Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

[Concerning the Baptism of Turner Austin Stirdivant…] What a miracle that was that just happened here among us! Think of it, a member of the human race has been rescued from the curse of sin and welcomed into the arms of our heavenly Father for eternity. Turner has now joined the Church, the Bride of Christ who is waiting patiently and expectantly for our Bridegroom’s grand return at the end of the world. We have a lot to celebrate and ponder with wonder today, and whenever a child, a child of God regardless of age, is granted this magnificent gift of Holy Baptism. We have every reason to bow our hearts in prayer that we never squander such a blessing that has also come into our lives.

And that may make you think, especially on a day like today, Why would someone despise this great gift and think or act as if it was worthless? Why would there be those careless, foolish believers as they are depicted in the story that Jesus told? To be sure, at the time He told it, He was mere days and hours away from His crucifixion and death. He wants you, His disciples, to know this important fact about the kingdom of heaven, which you enter when you are baptized with water in God’s holy and Triune name. But the story can be confusing to follow. It’s not easy to spot the point Jesus makes. The ten virgins are all ready for the wedding in the early evening. They all have lamps, they all are dressed in the proper wedding clothes, they are all pure, chaste virgins, eligible to enter the wedding hall and feast with the bridal party. It should also be noted that all ten girls fell asleep in light of the fact that the one whom they expected was delayed. Jesus didn’t mention a traffic jam as a possible cause! And again, when he is about to make his entrance to the public welcome, they all wake up together! So far the difference that we are supposed to catch, it hasn’t been made clear.

What finally makes the difference clear, as we read in the parable, is whether the virgins have oil. That’s the only signal Jesus uses to separate the wise from the foolish. All the other markers are exactly the same. But what a difference that little detail creates! As the story unfolds, the wise only have enough for themselves. If they were to give up what they already had to share, none of the virgins would be adequately prepared. The Bridegroom would have left all ten of them behind. This story’s outcome looks unfair to us, so unreasonable, so picky about a slight detail, and that’s partly because we are far removed from this ancient culture. But you will have to set that prejudgment aside for a moment, so you can understand how this warning applies to you and the Church of every time and place.

Jesus was often teaching about two separate ways in His kingdom, a way of life and a way leading to death. Wise and foolish, house on the rock versus house on the sand. Can’t serve God and Money at the same time. Those blessed by the Father safe inside the door as opposed to those outside in the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. In other places, the difference is profound, like a huge gap between those who do the will of God the Father and believe in Jesus for their salvation, and those who trust in themselves or the temporary riches that the world prefers. Here, as we apply the ten virgins parable to ourselves and our lives today, it’s not so obvious; it’s even very subtle-looking, and that can be quite unsettling.

Think of it this way: if the five foolish girls are pure virgins, they are prepared for the Groom’s arrival (if he were on time, that is), if they had their lamps and when they fell asleep along with the wise ones they also awoke; if all of that is true, then why is it that the lack of oil and that alone disqualifies them from entering the banquet, which Jesus is clear to identify as the blessings of belonging to His everlasting kingdom? It sounds a lot like: how can it be fair that a member of a church, who looks so faithful and dedicated, was baptized, taught the faith and appeared to flourish in good works, that when all is said and done, that when the resurrection of the dead takes place, this apparently good Christian person still hears those chilling words of Judgment: I never knew you! That’s unsettling. It shakes us with feelings of despair and uncertainty. When a believer can have it all, and perfectly look the part, yet leave out one little detail that means death and not life, what use is there to stay connected to Christ and His Church? Would the greater effort be worth it in the end?

The answer is all about how you handle the oil. It has to be something that is so important, that it makes the all-important difference between death and life. It cannot correspond to a trivial detail about your Christian life, even though in the story it seems to be such a small difference. Some will try to tell you that having oil means you need to do good works, so that you prove to God and to the Church that you are a committed disciple and you have attained a moral character that makes you deserving of your heavenly Father’s rewards. But if you follow that interpretation, you will soon find that you are not at all prepared with enough oil in your lamp.

