(First Sunday back after paternity leave - our daughter Zia was born Oct 29, 2011)
This morning’s sermon is about being asleep while awake, and how in community we can encourage one another to keep watch, as we await God’s presence in our midst.
Sleeping and waking take on new meaning with two children.
Saturday, the 29th, Trasie roused me at 2:00 am telling me it was time to go to the hospital. In a slumbering stuper, I pleaded, “let’s go a little later.”
Not exactly a made for TV moment....
I eventually got what was happening...and off we went.
Sleep has never been the same.
When we were back home with the new baby, Trasie and I agreed, at night, she would feed Zia and I would change the diaper.
On the second night of doing this, she woke me to change a diaper;
I was slow to stir,
with half opened eyes I changed the diaper.
Trasie felt sorry for me. By God’s grace, the next day she announced I was relieved of middle of the night diaper changing duty.
I could put earplugs in and sleep the night away,
so that I would be alert and awake and able to function well during the day and look after Ruby. Deal!
Truth be told, I’m probably getting better sleep than Trasie,
but on any given night I’ll lose sleep for any number of reasons:
I’m experiencing Restless Leg Syndrom,
so if I haven’t stretched well before I go to bed, which is most lights,
just as I’m at the point of drifting off to sleep, my legs cramp up, and I have to stretch.
Then there’s Ruby. She’s doing well sleeping in her own bed,
but if she wakes up, which is most nights, she crawls over me int our bed, and she kicks a lot even while she sleeps.
And of course, even with ear plugs, if Zia is not comfortable, which is most nights she’s very effective at letting everyone know.
And it’s not unusual for me to in mid-life to be woken by a full bladder, which is most nights...is this normal?
And now that it’s winter, Trasie likes the house a little warmer than I do, says “it’s so the baby doesn’t get cold.” and I wake up most nights burning up!
And come most mornings, brinca sticks her nose in my face at the time she thinks it’s time for her to be fed.
And it’s really hard for me to take naps...I lie down, and my mind races telling me all the things I should be doing instead of sleeping.
All this to say, I’m in a bit of a fog. WHere am I again?
I’m asleep while I’m awake, and awakened often when I sleep.
That’s my excuse for not being 100% focused this advent season. What’s yours?
Advent is the season of the year are reminded that God has come into the world, waking the world up through the birth of a baby in a manger;
it’s during this season we hear words like, Awake. Sleep. Watch.
And phrases like, Lord Come Down and make this world right!
Keep awake.”
Anticipating the next great thing that is going to happen in our life, as excruciating as it can be to wait,
is easier if you know when it’s going to happen.
We know when Christmas is; we know when birthdays are,
when winter break from school begins.
It’s easier to anticipate things when we know when they’re coming.
But waiting for something that has no definite time.
Waiting for this world to be turned upside down and made right? When will this happen? God?
And since we don’t know when, we simply have to wait,
and while we wait, we live, we live sometimes awake,
but very often we live asleep, as many contemporary psychologists describe it.
Sleeping while awake. It’s easy to lose focus, and forget, if we ever really knew, what life is all about.
What are some of the reasons we lose focus? What lulls us to sleep?
discouraging news?
football?
turkey?
good shopping deals on Black friday?
transition?
The uncertainties of life?
the Losses of our lives?
Keep watch, Jesus says to his disciples. Stay awake. Keep that message of hope alive! Keep fighting the good fight! Make the world a place where justice prevails. Where love reigns. Where peace resides everywhere.
We are reminded of this purpose during Advent. But even as we sing happy Christmas carol songs, doesn’t it seem like the majority of us just don’t seem to get it.
Choirs may sing: “Angels we have heard on high!”
But a different song may be ringing in our heads
First Verse - Statler Brother’s Countin Flowers on the Wall
The passage from Isaiah depicts a society that sounds quite famililar.
There is a small community of believers pleading that God would tear open the heavens and come down and wake the society up!
The following is adapted from Elna Slovang’s commentary.
