Pentecost XXV, Proper 27, Year A

Amos, 5:18-24
1 Thessalonians, 4:13-18
Matthew, 25:1-13

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

A COUPLE OF TIMES in the New Testament epistles, the writer compares following Jesus to running in a race. The race is not a sprint; it's not a quick burst of speed, energy, and enlightenment; it's not a mere moment of conversion; it's not just a flash of recognition that Jesus is Lord. The race is not an instant, but continuous cycles of growth and development.

Lewis Carroll may offer the best description of this race. The Caucus-race is one of the many marvelous scenes in Alice in Wonderland. Alice falls into a pool of her own tears, her own despair. She meets many birds and animals in the pool, and they swim to the shore. They are wet. The English call people 'wet' if they are boring, feeble, insipid, inept. (Following Jesus is all about experiencing the richness and excitement of life, the purpose and power of life.) To dry themselves off, the Dodo bird suggests a Caucus-race.

First [the Dodo] marked out a race-course, in a sort of circle, ('the exact shape doesn't matter,' it said,) and then all the party were placed along the course, here and there. There was no 'One, two, three, and away,' but they began running when they liked, and left off when they liked, so that it was not easy to know when the race was over. However, when they had been running half an hour or so, and were quite dry again, the Dodo suddenly called out 'The race is over!' and they all crowded round it, panting, and asking, 'But who has won?'

This question the Dodo could not answer without a great deal of thought, and it sat for a long time with one finger pressed upon its forehead. . ., while the rest waited in silence. At last the Dodo said, 'Everybody has won, and all must have prizes.'

What a great image! The Epistle to the Hebrews says, "Let us run with perseverance the race which is set before us." (Heb 12:1) Everybody has a different race to run. Everybody has a different call from God. Everybody follows Jesus in a different way. Everybody can win, and all can have prizes. I love that. It's about God's graciousness, his forgiveness, his love. It's about how each of us contributes in different ways, and all are valuable and necessary.

Besides the Caucus-race, we might also compare following Jesus to running a marathon. Life is a long race with God to God. Last weekend, 30,000 runners participated in the Marine Corps Marathon. It's the largest marathon without cash prizes. Participants recognize that finishing is the real prize, that the race is a gift in itself.

The Post had a story about one winner, Lt. Col. Steve Grass, a Marine who ran the marathon, except instead of running through the streets of Washington, he ran around his military training base in eastern Iraq. ⁽¹⁾ Grass had promised a good friend that he would run this year's Marine Corps Marathon to raise money to fight Multiple Sclerosis. When he was shipped out to Iraq, he decided to run the race there, about five times around the five mile perimeter of his base. Some other soldiers decided that they'd like to support him and would run with him.

Grass said, "I'll have water points at the start and the 2.5-mile mark, and, of course, there will be the Iraqi tower guards to cheer me on every couple hundred meters." Most people who run marathons will tell you how important the crowd is. Runners, who in their agony feel tempted to quit, push on because of the cheers of the crowd. For many that encouragement makes all the difference between quitting and finishing. The encouragement helps them persevere and gets them home to the prize. Encouragement - a cheer, a positive word, a compliment, a sign of appreciation and care - encouragement is vital sustenance in life. We might even stretch the allegory and see the mass as the water points and coffee hour as the cheers from the crowd in the crowd.

I like allegory, but if we stretch it too far, it can get over-wrought quickly. Today's gospel is a case in point. The wise and foolish maidens are those who are prepared to meet Christ and those who are not. I would not stretch today's parable to mean that half of humanity gets into the wedding feast, heaven, and half of humanity will be left out. Jesus was not a callous, vengeful man. He doesn't want division and separation; he doesn't rejoice in the failures and misfortune of those who reject him. He wants everybody to be with him.

The point of the parable is that we need to be ready when Jesus comes. On one level, this refers to our death. We'll meet Jesus when we die. No one knows the timing of their end. So we need to be prepared always. But perhaps more profoundly, we should recognize that Jesus is always coming to us. Many times every day God is coming to us - in ordinary things and events of life: invitations, opportunities for us to welcome Jesus, be it in saying our prayers, in reaching out and helping a stranger, in giving a friend a hug, in encouraging one another. We meet Jesus and know him in other people. Jesus is always coming to us.

