Download “Keep Awake”

November 27, 2016
Matthew 24:36-44
Dr. Susan E. Moorefield
The First Sunday of Advent, Year A
“Keep Awake”
'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds;
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
This is such a familiar poem for us this time of year, and I expect that many of us can recite for
memory full sections of it. You may have even had a picture book of this poem and those pictures still
come to mind when you hear these words. This has always been a regular part of our family‟s
Christmas celebration.
Yet, while I was doing research to write this sermon, I learned something I had never known before
about this poem. There is actually an argument over the authorship. In certain literary circles, people
are discussing who actually wrote it because the poem was first published anonymously in New York's
Troy Sentinel on December 23, 1823.
“It wasn't until 13 years later that Clement Clarke Moore, a professor and a poet, stepped forward to
claim authorship and said that his housekeeper had, without his knowledge, sent the piece he wrote
for his kids to the newspaper. In 1844, the poem was officially included in an anthology of Moore's
work. (Herein lies the problem:) The family of Henry Livingston, Jr., claimed their father had been
reciting "A Visit From St. Nicholas" to them for 15 years before it was published.”
http://mentalfloss.com/article/26719/who-really-wrote-twas-night-christmas
What led me into this discovery was a very basic question I had. I wondered who in the world actually
thinks that children sleep on Christmas Eve? Who actually thinks that the children would have visions
of sugarplums dancing in their heads on the night when Santa is coming?
Everybody knows that children can‟t sleep on Christmas Eve. There is too much excitement. There is
too much expected joy. There is too much wonder to sleep at a time like this! Santa is coming!
“Keep awake” Jesus tells the disciples, “for the Son of Man is coming.”
This whole chapter and into the next is about being ready for this coming. Jesus begins by telling his
disciples that this magnificent temple in Jerusalem would be destroyed. And history does tell us that
this did actually happen around 70 CE.
Jesus goes on to tell the disciples that there will be those who come claiming to be the Messiah who
will lead many astray. Jesus tells of wars and famines and earthquakes as “birthpangs” of the coming
of this time. Even more, the disciples will be tortured and be put to death. People will flee from Judea
into the mountains. And the sun will be darkened and the stars will fall from heaven.
But before we try to figure out if this time is upon us or not, Jesus tells his disciples that no one knows
when this day and hour will be, not the angels in heaven, not the Son, only the Father. So do not sit
around with your calculations trying to figure it out, because you will not be able to.
Instead, Jesus pulls up this example of Noah all the way back in the very early chapters of Genesis.
Reading from Genesis 6:5-8. We hear these words:
“The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of
the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that the Lord had made
humankind on the earth, and it grieved God to the heart. So the Lord said, „I will blot out from the earth
the human beings I have created---people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the
air, for I am sorry that I have made them.‟ But Noah found favor in the sight of the Lord.”
Scripture tells us that Noah was a righteous man, blameless, and walked with God. And so God
instructs Noah to build an ark so that God would save Noah and his wife and his sons and their wives,
and not only them, but all creatures as well: two of every kind of being. Then the floods waters came
and took everyone and everything away. Only Noah and his family and all the animals floating above
on the waters were left. The ones who were left were the ones who were saved.
“And so it will be,” Jesus teaches. Two will be in the field—one will be taken away, and one will be left.
Two will be grinding meal together. One will be taken away, and one will be left and that one will be
saved.
And this all will happen as unexpectedly as a thief in the night. “Therefore you must be ready for the
Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”
This is the word that ushers us into this Season of Advent. This is the word that we have to sit with for
a while in this Season of waiting and preparation. It is so tempting to run straight to the manger bed to
see a little, newborn baby with ten tiny fingers and ten tiny toes.
But Advent tells us to wait a minute, to pause, to contemplate, to pray, and to get ourselves ready.
You can‟t just go wildly running to Bethlehem without this time of preparation.
Staying awake is easy for a child on Christmas Eve when Santa is coming. But how do we, as
Christians in 2016, stay awake to the coming of Christ as we enter yet another Advent Season?
Perhaps the answer comes a bit further than our text this morning. You see, after this text, we get a
series of stories that compare those who have made wise choices to those who are foolish. There is a
foolish slave and a faithful one. The wise one keeps care over others even as his master is delayed.
There are 10 bridesmaids—5 foolish who run out oil, while the 5 wise ones have oil for their lamps and
don‟t miss the wedding banquet. There is the parable of the talents where the wise invest while the
foolish buries his in the ground.
And the final, the closing story of this whole series is of those who were wise enough to give food and
drink, to give clothes and care, to welcome the stranger, and to visit the prisoner.
So how do we prepare for the coming of Christ? How do we get ready? How do we be among those
who are wise? How do we stay awake?
We care for the least of these. This is what will prepare our hearts. This is what keeps us focused on
Christ and not on ourselves. This is what will keep us faithful and make us ready.
Christmas is about the coming of Christ into the world. Not just for those who can hang stockings by
the chimney with care, but for those who have no stockings, for those who don‟t know what is to wait
for Santa, for those who bellies poke out not because they are so full, but just the opposite, because
they are so empty.
What keeps us awake in this season is not our focusing on our shopping lists, our grocery lists, our
guest lists, and our activities lists, but what will keep us awake and get us ready for the coming of
Christ is our focusing on others, especially on the least of these. It is our giving to others who have no
way to give to us in return. This is how Christ will make us ready. This is what will wake us up.
And what I love about the ancient teachings of Jesus is that science now confirms what the followers
of Christ have always known.
For we know now that “studies show that when people donate to charity, the mesolimbic system is
triggered. The brain releases feel-good chemicals and spurs us to perform more kind acts —
something psychologists now call the “helper‟s high.”
By helping others, our own sense of self and our own well-being increases and ultimately makes us
more optimistic and positive, according to studies at the University of Texas.
Volunteering reduces loneliness and isolation and offers us a greater sense of social connectedness,
says the Mental Health Foundation.
The National Institute of Health tells us that when we help others, we give off positive vibes, which can
rub off on our peers and even make our friendships stronger.
The Global One Foundation states that volunteering is a way to “promote a deeper sense of gratitude
as we recognize more of what is already a blessing and a gift in our own life.”
Kindness is contagious, according to a study by researchers at University of California, Los Angeles,
and University of Cambridge and University of Plymouth in the United Kingdom. “When we see
someone else help another person it gives us a good feeling,” the study states, “Which in turn causes
us to go out and do something altruistic ourselves.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/20/international-day-of-happiness-helping-_n_6905446.html
Is it any wonder that the focus of Sun City is to be the city of volunteers?
If you want to stay awake this Advent, if you want to get ready for the coming of Christ, find someone
who is hungry and feed them, find someone who is thirsty and give them something to drink, find
someone who is a stranger and welcome them, find someone who is naked and give them some
clothes, find someone who is sick and take care of them, and find someone in prison and visit them.
And you will wake up and be ready.
And there will be a “Happy Christmas (for) all, and (for) all a good night!”