Matthew 25:1-13
Like Staying Woke
James Sledge
November 12, 2017
“Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day
nor the hour.”
So says Jesus to his disciples in a final round of teachings just prior to his
arrest and crucifixion. Our reading is part of a larger section sometimes
referred to as a second sermon on the mount. It takes place on the Mount of
Olives, and just as happened in the previous mountain sermon, Jesus sits down,
the pose of a rabbi who is teaching, and his disciples come to him.
They
ask about the timing of God’s coming new day and the signs to look for. Jesus
speaks of suffering and difficulties, but nothing that will allow anyone to
predict the event. When it gets here, you will know it, says Jesus, but don’t
listen to anyone who claims to know the date.
Then
Jesus tells a series of four parables, each addressing some aspect of his
return and a final judgment. The first two speak of wisdom and foolishness in
regards to awaiting Christ’s return, with our reading is the second of that
pair. It features wise and foolish bridesmaids, but exactly what sort of wisdom
Jesus is recommending is not immediately obvious. He says, “Keep awake,” but both
the wise and foolish bridesmaids fall asleep.
Parables
typically are not allegories, but this one may well be. Jesus is the bridegroom
who appearance is delayed, and the bridesmaids, all of them, are followers of
Jesus who have made plans to be there for the great banquet, the glorious feast
of God’s new day.
That
makes this a parable about and for insiders, followers of Jesus. That makes it
a parable addressed directly to us, challenging us to think about whether we
are wise or foolish. But what exactly does that mean? Both wise and foolish fell
asleep. So what does Jesus mean when he says to us, “Keep awake.” ?
There may be a couple of hints found in
Jesus’ earlier Sermon on the Mount. Two issues from that sermon seem to reappear
in this parable. In both, Jesus speaks of those who call him “Lord, lord,” expecting
to be embraced when the kingdom arrives, only to be told that Jesus does not
know them. In the first sermon, these people are ones who did not do God’s
will. Does the foolish bridesmaids lack of oil somehow speak about this?
Apparently the
job of bridesmaids was to provide a lighted procession from the bride’s family home
to that of the groom where the ceremony took place and his parents hosted the
wedding feast. Weddings were the big social event of that day with the party starting
at the bride’s house. When the groom arrived, the entire wedding party journeyed
to his family’s home in a lighted procession led by the bridesmaids.
In the first Sermon on the Mount, Jesus also
speaks of lamps and light. “Let your light shine before
others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in
heaven.” Are the foolish bridesmaids somehow unwilling or unprepared
to do the good works asked of them? Are these foolish bridesmaids somehow
unaware of effort required of them?
Some of you are probably familiar with the
term “woke” or the phrase “Stay woke” that has become associated with the “Black
Lives Matter” movement. If you read the quote in the bulletin,* you’ve already
seen “woke” defined in terms black experience, but the term has often been
appropriated by whites to describe their recognition and rejection of white
privilege, as a way of proclaiming that they are allies.
Understandably, some have objected to
this white appropriation of black experience, and I don’t want to do that. I’m
perfectly happy to accept Oriana Koren’s definition that says, “… woke is a specific sort of
awareness, inextricably tied to the challenge of navigating America in a black
body.”[1]
I’m perfectly happy to find some other term to describe my own awareness of
white privilege and systemic racism, my own desire to do something to help
dismantle such systems.
But
at the same time, I think this term “woke,” may capture something of what Jesus
demands when he says, “Keep awake.” It’s a powerful
illustration of the awareness and awakening to the brokenness of the world that
needs redemption and re-creation. I’m
not going to borrow the term, but I will say that Jesus is talking about
something like this.
Jesus expects us to do much more than
align ourselves with him. Both wise and foolish bridesmaids do that. Jesus
expects us to be animated by the hope of God’s new day, by the promise of
justice and equity and mercy, by the certainty that the lowly and broken and
the oppressed will be lifted up and set free. And that means that those who are
in Christ discover new identities that do not fit easily into the world. There
is a constant awareness, a constant awake-ness to the world’s brokenness that
both longs for Christ’s return and demands that we live as transforming agents
in a world that resists such transformation.
_______________________________________________________________________________
When
I was working on this sermon, I read an article on white appropriation of the
term “woke,” and I want to share a bi of it with you.
The most
prominent pop touchstone for “stay woke” is Erykah Badu’s 2008 track “Master
Teacher,” in which she sings the refrain “I stay woke.” “Erykah brought it
alive in popular culture,” says David Stovall, a professor of African-American
studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “She means not being
placated, not being anesthetized. She brought out what her elders and my elders
had been saying for hundreds of years.” In turn, the track has helped shepherd
the next generation into its own political consciousness. In an interview with NPR last year, the rapper
Earl Sweatshirt described listening to “Master Teacher” in the car with his
mother as a teenager. “I was singing the hook, like, ‘I stay woke,’ ” he said.
His mother turned down the music, and “she was like, ‘No you’re not.’ ”[2]
What
a wonderful illustration of the distinction Jesus is making between wisdom and
foolishness. Have we become aware, fully awakened to the pain of the world that
calls us to hunger and thirst for righteousness, and to the new reality
that has begun to arrive in Jesus that offers hope? Or are we just saying the
words? Are our lights shining in ways that point to redemption for a broken
world, and are we prepared to keep at it for the long haul? Or are we just
singing the song?
Sometimes
it seems like Christianity is sleepwalking, treating faith as believing a few
things and being moral, or as a generic spirituality that warms the heart a
bit. But Jesus invites us to something so much more, to being fully awake, fully
aware, fully alive. And isn’t that so much better, so much more real, so much
more meaningful. “Keep awake,” says Jesus. “Keep awake.”
*The following quote from Oriana Koren
appeared on the bulletin cover.
Woke is a coming of age, and
to be woke is a specific sort of awareness, inextricably tied to the challenge
of navigating America in a black body. Woke can also be a specific moment:
when you are denied a job or loan because of your “black-sounding” name, when
your white partner introduces you as “a friend” or doesn’t introduce you at
all, or maybe when a police officer kills another black person in cold blood
and you watch society defend the death of someone who could have been you, your
mother, your father, your brother, your sister. Woke happens when one
becomes conscious of these frameworks and works toward sustaining that
consciousness over a lifetime.
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