Wake up!

Wake up!

I can think of this phrase being used toward me in two distinct ways. Firstly, my mother shrieking at me – desperately berating me for not getting out of bed sooner, the constant nagging (oft-realised) fear of lateness. I’m reminded of the time my Mum burst into my bedroom at 3.20am (yes…AM) to startle me awake – I’d missed the rendezvous with the school exchange trip leaving for Switzerland. We were due at school for 3am….quickest morning I’ve ever had. Have you ever overslept? Struggled to rouse yourself from deepest recesses blissful slumber? My colleagues and I have to be in chapel for 7.30am each day – the latecomers do not go unnoticed!

Then secondly, I can think of people’s response to my naïve assumptions about the world and its workings. My idealistic naiveté getting in the way of accurate assessment – met with the words, “Wake up, Rolf! Get real!” A real call to understanding and right thinking.

All humans are similarly called in these ways. On the one hand we’re asked to be alert, to be present, to be ‘on time, whilst also being reminded to understand and see things for how they really are. Wilful ignorance is one of the greatest threats to humanity – we allow ourselves to be told, to be spoonfed and be misled. And our diets of consumerism and individualism lead to drowsiness and slumber. We are, if you will, asleep on the backseat while we let someone else drive the car.

This is why the great Advent cry is of such importance to our spiritual (and therefore whole) wellbeing.

Jesus spoke in stark terms about the future of humanity. He painted a bleak, depressing image of the world:

“On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity”, and “your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap.” (Luke 21:25, 34)

When we look at the world today we are immediately struck by the confusion and pain. How do we respond to such ‘reckless hate’ seen in the attacks across the world, the suicide bombers? How do we tackle the threat of violence? With more violence? And what are we protecting? A consumerist madness where we worship sales and bargains and deals? At what further cost, when the leaders of the nations are assembling to consider climate change and the ongoing damage to the environment? Violence. Consumerism. Poor stewardship.

But before we get the impression these ‘evils’ somehow exist outside of us, in the great beyond, out there, in ‘other people’, let us be clear that this same evil that grips the hearts of others, grips us.

We too have angry, rage fuelled thoughts. I get incensed at the slow driver, the poorly organised queue in a coffee shop, the disruption to sleep.

We too are driven by individualism and consumerism. I’m prepared to buy books from a website knowing that its employees are treated as nothing more than cattle – just so I can save a few pounds, or worse, get it sooner. I am willing to dehumanise someone just so I am not inconvenienced?

We too are poor stewards. The food I throw away. The clothes that are replaced. The unethically farmed meat. The heating left on all day. The lights not turned off. The hospitality not gifted. The love not offered.

 

That is why Advent is a penitential season. For it is only when we wake up and see both the state of our hearts and the state of the world that we truly see the need for a Saviour.

Advent is not a make believe season. We don’t pretend to be Jews waiting for their Messiah. It is not a preamble to Christmas – it is the real deal – it is about God working in our lives.

We need a Saviour now!

 

So Advent is most especially about preparing our hearts to hear afresh the wondrous news that God HAS COME. Much like in Lent, where despite knowing we live in the shadow of the cross, we use the time to prepare for a fresh sense of awe and wonder at the mercy and grace God poured out in and through the cross, so Advent must also be a time where we are prepared. We come to acknowledge our desperate brokenness.

And yet, it is also, most profoundly, about an acknowledgement of the world’s brokenness.

This is the root of the cry, ‘Come, Lord Jesus’. We don’t pretend we’re living two thousand years ago, watching and waiting. We look on our 21^st century world and sigh in pain and sorrow.

We try to bring something of God’s Kingdom to those around us. We believe the Kingdom of God is within us, is growing, is glimpsed at in the loving relationships around us.

But, O Lord, we are also painfully aware that God’s Kingdom is not yet here.

 

Advent then forces us to pray, with increasing fervour and intensity, “YOUR KINGDOM COME!”

 

And he will!

 

Jesus speaks about the future return of the Son of Man:
‘²⁵ “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. ²⁶ People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. ²⁷ At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

²⁹ He told them this parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees. ³⁰ When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. ³¹ Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.” (Luke 21:25-27, 29-31)

These words “concern the true eschatological event, the coming of the Son of Man, which…is the “fulfilment” of the kingdom of God, the moment when God’s rule becomes definitive.” (Johnson, 1991, p.330)

The waiting game though, is hard. The Parable of the faithful and wise manager (Luke 12:42-28) reminds us that one temptation is to ‘beat the servants and to eat and drink and get drunk.” I was profoundly struck when I heard my placement incumbent suggest that the obsession with eating and drinking around Christmas is a form of (false) worship. We are to rejoice and celebrate – but not in and for itself.

Another temptation is to despair – the seed that has fallen but whose life is choked out by life’s worries – the ones who don’t mature (Luke 8:14). Jesus himself says, “³⁴ “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap. ³⁵ For it will come on all those who live on the face of the whole earth.” (Luke 21:34f.)

So what are we to do? How are we to use Advent as a time to reflect on our personal need of a Saviour, but also a time to look for God’s return?

Jesus says:

²⁸ When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

Praise God! We are called to worship!

³³ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

Be Confident! We are promised His continued presence.

³⁶ Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.”

Watch and pray! We are called to wake up!

 

And yet…let us be reminded of the great Advent prayer: Come, Lord Jesus!

We are not praying that we might be better able to effect God’s kingdom – we look for God to move. This is why the words of Isaiah are so redolent:

“Awake, awake, arm of the Lord,

    clothe yourself with strength!

Awake, as in days gone by,

    as in generations of old.” (Isaiah 51:9)

 

May we all, this Advent, be awoken to worship and prayer.

May we all, this Advent, cry together, “Lord Jesus, Come!”