too busy with the wrong things. It is a rare business meeting or conference call that’s more important than that single performance of the 4^th grade play. Sure there are matters of such urgency that they can on occasion take us from the things we ought to do.  But when they become the norm -- when we make it a habit to put off those once in a lifetime events -- something is wrong. I just finished a book entitled, One Minute To Midnight, a new and important book on the Cuban Missile Crisis that I highly recommend. Repeatedly, it describes how -- at the height of this crisis when the world was the closest it has ever been to nuclear war -- President Kennedy would take time to talk with Caroline and to read a bedtime story to little John. I suspect those moments gave him prospective as he weighed the difficult options before him – including whether or not to make a preemptive strike to eliminate the nuclear missiles in Cuba pointed at this country.

We procrastinate sometimes because we are afraid. We don’t want to know what that lump or pain is so we don’t go to the doctor? But quite clearly we need to know. We need to live fully for that is the true Kingdom of God. Of course, there will be risks. Sometimes the lump is not what we wanted it to be. The oil in the lamps lets us see and live in the fullness of life with all its joys and love but also with its pain and sorrow. If we live without the light from the lamps of faith – if we procrastinate -- we cannot see the things that need to be changed just as we can not see and experience the people and things that need to be loved and celebrated. Procrastination, if it leaves our lamps empty of oil, can keep us from living in the Kingdom of God.

Now, I am not saying you ought to be rash and to act just to act. Being thoughtful is not a form of procrastination. Procrastination essentially involves trying not to think about something -- putting it out of one’s mind until later or perhaps never at all. Being thoughtful means to think about something fully so as to try and make the best choice. It is the difference between never getting oil for you lamp and getting the oil that will allow it to burn brightest and most clearly. Quite clearly we can’t ever do it all so we have to prioritize. We must make good choices, conscious thoughtful choices that insure that we have extra oil -- that we are loving and merciful, and generous.   

Isn’t it a better world when we are there for our child’s first steps?

Isn’t it a better world when we take time to play ball, to create or to get together with a loved one or friend for coffee or a meal?

Isn’t it a better world when we actually get to know the homeless rather than simply sending a check for their care?

Isn’t it a better world when we sit with a friend who is in the hospital? 

But you know it’s not just the world that is better when our lamps are filled with oil – we are better too and can see and know the Kingdom that the groom invites us to.  Thanks be to God!!