Friday, December 16, 2005

Bible Verses you love to hate

There are just some Bible passages that leave me fuming. Case in point: yesterday's parable of the wise and foolish virgins… or bridesmaids today, since virginity is no longer the be-all-end-all it once was. But on to the story… You've got these silly girls, so awhirl in their excitement over the wedding that they forget to bring extra fuel for their lamps, and you've got the anal retentives who always come on time, prepared for all contingencies (that would be me).

As fate would have it, the groom is late (inconsiderate of him, don't you think?) and the girls fall asleep with their lamps lit. Oops, here he comes… wake up, get ready! but wait… "We're out of juice, the silly girls cry… give us some of yours."
"No!", the self-righteous ones proclaim… "we won't have enough for ourselves. Go buy your own."

And you know the rest of the story. Groom arrives, those who are there go in, and the door is closed and locked. Tough luck you silly girls, the Lord doesn't even know you.

Now wait just a minute… This is not the same God of compassion and forgiveness I've come to know and love. This is not the same Word of God that comes from Luke that says "lend generously, without expectation of repayment." This God is somebody else.

As a #1 on the Enneagram, I've had to learn (quite painfully) over the last couple of years that not everybody views the world with the same eyes as I do. Not everybody has to learn the right way to do something, and subsequently does it that way. Not everybody even thinks there even is one right way. And neither do I anymore. I have sisters who make their travel plans at the last minute, often don't even know their flight numbers, let alone forget to bring extra batteries for their flashlights. My job is to be generous and forgiving and accepting of them, because they in turn have their own strengths to add to the diversity of our community.

So if I were to rewrite this parable I'd say something like this: The ones with the extra oil would say to the ones with just enough, "Hey!, You know the groom may not show up on time. Lets blow out your lamps for now to save on fuel and we'll share our light until he comes. That way, we'll all be here to go in when he arrives." And that's exactly what they did. Amen.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you! This passage annoys me too. I might not have thought to conserve oil, but certainly sharing what they had would be the right way to go...

seeking_something said...

Heh heh. If it doesn't seem to gel with Christ's teachings, then perhaps you are misunderstanding it.

The groom in those days take a circuitous route to get to his bride. On the route, he invites everyone he meets. Everybody knows that he's coming, but nobody knows exactly when ... that's the fun part. The bride to be (and host) must be alert for his coming. So no, he is not being rude.

What is it that cannot be shared? Your relationship with our Lord. That's an individual thing. We each have to work on that ourselves, we can't borrow it from others. We each individually have to be alert for His coming.

To borrow from a pastor (a rather poor re-rendition of it, though):
One day the Head devil was teaching the apprentice devils. How can we turn people from God? Let's tell them God doesn't exist! No, no, they're too smart for that. Let's tell them God doesn't care! No, no, they're too smart for that. I know: tell them they have time! Yes, tell them they don't have to work on it know, that they can put it off.