For the first week of this two week bulletin the sermon text is based on ‘The parable of the Ten Bridesmaids’ from Matthew 25:1-13. All ten bridesmaids are waiting to honour the bridegroom when he comes to the wedding. The problem is that he is a long time in coming, which means special preparations were required to make sure they would be able to their job well. As it turns out, five are wise and bring plenty of oil so that they are entirely prepared to meet the bridegroom when he comes. Five are ‘foolish’. To be foolish here is to be unprepared for the unknown time of waiting for the bridegroom. The bridegroom is Jesus. We are all waiting for him. So how do we prepare? What is it that determines that we don’t get the door slammed in our face by a bridegroom that says ‘I never knew you?’ (Matthew 25:12) Another way of asking that is ‘What makes you wise’? What do you think? We’ll look into this today.