Phil and I got a phone call from our next-door neighbor the other day, wanting to know if we have a set of jumper cables.  Her beautiful Subaru wouldn’t start, and she had called a tow truck driver, but the two truck did not come with jumper cables!  She was calling around to see if anyone had a set so the tow truck could give her a jump.  We couldn’t believe the irony of a tow truck, sent to help cars in distress, with no jumper cables!  I guess the two truck company was only interested in towing her car, not getting her up and running.

We were in Washington DC when she called, visiting our daughter, so we were of no help.  But when we got home, we checked our garage and cars and realized that we, too, do not have a set of jumper cables.  Ut-oh!  Thankfully they are easily purchased for about $20.  Guess what Phil is getting for Valentine’s Day???

The thing is, I remember having jumper cables.  I remember my dad giving me a set when I got my first car, and then when we became a two-car family, him giving us another set.  My dad’s name was Ray, and we used to jokingly call him “Safety Ray” because he was always giving us safety related gifts.  When my sister got married, their first apartment was on the second floor of a frame construction building.  Guess what he gave them for a wedding gift?  A collapsible fire escape ladder!  Of course.  I think most of us have that one person in our lives who is always ready for any situation.

But in our parable today, Jesus is encouraging ALL of us to be ready.  He has been teaching about what my Bible labels as “the end of the age”.  The Son of Man is going to come back, coming on the clouds with power and great glory, and the world is going to change.  Jesus said no one knows when that will happen—not even the Son himself.  “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day the Lord will come.” (Mt 24:42)  He says to be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

The irony of all of this is, Jesus was talking to people who weren’t ready for him the first time he came.  He was talking to Jewish people who, their whole lives, had been taught to watch for the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Holy One of God, who would save the lost, reunite and restore Israel, and make all things new.  The people Jesus was talking to should have been more prepared than anyone to recognize him and accept him.  But by and large, they didn’t.  He was right in front of them, but they weren’t ready to receive him.  They were like tow trucks without jumper cables.  Unprepared!  Not able to meet the moment.

In our scripture lesson today, they were like the five virgins who did not have enough oil with them to participate in the bridal procession.  And thus, they missed out on all of the joy.  But not everyone missed out on the joy.  Some people were ready!  Five of the virgins were prepared. They had packed extra oil so that when the groom finally arrived, they could take part in the procession.

The wedding festival Jesus is describing is so foreign to us, because in our culture, weddings happen on a precise date at a precise time.  We are so precise about the time, that if the wedding starts even twenty minutes late, we get very nervous.  When I was new in ministry, I got a great piece of advice from one of the local Roman Catholic priests.  They had a big problem with weddings not starting on time, which was unfair to the guests, the priest, the musicians, etc., and posed a problem for later in the day because right after the wedding, they had to get ready for mass. So Father James told  me they started collecting $300 from every engaged couple, and if the wedding started within 15 minutes of the announced time, the couple would get their money back at the end of the ceremony.  But if the wedding did not start on time, Father James would keep it, and spend it on something fun for him and the other staff at the church!  After they started that policy, they almost never had a wedding start late again.

We like our weddings to start on time.  But in Jesus’ day, a wedding date was more like a due date for a baby.  You know generally when it’s supposed to happen, but it’s an estimate, not an absolute.  Just as babies comes when they are ready, weddings in ancient Israel happened when they were ready.  Often there was a delay as the relatives of the bride and groom haggled over the bride price.  The bride and her attendants could only sit and wait at her house until everything was worked out. Then the groom and his groomsmen would come to the bride’s house, collect her and her maidens, and together they would process to the groom’s house for the ceremony.

Delays were common, and having the procession at an odd hour was common.  So all ten of the virgins should have been prepared for their very real possibility, that they might need extra oil because they would be walking in the dark.  If the five virgins who had extra oil shared theirs, they would run the risk of none of them having enough oil to make it the whole way from the bride’s house to the groom’s.  So they could not share.  Each person had to be prepared for herself.  And sadly those who weren’t prepared missed out on all of the joy.

As Jesus told this parable, he must have been hoping that some people in his original audience would come to realize that the teacher standing among them was indeed the Messiah they were waiting for. He must have been hoping that their spirits would be moved to receive him.  But we know from the gospel of Matthew that Jesus understood his mission to be bigger than just the Jewish people in his midst.  What did he hope this story would teach later listeners, non-Jewish listeners, listeners like us?

