Sleepers Awake!

Sleepers Awake!

Romans 13:11-14

We come to the first Sunday in Advent. Many think that this is a season of preparation for Christmas. We are getting ready for the baby Jesus to arrive. We sing our Christmas Carols to prepare room in our hearts for the Christ child. The music of Christmas is indeed beautiful, and we should always remember the greatness of God coming to earth and becoming flesh. Yet, this is not what the season of Advent is ultimately about. The season of Advent is much older than the celebration of Christmas itself. It is actually New Year’s Day today on the church calendar. We have just moved from Christ the King Sunday in which we remember that Christ is the Eternal King. We think of the joyous strains of the Hallelujah Chorus quoting the Book of Revelation. “For the LORD God omnipotent reigneth! And He shall reign for ever and ever! Hallelujah!”

As the beginning of the new Christian year. Advent is a time of preparation for the believer, so that when the trumpet finally sounds at the end of the age, we might be found ready. Just as John the Baptist prepared the way for the first coming of our Lord and His appearance to Israel, we call those to prepare and be ready for Christ’s return, this time as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. To miss this great event would be the greatest of tragedies.

The New Testament text for the first Sunday in Advent this year comes from the Book of Romans, the 13th chapter, verses 8-11. There is a beautiful hymn which Bach put to glorious music called “Wachet Auf.” This means “wake up in English and corresponds to this text. Paul admonishes the Romans, and us, that we need to wake up from our slumber. For the Christian, the time of the Lord’s return is always at hand. He has not shared the date with us but instead commanded us to be ready. He will return when we think not. God will bless the people who are ready when He comes, not those who get the date right. This means that our lives are lived in perpetual expectation. We even quote in the creed “We expect the resurrection of the dead. The word Advent in Latin is translated “coming.” Jesus is coming back into this world for His people.

If the day was at hand for Paul who writes to the Roman church almost 2000 years ago, how much closer is our salvation today. Peter reminds us that many people had become discouraged waiting on the Lord. Unbelievers mocked them in a way Linus is mocked for waiting in the pumpkin patch for the Great Pumpkin. Many Christians have been deceived by one so-called prophet or another that this day was such and such a date, time and place. Even the Thessalonians had to be admonished. They had thought the time so near that they quit work and were sponging off their families. The Montanists were another such early group. We can think of the Millerites in New York almost 200 years ago. And we are plagued today with prophets who sell books claiming they have the time of the Lord’s return down. They have been an embarrassment to the Christian community. Their intentions may have been good, but the results have not been so.

Whatever waiting on the Lord’s return means, it certainly does not mean putting your life down here on hold. Jesus said as much. He said that the one He found busily engaged in the task He had given them would be blessed. In other words, the believer is to keep on with their work. St. Francis is said to have put it this way. He was busy planting wheat seed into the ground. Someone asked him that if he knew for certain that the Lord was going to return that very day, what would he do? He replied that he would finish planting the wheat.

If everyone knew when the Lord would return, they would slack off until just before the arrival. Then they would busy themselves getting ready for the guest. How many times is this form of procrastination employed? One knows her mother-in-law was coming for Christmas. The house is a mess, but the lady knows the time her mother-in-law is coming. At the last minute she throws things together. What a shame it would be if her mother-in-law arrived a day early!

The Christian has to live a life of constant preparation. Even if the Lord does not come in our generation, we will all leave this world. And sometimes our death may be quite sudden. We never know if we will have tomorrow to clean up our life. So it behooves us to be ready at all times.