Disruption

Matthew 25:7 – “Then all the bridesmaids woke up and trimmed their lamps.”

Trimmed their lamps. Lamps were small vessels holding oil with a spout that holds the wick. To trim a lamp, one would cut the end of the wick so the lamp burns clean and bright. Wicks that are not tended to in this way burn dim and smoky. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that one of the definitions of the verb used for “trimmed” is “to set in order.” It is related to the word for the world and the universe, cosmos. 

Matthew has been talking about being prepared, having our things in order, for the return of Jesus – or death, whichever comes first. There is a lot of emphasis, especially in the Presbyterian church, on decency and order, as Paul wrote. I think maybe too much. The Holy Spirit is into upsetting the order, working to disrupt our notions of order and decency rather than following it. Paul was writing to people who thought the time was so short that some people wouldn’t die before being taken to heaven. In that sense, decency and order was a survival technique. 

All through the Bible God upsets humanity’s order. The example I used the other day was God’s choosing the younger son to inherit rather than the older – there are also stories of God convincing men that women should inherit if there is no son or other heir. The story of the garden and Adam and Eve eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil is a disruption of order. Yet, if they had not eaten the fruit we would still be in that garden. It would be a kind of heaven, especially for those who have been oppressed by systems and cultures. But the story is an etiology to explain why human beings have consciousness and animals don’t seem to. (They do. And the story is more complex.) God put the tree there so that we would upset the order. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that putting the tree there would lead to their eating it. 

But here, Jesus is preaching about having everything ready. Maybe he’s not talking about material things? Maybe he’s talking about our hearts and minds. To have our hearts and minds ready or prepared for Jesus implies that they will upset the order of patriarchy, bigotry, racism, sexism, homophobia, and ableism – there are many ways and “reasons” to oppress others. God upsets the order of human society. She disrupts our orderly ways. We fear such disruption; it often means a change in lifestyle, and we don’t interpret that for the better. We often would rather be comfortable in what security we have than follow where we think God is calling. At least, I would. 

But without disruption our lives will never get better, nor will the lives of those who are living in shelters or on the streets. Unless we disrupt our lives, we will never be able to make others’ lives better. Because improvement requires that we who have homes, jobs, and security give some of that up so others can simply eat or have one home. Improvement in the social order causes change, requires changing how we live together as people in a community. It requires recognition that we are all interconnected. It requires rich people to “sell all they have and give it to the poor.” It requires that we love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves and God. 

We are failing that in the US. Too many of us are not willing to risk our comfort so that others might have a better life. Until we are, nothing will change. We will continue to have government officials propose that we should use jails and prisons for sheltering the homeless so that the police can “clean up the streets.” Rather than figuring out a way to provide for everyone, our current administration would rather criminalize difference, criminalize chaos, criminalize the Holy Spirit’s disruptions into our world.

What are we willing to give up so that others may have their fair share? Are we willing to let the Spirit disrupt our lives?

B