Awake, Thou That Sleepest
Mark 13:24-37
There is a story of a man who didn’t worry if any one thought he was sophisticated and worldly. He didn’t worry about it because he was a simple man, with simple ways. If he had lived in the time of Jesus, we might say that he was “without guile.” He simply said what he felt, whatever he felt. There weren’t any filters between his impulses and his actions – whatever he felt like doing, he did it without thought of the consequences. As a result, he was often in trouble with those around him.
But after a particularly moving revival, this man became a Christian, and now his impulses were to do good. He approached his faith the same way he had approached everything else -- he simply plowed ahead. But since he hadn’t been raised in the church, he didn’t know exactly how to do that. So, he kept pestering his pastor to put him to work. The pastor was glad to have the man volunteer, but the pastor also knew that this man’s rough edges might do more harm than good for the church.
Finally, the minister handed this man a list of ten names. The pastor said, “These are all members of the church, but they seldom attend. I want you to contact them about being more faithful. Here is some church stationary to write letters. Get them back in church.”
The man accepted the challenge with enthusiasm. About three weeks later, a letter from a physician, whose name had been on the list, arrived at the church office. Inside was a check and a brief note: “Dear Pastor, Enclosed is my check for $5,000 to help make up for my missing church so much, but be assured that I will be present this Lord’s Day and each Lord’s Day following. I will not by choice miss services again. P.S. Would you please tell your secretary that there is only one ‘T’ in dirty and no ‘C’ in Skunk.”
Sometimes, when we are first newly excited about something, we overlook how our enthusiasm may be received. While we might think that we are sharing our excitement, others may only be hearing a note of condemnation because they are not already part of the excitement. As we grow in faith, and we more closely reflect the humility and compassion of Jesus, we move from what can feel like inflicting our faith on others to sharing our faith in such a way that people want to experience our enthusiasm for themselves.
This isn’t a new thought, of course. The Apostle Paul indicated that there could be stages in the development of our faith. He addressed his advice to newborns in the faith, children in the faith, and fathers in the faith. The writer of the letters of John also indicated that people can be dear children, young adults, and fathers in the faith.
John Wesley made distinctions that began before a person becomes a Christian, stages such as those who are asleep, and those who are “almost Christians” who have the form but not the power of godliness. These “stages” are found in his confessional Sermon 2, “The Almost Christian.” And in Sermon 9, he divided the journey of faith between those who walk in darkness, those who walk in the light of hell’s fire, and those who walk in the light of heaven. It is clear, both scripturally and traditionally, that people can be at different levels of faith.
We can see some evidence of this in the only sermon by Charles Wesley that was included in the 44 Standard Sermons for the Methodist Connection. It is a 3-point sermon titled, “Awake, Thou That Sleepest.” Charles delivered this sermon to the students of Christ College at Oxford University. It is a very forceful sermon, with very forceful imagery, that does away with any sophisticated appeals. After his first point, Charles said, “You who are esteemed in this world are an abomination before God.” The end of the second point, he said, “Feel the hammer of the Word break the rock of your heart.” To emphasize his third point, Charles said, “It is time to wake up, before the trumpet blows, and the land becomes a field of your blood.”
This sermon ends with a traditional blessing upon the students, which I think is unintentionally scary. The blessing asks God to do exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think. After what Charles has just asked, I think I would be afraid of a God who thinks I am worthless, and who can do more than the breaking of my heart and the spilling of my blood.
That’s not what Charles Wesley intended, as he showed later in the thousands of hymns that he was to later write. The author of “O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing, “Jesus, Lover of My Soul,” and “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling” grew to understand that perfect love casts out fear, just as the author of I John said. Instead of literally trying to scare the hell out of someone, we are called to love people into the kingdom. But just because Charles was rather hard on the students of Christ College, that doesn’t mean that Charles was wrong in his sermon about our need to be awake.
The three points of his sermon were 1) what does it mean to be asleep; 2) are you a sleepwalker; and 3) why do we need to wake up, since sleeping is so nice?
Charles began by saying that our natural state is night, that we are in utter darkness about our fallen sinful state. In other words, we don’t know that we are fallen. And since we don’t know that we are sinners, we cannot see the necessity for our birth from above to regain the image of God within. As far as we know there is nothing all that wrong with the way we live or act or think, so there is no real reason to change our lives.
