Be Prepared ....

sermon by Torin Eikler
Matthew 25:1-13 I Thessalonians 5:1-11

We don’t watch television very much in our house. Well … that’s not, strictly speaking, true. We do watch a good bit of television, but it’s not traditional television – not cable or broadcast, I mean. We have been members of Netflix for a while, and so we “stream” television shows. That means that we can watch a much larger variety of shows … and that we are always at least a year behind the curve … no water cooler chatter for us … no water cooler at work either when it comes to that. Another benefit to streaming is that we don’t have to sit through all the commercials which is a pleasant change from the television I grew up with … and a life-saver when it comes to keeping our boys from pestering us for every new thing that they see!

But one side effect that I didn’t expect when we started up with Netflix is that when I do see commercials on someone else’s TV or some other internet service they get right into my head and take up residence there. It’s like I have lost my calluses or dropped some internal shield that used to help those ads slide right on past. Or maybe I’m just more aware of how the ads I do see affect me. Whichever one it is, I now have State Farm agents popping up with everything from sandwiches to hot tubs and a little baby in a walker zooming down four-lane highways in my head … in the left lane nonetheless … on the way to become a picture on a far-away, net-linked printer. And beyond replaying the silly hooks and the blatant consumerism, I have also noticed an increasing sense of impending doom after I watch commercial TV.

Personally, I blame Nationwide car insurance – you know, the accident forgiveness people. A few years back, they began a series of commercials that started with rainy nights and spinning cars filled with children in car seats and fairly minor car damage. “Are you prepared?” a deep, confidence-inspiring voice asked as they showed a mother holding her uninjured child and a talking with someone on the cell phone with a police car and a tow truck in the background. Are you prepared? If you have an accident, who will you call to get your car towed and repaired?

Since then, other companies have started to use the same theme, showing grieving families at funerals or people standing outside their homes and hugging each other as they stare at the tree that crashed through the roof. The scheme, of course, is to show you worst case scenarios that get your adrenaline going and to put them up against the comforting image of safe families gathered together in relief as they call whatever company will deal with the crisis for them. We, of course, want to have just such support to fall back on if such a disaster comes our way. And while I don’t think it’s really fair to use that kind of emotional manipulation to frighten people into buying some kind of insurance, I didn’t really feel like it had gotten completely out of hand until I received an automated phone call at the church that was trying to scare me into buying flood insurance … for a building that sits at least 400 feet above the river on top of a hill.

To be fair, the advertisers are not really at the heart of my stress. It started long before any of these commercials popped up. In fact, I’m pretty sure that I have lived with it most of my life – the result of having parents who taught me to look to the future and save money for whatever might be coming up. That was excellent advice (and I hope to instill those thoughts in my children as well), but it planted a seed of worry in the back of my mind that thrives on the what-if scenarios that are all around us.

What if there is a double-dip recession or even a depression? What if Greece or Italy actually default on their loans and the Eurozone collapses? What if a 1,000-year earthquake hits near Morgantown? What if fuel costs, rising population, and global warming make food so expensive that we can’t afford to eat? What if those people who predicted the end of the world in May had been right? (Their back-up date was October 21st by the way. Guess we dodged another one there.) It’s getting quite apocalyptic out there with all these predictions of doom, and the message we’re getting from everyone is be prepared because you never know when something really big is coming down the pipe.


Both Paul’s letter and Matthew’s parable fit right in with that warning. All around the time of Jesus people were predicting a big change on the wind. The Roman Empire had been around for awhile, and there were signs that it was weakening. It was no longer growing as it had in the early years, and the borders were threatened in many places by people who wanted their land back with interest. Others inside the empire were dreaming of self-rule and a bigger share of the wealth that they saw all around them. Among the Jews, in particular, the prophesies of the Messiah were being studied, and the sense that he would arrive soon was growing.

The early church, of course, believed that the Messiah had already come – the first time. Looking back, they understood this story of the ten bridesmaids in a different light. Instead of a parable about the coming of the Messiah who would overthrow the Romans, it became a prophesy about Jesus’ return. The sense of immediacy was still there though because everyone believed that return could happen any time. And so Matthew tacked on a last little bit of encouragement and warning that may even have come from Paul’s letters: “Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” In other words, “prepare yourselves for the end is near.”


