Wide Awake

Are you awake? I know that's a dangerous question for a preacher to ask, and the sermon has just begun. You may not be awake for long, but are you awake?

Bertie Dettinger wasn't. Bertie was a member of the English United Presbyterian Church in Marietta, PA. He delivered the mail in Marietta, and those early mornings caught up with him. Sometime during the sermon, Bertie's head would begin to nod and he would quietly doze off.

I know this because I watched along with the other teenage youth in our church. It helped to pass the time and added some excitement -- when would Bertie doze off?

One summer Sunday stands out. Bertie's wife Ruth sang in the choir, but during the summer the choir was off and they sat together. Bertie must have had a rough week because instead of his head gently dropping to his chest as he fell asleep, his head began to bob backward and he let out a loud snore! Ruth promptly threw a vicious elbow into his ribs which caused him to snap forward and wake up with a loud snort.

Throughout the church, the sounds of the youths' barely stifled laugher mixed with the urgent hisses of parents trying to shush us. What a Sunday!

Are you awake? Life has a way of letting us have it when we're not looking. It catches us off guard. We go through the motions spiritually, and then life happens, but we're not ready. We believe, but Christ's resurrection seems more like a dream than a reality Wake up! 1 Corinthians 15:17-20 (NRSV) If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.Then those also who have died (or "fallen asleep") in Christ have perished.If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.

Christ is risen! Our faith is not futile. We are forgiven. Don't hit the snooze button. Dare to dream! To that end, we're going to explore: A Nightmare in the Upper Room, and Wide Awake.

A Nightmare in the Upper Room

Dreams can become nightmares. Go back with the disciples to the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter. Good Friday was a blur. So much happened so fast; it all went wrong. Their dream became a nightmare. The disciples probably didn't sleep well that night and by Saturday morning reality began to set in. Jesus was dead. The dream was over. They're afraid. What do they do now? Are they next? They're ashamed. The time came to take a stand and they cut and run. They're trapped. Are they in a safe house or a prison? Their dream has become a nightmare.

Maybe that's what brought you to church today. Your dream has become a nightmare. You had such high hopes, but now it's all falling apart. There won't be any cards and candy for you on Valentine's Day. You're afraid. What does the future hold? Will you ever love or be loved again? You look back over what you've done, and you are ashamed. You had your chance, and you blew it. Will you ever get a second chance? You want to get going but which way should you go? How can you avoid making more mistakes and going from bad to worse?

God seems absent on those days. The good news seems like a dream. No wonder Paul writes, "If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied." We won't be pitied. We'll deal with it ourselves. So we stop dreaming. We put the resurrection to bed. We take it out every Easter; let it smell the lillies and enjoy a nice lunch, and then its back to bed for another year. Life goes on. Our dream became a nightmare, and there's nothing we can do about it. We stumble on like sleepwalkers, doing the best we can, living from day to day, but life doesn't stop. The world keeps turning, and before we know it, certainly before we're ready, we take another body blow. Life kicks us when we're down. We stopped dreaming. We stopped believing, but that doesn't stop the nightmares.

God seems absent, just as God seemed absent that Saturday so long ago. We think that because we cannot see what God is doing that God is not doing anything. That is not so! God's apparent absence is often the first sign that God is about to act. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. But in fact the resurrection of Jesus demonstrates the first fruit of what God does on our darkest days, on the days when our dreams have become nightmares. God turns our Saturday into Easter Sunday! God turns our nightmares into dreams. God forgives us and gives us a second chance, a future with hope

Wake up. Christ is risen! Enjoy the fruit! The God who turned death into life can turn your nightmare into a dream. It may be Saturday, but Sunday's coming! The resurrection promises us a new day. We can dream again. We can live again, because Christ is risen.

Wide Awake

Are you awake now? 1 Corinthians 15:12 (NRSV) Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?

We don't necessarily say "there is no resurrection of the dead," but we live as if the resurrection has made no difference in our lives. We sleepwalk in the gray twilight between what was and what is to be. We can say that God raised Jesus from the dead. We can say that one day the dead in Christ will be raised; perhaps we can even go a step further and say that one day we will be raised from the dead. One day after we fall asleep, we will be wide awake.

Are you awake now? Is the resurrection a real source of hope for you now, or does your faith seem futile? Do you still feel trapped in your sins? Is it hard to believe that you are forgiven? If so, then you are not wide awake. The power of death still has you in its grip, and it's time to wake up.

Death's power is seen in the way that fear and guilt keep us down. It lulls us to sleep by telling us that there is nothing we can do; nothing can change; but if we try, if we dare to dream, our lives will be so much worse. It's far better to stay tucked in to the comfortable life we know rather than risk what could happen if we fail; and we will fail, so stay tucked in -- unpleasant dreams.

What if that's not true? What if the resurrection is more than something that happened long ago and something that will happen after we die? What if the resurrection is the defeat of death's power in the here and now?What if our sins are forgiven and we are free?

The disciples looked out at a new world the morning after Easter. They weren't asleep anymore; they were wide awake. They saw the world in a whole new light; death was defeated. They didn't have to be afraid. Guilt had no grip on them. They were forgiven. They were free; free to live in the now; free to follow God and participate in God's work in the world. They were free.

Wake up! Christ is risen! Death is defeated! No more fear. No more guilt. No more despair. You are free! Open your eyes to God's new world, and you will be wide awake! Amen.

The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. 1989. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.