CreatingCommunity is an email devotion to guide your preparation for worship next weekend. Imagine how much more clear and relevant God's Word will be if you have had an opportunity read, reflect, and dwell in the Word prior to worship. You may do this devotion alone, with others, as a family, or over Zoom as a small group.

This devotion is to be done in preparation for this coming weekend's worship.

Please follow these three steps:

1. Read through the text
2. Respond to the questions (select one of the sets of questions)
3. Offer a Prayer
Matthew 25:1-13
[Jesus said to the disciples:] 1“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. 2Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. 3When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; 4but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. 5As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. 6But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ 7Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. 8The foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ 9But the wise replied, ‘No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ 10And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut. 11Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ 12But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’ 13Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”
No Experience Necessary Questions:
  1. What scares, confuses, or challenges me in this text?
  2. What delights me in this text?
  3. What stories or memories does this text stir in me?
  4. What is God up to in this text?
Family Questions:
  1. Have you every been to a wedding or a wedding reception? How did you know you were invited? Why did you go? What was it like?
  2. Are you foolish or wise? Could you be both? What missed opportunities can you talk about? What opportunities are you glad you went to?
  3. The wedding feast is a biblical image for our life with God, and Christians have used the image as one way to describe holy communion. In what ways does the image of a wedding feast describe your Christian life or your experience of holy communion?
Advance Questions:
  1. The foolish maidens were foolish because they expected everything to be on schedule. No delays. The foolish didn’t anticipate a sudden change of plan. They didn’t prepare for every possible contingency so as to insure their presence at the feast. The foolish didn’t know the importance of the meal. What now are the expectations of your heart? How do you rank this feast? Are you here for a taste, or are you here to be dazzled by a foretaste? Foolish are you, or are you wise? 
  2. Are there any insights to be drawn from the preparations the bridesmaids in the parable make—or don't make—and the ways our society prepares to celebrate Christmas? How does the church's preparation for Christ's coming look like the parable? How does it look like the shoppers?
  3. It is easy to assume that the bridegroom represents Jesus in the parable of the bridesmaids. If, however, we do not assume the bridegroom is Jesus, how might this parable be reframed? In that reframing, what does each character in the parable contribute to our understanding of the kingdom of heaven?
Click here to listen to this week's CreatingCommunity video
We are Come to a Hungry Feast | sung by the RELC Choir and performed by Resurrection Lutheran Church's Interim Music Director, Barbara Bulger Verdile
Prayer
O God of justice and love, you illumine our way through life with the words of your Son. Give us the light we need, and awaken us to the needs of others, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.
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