Meditation on Matthew 25:1-13
Rev. Dr. Karen Crawford
Nov. 8, 2026 (Baptism of Margot and Jack)
Ruth Roman was one of 10 children, raised in an abusive household. She endured an abusive marriage and a period of homelessness. She turned to drugs and doing whatever she could to survive. She didn’t believe in God or Jesus. She didn’t know that she was loved and forgiven. Not until nine years ago, when she started attending the New Jerusalem Church in Saint James and heard her pastor preach. After that, everything changed. She became a person of hope and compassion and prayer. She had a whole new purpose for her life—not just survival, but seeking to follow him and help others to know him, too.
About 7 years ago, the pastor asked her to serve as the director of the Food Pantry there. She said yes, and the ministry grew under her leadership. Today, many volunteers help prepare the bags distributed on Wednesday nights to about 80 families. Some people come all the way from Queens. And they don’t just come for food. They come to share their problems. Ruth offers to pray with each person. Then, during the pandemic, she started a bilingual ministry called “Gracious Givers of Long Island.” Volunteers deliver food to people who can’t come to the food pantry; they help people with pay utility bills or for prescription drugs, and other generous acts of kindness. She has been invited to share her testimony with schools and Girl Scouts. Retired police officers bring troubled teens, kids doing what it takes to survive, to help with the food pantry. She invites them to church, so they, too, might meet the Lord and be changed.
What is all this talk about having lamps, falling asleep, and not having enough oil in Jesus’ parable of the 10 bridesmaids? Why did the foolish demand of the wise bridesmaids, when their lamps went out, “Give us some of your oil?” But it was too late.
The Confirmation class and I, along with some adults, visited Temple Isaiah in Stony Brook three years ago for a Shabbat service. Shabbat is the Hebrew word for rest. Shabbat Shalom means peaceful rest. One of the most moving aspects of the worship was during a Hebrew song called “Lekha Dodi,” when everyone stands and turns to face the door and welcome Shabbat as if she is a beloved bride. “Come out my Beloved, the Bride to meet,” the song begins in English. “The inner light of Shabbat, let us greet.”
Joy filled the room. I was reminded, then, that the Sabbath is more than just a commandment, a day God set aside to refrain from work when our Creator was finished creating. This is God’s gift of Sabbath rest and peace, foreshadowing the wedding banquet of the Messiah, when the Sabbath won’t just be one day a week; it will be ours to enjoy with God and one another for all eternity. The Shabbat bride, therefore, is a metaphor for the time of redemption. When the Messiah comes, everyone will live in peace and rest forever.
This is what Jesus means with his parable. He was Jewish, after all, as was his first audience. Everyone knew that he was talking about the day of redemption: who would be ready to meet the Messiah, and who would not. Who would have the oil of faith to light their lanterns and join the Bridegroom in the eternal wedding banquet. And who would not.
I think God was waiting patiently for Ruth to realize there was something missing from her life. That life isn’t just to be endured. It isn’t just survival, doing whatever it takes. Life is meant to be lived by giving and sharing, spreading hope and kindness, reaching out to help people and in doing so, being filled to overflowing with the joy of the Lord.
Reading this passage, I am stirred by the metaphor of the foolish bridesmaids who did have lamps and oil and were waiting and longing for the Bridegroom with the other bridesmaids. They did have some faith! But it wasn’t enough. It ran out while they were waiting. When they fell asleep, I think they just grew weary and stopped believing that today or tonight could be the very day that the Messiah comes again. They let their oil run out and their faith no longer guided and filled their life with purpose and meaning.
And I ask myself, would I live my life differently if I lived as if I were sure that Christ could return at any moment? I am a woman of faith, but at the same time, I am always busy preparing for the next thing scheduled on my ministry calendar. Those anxious preparations and worrying about all the details can steal our joy, can’t they? And none of it really prepares us for Christ’s coming again. And what if Christ comes tonight? This afternoon, even? All that worry for the future would be for nothing. Amen?
I met Ruth Roman yesterday morning, when Marci Deakins, Isabel Buse, and I went to visit her at the New Jerusalem Church. We were there to present Ruth with a check and a letter explaining the Charlotte Cheatham Hunger Relief Fund and the woman—Charlotte Cheatham—who started it all with her passion to help people in need. After Ruth shared her story, Marci and Isabel shared about Charlotte Cheatham. They spoke of her concern for people living in poverty, not having enough food to eat. And how she and Estelle Edwards and Lois Netter went to Washington and lobbied for aid for people living with food insecurity. That passion to help people in need led Charlotte’s husband, Ed, to start the fund after she went home to be with God in 2009. When Ed passed away last October, his family asked the Session to distribute the remaining money to organizations feeding the hungry on Long Island. The New Jerusalem Church Food Pantry was one of about 18 food pantries and soup kitchens receiving grants ranging from $500 to $6,000 this year.
Today, we welcomed two little children into the Church through Baptism. Margot Wren and Jack Thomas are claimed by their Lord and filled with spiritual gifts to strengthen them to keep choosing to follow Christ all their days. Today is a new beginning for them and for us, who were reminded of the joy of our baptisms and our calling to nurture all the children in faith, hope, love—to help ensure that their lamps will never go out.
When I told Ruth that the check was for $6,000, she cried. Staring at the check, wiping away tears, she thanked us, over and over again. She couldn’t wait to tell her pastor –the one who shared the gospel with her nine years ago that changed her life and lit her lamp
with oil.
She has become a person of hope and compassion and prayer with a whole new purpose for her life—not just her own survival but seeking to follow Christ and help others know him. She wants to be ready and awake with her lamp aflame.
Friends, do you have enough oil for your lamp? Does your faith guide and fill your life with purpose and meaning or are you just surviving? Are you ready for the day of redemption?
It may be midnight. It may dawn. No one knows the day or hour when the Messiah will
beckon us to the wedding banquet, a feast of forever Sabbath rest and peace, like the song we sang at Temple Isaiah.
“Come out my Beloved, the Bride to meet. The inner light of Shabbat, let us greet.”
Let us pray.
Holy One, we await our Bridegroom, our Messiah, with joyous anticipation. We trust in your love and mercy for us. Thank you for our faith, which is a gracious gift from you. Thank you for calling us to a life of purpose and meaning, to live not just to survive day by day but to care for others, including those living in poverty and food insecurity. Strengthen us to share our testimonies so that others come to know you more. Thank you for stirring us to love one another and nurture all who are baptized throughout their journeys of faith, helping to ensure that their lamps and ours will never go out. Come quickly, Lord. We are ready to let go of the worries of today and tomorrow and enter into the joy that you have prepared for us, the feast of forever Sabbath rest and peace. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.
