Today’s parable comes to us at a fitting time. Our days are getting steadily shorter as we approach winter – on the calendar if not on the thermometer. This despite our futile attempt to “save” daylight – it should be called daylight shifting time, no savings occur.

On first pass, the point of the parable seems clear enough. The bridesmaids represent those who follow Jesus, be it his 12 leading disciples, his disciples in general or extended all the way out to all who follow him or are seeking him. Jesus said, “Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” No matter who you are, be prepared because he is coming at an unexpected hour.

Most often when we think about Jesus coming, we have in mind The Second Coming, which we heard Paul describe to the Thessalonians. The Lord will descend from heaven, the dead in Christ will rise first (which will be very interesting) and then the living get caught up to be with the Lord forever.

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Years ago, my father and a friend would gather up a group to go backpacking in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park each spring after tax season. He invited me to go, and I did several times.

Backpacking is more intense than hiking. We’d be out in the woods for 5-6 days and nights straight. And I know I just said it was intense, but we didn’t actually use tents. We each slept on a thin mat in a sleeping bag, either out in the open or under tarps.

The first time I went, I asked a lot of questions and really wanted to prepare.  We’d go in April when it was cold, but there were no bugs. Dad gave me a list built on his years of experience. I got a good pair of boots, good thick socks, a good sleeping bag, a little pad to sleep on, a poncho for rain, and on and on. I added to his list. That first year I packed everything I thought I might need, nice and neatly. But my backpack was pretty full.

We drove up to the mountains. When we got to the trailhead, they started divvying up the food and cooking utensils. My pack was already full.

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A bit more than 500 years before Jesus came to Jerusalem for the Passover festival that would include his crucifixion, a Greek philosopher seeking the mind of God discovered a simple truth. The hypotenuse of a right triangle is equal to the square root of the sum of the squares of the other two legs. Or, a squared plus b squared equals c squared. For example, if one leg is 3 and the other 4, the square of 3 is 9, the square of 4 is 16, 9 + 16 = 25, the square root of 25 is 5. That formula holds up no matter how long the two right-angle legs are.

I know what you’re thinking. No one told you there would be math. But here’s the thing about the math. We can draw triangles and lines on paper or construct them, but they are at heart ideas. Pythagorean Theorem exists in the mind. Pythagoras didn’t invent the Pythagorean Theorem, he discovered it. It was absolutely true before he discovered it, before there were people or anything else on this planet. It’s true whether or not you remember, forgot or never understood geometry. It will be true long after we are gone. Pythagoras recognized, therefore, that truth has to exist first in a mind, which put him and other philosophers in pursuit of the mind of God.

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