Friday, 28thAugust 2020

Augustine was one of the greatest of all Christian thinkers, whose writings have perhaps had more influence on Western Christendom than any other since the New Testament. He was born in North Africa, the child of a faithful Christian woman named Monica. He himself only came to Christianity after many years. His autobiography, The Confessions of St Augustine, so one of the greatest spiritual classics in the library of Christendom. It tells the story of his long pilgrimage how after much anguished searching among the contemporary religions and philosophies he came at last to the true God and his Christ. ‘Late I have loved you Beauty, so ancient and so new,’ he wrote, ‘for behold, you were within me and I was outside, and I sought you outside. ‘And again, he wrote ‘Lord, you made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they rest in you’. Such sayings not only sum up Augustine’s own life story, they speak directly to the intellectual and moral questionings of our own age which has so much in common with his. He lived at a time when the peace and stability of the Roman Empire were breaking down under the hammer blows of Germanic invaders. After the city of Rome itself was sacked in 410 he wrote The City of God to reassure his generation that, though our material works are impermanent, the rule of God can never be finally overthrown .Thus he steeled his fellow Christians to face a future when the affluence and comfort of their society would have disappeared.

Collect

Merciful Lord you turned Augustine from his sins to be faithful bishop and teacher: grant that we may follow him in penitence and discipline till our restless hearts find their rest in you; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Eucharist Readings:

1 Corinthians 1:17-25                  Psalm 33:1-11                 Matthew 25:1-13

The parables of the bridesmaids continues with the theme of readiness , and it concludes in v 13 with the word which directly echo Chapter 24:42 ‘Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour’. It further underlines the division between the ready and the unready. The scene is a village wedding, with virgins (bridesmaids)waiting to escort the bridegroom in a torch -light procession at the end of the ceremony, as he brings his bride home. The lamps are probably torches made of oil-soaked rags wrapped on a stick, which would burn for several minutes before being dipped in oil again. Without a further supply of oil, they would go out as soon as they were lit. An important part of the story is the delay: the church must be ready/prepared to wait for the Parousia (Second Coming).All ten virgins fell asleep during the wait , so the point is not that we should be on constant alert but that we must have the necessary provision for when the time comes.

How ironic the theme and scripture reading are, as we are on the eve of reopening churches buildings. I do not want to make the statement that the churches were close because ministry continued , although we were not having in person worship , we still fellowshipped  together, we still prayed for one another, we as a church were supposed to continue. Yet while we are on the eve of reopening church buildings the question is, Are we ready? And when I ask this question, I am not referring to physically readiness and adhering to all the protocols, rules and regulations but how ready are we as individuals, spiritually? Like the virgins did we also fall asleep , because we are not going to church I do not have to pray, I do not have to read my bible, because I am not attending bible study groups it does not mean I cannot do bible study on my own. Maybe some of us felt we lost our connection with God. Yes, a lot of us maybe felt like this, and we do not have to be ashamed, we went through a pandemic, we still are, and we had to find ways to cope with it and we found different ways to do so. Yes, it is normal to have felt or feel like this but the important part of it is that there is hope.

There is a way for us to be ready, we should not be on a constant alert, but we need to have the necessary provision in place. We do not want to be like the bridesmaids who ran out of oil, because as we understand we do not know the day or the hour. So, maybe we need to find our rhythm, our connection, to be able to refill our lamps, to shine, we need to be ready for the banquet. God is inviting us, and we do not want the door to be shut.

Also, this parable is warning us that there are things that cannot be obtained at the last minute. Firstly, it is for us to be careful not to leave things too late that we can no longer prepare ourselves to meet with God and secondly, it warns us there are certain things which cannot be borrowed. The bridesmaids found it impossible to borrow oil, when they discovered they needed it, a person cannot borrow a relationship with God, he/she must possess it for themselves. We have the example of St Augustine who only came to Christianity after many years, his mother would pursue him with her prayers, he would give his mother great sorrow as he rejected the Church but then he became one of the greatest of all Christian thinkers, whose writings have perhaps had more influence on Western Christendom.

There is no sound so loaded with regret as the sound of the words too late.