In this week’s gospel reading, Jesus tells a parable about wise and foolish maidens and a wedding banquet. In the parable the wise ones prepare for the eventuality that the wedding banquet will be late in starting. The foolish ones don’t – and when it does start late, they are not able to enter.

We are in a moment today when we are asked to prepare for what is expected to be a challenging winter. And yet there are people who are trying to act as if everything will be okay, or that we can ignore the necessary preparations because in the end God will make everything okay.

But that’s not how it works, and that’s not the wise thing to do.

(I apologize about the audio quality in this video. I have a new microphone and something is clearly wonky. I’m working on getting it sorted, but after four tries today I gave up and used the best recording. I hope you’ll understand.)