Because a sleeper doesn’t know they are sinful, they are satisfied to continue to live they same way they always have. They are content to remain in sin, because they don‘t know that there is any eternal problem with it.
So someone who is asleep to their sins may be a bully, because that works for them. Or someone who is asleep may be quiet, rational, inoffensive, and good-natured, because they want to fit in with others. Someone who is asleep may have an intentional life-style, even to the point that they are zealous, just like a Pharisee, in trying to do what they believe to be right and good. In every case, a sleeper does what they do because they don’t know any better when it comes to the will of God.
So if any one can be asleep, we need to ask ourselves, am I a sleepwalker? If we want to be right with God, we can’t be sleep-walking through our faith and life.
Our first clue that we might be sleep-walking is given to us by God. Echoing the witness of Augustine, Charles says that you will be restless until you rest in God. If you ever have moments when you feel like there ought to be something more to life than living and dying, then you know what it means for your heart to be restless. We can also describe this as a sign of God’s prevenient grace, that God is nudging us to be in a holy relationship with God.
There then follows a series of questions about how we live before God, to help us determine if we are awake or asleep before God. Taken together, we can summarize the questions like this: do you depend on God? Are you conformed to Christ? Do you have confidence in the Holy Spirit?
To check whether we are answering those questions honestly, we are reminded that “faith working by love is the sign that you are a new creation, so we work out our salvation with fear and trembling that we may enter by the narrow gate.”
So we now know what it means to be asleep, and how to check to see if we are awake. All that is left to ask is “do we need to wake up?” Which is what Charles did: “Why should we wake up, when sleeping is so nice? And he actually has some reasons other than you will be hammered by God, bloodied to death, and eternally condemned if you don’t.
Waking up means you get to see God’s face. It means you will arise and shine, for the light has come, and the glory of the Lord is risen in you. It means Christ will dwell within your heart, and you may become a saint in this life. It means that you will receive the Spirit of Christ as the great gift of God.
This, more than anything else, is what it means to be a Christian. More important than your baptism, or your theology, or your worship attendance, or your service record is this: you will know that God loves you, and that God goes with you, and that God enables you to love others. And that is worth waking up for!
In our reading for today, there is language that sounds fairly ominous if we are asleep to the good news of Jesus Christ. There is talk of darkness, and there is talk of the failure of things that we have always counted on. And if we are asleep, then this is a scary passage.
But if we are awake, then Jesus says to us, when things are at their darkest, look for me. When everything else is failing around you, look for Jesus. And don’t just look for Jesus – look at the world through the eyes of Jesus.
When the world sees signs of doom, people who are awake will look for signs of victory. We will see our victory because Jesus has already defeated the doom of sin and death.
When the world sees signs of gloom, the people who are awake will look for signs of hope. We will see our hope because Jesus is always the hope for the world.
When the world sees signs of growing darkness, the people who are awake will look for the coming light. We will see that light because Jesus is the Light of heaven, and the darkness cannot overcome him.
When the world sees signs of utter chaos, people who are awake will look for the hand of God to guide us into a future prepared for us since the beginning of creation. We will see the order of God because Jesus is the One who was and is and is to come.
When the world sees its structures of power shaken, people who are awake will look for God stirring among us. And we will see the power of God because Jesus is the King of kings, and the Lord of lords!
The season of Advent reminds us to look for the coming of the gift of God. Advent is a time to let go of the irritability and darkness of the world so that we can receive the joyful gift of God in Jesus Christ. It is a time to wake up from our sinful sleep, and to be awake to the coming of Christ -- not just in Bethlehem so many years ago, but also to the coming of Christ in our hearts, and in our communities, and in our future.
So, as you adorn the tree, remember to adore Christ. As you share a cup of eggnog, remember to share with those who are thirsty. As you gather around your banquet tables, remember those who have been invited to the Lord’s Table. As you sing the carols, remember to sing with the angels above the praise of Christ. As you hope for certain gifts to show up under your tree, remember to hope for the gift of Christ in your heart.
Christ is coming – be awake, or you just might miss receiving him. And when you receive him, you will know what it means to be truly awake and alive!