32nd Sunday in ordinary Time Year A 12th November 2023.
Lectionary readings: Amos 5 v18-24; Psalm 70; Thessalonians 4 v13-18; Matthew 25 v1-13.
Are you ready to join the celebration?
Amos, like most of the Old Testament prophets, is impatiently explaining once again to the people of Israel what the Lord requires of them and what he does not. It is certainly not worshipping idols, nor offering animal sacrifices or even singing noisy songs. (Amos 5 v22,23).
What the Lord demands is that the people of Israel ‘let justice and fairness flow like a river that never runs dry’. (Amos 5 v24).
The people listening to Jesus would have been familiar with the image of God as the ‘bridegroom’ and the people of Israel as his ‘bride’ from the book of the prophet Hosea.
God asked Hosea to act out a parable, by marrying a woman with a reputation for unfaithfulness. (Hosea 1 v2). Hosea’s love for and faithful devotion to his wife mirrored God’s love for his (unfaithful) people. (Hosea 1-3).
In the book of the prophet Jeremiah, the same image is used, God says, “You (Israel) are like a wife who broke her wedding vows. You have been unfaithful to me.” (Jeremiah 3 v20).
The prophets were doing their best to get the people of Israel back on track. Urging them to fulfil their part in God’s plan to reconcile earth and heaven, by being the people of God, a ‘blessing to the nations’ as God had promised their ancestor Abraham. (Genesis 12 v2).
I think Jesus uses the image of a wedding to talk about the union of heaven and earth. This time Jesus is ‘the bridegroom’ (Matthew 9 v15), coming to claim his ‘bride’ (his kingdom).
A footnote in my Bible explains that it was the custom for the groom to go to the home of the bride’s parents to get his bride. Young girls and other guests would then go with them to the home of the groom’s parents, where the wedding feast would take place.
Jesus is encouraging his followers to be ready to join the celebration.
The wise are to live in hope and expectation, ready to respond to their Lord’s arrival, whenever it might come. Their patience will be rewarded by the warmth of the bridegroom’s greeting.
Paul suggests that we should expect to meet those who have gone before us, the people of the ‘New Israel’; a nation made up of both Jew and Gentile believers. People who lived by ‘kingdom’ values, people who enabled ‘justice and fairness to flow like a river’.
Jesus started his parable by saying “The kingdom of heaven is like…” and he ends by saying
“So, my disciples, always be ready! You don’t know the day or time when all this will happen”.
As a follower of Jesus in this generation, are you ready to join the celebration?
Bible quotations are taken from the Contemporary English Version.