Dismayed at what they see going on around them;
they describe how the collective sins, the wrong and evil that is happening all around them in their own society, has contaminated their deeds, taken their energy, and in some twisted way the very corruption has now become their driving force.
Held captive to wrong-doing, the society has lost focus on God, "There is no one who calls on God’s name, or attempts to claim God.” And as a result, “God’s face is hidden, and they are left to their own demise.”
And what does the community of faithful in Isaiah do? They say wake up!
Tear open the heavens and come down God. "our Father" "our potter." they exclaim
We are part of this mess (verse 6)
but still we all are of YOUR Creation (verse 8).
Don’t be too angry, don’t let our guilt last forever!(verse 9).
In our society, there is so much injustice, and as a result there is much suffering. There is unfathomable economic disparity; we are on the brink of an economic meltdown. We are at the cusp of major environmental disaster.
There is so much good that needs to be done, that we can be part of...But are we awake, or are we sleeping?
Keeping watch and calling on God to come down is the work of people in community.
I’ll be honest, it was surprisingly easy, almost scary-easy, how quickly I was able to become complacent about how I was living my life over the past seven weeks during my leave of absence. Sure, I’m in a period of significant transition in my life, but outside of my role as a spiritual leader at WPC, I quickly became very inwardly focused.
Apart from community, I could just fall into trap of do for myself and family, or the malaise of do-nothing-ness. As Life happened before me.... it was easy to become complicit in the very corruptible aspects of society. Apart from the community of faith, it was easy to fall asleep even while awake.
I realized in a new way the importance being part of community of faith. In community, can be found encouragement, innovation, and idea sharing, about how to live out the faith. Community can be the place where we are challenged, in healthy ways, to be mature disciples and tirelessly engage the world with joy and hope in exciting other oriented endeavours.
The community of faith, by the Holy Spirit, can be the very engine that drives watchfulness, that keeps us awake.
Even today, Agape fast reminds me of this: Community working together toward a greater good.
And thanks to community, all I have to do is contribute a bit and eat.
What a privilege and inspiration to be part of that kind of community...
Community in this role of helping one another keep awake is kind of like this:
Two weeks ago, I ran in a race in which there were few participants, and as a result, probably 90% of the race I was running by myself. I saw other runners along the way some where up ahead, most were way behind :). There were a few volunteers who stood at intersections to point the way and give a few cheers.
But, as I was by myself it was easy for my mind to wander, to think about my body being tired and my pace to fluctuate. It was easy to lose focus and fall asleep. The finish was kind of anticlimactic....
On Thanksgiving day, I ran another race, in which there were over three hundred participants.
I never found myself alone in the race, There were many spectators along the path cheering us all on. Runners were ahead and behind.
Around mile two I heard this heavy breathing behind me, and it was getting closer and closer, and I tried to speed up but still the breathing gained, and from the pitch I gathered it was a female competitor, so I had to muster every bit of chauvinistic machismo competitive bone within me, and step on the gas, which I did. And toward the end stood on the curb Antonio Lopez, he spotted me and cheered, “come on chester, catch three more people..!” Exhausted, I looked up to see people in front of me,
and I ran even faster, and I passed two people, and as a result I won a pumpkin pie which I brought to the Thanksgiving dinner at church!
I never lost focus on that run. The community was there to help me stay awake,
We’re all part of the same race.
Let us help one another to not be lulled to sleep as we wait for God’s intervention to make the world right.
what motivates you to do good?
What are you passionate about that makes the world a better place?
What are some of the life giving aspects of the communities you’re involved with?
As the dawn of Advent breaks once again this day, and as we turn our hearts toward the coming of Jesus, may we pause, take a deep breath, and realize how important, how life giving the message of CHrist’s birth, the message of Christ’s life and death, and resurrection are,
and as a community reorient our "aim at heaven."
“Tear open the heavens and come down God.”
And in the mean time, let us be a community of faith that is able to overcome our collective woes and through collective works, strives to make one another and this world a place where love can be found.