“Wake Up”
Psalm 149; Romans 13:8-14
Pastor Matthew Northside UMC
This week was the first day of school for most students and teachers. The summer is over. Back to work! Can you remember those days? I always remember mixed emotions when starting school. There was the excitement of new teachers, new subjects, maybe new friends, and a fresh start. I loved to make lists (probably my obsessive compulsive tendency) of how I will improve. Being on time and not procrastinating were the two usual ones. There was also the other emotion—fear. Fear of getting into bad habits of staying up late, and that feeling of being overwhelmed by schoolwork and never being caught up. And also feeling sad that the summer was over. Usually I had a hard time sleeping the night before the first day of school with all these emotions, but finally I would go to sleep and then it seemed like just a few minutes later and the alarm would sound. It’s early and you’re not quite awake. You want to stay in bed like you did all summer, but the alarm keeps telling you to Wake Up! In today’s Scripture Paul is writing to the Roman Christians. After a lengthy theological treatise in the first eleven chapters of Romans, Paul tells them here in Chapter 13 to wake up from their spiritual slumber.
If you’re like me, you want to hit the snooze when the alarm goes off. Today I don’t use an alarm much. We have a built in alarm known as toddlers. With children you can’t hit the snooze button. So Paul is telling us not to hit the snooze button. He says, “Don’t get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of the day to day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God” (The Message). Maybe we have done that this summer or maybe we’ve been doing that in our life for a few years: we’ve hit the snooze and been distracted by life—our jobs, events, sports, kids, family, just life in general. At the miracle kitchen last week one of the clients being served wore a Nike T-shirt that said, “There is no off-season.” One person that was serving there said, “Maybe that should be the motto for our church.” I know first hand that it’s been a busy summer for my family and me—moving down here, getting settled in, meeting everyone. And this past week I went up to Vermont over Labor Day to help my mom downsize her house because she’s moving next month. It’s busy.
But Paul tells us we can’t afford to waste a minute. As usual, Paul doesn’t mince words. He says it plainly. Don’t squander your time . . . in sleeping around.” In the NIV translation it says, “Don’t take part in orgies or drunkenness or sexual immorality” (vs. 13). We don’t like to talk about that stuff much in church, but maybe we should talk about it more. We are called to live holy lives, and Paul had just finished writing about giving ourselves to God as holy and living sacrifices in Romans 12. This is a good reminder for us and our children today to not take part in sexual immorality. But you might be thinking, “Pastor, I don’t do those things” or “That has no relevance in my life. What are you talking about?” But before you brush this off, Paul adds to this list. He says, “Don’t start dissensions and don’t bicker.” Oooh! That hurts. So before we let ourselves off the hook remember that Paul is placing bickering and jealousy and dissensions on the same level as those other sexual sins. Paul is reminding us to love our brothers and sisters in Christ. He’s telling all of us to Wake Up!
And why are we to wake up? What is the motivation? Paul says, “The night is about over and the dawn is about to break.” Other translations say, “Your salvation is nearer now than when you first believed.” Now what is Paul talking about here? There was the expectation that after Jesus died, rose again, and ascended to heaven that he would come back again. The early Christians believed Jesus’ return was imminent. Another topic we don’t talk much about as United Methodists—the end times or Christ’s return. But we believe it, as we say in our Communion liturgy, “Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again.” As United Methodists we don’t hold to a life-boat model of salvation whereby we are trying to get as many souls saved and into the boat of heaven, while the rest of the world and creation goes to hell. Some other faith traditions hold to this. That’s how I grew up. Creation care, care for those in need—they don’t matter. It’s all about saving souls. But, I feel, as United Methodists we have lost our urgency for evangelism and sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ. Instead of a life-boat model we’ve resorted to a cruise ship, whereby we can just take it easy because God is working on us slowly. It’s a process and a journey anyway, we say. Just take it easy! But Paul tells us to Wake up! Even John Wesley would be rolling around in his grave with this concept. He believed strongly in sanctification and the Way of Salvation, but he had a strong sense of urgency about sharing the Gospel. He told people to repent and flee the wrath to come. We don’t like that language of judgment, but we will all be called to account for our actions. The Church as a whole will be judged as well for what we’ve done.
Have we fallen asleep as a church (Big C and little c)? Have we raised up idols in our life? Have we been distracted by “good causes” instead of God’s best for us? This is not about guilt; it’s about holiness. The Church is called by Christ to be his bride. When you think of a bride you think of all the preparations—getting the right wedding dress, putting on make-up, etc—looking beautiful, right? And who does everyone look at coming down the aisle at a wedding? It’s not the groom—it’s the bride. So Christ wants his Church to be holy and to be prepared, to be of one-mind when he comes. We are to seek Him alone. As one of the church fathers has said, “Christ wants a bride not a harem.” So our one desire should be for Christ alone.
So how are we to do this? How are we to be desperate for Christ? Paul tells us, “Dress yourselves in Christ and be up and about” (vs. 14). What does dress yourself in Christ mean? Dressing yourself or putting on Christ points to our baptism. Usually in the early church after you were baptized and came out of the waters you were told to “put on Christ.” So we as Christians are to put on Christ by living out our baptism. Living out our baptism is not about us just pulling ourselves up and trying harder. It means remembering that the Spirit is working in us and renewing us each day, even when we don’t feel it. But, just as we’re intentional about what we wear when we wake up each morning, we need to be intentional about our spiritual life. We need to take time to pray and read Holy Scripture. We need to be accountable to others. We need to praise God in all situations as the psalmist tells us today. We need to break bread together in Holy Communion and be nourished at the Table. But we also need to be nourished in small groups around kitchen tables and dining room tables sharing life together. There will be opportunities in the coming weeks to be involved with small groups and prayer.
So what is our invitation today? We’ve got to start somewhere, as Tim Hansel, says in his book “Holy Sweat.” We’ve got to get out of bed and turn off the snooze button. We can’t just think or dream about living the Christian life. After Communion we’ll pray together the prayer in your bulletin, and I invite you to use that in your quiet time this week. Ask God to help you to be desperate for God. I know I don’t hunger and thirst for God like the psalmists do. Ask God to help you love Jesus more than anything, not just one among many. Wake up and be clothed in Christ as we try to cultivate a heart for God together. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Sprit. Amen.