Don Friesen
When Dorothy was a child there was a minister in her area church who was a bit eccentric. He would do unusual things. Once, as he approached the pulpit to preach, he was distracted by a knot in the wood panelling to the side. He went over and stuck his finger in the knot-hole before returning to the pulpit and beginning his sermon. Another time he and a friend were travelling on a narrow road in northern Alberta when they came up on a large, slowly-moving truck. The minister honked his horn, so that the truck would move over enough to allow them to pass. No response. He honked again ... and again and again, but for some reason the driver of the truck seemed blissfully unaware that there was another vehicle behind him. The minister and his friend tried every which way to attract the truck-driver's attention, but no luck. Desperate, the minister took an orange from his bag lunch and threw it over the truck. It landed with a thump on the hood of the truck, and it so surprised the truck-driver that he veered off the road and into the ditch! What a rude awakening!
Truth be told, I consider most awakenings rude. Sometimes it's only a rude awakening that can awaken me; that's one of the perks of being hard of hearing. It's also why I use this as my alarm clock. (loud iPod alarm) A rude awakening is often one that comes as a surprise. I remember three such events, once when we were suddenly awakened by a speeding car hitting a tree on our street. The noise was so loud and sounded so much like a gunshot – we were living in a rough neighbourhood at the time – that we moved from slumber to total alertness in a nanosecond. Another time, on the same street, police sirens and the barking of dogs awakened us; the store across the street was being robbed, and the police had arrived with dogs to flush out the thieves. The third time we were rudely awakened the couple next door had a loud fight in the middle of the night, and we learned much more about their marriage that night than was ever our intention to discover.
The expression, rude awakening, is also used in a less specific way, to describe a person, or a group, having to face an unpleasant fact. No doubt the fact printed in the bulletin – that in the next month we need over $100,000 in donations – proved a rude awakening for you – at least I hope so.
Noah's generation rudely awakened
The expression, rude awakening, can be used to describe the awakening of consciousness in a group – a nation, a society, a tribe. In our Gospel reading, Matthew refers to the days of Noah. "For ...in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away...." (Matthew 24:38-39)
They never saw it coming! Like the truck-driver, it caught them totally off-guard! They were just going about, living ordinary lives, doing ordinary things in ordinary ways until this crazy man next door began building a very big boat! Now, the Old Testament story of Noah tells us that "the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and ...every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was...evil...." (Genesis 6:5) The earth was filled with violence" (6:11 and 13), and God, Genesis tells us, "was grieved...to (the) heart". (6:6) God was sorry that He had created humankind. (6:6-7) The people of Noah's day had fouled their own nest and weren't even aware of it! The corruption and violence had become so ordinary that they just took it in stride. They would not have recognized sin if it bit them!
Biblical Calls to Wake up!
Jesus, in our Gospel lesson, recalls the story of Noah, a tragedy well-known to his listeners, and he does so to increase his own generation's awareness. Jesus wanted them to keep an eternal perspective in mind. It reminds me of a sermon preached by Frank Epp, one of our former ministers, in which he urged Mennonites to live "with the millennium on our mind" – a state of mind that takes a long view of things, and never loses its sense of anticipation of something much better than what we have in the here-and-now.
Jesus told his generation, "Keep awake, ...for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming." (Matthew 24:42) Do not take the present state of things as a given. Keep your eyes and ears open to changes, to changes that are consistent with God's plan for a redeemed world. Jesus gives an example to illustrate his meaning, saying, "...if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour." (24:43-44)
In our reading from Paul's letter to the church in Rome, Paul also urges Christians to be in a state of readiness. "You know what time it is," writes Paul, "...it is ...the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers...." (Romans 13:11)
These repeated calls to wake up may indicate a natural inclination to sleep through the most amazing things. Some people don't even have to nod off; they are so blissfully unaware of things around them that only an unexpected orange landing on their nose will bring them back to Planet Earth!
Last Sunday I received a photograph from a woman who shall remain unnamed, but who, when visiting her son, Jeff, in California, took this photograph. It shows an attractive church, and a sign in front of it reading, "Sleep Here! $99 a night!" She wondered the same thing you may be wondering: Why would you pay 99 dollars, when in our church you can sleep for nothing! I say, if you're tired, go ahead and sleep, and if you sleep in church, your head lolling forward, the comedic value alone is worth the price of admission.
Living in Light of the Lord's Coming
Much more serious than nodding off during worship is a failure to gain a solid grasp of the biblical vision, and a failure to cultivate a state of awareness for signs of its emergence in our time. "Keep awake therefore," says Jesus, "for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming." (Matthew 24:42) "Watch ...[give strict attention, be cautious and active], for you do not know in what kind of a day [whether a near or remote one] your Lord is coming," reads another version. (AMP)
Now, there are plenty of warnings in the New Testament not to become hyper-vigilant, spending hours fiddling with the mathematics of prophecy, but the New Testament also warns us not to touch that Snooze Button! We know what happens when we do that in ordinary life. There are repercussions, serious ones if we do it habitually.
The prophet Isaiah urges us to look on the far horizon and to keep our eyes peeled for signs of the Lord's coming. Isaiah gives us some hints of what to expect. The Lord's coming will be international in scope, says Isaiah, for the One coming will "judge between ...nations, and ...arbitrate for many peoples" (Isaiah 2:4), not just one select group. The Coming One, says Isaiah, will effect change – incredible changes, quite extraordinary changes; for example, those who fought tooth and nail for dominance "shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." (2:4) Imagine! Schools and universities, funded by the military, which teach war craft and churn out Ph.D's of destruction, will be transformed, in Isaiah's vision, into flourishing academies of peace! Look for it! And if you don't see it at the moment, work for it!
What are we to do? "Walk in the light of the Lord!" says Isaiah. (Isaiah 2:5) And Paul, in Romans, urges the same: "Let us ...lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armour of light; let us live honourably, ...not in revelling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ...." (Romans 13:12-14) Be loyal to Jesus. Follow his teachings. Learn his spirit of love. Cultivate his impulse of compassion. Take on his commitment to justice.
Someone once asked Wayne Gretsky what made him such an astounding hockey-player, and he replied, "While everyone else is chasing the puck, I go where the puck is going to be." That's how we should live our lives, going where we know the world, in God's redeeming hands, will ultimately be.
Quotations of Scripture are from the New Revised Standard Version, unless otherwise noted.