Thirty-second Ordinary

Matthew 25: 1 – 4, 13

Jesus continued, “God’s kingdom is like ten young bridesmaids who took oil lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five were silly and five were smart. The silly bridesmaids took lamps, but no extra oil. The smart bridesmaids took jars of oil to feed their lamps … So stay alert. You have no idea when he might arrive”.

At an adventure camp for teens, the campers were divided into teams to test their camping skills. When the earnest instructor tried to demonstrate safety practices, one group of guys mimicked him and spent their time laughing and joking. After they got their gear, these guys ran ahead to grab the best spot – a rock ledge that hung over the lake.

They didn’t bother to set up their tents. One of the guys discovered it was cool to light the matches off his teeth, his belt, his boots, other guys’ jeans and then flip the lit match over the ledge and into the water, where it would make a hissing sound. Every guy in the group thought this was great, and they fought over the box of matches, spilling some into the lake and lighting the rest until they were all gone.

Night came faster than they expected. Soon it was dark. And cold. And they had no firewood. And no fire. And no matches. They called out to other groups down the shore and asked for matches, but those groups had seen them flicking all their matches into the lake and simply laughed.

The woeful group sat in the darkness, slapping away mosquitoes and watching the campfires that flicked all around the shoreline in the distance. “Hey,” one of them asked, “do you think we could start a fire with a lightning bug?”