Jesus is now finished with the confrontations and moved on to talking about preparing for what is ahead. This parable warns of what happens when one does not prepare for something you know is going to happen.

The parable shows the importance of individual preparedness and personal investment in our communal creation of the Kingdom of God. Your friend can have a sustaining prayer life and pray for you, but she can’t pray for you.  We must do the preparation ourselves and be ready. Our relationships with the divine are our own, and our contributions to bringing the Kingdom of God are our own. 
Our faith is to be lived out in community, but we cannot rely on others to prepare us for the Kingdom. There is a delicate balance between communal responsibility and being a critical and active member of that community. We can be ready, or we can be untrusting, unaware, and unprepared to do our part.

Our lesson for Matthew today is saying that the kingdom of heaven is like this. How so? For Matthew’s community, it was about being immediately ready for Christ to come back and not to fall asleep on watch. 2000+ years later, the message is still to be ready, but in a slightly different way. The kingdom of heaven is both in the future and in the present. The kingdom of heaven is happening now – so how are we prepared? How are we sustaining our life of faith and lighting our lamps with extra oil to show the world who God is?

Prayer: Gracious God, We thank you for our time together today. Help us to be constantly preparing and ready for you in our lives. Be with us as we go into the world to do your work that we will be ready, with lamps lit when you come among us. Amen.