On Sunday, November 8, 2026, the Rev. Kit Lonergan preached and celebrated baptisms at All Saints Episcopal Church in Chelmsford, MA. Always glad to share Trinity Church with the wider world – especially in our own Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts – visit All Saints’ YouTube for video of Kit’s sermon, or we present the sermon text here below.
KGL+
Sermon
All Saints Chelmsford
Year A Proper 27
November 8, 2026
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts together be always acceptable in your sight, O God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.
I appreciate that Fr. Sean chose to head out on vacation just in time for this gospel reading.
And it’s hard to question that, because the parable of the ‘Wise and Foolish Bridesmaids’ that we hear this morning is itself unsettling, as it challenges all the notions of grace and generosity and selflessness that we have come to believe are part and parcel of our faith through Jesus Christ. The designation of ‘wise’ and ‘foolish’ from the outset; the lack of sharing the oil with others; the response at the door of the bridegroom and the chilling words, ‘I do not know you’. If you felt edgy and annoyed by the gospel this morning, you probably are in a pretty healthy framework, as parables are meant to jar us into surprise, rather than knowing the end of the sentence before Jesus even utters it. Add into this the context of the Gospel of Matthew’s 25th chapter, which is entirely apocalyptic, then there is almost no reason to not feel judged and defensive.
And yet—and yet, why would Jesus offer us this parable (and the two weeks which will follow) if it were only about judgment and not about our fundamental orientation? Matthew’s gospel is the one which talks about how communities should engage with one another, even in conflict; the gospel which brings us the Beatitudes and some of Jesus’ best known teaching passages; and finally, it is the gospel which will end our liturgical year with Jesus commending to his disciples to serve Christ in those who are hungry, thirsty, in prison, lonely, unclothed. So, a few bridesmaids refusing to share their oil with others feels like an anomaly.
But it is in the anomalies in scripture where we get our most profound invitations from God, is it not?
There is a wedding. All that we hear in the gospel this morning is completely culturally appropriate. During a wedding in Jesus’ time, the couple would celebrate separately with their own households and at some point the bridegroom would join the bride’s celebration. The role of bridesmaids here is not simply metaphor—it was the tradition that they were to welcome the groom into the celebration, even if he arrived late into the evening. The trouble begins when the groom doesn’t show up at the anticipated time, and those bridesmaids are tired. Regardless of whether they have been predestined ‘wise’ or ‘foolish’, all ten fall asleep while waiting. When the shout goes up that the groom is finally making an appearance, all ten wake. Five have brought extra oil with them— maybe they are Type A, or doomsday preppers, or knew from experience that this groom was a little wily—but they came with a purse full of extra as they knew the wait might be longer than predicted. Five discover at this time that they had counted on everything going to plan and the groom arriving on time– and they ask the others to share.
The response feels harsh—if we share our oil, there won’t be enough for any of us. And the bridesmaids without the extra oil head out to purchase more. There is still oil to be had, just not there in that moment, and not easily shared.
I’d like us to sit for a moment not with what feels like a hard denial, but with the preparation for the bridegroom this morning.
I’ve often joked that if you were to look in my purse, you might imagine that I am constantly prepared for an elongated, ongoing siege of some sort. Tissues, hand sanitizer, Advil, small pouches of snacks, various colored pens, Hot Wheel cars, Clorox wipes, earphones, cough drops, tea bags and more than likely, a vial of chrism, ‘just in case’. It’s been my experience, which may not be universal, that detours present themselves when we least expect it—that not everything goes to plan, or happens on time, and that some of the hardest moments personally have been when we assume that our plans will occur without a hitch, and we find ourselves waylaid.
If you have ever been at a swamped restaurant waiting for your hangry children’s food, and find yourself making inchworms out of crumpled up straw wrappers, crawling across the table fueled by drops of water, you may know this feeling all too well.
All ten bridesmaids arrive, ready to welcome and celebrate the arrival of the bridegroom. All ten get tired and fall asleep while waiting. The difference is, some of the bridesmaids were ready and aware that things may not go according to plan during this wait. That situations change; parameters shift; that our expectation for individual gratification only on our preferred time frame may not happen.
Whether we admit it or not, most Christians have a tacit expectation that if God is ‘with us’, then all should go according to our plans. We can imagine God working on a schedule which closely aligns with what is personally convenient to us—the corollary being that if something we counted on does not pan out, then we have been abandoned, disappointed, by the Holy One. We can reduce the journey of faith to our own level of immediate satisfaction in any given moment.
The bridesmaids who are considered ‘wise’ this morning allowed for the plan to shift; for God’s presence to come later than announced. They had enough of whatever they needed—oil, in this instance—to allow for a longer wait, a different welcome. They didn’t give up and go home, or declare the celebration over when it did not go their chosen way.
Readiness, for Jesus in this parable, is not about being constantly on edge and alert for fear of exclusion. That is an exhausting premise and simply not humanly possible— recall that all ten bridesmaids fell asleep while waiting. I wonder instead if Jesus is reminding his disciples that faithfulness—that trust in God, is not something which is easily transferred or ready-made for immediate consumption. It is accumulated moment by moment, day by day, prayer by prayer, returning again and again to the altar rail to receive God’s grace, so that when the plans do change, when the timing is not our own, that we have enough oil in reserve to adjust our expectations.