ADVENT’S WAKE UP CALL WHEN ALL YOU WANT TO DO IS SLEEP
November 27, 2022 + The First Sunday of Advent + Matthew 24:36-44; Romans 13:11-14; Isaiah 2:1-5 +
Pr. Craig Mueller
Wake up, wake up! You can’t miss it on the First Sunday in Advent. Paul says it is high time to wake from sleep for salvation is dawning. Jesus says to keep awake so that you are ready when the Son of Humanity comes. Then there are the hymn texts. Wake, awake, for night is flying. And when evening is advancing: Up, pray, and watch and wrestle; at midnight comes the cry.
Is this some of kind of Advent joke? We’re hard-wired to sleep this time of year. Animals are hibernating. Plants are dormant. When it was time to write this sermon, I procrastinated and took a nap.
Some of us face Seasonal Affective Disorder and feel sad or lethargic this time of year. Others face problems with motivation and attitude all year long, and it’s just worse now. Homeless folks are just trying stay safe and warm.
And what many of us would like . . . is a good night of sleep. Not a wake-up call. Not an obnoxious alarm. Not someone shaking us to rouse us from sleep after we took some melatonin. Or a sleeping pill. Or after we did meditation, yoga, or some relaxation technique to help us fall asleep.
After all, four out of five people say they suffer from sleep problems at least once a week. And then wake up feeling exhausted. There are sleep institutes. And sleeping aids. Sleeping tips. The right kind of mattresses and pillows and sheets. Plenty of advice to go around. Yet we seem to be a sleep-deprived society. Our minds on overdrive from too much thinking, too much, worry, too much digital stimulation.
I want to believe that first century people slept better than we do, especially close to the winter solstice. They were governed by the sun and moon, after all. So what is Jesus getting at?
Stay awake. The people in Noah’s day were going about their everyday business. Working, raising children, eating and drinking. And they weren’t prepared for a punishing flood that seemed to come out of nowhere.
We have insurance policies for natural disasters. But all kind of things catch us off guard. And remind us that we are not in control of the world. Not in control of our lives.
Then Jesus goes on to say that you don’t know when a thief could break into your house. That is the way it will be when the Son of Humanity comes.
Some people today have alarm systems to guard against break-ins. But last month it was national news when a hate-spewing thief broke into the Pelosi home.
Grace and Frankie, in a Netflix show named after the main characters, have their home broken into and robbed. So they attend a community safety class. Frankie is panicked and exaggerates every piece of safety advice they hear. “Make it look like someone is always home,” becomes: “Never leaving. Got it.” And, “A burglar is ninety percent less likely to enter the home if they think that someone is awake,” evolves in Frankie’s mind to: “We’ve got to be awake constantly.”
Jesus seems to suggest as much. Stay awake. Be vigilant. In Matthew’s gospel, the one we will be reading in worship the coming year, there is the parable of the ten bridesmaids. Remember? Five are wise. But the five foolish ones become drowsy and need to go off to buy oil for their lamps. And while they are gone, the bridegroom comes. And when Jesus is praying in the garden of Gethsemane the night before his death, he calls out the disciples for nodding off.
We get it. It is hard to stay focused. Our attention drifts. We can be in a haze. We often say that we are tired. And yet Jesus bids us to stay awake, to stay alert.
What on earth could we be missing? There is plenty reason to bury our head under a pillow. As one recent article put it: we are facing a perfect storm, a colliding of simultaneous crises. No wonder morale is low. No wonder we’d rather go back to bed. The pandemic approaching the end of its third year. A war in Ukraine. Extreme climate events. Inflation.
And then we don’t know when we will wake up to nightmarish news of another shooting. 33 mass shootings in November alone. Students at the University of Virginia. Shoppers at a Walmart, also in Virginia. LGBTQ folks at a gay bar in Colorado Springs. Who is safe anymore? With our country calcified in its political positions, how do we address the social isolation of many young men today? The gun culture that is centuries in the making? The individualism in the U.S that seems to value individual rights over the common good? And the raw hatred that targets African Americans, Asians, Jews, LGBTQ folks, and other minorities?
The prophet Isaiah announces a vision of peace in which weapons of violence become agricultural tools to feed all people. The words from Isaiah are carved into a wall across from the United Nations. “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war anymore.”
When we are tempted to give up hope, to sleep through life, this vision keeps alive in a us the dream for a better world. God’s shalom. A peace that will last. A world without violence, a world without weapons, a world without senseless killings.
Wake up, wake up, Advent beckons us. Be vigilant. Be watchful. Morning is breaking. Christ’s coming will be unexpected. It will break in upon us in surprising people and places and circumstances. Grieving Russian and Ukranian mothers. Grieving mothers on the South and West sides of Chicago. The woman who whose gay brother was shot. The teen-ager wondering whether they will make it through the night.
Let us together practice the Advent art of paying attention. Attending to what Buddhists call mindfulness—being fully present to the moment. And attending to those last the least. Those without power, those without privilege. Some call it being woke.
For a better day is coming. When cynicism creeps in, Advent visions keep us going. We await the fulfillment of God’s promises. We long for, we yearn for, we pray for, we work for the day when all God’s children wake up to a safe world, a harmonious world, a just world, a peaceful world. The Spirit of God keeps alive the dream in us. Provides sacred texts to inspire us. Bread and wine to sustain us. And hymns and music to wake us up to the dawn of grace even when nights are long.
Get a good night of sleep, get some good shut-eye, to be sure. For God is the One who gives true peace and rest.
But then listen with Advent ears. A new day is dawning. “Wake up!” It may be the season’s greeting that changes everything.