We spend a lot of time waiting for things to happen which are beyond our control. The bus is late, so we wait. Someone doesn’t show up for an appointment, so we wait. It rains the day of the picnic, so we wait. Sometimes we wait patiently, and sometimes not so much. Sometimes we do something else in the meantime, and sometimes we just sit. We often do not have a choice about whether we wait. But we do have a choice about how we wait.

That is the situation which the Church found itself facing in the first century, and to greater and lesser degrees has been facing ever since. From almost the moment Jesus ceased being physically present here on earth, the followers of Christ have been anticipating his return. For some this expectation is at the very center of their faith. For others it hardly matters at all. But the idea of Christ’s return has been a part of Christian theology from the beginning right up to the present. For many in the early Church, the issue became critical as the first generation of believers began to die. There had been an understanding that the in-between time in which they were living would be relatively short. As the years began to pass by, a growing anxiety developed about the meaning of the delay.

Thus it is that in a variety of ways and a variety of places we find this issue being addressed in the New Testament. Several of the letters of Paul speak about it in one way or another. And the Gospel writers also included material which related to the topic. Both texts for today fall into this category. And despite many differences between them, there is a common message contained in both. In his letter to the church at Thessalonica, Paul seeks to calm their fears which had arisen around the matter of what happens to those who have died before Christ’s return. Apparently there were some who were wondering if that meant they would be excluded from enjoying the reunion of Christ and his people. Paul makes it very clear that their fears are unfounded. God will take care of all of God’s children, even those who have died. I must confess that I would have been more comfortable if he had just left it at that. But he felt the need to elaborate on exactly how, and in what order, God would accomplish this great caring. Had he known then the kinds of wild speculation which would take place over his words, I suspect he would have been more careful. Because really his point was exactly the opposite of what often occurs. He was trying to assure the Thessalonians that there was no need to worry. Whatever happens, whenever it happens, God will always be there to care for us. God can be counted on. The point is not when the end is coming or what it will look like when it does arrive. The point is to live in faithful confidence in the in-between time until then.

The parable of the ten bridesmaids in Matthew’s Gospel makes a similar point. Again, I must confess that there are some of the details of this story which I do not understand. They seem to be not in keeping with the dominant themes of love and grace which I find in Jesus’ teachings. Why, for example, can’t the bridesmaids with oil share with those who have run out? I don’t know. And why are the doors finally closed and the bridesmaids who went to town for more oil denied entrance to the party? Again, I don’t know. But, those odd points notwithstanding, the central thrust of this parable is clear. Christ’s return is not something which can be calculated and predicted. To try is to invite problems. What is important is how we live in the in-between time. Are we prepared for the unexpected? Are we living our lives for the long haul? For those who invested their whole faith in the expectation of Christ’s imminent return, a delay in that return constituted a crisis of faith. Instead, Jesus challenges his disciples, including us, to live watchful lives, seizing every moment and every day, actively loving both God and neighbor, so that despair can find no foothold. Biblical scholar Eduard Schweitzer says of this story, “When Jesus calls on his disciples to keep watch, he is calling on them to take the reality of God so seriously that they can come to terms with its sudden appearance at any moment within their own lives, precisely because they know that this reality will one day come unboundedly in the kingdom of God.” And again we are back to the theme of waiting. Jesus did not come back when many expected that he would. They found themselves waiting. The question was not how long would they have to wait. The important question was how would they live while they waited.

As we rapidly approach the end of the century and the end of the millennium, we are hearing reports of those who once again are being caught up in this fervor to anticipate and predict the precise moment of Christ’s return. And once again we will likely see such efforts lead to disappointment because they are asking the wrong question. When we strive to live lives which are filled with God (the oil in our lamps, if you will), then the importance of calculating the last days is significantly diminished.

I don’t know what it means to talk about the second coming of Christ. I don’t know whether it will be tomorrow or 10,000 years from now or whether it has already occurred in the form of the Holy Spirit among us and within us. What I do know is that how we live while we wait is important. Not in terms of following all the right rules and living the “right” kind of life. But rather in terms of living a life which is open to the presence of God in every moment of every situation, trusting that God is indeed trustworthy. How are we waiting?