2026-11-11
Brooke Strong
Love Comes Prepared
The Federated Church
Pentecost 24A / Veterans’ Sunday
Matthew 25:1-13
Rev. Michael Anthony Howard
Sunday, November 8, 2026
Please join your heart with mine as we lift them up to God—
Living Word,
Draw near us.
Let your Love
Take on flesh in us.
Open these words to us,
and open us to one another.
And may the words of my mouth,
and the meditations of all our hearts,
bear witness to your Kingdom,
for you are our Rock and Redeemer.
Amen.
1. The Parachute
First Lieutenant Mia Blundetto
was a United States Marine.
And she had a problem.
She was afraid of heights.
Now, being afraid of heights
is not necessarily a problem.
Unless somebody expects you
to jump out of an airplane!
…
And that’s exactly what
the Marine Corps expected her to do.
So she went to airborne school.
And she trained and practiced.
And she trained and practiced some more.
She learned how to jump.
How to fall.
How to land.
She was trained to respond
when things went wrong.
Again. And again. And again.
Until one day,
on her third parachute jump,
something happened
that nobody had planned.
As she descended toward the earth,
she landed right on top
of another jumper’s parachute!
…
Now, I don’t know about you,
but that is not where
I would want to find myself.
Thousands of feet in the air.
Standing on somebody else’s parachute!
But Mia didn’t freeze.
She responded.
She remembered her training,
maneuvered herself free,
and then she landed safely.
…
She didn’t know what was going to happen.
She couldn’t have known.
But she had prepared.
Her preparation didn’t make her invulnerable.
It made her capable.
First Lt. Blundetto was capable
of responding when the unexpected happened.
And on this Veterans Sunday
as we honor those who have served,
I wonder what that kind of preparation
might teach us about faith.
In our Gospel this morning,
Jesus has something to say
about being ready.
2. The Lamps
I have a ten-year-old daughter.
And just about every morning,
I ask the same question.
“Are you ready?”
And I’ve discovered something.
When a ten-year-old says,
“Yes, I'm ready,”
that doesn’t necessarily mean
that the shoes are on.
Sometimes it doesn’t even mean
we know where the shoes are!
Sometimes it just means,
“Dad, I’ve heard your question,
and I would like this conversation to be over.”
…
Jesus tells a story about ten bridesmaids.
Ten bridesmaids waiting for a wedding.
Five are wise.
Five are foolish.
All ten have lamps.
All ten are waiting.
And the bridegroom is delayed.
So they wait.
And they wait.
And they wait.
Until eventually—
Every single one of them falls asleep!
The wise fall asleep.
The foolish fall asleep.
Everybody falls asleep!
Then at midnight, a cry goes out:
“Here comes the bridegroom!
Come out to meet him!”
And suddenly everybody is scrambling.
But five discover they don't have enough oil.
They weren’t ready.
And Jesus concludes:
Grēgoreite!
Keep watch!
…
But wait a minute, Jesus.
They all fell asleep!
Apparently, keeping watch
isn’t simply about keeping your eyes open.
It’s about being prepared.
…So how do we become prepared?
3. The Desirable Difficulties of Discipleship
There’s a wonderful book
called Make It Stick,
about how human beings learn.
The authors describe something
called desirable difficulties.
Sometimes the things that
make learning difficult
are the very things that make learning last…
that “make it stick.”
We learn by doing.
By trying.
By failing.
By trying again.
Until what we know becomes part of who we are.
That’s what happened to Lieutenant Blundetto.
And friends, that’s what discipleship is supposed to do.
We don’t become loving people
simply by agreeing that love is important.
We become loving people by loving!
We don’t become hospitable
by memorizing a definition of hospitality.
We become hospitable by opening our doors.
Opening our tables.
Opening our hearts.
We don’t become courageous
by waiting until we’re no longer afraid.
We become courageous
by doing what love requires—
even when we’re afraid!
We don’t become people of justice
simply by talking about justice.
We become people of justice
by practicing justice.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Until love becomes more than something we believe.
Love becomes something we know how to do!
That’s discipleship.
That’s formation.
That’s the work of grace in our lives.
God isn’t finished with us!
We are still becoming.
Still growing.
Still learning how to love.
And that’s good news!
Because who we are today
is not all that we can become tomorrow.
…But there’s a danger here.
4. The Dangerous Distortions of Discipleship
In Wesleyan tradition.
John Wesley taught something called
Christian perfection.
Not that we could become flawless.
But that we could become perfected in love.
That grace could transform us.
And I believe that.
I believe we can grow in love.
I believe grace can change us.
I believe human beings are perfectible.
But here’s the danger.
Sometimes, as we begin to grow, we begin to compare.
