Grace, mercy and peace be unto you from God, our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text is the Holy Gospel reading which was just read.

Dear friends in Christ, we have drawn to the close of another Church Year. The end of the church year brings us to focus on end times and the last things; end of life, end of this world; the Last Day, the final judgment. We confess it in the Creeds week in and week out: "From thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead." "He will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead, whose kingdom will have no end." The end of the church year serves to teach us about the meaning and reality of these parts of the Creeds.

There are at least four big errors you can make regarding end times and the last judgment: 1) it is an error to think that the end is not coming; 2) it is an error to think that the end of the world will be good for all people-in other words, all go to heaven; 3) it is an error to think that you can predict when the end will come; 4) it is an error to think that Christians should be afraid of the End and the final judgment. Let's hear from our Lord's Word in order to keep us straight and prepare us for the End.

First, the End is coming, like it or not. When my family lived in southeast Texas back in 2008, Hurricane Ike was projected to come our way. We were told to prepare by stockpiling several days' worth of water, food, flashlights, batteries, etc. Some local residents did not believe the warnings, so they did not prepare. The local newspaper later reported that after the storm had passed, hundreds of calls were made to 911 by people who had not made provisions and lacked basic supplies. They did not expect Ike to cause such problems, but their false expectations had no effect on Ike; he came on anyway.

Similarly, many think that the end is not coming, since life has gone on and on without interruption for so long. But their false expectation will have no effect on God's decision to end the world. St. Peter wrote: "The day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells" (2 Peter 3:10-13).

Despite the ominous warnings, Peter does end on a note of Gospel for believers. He recalls God's promises to us, which are the only things we can truly depend on. And the promise from God is that at the End we will see and live in new heavens and a new earth in which everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness dwells. On Judgment Day, all of our good works will be exposed for all to see, but do you know where all of our bad works, our sins, will be? They will not be visible, in fact, they will not exist, because God has taken all of those sins and placed them on Jesus. When we confess faith in the forgiveness of sins, we confess total forgiveness and God's total forgetfulness of all of our sins because of Jesus. As God says concerning the New Testament in Jesus' blood, "I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more" (Jeremiah 31:34). In Baptism, we have been forgiven and granted godly and holy lives to live here in time and forever in eternity. We are saved by God's grace alone through faith alone, but faith is never alone-that is, faith is always busy, producing good works. So for believers in Christ, the only works that will be exposed for all eyes to see on the last day will be their good works, done in faith. Those good works don't save us, but they do give evidence that our faith is living.

But the Last Day, the End won't be good for all people. Jesus answered for the sins of all people on the cross and His forgiveness is freely available to all through the Word and Sacraments in the Christian Church, but for those who reject the mercy of God in Christ and His Church, the end of the world is not a good thing. For unbelievers, all of their works are considered wicked by God because it is impossible to please God without faith and everything that is not done in faith is actually sin (see Romans 14:23), and so all that will be on display on Judgment Day will be the sins of unbelievers, their wicked deeds done without faith.

Our Gospel reading, the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, makes it clear that the end of the world will be terrible for unbelievers, and it also shows that we are not to think that we can predict when the end will come. Some of the details of this parable are hard to decipher because we don't have perfect knowledge of what first-century Jewish weddings were like. So some questions remain unanswerable: Were the ten virgins like bridesmaids? Why didn't they just keep one lamp burning, save their fuel, and light the other nine when they got word the bridegroom was coming? You could ask a dozen questions about details we would like to have but don't.

Even though we can't fill in those details, the parable is straightforward. The five wise virgins took along extra oil for their lamps because they did not know when the bridegroom would arrive; the five foolish virgins did not take extra oil because they counted on the bridegroom coming according their own timetable.

The wise virgins had planned well, so when the bridegroom was delayed, they could afford to fall asleep and let their lamps keep burning during the prolonged wait. When he finally arrived, they had extra oil and so were able to fulfill their duty to go with the bridegroom, presumably to light his march to the wedding hall.