One important takeaway for me is the importance of each person’s individual faith.  No one can carry extra faith oil for you.  You need to carry your own!  Each of us needs to care for our own souls, and take responsibility for our own spiritual well-being.  It’s always good to enlist the support of others to help us, of course!  But it is ultimately each person’s responsibility to keep their spirits in good shape.

Before I became a pastor, I remember having a conversation once with a woman in my church who was disgruntled and claimed she was “not being fed here.”  I asked her what she meant, and she said no one at our church was providing the kind of spiritual resources she needed.  I asked her, “What are you doing about that?”  She had no idea what I meant.  I said that we put a lot of thought into provide meaningful children’s ministries, because we don’t expect children to know what they need and how to ask for it.  But adults?  We expect them to take responsibility for their own spiritual well-being.  What was she doing to care for her own soul?  Was she engaged in a Bible study?  Why not?  Was she finding meaningful service opportunities?  Why not?  She got very frustrated with me.  She much preferred being a victim and having someone else to “blame” for her spiritual dis-ease.  She did not want to admit that she was the one who wasn’t putting oil in her lamp.

One of my favorite things about Methodism is the way we hold personal piety and social holiness in tension.  By that I mean, we emphasize the need for individuals to care for their own souls, and we emphasize our connection.  As we said last week, staying connected is how we keep the faith.  It’s how we live out the faith.  Social holiness is the idea that together we can make changes for the greater good.  Our faith should be more than just our own “personal relationship with Jesus Christ.”  Faith always involves community, communion, congregation.  It always involves joining with others to make a difference for others.

The strength of our witness, though, is only as strong as the light of each individual.  Five maidens walking with the bride from her house to the groom’s is better than none.  Five maidens with lit lamps gives a witness that this bride is loved, that her family supports this wedding, that the community is pulling for this young couple.  But wouldn’t ten maidens with lit lamps be an even stronger witness?  And wouldn’t the wedding party be more fun with all ten originally invited maidens than just the five who had extra oil?

Next Sunday is Scouting Sunday, and we will have members of our Troop 404 here at church to help lead the service.  I am excited for that!  Some calendars call for Scouting Sunday to be celebrated this week, which would be great, too.  The Boy Scout motto is “Be Prepared”.  It comes from the founder of Boy Scouts, Robert Baden-Powell.  In 1908s, Baden-Powell wrote that to Be Prepared means “you are always in a state of readiness in mind and body to do your duty.”  When he was asked what he wanted Scouts to be prepared for, he answered, “Well, for any old thing!”  His idea was that Scouts should prepare themselves to become productive citizens and strong leaders and to bring joy to other people. He wanted each Scout to be ready in mind and body and to meet with a strong heart whatever challenges await him.

It’s no coincidence that Be Prepared can be abbreviated B.P., just like Robert Bader-Powell’s last name, B.P.  In more ways than one, B.P. was his identity!  Over 100 years later, Scouts are still using the phrase, “Be Prepared”.  It’s just part of who they are.  In Spanish, it’s translated “Siempre Listo”, which taken literally means “always ready”.  I think this is what Jesus has in mind for his followers.  That it would be part of our identity to always be ready.  That we would be prepared, as best we can, to be ready in mind and body to meet with a strong heart whatever challenges await us.

Being prepared, always ready, should be part of who we are as Christians.  It should be our identity.  We should be always ready and prepared to recognize and receive Jesus, whenever he might come.  And that means some day in the future—when the Son of Man returns, or when we die, whichever comes first. And it means day in and day out, being ready to experience God’s presence and revelation in whatever form that might take.

Readiness to meet Jesus takes a lot of effort.  We can get so focused on helping others, that we forget to take care of ourselves.  I think that’s what happened to our jumper cables.  We gave ours to our kids, but forgot to then get a new set for ourselves!  We can get derailed in other ways, too. By staying so focused on the past and how things used to be that we miss out on how they can be today.  By focusing so much on our present dilemmas that we fail to plan for the future.  By letting frustrations and doubt wear us down.  By wishing our mission were smaller and more controllable—and thus missing out on the joy that comes from owning that our mission is broad enough to even include being ready for the end of time!

How ironic, a tow truck with no jumper cables.  How ironic, people of Jewish heritage, groomed for generations to receive their Messiah, but they didn’t recognize him in their midst.  How ironic, if we call ourselves people of faith but we fail to keep our faith ready to meet the moment.  That’s not just ironic.  It’s tragic.  What does Jesus want us to be ready for?  Why, any old thing, including joy!  How can you get some extra oil for your soul this week?  Amen.