We look at our lives.
Then we look at somebody else’s.
And before long, we start thinking—
At least I’m doing better than that person.
At least I’ve got my lamp.
At least I’ve got my oil.
At least I’m one of the wise ones!
And friends, you don't have to
think you’re perfect to become judgmental.
You only have to think you’re better.
And I wonder whether that’s something
we need to hear this week.
We’ve just come through another election.
Some of our neighbors are celebrating.
Some are disappointed.
Some are anxious about what comes next.
And everywhere we turn,
somebody seems ready to tell us
who’s right and who’s wrong.
Who’s wise and who’s foolish.
Who’s on the right side.
And who’s on the wrong side.
Now, don’t misunderstand me.
Our convictions matter!
Justice matters!
Truth matters!
We have to be able to recognize what is harmful.
We have to be willing to stand up for what is right.
But our convictions must never become
an excuse to deny the dignity of our neighbors!
Not the immigrant.
Not the stranger.
Not the person whose politics we cannot understand.
Not the person whose life looks nothing like our own.
We can disagree.
We can challenge.
We can hold one another accountable.
But we cannot stop loving!
Because the goal of discipleship
is not to become better THAN our neighbors.
The goal is to become better
AT LOVING our neighbors!
…
And notice something about Jesus’ story.
Jesus tells us to keep watch.
He tells us to be ready.
But he never tells us to
go around inspecting everybody else’s lamps!
He never appoints us the oil police!
…
The judgment belongs to the bridegroom.
The preparation belongs to us.
…And that raises a bigger question.
What kind of people are we preparing to become?
5. A People Waiting in the Shadow
Matthew’s Gospel takes shape
in a world that has been shaken.
Jerusalem has fallen.
The Temple has been destroyed.
And in the shadow of that catastrophe,
a messianic people is learning how to live.
The Messiah has come.
But the world is not yet
what God has promised.
The bridegroom is delayed.
And the question becomes:
What kind of people
shall we become while we wait?
Not simply, what do we believe?
Not simply, what do we know?
But what are we becoming?
…And that, I think,
is the question Federated is asking, too.
6. Becoming a Sanctuary People
Here at Federated,
we’re beginning some important work.
We’re talking about becoming a Safe Church.
We’re talking about becoming a sanctuary people.
And yes, that means policies.
Boundaries.
Accountability.
It also means learning how to protect one another,
especially those who are vulnerable.
But I want us to remember something.
…
Safety is a condition of sanctuary.
Fulfillment is its purpose.
We’re not simply trying to become
a church where fewer things go wrong.
We’re trying to become a church
where more things go right!
…
Where children can flourish.
Where strangers become neighbors.
Where the wounded find healing.
Where people can disagree
without being dehumanized.
Where the vulnerable are protected.
Where the forgotten are remembered.
Where love is not merely something
we proclaim on Sunday—
But something people experience
when they walk through our doors here on Monday!
And not only inside these walls.
Out there.
In our neighborhoods.
In our schools.
In the places where our neighbors are hungry.
Where families are afraid.
Where people wonder whether anyone sees them.
That’s where our preparation matters!
That’s where discipleship becomes visible!
And we’re not there yet.
Of course we’re not!
We’re still learning.
Still practicing.
Still becoming.
Because God is not finished with us!
…And now, I’d like us to notice one last thing
about the bridesmaids.
7. The Wedding Feast
…
There’s something we can miss
if we’re not careful.
Those bridesmaids in the parable
weren’t preparing for a disaster.
They weren’t preparing for a battle.
They weren’t preparing for the end of the world.
…
They were preparing for a WEDDING!
A wedding!
A celebration!
A feast!
They were waiting for the arrival of the bridegroom.
Waiting for the doors to open.
Waiting for the celebration to begin.
And that’s the image Jesus gives us
of the coming reign of God.
Not simply a world where
danger has been defeated.
But a world where
love is fulfilled!
…
A world where justice rolls down like waters!
Where mercy flows like an ever-flowing stream!
Where the hungry are fed!
Where the stranger is welcomed!
Where the brokenhearted are comforted!
Where creation itself rejoices!
That’s the world we’re preparing for!
…
And that’s why we practice.
That’s why we learn to love.
That’s why we keep working
to become a sanctuary people.
Not because we’re better than our neighbors.
But because our neighbors are beloved!
Not simply because the world is dangerous.
BUT BECAUSE THE WORLD IS BELOVED!
…
And so we prepare.
We prepare our hearts.
We prepare our hands.
We prepare our tables.
We prepare our church.
We practice the life of the world to come.
Here. Now.
Together.
Because the bridegroom is coming.
The feast is being prepared.
And love—
Love comes prepared.
Amen.
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