Women and Eschatology

Women's Thankoffering Service
Thank you to all of the women who led us in worship this past Sunday for the Women's Thankoffering Service. Karen Witker did a wonderful job as she shared a message on Matthew 15:1-13, focusing on the wise and foolish bridesmaids who anxiously prepare themselves for the coming of the groom, who is Christ.

Who are your favorite women of faith? One of my favorites is Deborah. We will hear her story this coming Sunday. In fact, the entire book of Judges, most famous popularly for the strongman Samson, is actually filled with very colorful stories of faithful and daring women. Why not give it a read this week?

Matthew 25 and Beyond
During the next two weeks, we will continue the parables of Matthew 25. Since we will be dwelling a bit on eschatology (the study of the "end times") in the next few weeks, I thought it would be helpful to describe how Matthew 25 fits within the whole Gospel. Chapter 25 is part of the last of 5 teaching sections in the Gospel of Matthew. In Matthew's gospel, Jesus teaches a lot. The first section is of course the Sermon on the Mount in chapters 5-7.

Chapter 25 contains three parables that (I think) function together almost as one extended parable. The first verses (25:1-13) tell the story of 10 bridesmaids who are waiting for the bridegroom to come and the wedding banquet to begin. The second section (25:14-30) tells the famous Parable of the Talents, in which stewards are entrusted with managing their Master's gifts. And the last section (25:31-46) depicts the final judgment of the nations, the famous "sheep and goats" passage. This chapter is about the "end times" and bears our close attention, for it describes those things which are important to our Lord and the business that we are to be about as we await his return.

But this chapter is also squarely about Jesus. This might be obvious, but sometimes in our intense focus on our own preparedness (or lack thereof) we are tempted to forget that is is the Lord who is coming. It is him for whom the foolish and the wise bridesmaids anxiously await. It is he who entrusts his "wealth" to us. It is he who so deeply identifies with the poor, the hungry, the thirsty, the sick, the naked and the imprisoned. In other words, what is so radical about Matthew 25 is not so much what we are called to do (though our Lord does expect much of us), but rather what Christ does.

It is telling for me that immediately after this chapter (25), the Passion narrative begins: Jesus goes up to Jerusalem, is crucified at the hands of sinners, dies, is buried and is raised. The remarkable conviction of the Christian witness is that the end of time has invaded the present, for the One who stands at the end of time as Judge of the living and the dead has invaded our space and our history and is indeed already making all things new (see 27:51-52).

Since we are almost to the end of the Year of Matthew (The year of Mark (year B in the Lectionary Cycle) begins with November 30, the 1st Sunday of Advent), why not take some time to re-read the entire Gospel of Matthew in one sitting? If you are not able to do that in the next few weeks, at least read the last several chapters together (Matthew 25-28). Then you might want to go back and reread the genealogies (yes, the genealogies!) in Matthew 1. How is Christ both Son of David and Son of Abraham?