Holy Tuesday (April 30th)

Lamps and Talents

Lot's of Bible Stories today!

Today we heard more of the stories of Moses and Job. Remember that we started their stories yesterday morning? Today, we heard that Pharoah's daughter found Moses in a basket in the river among the reeds and that she took and adopted him as her own son. 

Then we heard about the destruction of Job's servants as well as the death of his children. All the wonderful things that God has given him have been taken away. What will he do now?

What is Jesus doing now?

In these, his last days, Jesus giving some of his final teachings to his disciples. These next two parables are part of those teachings.

The Wise Virgins entered the marriage feast with the bridegroom, the foolish were left outside!

Parable of the Ten Virgins (Mat. 25:1-13)
In this story, there are 10 young women (a.k.a. virgins) awaiting the arrival of the bridegroom at a marriage feast. Five of them are wise, so they brought lamps and lots of extra oil (to make sure that the lights did not go out). The other five are very foolish indeed because they brought no extra oil. The groom is late, so they all decided to take a nap while they waited for him. In the middle of the night (this groom was very late!) everyone's is woken up: The bridegroom has arrived! The wise virgins get out their extra oil and relight their lamps, but the foolish virgins don't have any extra so they ask for some help. The wise virgins reply that if they share the oil there won't be enough to go around and no one will have any light! So the foolish versions have to go to the shops and buy some more oil. While they are away, the bridegroom comes and everyone one goes into the feast. Then the doors are shut. Finally the foolish virgins come back, but they have been locked out!! They knock and knock and cry "Lord, open for us!" But, all they hear back is "I don't know you." They have been left out of the feast because they were not prepared.

What the moral of the story? You don't know when Jesus is going to come, so be ready. Don't wait until the last minute and be caught unprepared because then you will miss out on the feast (ie. the kingdom of heaven).

Parable of the Talents (Mat. 25:14-30)
In this story Jesus tells us about a man who was about to go on a trip. He called all his servants together and put them in charge of his property while he was away. To one servant he have 5 talents (Talents are money, so lets just call them dollars for now), to another servant he have two dollars, and to another one dollar. Then the man went on his trip. While he was away, the first servant took his five dollars, did some trading, and came back with another five! The second servant took his two dollars, traded with them and made two more! The last servant took his one dollar and hid it in the ground. Now, when the man came back from his trip, he went to settle accounts with his servants, to see what they had done with his money. The first servant brought him ten dollars (the five he was given and the five he made) and the man was very happy! The second servant brought him 4 dollars (the two he got and the two he made) and the man was very happy! The last servant brought only the one dollar because he hadn't made any more money and the man was upset. He called the last servant lazy, saying that he ought to have done something with what he was give/n. Then he took the one dollar away from the last servant, gave it to the first servant who had ten dollars, and then threw the man out of his house.

What's the moral of the story? God gives us all gifts and we should use them instead of burying our heads in the sand and being too afraid to do anything. In the end, if we haven't done anything with the gifts God has given us, we will be sent away from him.

With these parables Jesus is trying to warn his disciples, and us too, that we had better do things with the life we are living now, because we do not know when the end will come. Now is the time to get to know God, to be prepared, and what better time then Holy Week, when there is so much going on. Even though today's stories might seem a bit harsh or scary, Jesus still lets us know that it is not too late. We still have time to be with him, so lets make the most of it!

Jesus and Jewish Leaders

We also heard in the gospel about a time when the Sadducees, the temple leaders, set out to entrap Jesus, to get him to say something which will show the people that he is a bad teacher. But instead, the plan backfires, and Jesus is shown to be an extremely intelligent teacher. Jesus then scolds them, and reminds them that they ought to be less worried about how they act (long prayers, perfect sacrifices, head tables, etc.) and more concerned with their relationship with God and being good leaders of His people.


The journey continues. . .

Tonight's services:

Bridegroom Matins (last one!)