The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
November 9, 2008
Vol. 11 no. 44

Everything But...
           One last fling at the parables this year, with two favourites coming at us this week and next. Today it is the parable of the Ten Virgins and next Sunday, the parable of the Talents. We love them for their first part, but are doubtful about their vengeful conclusions - too many people thrown gnashing their teeth into the outer darkness for our sensitive natures. Does God have to be so mean?
           It’s not an issue of meanness or niceness, but of the reality of human behaviour. Five virgins were not thinking and examining the costs of discipleship in a manner of speaking. They were excited to take part in a wedding feast, but had not figured out how well they had to be prepared. A gaffe of omission, it’s fair to say. Then they ask the unreasonable from their companion virgins, and head off into the night when all the stores were closed expecting someone to jump to their needs.
           Many of the parables told by Jesus are now believed to have been popular stories and jokes with their own built-in punch-lines which are hard to get rid of. The harshness with which the foolish maidens are treated sounds more like the visceral ending many local stories delight in and relish. Violence - even the less physical “I don’t know you!” - has always been standard fare on the street corner and around the camp fire.
           Yet, what happens to you when you omit doing something good, or decide you won’t bother doing something good today? It may not be evil or warrant punishment and it may not end tragically, but one thing for sure - nothing good will happen to you. The absence of good may not seem like the outer darkness, but you don’t know what you are missing.