Joshua has a lot of confidence in himself and his household. You cannot serve the Lord, he says, because you will fail and fall; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord (Joshua 24:15b).

It’s a lot of confidence, and it comes from a place of great privilege; Joshua was plucked out of the people, chosen to become the successor to Moses, to lead the children of God into the Promised Land when Moses’ heart gave out before the final border crossing. Joshua is so confident that he has what it takes, has been given everything that is needed, to follow the Lord. He has less confidence in his followers, the entire rest of the people of God (Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25).

It’s not difficult to imagine how Joshua would read this parable (Matthew 25:1-13); which side of the door he would imagine himself to be, and upon whom he would close the door. But here’s the thing: While I might suspect Joshua of occasional peaks of pride, I do not, cannot for a moment suspect God of unkindness. I have to think that, even if Joshua’s lamp had gone out, in the parable, God would see through his darkness, and recognize the light that used to be in his eyes, and that God would no more leave Joshua out in the cold than leave the children of Israel to live and die as slaves in Egypt.

So let’s get this out of the way: I think that it is vital to hear this parable in the context of God’s abiding love and mercy, the miracles in which the oil does not run dry, because despite everything, God does not give up on God’s people, and God knows each of us by sight, and by name.

And still, Joshua is on to something when he tells the people, be careful what you promise to God. Do you really think that you can resist the fabrication of golden calves, or the lure of false gods, Joshua asks? Do you really think you can tease out the truth from among all the fables and fantasies that weave themselves around you in this godforsaken place? You have (that is, we have) form for falling under the spell of idols, being led astray by serpents and social media, the seductive promises of political systems and of profit. Can we really claim to love God with our whole heart?

This parable sits at a pivot point in the church year. In the old days of the prayerbook, the Sundays after All Saints would cease to be counted as Sundays after Pentecost, and become Sundays before Advent: a time of preparation for the time of preparation for the inbreaking of the reign of God through the Incarnation and the completion of time.

This parable, sitting on its fulcrum of time, would be as relevant to the people Joshua addressed as it is to us. This parable is about how we prepare ourselves, in every time and place, to be in relationship with the love of God.

I’ve been reading wisdom from the bible study of the Solentiname community of 1970s Nicaragua^[i], collected by Ernesto Cardenal. These people remarked that the bridegroom represents the Love of God for the world, for humanity, for us. You might think of it as the Love of God seeking us out, even if it is late in the day, late into the dark night of our souls, but not only for us. The Love of God coming into the world as the revelation and revolution and consummation of all that Jesus came to show us; the kingdom of God in our hands, in our time. Are we ready for that, the parable asks. Are you ready for that, Joshua asks his people.

Are you ready to place all of your faith and hope and wisdom in the expectation of God’s love. Are you ready to respond with joy when God’s love arrives, even when you have given up expecting it? What is it that you are prepared for, even in your sleep? Is it the advent of the kingdom of heaven that comes like a bridegroom, like a long-expected lover, like the consummation of love? Is it the true Love of God that you are prepared and preparing for, or something else?

The young women all fall asleep, and that is only human and natural, but when they awake, some are ready for the advent of love, and some are concerned about their own resources and readiness. Some look for love, some for themselves.

Every interpretation of parable will fail at some point. Parables are not meant to be neat allegories or moral fables; they are stories that Jesus told to expand our imagination of what the reign of God might be. So perhaps this interpretation fails when the five girls prepared for love fail to share it with their sisters. And after all, we will fail, however hard we try. That’s why we come back to confess again and again our faults and falling, and again and again we rely on the Love of God to welcome us back into the fold.

Every interpretation of parable will fail at some point: after all, not every interruption that awakens us from slumber is joyful. The shock that awakes us can be terrifying, and tragic. It can break a community’s heart. Even so, those who have nurtured themselves to be ready for the Love of God will be ready in that moment of darkness to seek out light, maybe even to kindle light.

The wise ones are so prepared that they know the bridegroom in their sleep; they know their role in their sleep; they are ready in their sleep for the kingdom of heaven. So maybe after Joshua is right to be confident in his preparation; Joshua, who, along with Moses, knew what it was to spend time with God, in conversation with God, listening for the guidance of God. Joshua was one of the generation that left Egypt alongside Moses, which means that he had known generations of slavery under the Pharaohs, and worse, before the baby was set among the bullrushes. Yet when God called him, he was ready.

This time of preparation for the time of preparation for the coming of the Love of God, in the form of an infant and on clouds of glory; this is the time, if we know that our oil is running low, if we know that we are weary and in danger of falling asleep while our lamps burn out, this is the time to ask for help. To turn to one another, waiting together for the day, to see if we have faith to spare, hope to share. This may be the time to run to the store, to spend what time we can in prayer, to shore up our knowledge of the love of God, to replenish our grace, by God’s mercy, because God’s mercy never runs dry, and  because Love is still on the way, even when it seems so late in the day.

The people answered Joshua, “We will serve the Lord, because it is God who brought us out of Egypt, and God who has protected us, and God who has served us well.” And we, who continue to await the day when Love will wipe away all that is not Love from among us, lock out of our world all that is not Love, we will wait patiently, knowing that God is already with us, that Love is already here. We have only to light our lamps to see.

^[i] El Evangelio en Solentiname, by Cardenal, Ernesto, accessed at https://archive.org/details/elevangelioensol02card/page/n177/mode/2up. You may hear the echoes and influence of Solentiname in more than one place in this sermon.