You as well as I have sinned against our Lord. We have not made ourselves ready for His glorious return. He seems to be delayed from our standpoint of the world, even though His final arrival is truly according to His perfect, eternal plan. But the more we struggle with our own sin, with violence in our world, violence even breaking into the formerly safe refuge of our church buildings, struggle with the seemingly insurmountable difficulties of our life, the more we figure that God has rejected us. We don’t have the same vigor for God’s work that we used to have. We neglect one another in the ordinary works of love that we used to do gladly and without reminder or nagging. If we were to see the lack of oil as these and similar faults that we see in ourselves, then we figure we should just brace ourselves for the door of Heaven to get slammed right in our faces.

Jesus gives you a gracious word, so that you do not need to feel rejected. He has promised to welcome you in to His banquet feast. He made that promise to you at your Baptism, just like He promised that and more to Turner this morning. You are clothed with Christ, made virgin-pure as a believer faithful to Him alone and not turned aside to yourself, the world or any other false gods that try to tempt us. Not only have you been provided with a lamp, you also have been given oil- you personally, have been given the godly wisdom that hears the Word of forgiveness of your sins, believes it with all your heart, and forgives others as you have been forgiven. You have Jesus, but remember that you have all of Him, not just the parts you like and as if you can discard the parts you don’t. Your baptism was not only a memorable day, a miracle that happened a single time in your life, but it’s also an ongoing identity that you carry with you. It has made a difference in your life so that you constantly remind yourself not to squander it.

You’re probably well aware that Baptists and a few other Christian confessions officially teach the doctrine of what they call a believer’s baptism, and characterize it as a promise or commitment that a Christian must consciously make for himself as a decision to follow Jesus Christ as His disciple. I can readily assure you, they don’t intend to hold to a belief that is contrary to the Bible, and I could even propose that they, as we, are trying to be good Christian people, no doubt about it. But if they were to witness what had just happened to Turner this morning, these otherwise well-meaning Christians would be shaking their heads. What can that little baby do for God right now? He needs constant help, and the parents have to guess what specifically he needs help with- and boy does one parent need a lot more practice than he would like to admit! But that helplessness is precisely why Jesus commands the Church to baptize babies, as well as anyone of any age who hasn’t yet received that gift- it’s all about what God gives rather than what the believer promises.

I’ll tell you that they do have one concern that we should listen to as Lutherans, staunch baby-baptizers as we are. That is the concern that once a baby has been baptized, how often is it that that new believer has little or no further connection with the church, or doesn’t grow in the faith? Maybe it’s a young person who goes all the way through Confirmation instruction, but when he or she is exposed to false spiritual teaching that contradicts God’s Word, then they fall away. Do the parents imagine that the baptism by itself is a ritual that guarantees salvation, even if you have not been taught the faith or you continue in the life of the sinner that we all remain to be, baptized or not? Listen to that concern, and respond to your Baptist friend that Jesus wants us to remember our Baptism, to continue in the Christian life we have been given, totally as a gift and not as our work toward God. There is no such thing as spiritual fire insurance. Baptism needs to be cherished, and not despised as an ordinary, useless thing. Keep thinking of it as a miracle, because it is! God says in the Bible it will save you, so trust in His Word to do what He says.

Yes, forgiveness is free, and you will continue to need it because you and I are still sinners. That constant repentance and trust in Christ’s forgiveness, that total reliance on Him, that constant rejection of self and the temporary world that you have been called to do, that’s your oil that God the Holy Spirit has kept in abundant supply for you. That’s your wisdom that begins with a reverent fear of the Lord. Your Father, to whom you pray, loves you and will not shut you out, even when you face your darkest days.

Embrace the miracle that welcomed you in to the wedding feast of the Kingdom of Heaven, especially on occasions when you see it happen for another child of God. That way, with God’s ever-present help, you will not despise this gift you have been given and when you wake up from death’s sleep on the Last Day, you will rejoice to greet Jesus Christ the Church’s Bridegroom with all the other wise virgins, indeed, the whole company of heaven that is singing along with you in the Divine Service today.

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.