God's judgment is how we respond to him. Are we prepared for him? Do we welcome him into our lives? Life is a long haul, a marathon, and we need other people. Their support and encouragement gives us the power and strength vital to a good life. But we must also do some things ourselves to run this race, to follow Jesus, to prepare for Jesus' coming.

The Anglo-Catholic tradition emphasizes a variety of spiritual disciplines that prepare us for Christ, that welcome him into our lives, that ground us in him. This morning I'm limiting myself to six, six spiritual practices, six ways of living.

The first is the mass. In meeting and uniting with Jesus in communion, God nourishes and sustains us. We need it every Sunday - not only when it's convenient. We can also use it more than once a week. Anglo-Catholics have always emphasized the daily mass as a privilege for all God's people, not only as a priestly devotion. The mass is also the place where we come together with other Christians, unite with them in the Body and Blood of our Lord, and receive encouragement from one another. The parish community is for us to build one another up, to encourage each other in our races. We can't be Christians alone. We need one another. We find Christ in one another.

Second, of equal importance to the mass is prayer, daily prayer. Prayer makes a difference. It prepares and opens our hearts to Jesus; it welcomes him into our lives. We can't have a relationship with Jesus, or with any person, unless we communicate - and that means listening, being quiet, sitting silently with Jesus, as well as talking to him, asking for things for ourselves and other people. Our spiritual lives have no depth or vitality without prayer. We won't see God at work in life without prayer; we won't see all of his miracles without prayer.

Third, Anglo-Catholics prepare for Jesus through fasting. Man does not live by bread alone. Edward Pusey, one of the seminal leaders of Anglo-Catholicism, wrote:

It must be feared that it is one of the subtlest devices of the Enemy, to persuade us that we may become spiritual, through means merely spiritual;. . . that we can have the victory over the flesh without fighting against it; . . . that we can cultivate spiritual feelings, desires, longings, love, without discipline of the body. . . ⁽²⁾

Spiritual seriousness, spiritual growth requires control over the body; it involves self-denial, self-control. Who is our real master - God or our desires? Who guides our lives?

Fourth, part of fasting is to remind us of our weakness. We fast for our sins. We also deal with our sins through the sacrament of penance - confession. When we examine our souls, when we summon the courage to talk about our full truth, we are seriously engaging in the fight against sin. We are growing in humility. We are growing in holiness. We are being renewed. We are opening our hearts to Jesus - to his love and forgiveness. Christ is changing us, and we are growing in character.

Fifth, to be prepared for Jesus we have to place our full trust and confidence in him. We can't serve God and mammon. We don't want to be divided people. But all of the time we succumb to the feelings of greed and anxiety, to lack of faith and trust in Jesus. We counter this by giving of our time, talent, and treasure to other people and to the Church. Where we devote our time, talent, and treasure, there is where we'll find our hearts. Preparing for Jesus means giving, and giving generously and cheerfully, to churches, to charities, to people in need.

Sixth, if our light is shining and we're ready for Jesus, then we are looking outside of ourselves. It's reaching out to other people to provide help without conditions and to share the good news of Jesus. It's encouraging people because we know Jesus loves all people. Many of the early Anglo-Catholic parishes were in the slums, and they worked tirelessly for the poor. Anglo-Catholics were the first to eliminate pew rentals. Pew rentals discouraged the poor from coming to church. Your seat in church should not be a function of your income. God doesn't will our social distinctions, the way we set ourselves apart from one another. We leave that at the door. When Jesus comes, all of that will fall away. At the cross, at the altar, each of us is of equal and priceless value to God.

These six practices - regular, frequent participation in the mass, daily prayer, fasting, confession, generous giving, and reaching out in ministry and mission to all people - these prepare us for the coming of Jesus. These are the marks of wise Christians. Now if we don't do these six things, I doubt that we'll be locked out of heaven. But - we'll not have much of a relationship with Jesus. We'll not have prepared ourselves for him. We'll not know much of heaven in this life. We'll not have all that much interest in heaven. That's because these are the ways of heaven. These are the prizes of heaven - where everybody wins, and all must have prizes. Because God loves each and every one of us.

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

1. Kathy Orton, 'Promise to be Kept, Despite Distance,' The Washington Post, Sunday, 30 October 2005, p. E02.

2. Owen Chadwick, ed., The Mind of the Oxford Movement, A. & C. Black (1960)/Stanford UP (1961), p. 208.