They say that waking up is hard to do ...

Did you notice that the readings today, on the first Sunday of Advent, the first day of the new church year, are all about waking up?  “Now is the moment for you to wake from sleep,” writes Paul to the struggling little church in Rome.  “Keep awake,” Jesus tells his disciples.

(Singing) They say that waking up is hard to do ...

People tell me this is the hardest time of the year.

It’s getting colder, darker, and our bodies are tired and have trouble adjusting to all these changes.

People tell me this is the hardest time of the year.  And it is not just the weather, the lack of light, the fragility of the body.  They tell me it is Christmas – that Christmas makes this the hardest time of the year.  I saw a series of books called “The Worst Case Scenario Series” about how to survive terrible events.  And there was one for Christmas – The Worst Case Scenario Series Survival Guide: Christmas.  How to survive Christmas.

When you step back and take a look, doesn’t this seem odd?  Christmas is such an ordeal that we have to plan and strategize how we’ll survive it?

But we all know that there is something true about that, at least in our experience.  So what is it?  What is so hard about Christmas?  Is anybody willing to share something that is hard about Christmas for you?

(If people don’t share, share some of your own hardships, then ask again.  The sharing will hopefully include some things that are truly hard like bereavement and serious illness, as well as other things that are not so hard really but dilemmas we have created like too much shopping, socializing, spending, eating, and drinking.  Hopefully people will see the comic aspect of some of these not truly hard things, as well as the real suffering of the truly hard things.  Try to point out the differences between real suffering and the suffering we create for ourselves through attitudes and beliefs we’ve adopted).

Christmas, apart from all the material and secular celebrations is a very different holiday.  It is a shock, a huge shock, the shock of God coming to earth in human form, “human vesture” as Hymn 324 puts it.

Advent is the season when we are asked to begin to prepare for the incredible shock of Christmas. We begin by waking up. Advent cries out – “Wake up!!!” Things are about to change. Wake up! Wake up! The false prince who usurped the throne is about to be confronted by the true King. Wake up! Or you won’t be able to recognize the true King when he comes.

    (Singing again) They say that waking up is hard to do.
    Now I know, I know that it’s true.
    Don’t say that this is the end.
    Instead of waking up we should all go back to sleep again.

(Hoping someone points out that it’s “breaking up” not “waking up,” but if they don’t, point it out anyway).

I wonder if waking up and breaking up are related.  It seems that that is what our service of Baptism says.  Let’s turn to the Baptismal Rite and see, p. 302.  Before we even get to our Baptismal Covenant there are some important actions that we must take.  In these first three commitments we are asked to renounce all in this world that has put us to sleep and drawn us away from our true purpose, the purpose for which we were created – to love and serve God. It seems to be a break-up.

In the Gospel lesson Jesus teaches his disciples about this break-up, the breaking up that comes with our waking up.  Two are in the fields, one awakes, the other remains asleep. Two are grinding grain, one awakes, the other remains asleep.  When one awakes, they can be moved, be transformed, be changed.  And Baptism is the herald announcing this transformational journey for each of us.  The one who awakens in Baptism is the new man or new woman.  The old man, the old woman, remains.  It is the old man or old woman with the old life, the old habits, the old fights, old arguments, old rivalries, old insecurities, old resentments, all these old ways that we promise to separate from in Baptism.  We’ve got to break off our romance with “Moi,” the person I created and call myself.

No wonder waking up is hard to do.  It comes with a break-up, a separation from our old way of life, and even from the picture of the people we thought we really were.

Thankfully, it also comes with a marriage, a true love marriage, between our new life in the Spirit and Christ.  Look at the next three questions.  We are turning towards Christ, seeking to obey Christ, and like faithful spouses we say, “I do!”

So now we have the help of Christ, and the assistance of the Holy Spirit for this journey. When we move to the Baptismal Covenant itself, our marriage vows, as it were, we can say, “I will with God’s help,” because we have bound ourselves to God in this new life. We really need God’s help every minute in the new life, it is all new to us, confusing and disorienting. The old is passing away, the new is coming into being. Thank God he has promised to help us in this strange new territory of the Spirit.

That is good news.  On Dec 16, we will be renewing our Baptismal Covenant during this service.  Between now and then, I hope you’ll be looking at your own life and where the old man, the one who obeys the desires that draw you from the love of God, conflicts with the emerging life of the new man who seeks to obey and serve Christ in love and truth.  You can use the three renunciations and three promises on p. 302 and 303 as your guide in this. These important six questions can help us to wake up and rise to a joyful renewal of our Baptismal Covenant. Now is the time to awaken from sleep, and to set about our work, to purify our hearts and prepare a place for the One who is coming.

Amen.

The Rev. Edie Bird
1st Sunday of Advent
2  December 2007

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