Wake
up everybody! George told us two Sundays ago to “stay
awake,” but I’ll take it one step further. Wake up! You
see, if George’s advice (which was actually Jesus’ advice)
was to keep awake, he could have been missing a lot of us who never
woke up to begin with. Now I see you sitting there and your eyes are
mostly open. But you can’t fool me! You’re fast asleep
and I know it. But if by some miracle you are actually awake, I think
you’d really rather be asleep. This is the darkest time of year.
This is the time of year when you kind of wake up in the morning and
see that gray, gloomy overcast so typical of Chicago winters, and you’d
just as soon curl up and go back to sleep. And so it’s my assumption
that in order for you to be here you’re a sleepwalker, and it’s
my job along with John the Baptist to say, “Wake up!”
That
was John the Baptist’s ministry. That was his job, because
he saw a bright, new day in front of him with unbelievable opportunities
and possibilities. His job was to announce that Jesus was coming and
that this was a chance to get saved. Oh, that’s one more thing:
you’re not only asleep, you’re lost. This bright new day
is salvation time because we’re asleep, we’re lost and
on top of that, a mess. Well, I imagine that 2,000 years ago, just
like today, John’s message played and plays to mixed reviews.
I mean, you don’t look so bad. You don’t look like a mess,
but John says you are. But maybe the truth is that John wasn’t
singling anyone out—although one or two of us may have a suspicion
he’s right—but rather that humankind is asleep, that humankind
is lost, that humankind is a mess. And for all of the incredible advances
in technology and in science and in just plain good things we’ve
discovered in 2,000 years, are we happy about losing an entire continent
to AIDS? Are we happy about the militant fundamentalisms for whom the
ends justify any means, including the loss of innocent lives? Are we
happy about what we’ve done to our planet and its increasing
inability to sustain those fragile balances for all of God’s
creatures? You know, it really doesn’t make much of a difference
whether evolution or intelligent design is right if there’s nothing
left to analyze.
So I
can make a good case for the largest possible audience to hear John
the Baptist’s wakeup call. We kind of got a taste of it
in 2001 when the unthinkable happened in the World Trade Center disaster.
The implications of that disaster which shattered the myth of security
that we seem to feel is our birthright as Americans, the implication
is that we have been dragged into every corner of the world and that
every corner of the world has an effect on us. We were all reminded
last week on the anniversary of Pearl Harbor of the loss of innocence
and invincibility that sneak attack occasioned. And then there is the
much referred-to Laurie Dann shooting in Winnetka, also incomprehensible
in a community that so values its safety and insulation. John the Baptist
is saying, “We’ve got trouble right here in River City!” In
fact, we’ve got trouble in all the River Cities of the world.
And
so John the Baptist says: Wake up and look at the one I’m
pointing to, because he will make a difference. But be careful that
you don’t mistake him for the usual superstars or world leaders
or ecclesiastical high rollers we so often put our trust in. He’s
not like that. Remember how he was born. Remember how he lived. Remember
how he died. All very “common.” All very un-superstar,
un-world leader, un-ecclesiastical high roller-ish. Instead, the new
day of salvation he came to offer has to do with a message of sacrificial
love, of forgiveness, of another chance.
Does
that ring a bell? It does with me: Another chance to make amends,
to start something over, to say a prayer and to know that someone
is listening. I could go on and on, but if you are awake now you
get the point. If you were sleepwalking on your way here, you are
here in any event. And I have a gift for you which was actually an
early Christmas gift to me I’d like to pass along. It came from an old friend
I’ve mentioned once or twice before, a friend who knows God and
who is faithful to God despite every reason of birth and circumstance
to believe God had truly abandoned her. Her name is Dorothy, and she’s
been up against every kind of social, physical, emotional, and spiritual
roadblock imaginable.
But
Dorothy is a friend who knows God, and she called the other day to
ask if I would say “Good Morning to Jesus” in church.
Dorothy had woken up with that vision of herself and everyone starting
their day saying “Good Morning” to Jesus. Now I would say
that Dorothy was really awake in more ways than one to do something
as simple and yet as profound as to suggest that when we wake up in
the morning—or whenever it is we wake up—that it’s
an opportunity to greet Jesus. And so what I’m going to try to
do for this next week, and I’ll invite you to join me just for
this next week, is when we wake up in the morning to say, “Good
morning, Jesus!” Don’t say it very loud if you’ll
wake someone else up because it’s not your job to impose your “Good
morning Jesus” on them. That’s it! Just wake up and say, “Good
morning, Jesus.” Don’t forget, this was Dorothy’s
vision for us and I think she knows what she’s talking about.
Now before I say Amen,
entrusting that you are in fact awake by now, let’s just practice it once. Ready? “Good morning,
Jesus.” Now I’ll say, “Amen.”
