Gospel Reading: Matthew 24:36-51; 25:1-46; 26:1-2
This music is from Valaam Monastery in far western Russia.
Behold, the Bridegroom comes at midnight, And blessed is that servant whom He shall find watching, But unworthy is the servant whom He shall find heedless. Beware, therefore, O my soul, do not be weighed down with sleep, Lest you be given up to death, and lest you be shut out of the Kingdom. But rouse yourself crying: Holy, Holy, Holy, art Thou, O our God, Through the Theotokos have mercy on us.
This morning we hear three parables about the Last Things.
1 Jewish weddings were in the evening. Young bridesmaids with lamps went to the bridegroom’s house and escorted him to the ceremony. (It must have been lovely.) Jesus is the divine Bridegroom now to be married to his Church, united with His people in love forever. He is 
late in arriving. Some bridesmaids are prepared; some are not. They go out for more oil and while they are gone at midnight he arrives, and when they get to the wedding, he won’t let them in: “I don’t know you”, he says. The time will come when time will run out – either the End of the Age or the end of our time on earth – and we will have chosen whether to be faithful or not. There will be no more time for us to choose. When will the End come? We do not know. The moral: Always be prepared.
2 Then the parable of the talents. Talents were money: I read in the Orthodox Study Bible that a gold talent was worth about $6 million, a silver talent about $400,000. The point is that God has given each of us a fortune in gifts, capabilities, resources of many kinds in varying amounts. He wants His own back with interest, expects each of us to develop what He gave us. So are we growing in the Faith? in the gifts of the Spirit: love, patience, joy, gentleness, kindness, peace, self control? Are you developing whatever talents God has given you – music or teaching or sympathetic listening or management or service of the poor or mathematics or chanting…..a multitude of possibilities. Or are you like the last man in the parable, just holding your own? Or, God forbid, are you wasting what He gave you? You think God gave us gifts so we can just sit on them? If we do not produce, we will be cast into the outer darkness, away from the Light, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth at what we could have had and now will never have, because time is over now. The moral: Use it or lose it.
3 The famous parable of the sheep and the goats. We heard this also on the Second Sunday before Lent. Take note: this is the judgment of “the nations”, the Gentiles, the nonbelievers. Can nonbelievers be saved? Jesus’ answer is 
No, but Yes. No, because He said “No one comes to the Father but by Me.” There can be no salvation outside Christ, for only in God is salvation, and Christ is God. Salvation means to be united with Christ our God.
However, at the End there will no longer be any unbelievers! All will see Christ for who He is. So Yes, those who once were nonbelievers will then believe, and can enter the Kingdom. Jesus Christ said so.
The standard of judgment will be this: Did people show love, mercy, compassion for the least of His brethren? To all who did, Christ will say, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world.” It will turn out that many had been serving Christ, even though they did not yet know it. This is not ours to judge but God’s alone. We must never put a limit on the mystery of how God works on earth – to God’s love, God’s mercy.
But if any had no love, ignored the needs of people, even if they went by the name of Christian: “Depart from me, you evildoers, into the fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”
Here is the key: Correct doctrine is essential, but Christian doctrine says that love is more important than doctrine. “The greatest of these is love.”
Jesus finished his teachings. He said to his disciples: Now be ready. “I have told you. After two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.”
Next: Tuesday evening Bridegroom Matins
Fr. Bill,
This is truly such a very beautiful series you are gifting us with! Reading these posts is especially meaningful currently, as we cannot worship and pray together at church. I think we know what one of your gifts is…..incredible storytelling? Thank you so very much!
Love in Christ to all,
L.
Thanks, Laura. After many years I finally realized that’s how God did it: The Scriptures contain the story of the Old Testament Jews. The New Testament tell the story of Jesus Christ and of the early Church. And much of Christ’s teaching was communicated by stories which we call parables.