Rise Up!

 Scripture. 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 NRSV 

Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anything written to you. 2 For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 When they say, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape! 

4 But you, beloved, are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief; 5 for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness. 6 So then let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober; 7 for those who sleep sleep at night, and those who are drunk get drunk at night. 8 But since  we belong to the day, let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. 9 For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him. 

11 Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.

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Message   Rise Up!

Good morning!  It is another bright and beautiful Fall morning.  Or at least, I hope it is. I recorded this on Saturday so I have to rely on the weather forecast to be accurate.

In my life, this week is all about celebrations.  Today, November 15, is my 5 year anniversary as pastor of First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Selma.  Thursday, November 19 marks 31 substance-free years in 12 Step recovery.  I consider both of these events to be life changing, even life saving.  But I’ll write about that somewhere else.  

Although, you know this passage does talk about the difference between drunk people and sober people . . .

One of the differences between drunk people and sober people is that drunk people are almost entirely focused on themselves - their feelings, their desires, their needs.  It’s not that they are asleep, exactly. More like sleep-walking. Now Paul may or may not have been referring to people who were actually drunk, but he was certainly talking about those who were perfectly happy just doing what they were doing, living their lives as they always had, who didn’t want to hear about having to make changes in the way they looked at and lived in the world, even though the end was near.  His audience would have understood that because, after all, drunks pretty much like to do things the way they want to, and when they are asleep no power on earth can wake them.  And there were a lot of people who were not ready to hear the Good News, or that the kingdom was at hand - any more than we want to believe that guy who carries the sign saying “Repent!  The end is near.”

Now remember, Paul and pretty much all the other Christ followers truly believed that Jesus was coming back within their lifetimes - any minute. After all, in talking about the End of Days Jesus had said, “Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these thing have taken place.” (Matthew 24:34). So he told the congregations to act as if the end was coming today, or tomorrow, or next month.  Whichever, when it did come they needed to be ready.  They needed to already be living the way Jesus had told them to, not putting anything ahead of their salvation.

In Act 1 of Hamilton. . . . yes, I am a Hamilfan.  I’m pretty sure some of you are too . . . Kathleen.  David.  Katie.  Anyway, in Act 1 John Laurens, Hercules Mulligan and the Marquis de Lafayette are having a drink or three, toasting the Revolution, when Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton come in to the tavern.  They get in a conversation about the need for a Revolution and John Laurens asks the musical question, “When are these colonies gonna rise up?”  Aaron Burr said he was going to wait and see which way the wind blew.  He’d hang out with the guys, but he wouldn’t fully commit until he was absolutely certain he was picking the right side.   

And you know, that’s kind of the attitude Paul was talking about.  Not people who didn’t know about Christ, cause they didn’t know so they couldn’t make a decision for Christ.  But people who had heard and thought, yeah, well, maybe.  I’ll show up, hang out with everybody.  But, you know, everything is fine right now, it’s all good.  And I don’t wanna give up stuff.  I like going to the pagan festivals.  They’re fun.  When I see the signs that the End is coming, then I’ll make the changes in my life. 

These are the ones, these are the people who are of the night, and will be asleep when the Day of the Lord comes.  Meanwhile, Paul said, “encourage one another and build one another up, as indeed you are doing.”

Now, I don’t know when the end is coming.  As Jesus said, no one knows except the Father.  And time doesn’t have the same kind of meaning for God as it does for us, cause there’s that whole God is eternal thing.  I imagine it would be like us losing track of what day it is. You know how it is. “Wait, how did it get to be Friday already?”  Well,  for God it would be like, “Where do the millennia go?”

So, yeah, I don’t know when the end is coming, but I do know that we all ought to live as if this is the last day before the Day of the Lord.  And I gotta say, we’re not. Not even close.  I’m sure some people are, but have you turned on the news?  Or checked your email? Or looked at Facebook or Twitter or Parler or Instagram?  There is some really ugly stuff out there, and people are rejoicing in the misfortunes or reported misdeeds of others.  People are spreading gossip which, like all gossip, may or may not be true.  And yes, as far as I am concerned, “fake news” from either side is just gossip, but gossip intended to hurt someone.  I have seen ugliness and name calling even from other ministers - I mean really hateful stuff - from both sides.  OK?  Both sides.  Hate speech abounds.    I see comments and memes every day that are explicitly racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic and just plain ugly in political posts and religious - Christian - posts.  And let’s not even mention posts about the pandemic.  

I’m pretty sure Paul would have a hard time saying, “encourage one another and build one another up, as indeed you are doing.” today.   But this is what we are supposed to be doing - encouraging and building each other up - loving each other - NOT calling each other derogatory names. It is not ok to call others names because you disagree.   And I am pretty sure that names like rethuglican and libtard are not loving in any understanding of the word “love”.  

Look, I get that a lot of people are not happy right this minute.  And it is perfectly ok to be not happy about a situation.  It is not ok to be ugly, to be un-Christian about that situation.  Even if they started it . . . you do not have to finish what someone else starts.  Even if someone else is doing it . . .just because someone else is doing it . . . you’ve all heard that one, right?

I don’t know when the end of days is coming, but I do know “...the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.” and we need to be ready because . .  “you are all children of light and children of the day . .  [and] since we belong to the day, let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.” 

Let us put on the breastplate of faith and love.  Now.  Let us put it on now, so that we are ready.  Don’t wait until it looks like the End is actually near, because we all know that it could be here right now for any one of us.  

“Keep awake and be sober.”  Getting sober isn’t easy.  It requires a desire to do something different, to live in a new and often confusing way. It means waking up to the world as the world is, and choosing to respond to the world in a radically different way than we ever did before.  And making that choice that every day.  Choosing to wake up every day.  Choosing to rise up every day.  Choosing to respond in the way Jesus taught us to.  Returning love for hate.  Giving your enemy water when they are thirsty.  Turning the other cheek.  All that good stuff. 

Lest you think that I am suggesting you can’t get angry, or respond to the ugliness at all, let me tell you about my friend Sandhya Jha.  She is the director of the Oakland Peace Center, and she does battle with ugliness every day - the ugliness of racism and economic oppression, and so many other forms of ugly.  And she does get angry, but never ugly.   She does battle with hatred and oppression by speaking truth, even to supporters of these causes who don’t quite get that they are still part of the problem. She does it by teaching and dragging the rest of us there blinking our eyes, wondering how we could have missed that, and realizing we must have been asleep.  We are not as woke as we thought we were.  So we keep waking to new things, new realizations, new realities, and new choices.

In this very difficult time, and it is a very difficult time, our work is to return love for hatred,  peace for anger.  Our job is to “Encourage one another and build one another up.”   Our job is to love one another.  Let us Sober up!  And Wake up!  And Rise Up!  

Rise up, you saints of God.