November 8: Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Posted by Campus Ministry on Sunday, November 8, 2020 at 8:00 AM PST
.png)
Our lectionary readings seem to have predicted in advance exactly where we would be this week: Doing a lot of waiting. So much waiting. In this tense election week, many of us have struggled to calm our nerves and find our grounding. Looking at the news, we see a country divided right down the middle and the presence of those willing to take this election by intimidation or force. We see American citizens petitioning to have their votes counted and those protesting to have votes ignored and voices silenced. We see activists in the streets continuing to experience police violence. With all of this, I wonder: How am I to meet the challenges of this time with the values and strength of my Christian faith? Strangely, the scriptures today might suggest that we just simply wait!
Our scripture from the Book of Wisdom makes us a promise, which is that if we seek Wisdom, we will find her. This reminder is so appropriate for a university campus about to turn the corner into finals week. Students, take heart! If we “keep vigil” and wait for Wisdom, she will show herself to us because we are worthy of her. Additionally, the Psalmist proclaims a longing for God, a thirst of the soul, and a commitment to wait for God to come close. Perhaps reflecting a feeling some have had this week, the Psalmist compares the soul without the experience of the presence of God to “earth, parched, lifeless and without water.” So we wait. We wait for the wisdom to know what to do in these troubling times and we wait for God who is our help and our joy.
We are quickly approaching the season of Advent so we must remember that this is no aimless waiting we are doing! The gospel reading makes this very clear with the parable of the ten virgins (the direct Greek translation) or bridesmaids, five who are foolish and five who are wise. While all ten are waiting for the bridegroom to arrive, the foolish bridesmaids are caught unprepared, asleep and without oil for their lamps; the wise are waiting attentively and have come with enough oil to join him and attend the wedding banquet. The wedding banquet, of course, is meant for all but Jesus is warning us in this parable that if we are not waiting attentively, we just might miss it! And this is the great paradox of our Christian faith: the reign of God that Jesus is referring to in this parable is both here and not yet. We are to be today as though we are at the banquet table, all the while knowing that God’s reign will only be complete in the fullness of time. So we wait.
This election week has lifted into high relief both the purpose and posture of our waiting. We know as Christians that Jesus calls us always to meet intimidation, violence, and oppression with love. There is no other way to walk in his holy footsteps. To that end, I will conclude this reflection with the words of Rev. Cori Bush, the first Black woman elected to Congress in the state of Missouri, as inspiration that Wisdom and God are both calling us to love one another fiercely in the damaging divisions of our time:
“Your Congresswoman-elect loves you. And I need you to get that. Because if I love you, I care that you eat. If I love you, I care that you have shelter, and adequate, safe housing. If I love you, I care that you have clean water and clean air and you have a livable wage. If I love you, I care that the police don’t murder you. If I love you, I care that you make it home safely. If I love you, I care that you are able to have a dignity and have a quality of life the same as the next person, the same as those that don’t look like you, that didn’t grow up the way you did, those that don’t have the same socioeconomic status as you, I care.”
Erin Beary Andersen, Associate Director of Campus Ministry