A Proper 27 | November 1, 2026

Waiting is the worst.

You’re ready, all set, ready to go…

You organize your time and life…

But you then, because someone less considerate than you, someone who has not taken you and your time seriously is late,

Forces you to wait on them, as if their lives are more complicated, their time more important.

To wait says something about status…

We know there are those on whom we wait because we have not choice but to wait…

The doctor’s office, the surgeon’s schedule, the Department of Transportation..

That kind of waiting we understand–it is hard, but we understand it.

But we find ourselves not only forced to wait in other ways…

for change in others….

for resolutions to problems, needless waiting on what so clearly needs to be changed, solved, once and for all.

How long it will be for the same conflicts that tear us apart when the solution seems so obvious.

Why not choose peace?

Why not ask forgiveness, why not give it?

How long, O Lord…

How long must we wait…

for wars to end and hunger to be unknown…

…for all God’s children to be housed and clothed…

…for leaders to be worthy of their authority we give them..

…for every person everywhere to be safe and valued and loved, to grow up learning they are worthy and beautiful…

How long must we wait for the kingdom of God…

For the marriage of the heaven we pray for with the world we live in?

This is not new to us.

From the beginning of the Christian church…,

Christ followers have been anxious about waiting…

…Sometimes believing that waiting proves that God is asleep, not paying attention, doesn’t really care…

…Times…hard times we all suffer, when we are tempted to believe the Kingdom Jesus promised will never come, that we should take matters into our own hands.

In such times, false leaders rise up making false promises,  offering easy answers, guaranteeing sure timing…and our weary waiting makes us vulnerable to their foolish falseness.

In such times, we may grow numb by all this waiting, weary, worn out, by all the waiting, succumbing to sleep…

Just please wake us up, if you please, when the waiting is over.

For us and and for all our waiting, Jesus tells this story:

Ten maidens go to celebrate a wedding and they all go ready for the celebration…

But only half of them are ready to wait…

Only half of them have enough oil in their lamps, are prepared to wait, foresee it and are ready when the call finally comes.

The wedding of perfect peace, the healing of the whole creation and unity of the entire human family…

You need a lot of oil in your lamp to endure this waiting time.

***

In a time long ago and a land far away…

When I was a Sunday Schooler in California, we were taught to sing

Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning

Give me oil in my lamp, I pray

Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning

Keep me burning ’til the break of day…

It seems fairly easy, fairly obvious, keep oil in your lamp…

…be ready for the long wait…

put oil in our lamps; keep awake, for we know neither the day nor the hour.

We want to be ready …

when at last the perfect comes, when Christ is King, when heaven and earth are one….

… no more suffering, no pain, no wars, no addiction, no betrayal, …no need for forgiveness…for reconciliation

..no hunger … homelessness

Kingdom come….the perfect and final marriage of what is with what is to be…

But until then, we wait,

And put oil in our lamps…

We keep awake through the long night…through this long night.

Jesus foresees the challenge of waiting, understands how waiting wears us down, makes us vulnerable to foolishness…

And offers this grace:

We are like both the foolish and the wise bridesmaids…

We are at once both foolish and wise….

We are eager for the world to be as we pray, for all this waiting to end, for the wedding feast to begin.

And though it is a deep challenge, we know we ought to listen to the wise voices inside of us and put oil in our lamps,

Ready to wait through the long night to end
for our waiting to culminate at last into the feast to come.

…for that glorious shining moment of consummation
when the kingdom of heaven marries the kingdom of earth…

Our foolish hearts often tempt us to give up and give in to sleep, tempt us to believe in our own power or in the easy promises false leaders,

..as if we are not all in the same place together and subject to the same timing.

Our wise hearts gather us here today to wait together,
to prepare together, to put oil in our lamps.

Confessing what we have done and left undone,
..by receiving forgiveness and giving it.

Hearing the words of scripture, of generations before us who have prayed like us, have waited like us, to remember their waiting so we will wisely wait as they waited.

We put the oil of grace in our lamps,

feasting on grace of Christ in the bread,

drinking in forgiveness the wine…

By praying the prayer our Lord taught us to pray for this long wait..

Thy kingdom come, they will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven…

May it be as we pray, and until that glorious day,

..we put oil in our lamps, and keep on burning,

‘til the break of day.

Thanks be to God.