“The kingdom of heaven will be like this…” says Jesus a lot in Matthew. Sometimes, he goes on to tell a parable that sounds lovely and almost straightforward. In these last few days of Jesus’ life, as told by Matthew, the ways he describes the kingdom of heaven is difficult for us to handle. What do you mean the bridesmaids are left in the dark? Why is this servant treated so harshly? What the heck is “eternal punishment?”
All the folks we hear about in these stories are united by one action, and that is inaction. The bridesmaids fail to plan for the groom to be late, and they leave much too late to get more oil. The servant is terrified of the landowner and so buries the wealth given to him. And then you have the folks who chose to remain still and silent when their neighbors needed help.
In the Brief Order for Confession and Forgiveness from the old (I get to call it old; we were born the same month) Lutheran Book of Worship, we confess, “We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone.” Sometimes we do not know what to do. Sometimes we are frozen in fear. Sometimes we feel hopeless and can’t see how our action will solve anything.
Jesus still calls us to co-create the kingdom of God here on earth. That creation is going to take action on our part to work and to feed and to plan and to accomplish the work we are called to: care for this good creation and care for one another. We can only do this together. We can only do this if we take the first risk of getting to know one another well enough to ask the question, “What do you need?” We can only do this if we take the risk of actually listening and doing what our neighbor has asked of us. Finally, we are only going to bring the kingdom of heaven here on earth when we, too, can take the risk of answering our neighbor’s question honestly when they ask, “What do you need?” And we place our hopes together so they can grow.
Shalom,
Pastor Melissa