Spirited Word Adrian Kitson

I suspect we want to know we did something good, we made a positive difference with all we were given. We all want and have wanted all along to breed love and joy in our kids, our families, workplaces, present friends and associates. We know the world needs joy, hope and love.  
We all want this final affirmation for living now with some clarity, some hope, some meaning some joy. I want to ‘enter in the joy of the Master’ who knows what I am doing and have done and will do, so that in the end he ticks my contribution as good, useful, meaningful, gospel good news in a very ‘un-gospel’ world. 
But when I hear this parable about the end of it all – me and the world, I always find myself feeling pretty uncomfortable. That last guy gets very harsh treatment by the Master! It makes me wonder what sort of God we have if God is like this Master! 

Nathaniel was found by the fig tree. He was looking for new hope there. it weas not in the tree. it would be in the man who would give his life on a cursed tree so we be free!

I listened the Luther on this and it made sense….. 
 The Lord …… compares it (the Christian community - us) to ten virgins. Five are wise, five foolish. 
 The foolish virgins are those Christians who give the appearance and impression of being godly. They want to be good evangelicals (Lutherans) and are able to say much about these things. They praise the Word and say: “Yes, it is a splendid thing. This is what it means. It cannot possibly be otherwise according to the Scripture, etc.” Paul speaks of these people in 1 Cor. 4:20: “The kingdom of God is not in only talk, but in power.” It consists not in speech, but in life; not in words, but in works. Although they are able to say much about many things, they are in reality unwise virgins who only have the lamps or the vessel, that is, the external equipment, and they behave according to their nature, as Matthew writes (7:22), saying, “Lord, Lord!” The mouth is there, but the heart is far away (Matt. 15:8). 
 The oil is not in the lamp, that is, faith is not in the heart. 

From Martin Luther...
“….it comes to pass when you hear that Jesus Christ, God’s Son, has by his most holy touch consecrated and hallowed all sufferings, even death itself, has blessed the curse, and has glorified shame and enriched poverty so that death is now a door to life, the curse a fount of blessing, and shame the mother of glory. Suffering has been touched and bathed by Christ’s pure and holy flesh and blood and thus have become holy, harmless, and wholesome, blessed, and full of joy for you. There is nothing, not even death, that his passion cannot sweeten.  (Luther, LW, Vol. 42, pp. 141-142)

O that so many Lutherans in the Barossa (including me) could hear the sound of that cracking whip-chord and the coins tipping off those tables and the flight of spooked doves! And then be with Jesus sipping wine transformed from water at a wedding, eating fish and bread on the grassy slope be the sea, smelling the strong scent of perfume around that room as she anointed him for his burial, ate more fish on the beach with a risen Jesus doing the cooking, hearing the rapid words of a woman who no one ever saw or wanted to see in the village inviting everyone to come out and ‘meet a man who told me everything I ever did’ (John 4:29).

If they did, they would hear the New Temple say this:
21 ‘Woman,….. believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem…... 23 … a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.’              
                                                                                                                                                          (John 4:21-24)

Ten young women: five with 'oil', five out of 'oil': five accepted five dismissed. What is the oil!?

Is Jesus is saying that the oil is not our love or faith or patience or anything we can do or manufacture or achieve ourselves? What if instead, the ‘oil’ is a gift; gift to be received that makes us ready, not work to be done that hopefully makes us ready? Then this parable speaks of pure wonderful grace and fires our hearts in thankful faith and solid hope for what is to come because it is not based on me – but founded on Jesus.