It is usually Lisa who wakes Bronte up either in the morning or after her nap. But sometimes I get that joy. Sometimes, Bronte is already awake and I just have to go into her room and see her smiling at me. Recently, she’s been pulling herself to a standing position in her crib, so that when Lisa or I go in there, she’s standing, holding on to the rail as she smiles at us.
But sometimes we have to wake Bronte up and she’s not awake yet. It’s a different story, though not terribly bad. We go in and turn on her light and then go and stand over her. She usually begins to stir and stretch and wake up. Sometimes she spends a couple minutes stretching out and trying to wake up. Sometimes her eyes just open and she’s ready to go. But there have been times where I’ve gone in to wake her up and she hasn’t been terribly happy about it. Then she wakes up crying and it is not terribly fun.
I know that there’s an art form to waking someone up, one that Lisa and I are going to have to learn or we’re going to be having difficulty as Bronte gets older. I had a friend in college who helped at a camp that had a wonderful way to wake people up. In the morning, as it was time to wake up, this would blare over the sound system:
Listen to In the Morning Time
From what I hear, it wasn’t a pretty sight. People don’t like being awakened in such a cheery way when they aren’t feeling that themselves. But, sometimes people have to be woken up from where they’re at. Today’s scripture is designed to wake a church up from their current ways, and I wonder how much we have in common with this church? Do we need to be awakened as well?
I. Reputation/Reality
The people of Sardis had a good reputation. They were known as a church that had it together, that was heading in the right direction, that was following God. They had a reputation for being a place where God was working, but this wasn’t their reality. In truth they were near death. In truth, they were just going through the motions. In truth, they were falling away from the faith they had once had. It may be that they once were the church that their reputation said they were. Maybe they had been a church that was alive and faithful, and had lost this, began resting on their past laurels, blamed their fall on things that they had no control over. Or maybe they were just a church that was good at going through the motions and pretending they were something that they were not. I tend to think that it is the first of these, that their reputation is there for a reason, that they once were an alive and vibrant church, but they have now fallen asleep. They are now content to just continue on with what they are doing, and hope that Jesus returns before they completely die out as a church.
But this isn’t what Jesus wants for his church. He tells them to wake up. He wants to see them be the church that they are reputed to be. Jesus finds that the deeds of the church are uncompleted. That is a loaded phrase that we are going to have to spend some time talking about. He warns them, he threatens them almost, that he is coming like a thief. He will come for them, and if they aren’t awake, if they aren’t alive, they will not like his coming. A dead church, a sleeping church, isn’t going to like Jesus’ return. It is not going to find the joy in it that a living, Spirit filled church will find.
But those who are awake, those whose faith is alive, they will walk with Jesus in garments of white. They will know what it is like to walk with Christ in the new world. Now it is clear which group you want to be a part of. Do you want to be a part of the sleeping church that will fear Jesus’ coming because with that coming will come judgment? Or do you want to be a part of the church that is alive and unsoiled, that looks forward to Jesus’ coming because when it happens you will be able to walk with Jesus in a new heaven and on a new earth. I know where I want to be.
And yet I sometimes look at our church, and I wonder where we are. Are we just going through the motions, waiting for our church to die, allowing ourselves to sleep through the work that we are called to do in this world?
II. Uncompleted Deeds
I mentioned a bit earlier that Jesus finds the deeds of the church unfinished. This is an interesting turn of phrase, and maybe it might work better to put it in a way that we might better understand. Jesus is saying that the church hasn’t met the purpose that he has given them. He is saying that he’s not done using them. He’s saying that there’s still work to do. And he sees them as dead because they aren’t doing that which he has put before them.
Again, I have to ask these questions about our church. What is God calling for us to do? What are his plans for us? Are we here just to care for each other? Are we here just to worship God and study scripture, so that Christians can, hopefully, grow deeper in their faith? This is actually a good thing, to see people grow deeper in their faiths. But it is only a starting point. As a church we are also called, just like every church, to reach out to those around us with love and truth. We are called to help those around us in need, to love our neighbors as ourselves. And we are called to share the good news of salvation with those around us. Does waking up mean that we need to be looking outside of ourselves? Does waking up mean that we need to be reaching out in love to the community and the people around us? Does waking up mean that maybe we need to move outside where we’re comfortable as individuals and as a church and step out in faith to make a difference in this world? Does waking up mean that we need to take risks, do things that we may not have done before, risking failure because we are truly taking on more than we can handle? Does it mean that we have to rely on God to give us the resources we need to bring about his plan for us?
III. A Wakeup Call
My friend’s wakeup song is so jarring because it is so loud and obnoxious and cheery, when loud, obnoxious and cheery are the last thing you want to be dealing with. Someone who is asleep does not like things that are loud. Someone who is asleep definitely does not want to deal with something that is obnoxious. And someone who is asleep doesn’t want to see someone else be so happy and wonderful, especially when all they can think about is trying to go back to sleep. And what’s with trumpets in the morning, they should be illegal until after lunch at least.
And yet the jolt is precisely what some of us need to wake us up. We need to be awakened from our slumber before it is too late. We need to find a way to get back on track. We need to find out how to become the church that some people think we are; that we hope to be. We cannot do it ourselves. If we rely on our own strength, we’ll just fall back asleep. We need to allow Christ to give us the energy we need to truly wake up and make a difference where it needs to be made.
Does our church need a wake-up call? Do we? Are we falling asleep? If we are we definitely need to be worried about this. God doesn’t look too kindly on sleeping churches. When churches sleep they die. And when churches die they quit doing the things that God has planned for them.
What is our purpose as a church, here in Albert City? Are we just here to take care of our own? Or does God have greater things planned for us? Does God want to continue to use us to make a difference in this community or should we just roll over and go back to sleep? I think we should wake up. I think that Jesus is giving us a wakeup call, and we need to respond.
And I think the previous letters we’ve looked at give us a good idea of how we can wake up. First, we need to rediscover our first love. First, we need to remember the passion that we once had for mission and ministry. As we discover that passion, as we remember the things that we have done in the past, we must realize that we aren’t just going to be able to do things the same way again. Something that worked to bring our community to Christ in the past won’t necessarily work again. But we can find new ways to bring our world to Christ today, finding the same passion and joy that we once had. And when ministry is happening, when you are involved in something that is making a difference, you realize how wonderful it is; you find that it no longer feels like a burden to spend time and energy bringing Christ’s love and truth to those around you. You go home tired but excited, having worked hard, but worked for something that is so very fulfilling. You rediscover your first love.
And second, we need to learn how to reach out to a culture, a world, that isn’t where we’d like it to be. When we see the difference between where we are as Christians and where those around us are, we find that we long to show them how to come where we are. When this longing begins, we will find that we are awake in a way that we hadn’t been for a long time.
And so, are we ready to wake up? Are we ready to bring God’s love and truth to those around us? Are we ready to make a difference for God in our world? This is what we’re called to. We cannot flee this pull on our lives. It might feel good to roll over and cover our ears and try to go back to sleep, but this is not what God wants from us, this is not the place for us to go. Let us awaken to the mighty plans that God has for us. Amen.
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