Popcorn

So this Gospel passage is often used to defend the modern notion of hell. So let’s get that out of the way. I’m an annihilationist, meaning I read the Gospel as a choice between life and death, not heaven and hell. Jesus contrasts punishment and life. He does not say punishment or reward nor does he say punishment or the bosom of Abraham. I say bosom of Abraham because that is the alternative to the fire used in the Lazarus and the Rich man parable. In Mathew 10:28 Jesus talks about the fire that will destroy the soul using a Greek word can also mean life.

That all being said it misses the whole point of this passage. As much as I would love use this as a hammer passage to chastise politicians that pass laws making feeding the hungry illegal, or who deliberately spread a disease for their own financial gain, or who lock the stranger’s babies in cages. That’s not the point of this passage either.

The point of this passage, as I understand it, is that if Christ is your King, your focus should be easing people’s suffering. Clobber passages have nothing to do with easing people’s suffering. To bring up a point I have made several times, the Good Samaritan did not seek revenge on the bandits, he tended to the wounds of the victim.

Tending to the victim does not make for stories that (to quote Eddie Izzard) that are good for eating popcorn. We blame the victim in our culture. The poor brought hunger on themselves. If you used “the Secret” (meaning if you wish hard enough) you’d never get sick. And we have no use whatsoever for people who’ve ever been in prison, much less those who are still in there. It’s better for the hero to kill them off in the final reel.

The kingdom isn’t like that. The kingdom will be full of people who care for others. People who care for others are bringing about the kingdom. Caring for others is about finding out what the other needs, not how YOU think they should be cared for. Something funders of charities don’t understand – the rich and the eye of the needle thing. Love IS the answer. Sadly, there is so much resistance to that truth. If you listen to our pop songs, even love is framed as a competition.

Resistance to the culture we find ourselves in is not going to be about fighting evil. Where anyone got fighting evil from Jesus’ words is beyond me. It will look like the Underground Railroad, getting slaves out of the South. It will look like hiding Jews in occupied Holland as in the Ann Frank Story. I bet you could eat popcorn to movies like that.

 

   

 

How wise can a virgin be?

 

What if the foolish virgins never left to buy oil? What if they let their lamps go out, but stuck around anyway? I’m guessing they’d be as embarrassed as anyone who botches their job at a wedding, but they’d still have gone to the feast.

Now let’s talk about the “wise” virgins. They will not share their oil, and in fact it is they who send the foolish virgins out to buy oil – in the middle of the night. Would the market even be open? Are the foolish virgins foolish because they listened to the “wise” ones? Jesus doesn’t say the bridesmaids who came to the door after it was shut had even gotten the oil.

So what of the behavior of the so-called wise virgins? Assuming for the sake of the argument that oil represents faith, I can relate to the difficulty of sharing it, because my faith is rooted in my personal experience, an experience that no one else has had. Though some have had similar experiences – but I did not provide those experiences. I can guide people on their faith journey, but I can’t share my faith directly.

However in this story the “wise” give really shitty guidance – or at least some of them do. We know no oil was shared, but we don’t know who or how many suggested that the “foolish” go on a pointless errand. This brings to mind one of my biggest pet peeves about Christianity in America; people who convince others that they have to have all their shit together before they can approach God. That Church is for those who are so-called pure, and those who need Christ the physician do not belong there. You’ll find them in any church.

But these are all virgins we’re talking about, the inexperienced. So perhaps they’re all making honest mistakes. The true culprits are the groom’s entourage. The ones who have been with Christ and know better and still misinform virgins; clergy obviously, but also those who go along with them to avoid embarrassment.

You’d think they would rather be embarrassed and at the feast then to be told by the Son, “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to err, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”

Blessed are we who were told we do not belong, who were sent away by the so-called wise, and still stayed for the consummation of the marriage - which is the “good part” anyway. In fact consummation of our love, not of possessions, is why many of us were condemned. Blessed are we who looked upon the shed blood of those like us, while the so-called wise pretended that they were pure. 

No doubt this was a challenge. Many of us ran out of oil, yet could not stay away so long that we missed the feast. In the early Church, being a Christian meant found family. Love in a world that treated people like possessions. I believe the marriage of Christ and the Church is the first true love marriage.

May we be loving found family to others who have been sent away.