Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

On this All Saints Sunday we assemble together to remember all the saints who have died. This festival day leads us to ask each year just what is a saint.  Americans are very quick to make everyone into a saint.  When surveyed by the social scientists, most American Christians would answer that only those who believe in Jesus Christ will go to heaven. But ask each of those persons about their Jewish friend or their kind-hearted Muslim neighbor. They will immediately give them a free pass into paradise.

Yes, All Saints Sunday has become an all-inclusive “day of the dead” for us in which we honor those close to us. Today each of you will have an opportunity to light a candle for those dear to you as you approach the altar to receive the Holy Communion. Everyone is a saint.  And I cannot complain about that. For who are we to judge?

Yes, indeed, who are we to judge?  That is a question that the author of Matthew has a lot to say.  If we pay close attention to Matthew’s Gospel, we get a very realistic view of the church as truly a mixed bag.  Take for example, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount where he says,

Thus you will know them by their fruits. "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 7:20-21)

There are many who have the right “lingo” down, but they do not bear the proper fruit.

Again Matthew has Jesus tell a parable about the kingdom of God. A man had his field sown with wheat, but while he was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds in the field so that both weeds and wheat sprouted. The farmer’s workers asked if they should pull up the weeds. The farmer forbade them saying,

No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.” (Matthew 13:29-30)

Please note that the delay in judgment does not say that judgment will not occur. It simply says that judgment is delayed. And so it is in today’s gospel reading that Matthew’s point is once again emphasized in the telling of another parable. This time it is the parable of the foolish and the wise virgins. They are the bridesmaids for a wedding.

At first the bridesmaids all seem alike. They are all dressed in a special way. They have their torches with them for the processional, and they have oil. They all look alike, but Jesus says that some were wise and some were foolish. Only time would give the opportunity to tell the difference.

It seems that no one can know exactly when the bridegroom will arrive for the wedding festivities. The bridesmaids who brought an adequate supply of oil are deemed wise. When the bridegroom arrived late into the night, they were still good to go. But the unwise maidens brought only enough oil to supply an early evening ceremony.

When the foolish maidens ask for oil from their fellow bridesmaids, the others refuse. They know that this could ruin the wedding if they all run out of oil before the processional is completed. So off go the unwise maidens to purchase more oil. Before they return, the wedding party has entered the bridegroom’s home and the doors have been shut. Those outside cry out, “Lord, lord, open to us” (vs. 11b).  But the bridegroom denies knowing them.

Now clearly Matthew intends this parable as a means to teach wisdom. That wisdom would have us know several things.

1. There will be a judgment by God, the creator of heaven and earth. God will judge every enemy that has ruined creation. Yes, that includes us who abuse nature and who neglect or exploit our neighbor.
2. The delay of the judgment should not deceive us. We have come to know God’s grace revealed in Jesus Christ. He is the very wisdom of God. Just as we have heard about wisdom seeking those who desire her, we also know Jesus Christ is the risen Lord who comes to us.
3. In our baptism we are called upon to let our light so shine before others that they may see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven.  (Matthew 5:16)
4. We are not invited to do good works in order to earn God’s approval and thereby justify ourselves before God and the world. We are invited to do good works out of loyalty to God whose grace transforms all that we do in life in the drudgery and danger of self-justification to the justice and peace of God’s kingdom with all its joy.
5. God’s kingdom is hidden or mixed with that of the enemy. But the wise know that we should spend every waking hour in reliance upon God. In this way we, like the wise maidens, will be prepared for the coming of the Lord and the final judgment.

Dear brothers and sisters, I know how much we modern people do not like to talk of judgment. But it is a major theme of this world. In our secular world we no longer allow the church to be the sole arbiter over life. But don’t kid yourselves: our days are filled with judgment, both self-judgment and judgment from others.

Too often we want a God without wrath who brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.
H.  Richard Neibuhr, The Kingdom of God in America, (New York: Harper & Row, 1959), 193.

It has been my experience in life that living out of the good news in Christ is the greatest of freedoms. To live in faith is to act daily in the knowledge that the God and Father of Jesus Christ is our judge. This is good news! We are free to base our own self-worth, and that of our neighbor, on God’s loving care toward us.

So we are not afraid to hear the announcement that the bridegroom is coming. On the contrary, we are ready for the one who is coming at daytime or night time.

Amen.