The foolish virgins were not willing to grant the bridegroom the freedom to come whenever he wanted. They only brought enough oil for the amount of time they thought it would take. Which brings to mind another story from Hurricane Ike. Some people on the Bolivar Peninsula down on the coast decided to sleep in their homes the night before the hurricane approached, and thought they would be able to evacuate in the morning. But after they loaded up in their cars and drove off, they found the only roads out were flooded, and the water was rising rapidly. They were stuck. They had gone to sleep thinking they still had time to get out, but Ike's storm surge arrived according to its own timetable. And then there was no way out. Similarly, the foolish virgins fell asleep with their lamps burning, only to wake and find the bridegroom coming but with no oil for their lamps. Then they scrambled to the market to buy oil, but by the time they got back, the wise virgins had gone with the bridegroom into the wedding feast, and the door to the hall was shut.

The foolish virgins banged on the door, shouting, "Lord, lord, open to us!" But he answered, "Truly, I say to you, I do not know you." And then Jesus adds this solemn summary of the parable: "Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour" (Matthew 25:13). That teaching alone should warn us not to try to calculate when Jesus will return. He tells us we don't know. This flatly contradicts all the know-it-alls out there who think the Mayan calendar, or some special prophecy can tell us when the end will be. People like that are foolish virgins. Those who think they've got it all figured out, who know the times and dates for the return of Jesus lack the faithful wisdom of listening to Jesus and will be like the foolish virgins, suffering burnout. They will fall asleep with doubts and anxieties about the end because they lack faith in the Lord who comes when He wills.

The foolish virgins cried out, "Lord, Lord," but they had not believed the Lord could come whenever He wanted, and so they had not listened and put into practice what they were supposed to prepare for. Their foolishness is like another parable Jesus told, like the man who built his house on sand, while the wise virgins are like the man who built his house on The Rock. Jesus said, "Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it" (Matthew 7:21-27). The wisdom that prevents burnout is a lively faith in Jesus and His Words, hearing His Words and putting them into practice by faithfully receiving His grace and mercy in the Word and Sacraments here in the Church. Wisdom that prevents burnout on Judgment Day builds all of its hopes on the Rock, Jesus.

But where do we fit into these parables? Have we been wise like the wise virgins, storing up enough oil? Have we built on the rock, like the wise man? Such questions bring doubts to our mind and fear in our hearts. Solomon tells us in Proverbs that "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction" (Proverbs 1:7). Yet we sinners can all think of times we have foolishly despised the godly wisdom of Christ's Word. So are any of us truly ready for the Day of Judgment? Can any of us count on our own wisdom to survive the End?

No, if we rely on ourselves, on our own strength and works and knowledge, then we end up like the foolish virgins, having to scramble at the last minute to get some oil, but can't. Rather, we need to, as always, keep our ears listening to Jesus, the Bridegroom and hear His promises, and recall that just before He went up to the cross to die for the sin of the world, He indicated that His own death was the Day of Judgment upon the sin of the world. Jesus said, "Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself."

The great and awful day of judgment happened on Good Friday. On that day, the Father poured out His wrath upon His beloved, only begotten Son. And the Son willingly took the place of us rebellious sinners. Where all sinful mankind had failed to let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream, Jesus did. His death satisfied God's just penalty for the sin of the world; His resurrection declared us righteous, forgiven, and holy. From His side flowed down the justifying waters and righteous blood, down into the font, to be poured over us in Baptism, where we were declared "not guilty" but rather "righteous, saved, holy."

So while it is true that Jesus will come to judge the living and the dead, that final Day of the Lord is nothing to fear for you, because of the Judgment Day of the Lord's death for your sins, because of the Judgment Day of His Resurrection from the tomb, and because of the Judgment Day of your Baptism into His death and resurrection. On those days, God has judged you to be forgiven and saved, and so always live under the promises God made to you on those Judgment Days, and you will be like the wise virgins, whose wisdom prevented burnout when the Bridegroom came.

Jesus has built your faith upon the solid-rock foundation of His Word and Holy Sacraments in the Church; He has freely given you His Holy Spirit, whom St. James calls "the Wisdom which comes down from above" (James 3:17). And by forgiving all of your sins, Jesus has given you more oil than you could burn up in an entire lifetime. You have been declared wise, righteous, and holy in God's sight, because of whom you "are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption" (1 Corinthians 1:30).

And as St. Paul says in our Epistle, God's plans for your eternal salvation are even older than this world, for He has elected you from before the foundation of the world to enjoy eternal life in heaven: "For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him." Living the life of faith with Jesus in His Word and Sacraments: that is the wisdom that prevents burnout.

Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus! In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

And the peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.