Down through the ages, people have responded to that warning in different ways. The early church took on a communal lifestyle where everyone contributed to the meeting the needs of all. When more money was needed, people sold their property or other goods to buy food and clothing. In the lead up to May 21st of this year, believers quit their jobs, got rid of many of their “treasures,” and took to the streets to warn us all that the Day of Judgment was coming. In the early days of the Anabaptists, there was even a group who took over the city of Munster by force. They instituted a communal sectarian government, renamed the city the “New Jerusalem,” installed one of their own as a new king in line of David, and prepared to take the rest of the world by storm – a grand conquest that lasted all of three years.

Obviously, I don’t think that was the way to go. I don’t think any of us can rush the second coming through anything we do, and I, for one, don’t think Jesus would be very pleased to return and find that his followers had taken over by force of arms. I also don’t think that dropping everything in order to stand on the street proclaiming “the end is near” is what Matthew or Paul meant when they said “keep awake.” And while I am drawn to the idea of living together in a supportive community where we work together to meet one another’s needs, I’m not sure that it worked for them or would work for us. As good an idea as it sounds, it doesn’t seem to be sustainable.


I wonder if that’s part of our struggle with “be prepared” scriptures like these. We respond to them as if there was something that we need to do – and do quickly – to get our house in order. It’s almost like those days before family or friends come to visit … when we are rushing around cleaning bathrooms, washing sheets, vacuuming, and dusting so that everything is neat and tidy and no one sees the truth about how we usually live.

I think these texts are talking about a different kind of preparedness. They seem to be about being ready all the time. And it’s more like changing our habits and our approach to life than it is about last minute cleaning. As Paul puts it, we need to live thoughtfully and act with care so that our lives reflect who we are as followers of Christ because we don’t know – can’t know – when the “Big Day” is coming or even what any day will bring. We need to keep our wicks trimmed and our lamps supplied with oil all the time so that we are ready.


In our ministry classes at seminary, one thing that they told us over and over again was that we needed to care for ourselves if we wanted care for others. And they were talking about every part of our lives – our physical health, our mental health, and our spiritual health. I heard it so much that I started to develop a bored little voice in my head that would say the words along with the professors: “if you don’t make time to take care of yourself, you won’t be able to take care of anyone else,” and it became a bit of a joke among the students.

But, they were right, of course. If I got depressed, I couldn’t take care of my children or work at the church – at least not very well. And if I’m sick, every visit, especially in a hospital or nursing home – comes with a real risk that I will pass on whatever bug has me under the weather.

Thankfully, I don’t often get really sick and I haven’t yet suffered from serious mental illness. So, those issues are not as much of a problem as they might be. But, I do find myself struggling with my spiritual life from time to time, and that makes it just as hard to be a good pastor. One of my problems is that when my faith feels vibrant and alive, I want to go out and do things – visit with people, teach Sunday School, be part of interfaith work in town, serve food to people at Circle of Friends. I don’t want to stay in and spend time in prayer or reading the Bible because it doesn’t feel like I need to.

And then my oil runs out. I am suddenly exhausted, and all those things that seemed so exciting and fulfilling start to feel a bit more challenging. At those times, I find it hard to take time for prayer or meditation or scripture study because I don’t feel like I have the space in my schedule or the energy it would take with everything else that needs to be done.

I have learned enough, over the past few years, to know that those are times when I need to set aside my to-do list and take a bit of a retreat in order to recharge my batteries. And I am beginning to really learn that I need to do a better job of taking time out when I am feeling energized as well. I suppose I am starting to recognize the ways that I am like the unprepared bridesmaids and beginning to understand how I could become more the other ones – the ones who are ready.


I think that’s what it’s all about really. It’s about thinking and living in the long-term. Last minute, “emergency measures” don’t seem to work all that well whether we’re talking about financial systems, natural disasters, or spiritual life. Sometimes they have to happen, but it’s better if we can be insured – if we can make a habit of making the time and space to refresh ourselves and keep our lamps filled.

However you do that – whether it be through prayer or walking in the woods, reading or taking naps, talking with friends or writing or taking hot baths – whatever works for you … put it on your schedule and do it. Do it to take care of yourself. Do it so that you can care for others. Do it so that your light can shine every day, whatever that day may bring.