Waking up (Advent Sunday).

Lord, we watch, we wait, we look, we long for You. Dispel the shadows and darkness and awaken us to Your glory, that we may live in Your light. Amen.

How are you at waking up in the morning? For some of us, it's a sudden, startling experience! Off goes the alarm and we jump up instantly, perhaps wondering if we're already running late, eager to get on with the day. For others, it's a quiet, slow process. We can be half asleep and half awake, and not even sure which is which, until gradually we realize that the day has dawned and it's time to get up. Most of us know something of both those kinds of starts to the day, because waking up is a basic human experience.

Waking up also offers one of the most basic pictures of what can happen when God takes a hand in someone's life. There are the classic alarm-clock stories. Saul of Tarsus, on the Damascus road, discovered in a flash that the God he thought he already knew was in fact fully revealed in Jesus of Nazareth, crucified and risen. John Wesley found his heart becoming strangely warm, and never looked back. They are two of the famous ones, but there are millions more. Maybe you are one of them?

Or maybe your story is one of the many, that don't hit the headlines in the same way, of the half-awake and half-asleep variety? Some people take months, years, perhaps even decades, during which they aren't sure whether they're on the outside of the Christian faith looking in, or on the inside looking about them to see if it's real. As with ordinary waking up, many people drift for a while somewhere in between. But the point is that there is such a thing as being asleep, and there is such a thing as being awake. And it's important to tell the difference, and to be sure you're awake by the time you have to be up and ready for action.

Sleeping and waking is one of the regular early Christian images for what happens when the Good News of Jesus Christ impinges on a person's life. That's because 'sleep' was a regular way of talking about death in the ancient Jewish world. And with the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, the world itself was being invited to 'wake up'. The earliest Christians believed that resurrection was what every human being really needs - not just in the end, after physical death - but now, in this present life. God intends, in the end, to give us a new life, in comparison with which the present one is mere shadow-lands. But the new creation has already begun with the resurrection of Jesus, and God wants us to wake up now to the new reality.

We are called to be daytime people, even though the rest of the world isn't yet awake. We are to live in the present darkness by the light of Christ, so that when the sun comes up at last we will be ready for it. That's what it means to respond to the call of the Christian Gospel.

And that's what Advent Sunday is for. To remind us that spiritually, as well as physically, there is a difference between being asleep and being awake. To challenge us to examine ourselves and check out where we are in that process. Are we awake and alert, ready to be part of what God is doing here and now through His church in His world? Are we doing all that we can to keep ourselves spiritually active and healthy, whatever our age? Or are we in the spiritual equivalent of a persistent vegetative state? Have we ever really woken up to the light of Christ? Or maybe we woke up once, years ago, but now spiritual inertia and sluggishness have overtaken us and we're just dozing in the twilight?

My friends, Christian life is not meant to be like that. The Bible readings set for today make that abundantly clear. Three things emerge from those readings which remind us of what is involved in being awake and staying awake in these present times, this period of waiting between the first and second comings of our Lord.

First, prayer. Paul, in his letter to the Thessalonians, wrote of praying night and day (1 Thess. 3: 10). Jesus, in chapter 21 of Luke's gospel, spoke of the urgent need for prayer (21: 36). Just as our physical body needs to breath to stay alive, so the Christian body needs to pray. It's as basic as that. Prayer is like oxygen to the Christian life and if we don't get enough oxygen, we become sluggish and moribund. In order to invigorate us, our prayer needs to be rich and varied, rather than samey and stale. We need intimate prayer on our own with the Lord; we need corporate prayer as we worship together in church; we need prayer in smaller gatherings - like House Groups and Daily Prayer in the North Aisle here at 9.00 o'clock each morning.

Why not try that once or twice a week during Advent? And we need to step out of our comfort zone, respond to the nudge of God's Spirit and take new initiatives in prayer - like Power Point, the monthly evening meeting for worship and prayer that will start here in the Priory on Wednesday 24th January. Do put that date in your diary.

Second, study. If prayer is like oxygen to the Christian, then study of God's Word is our food and drink, our sustenance. St Paul wrote to the church of the Thessalonians that he longed to meet with them again to "supply what was lacking in their faith" (3: 10). We can work out by reading the rest of the letter that some of the things Paul considered to be lacking were of a moral and disciplinary nature and other aspects were doctrinal and theological. Every church, then and now, has areas of weakness. How would St Paul have addressed them? Surely by preaching and teaching and studying the Hebrew Scriptures together in the light of Christ.

So too in our Gospel reading, studying the signs of the times through the filter of the teaching of Jesus is shown to be crucial if we are not to get caught off our guard. "Heaven and earth will pass away," Jesus said "but my words will never pass away" (Lk 21: 33). His words are of ultimate significance - do we treat them like that? Do we stay fresh and attentive in our faith by continually seeking to learn more about what we believe and how to put it into practice?

Belonging to a House Group is an excellent way of doing that. But particularly if you're not a House Group member at the moment, then the Reading Group in the New Year might be for you. We'll be using Tom Wright's book, Simply Christian. Reading the testimonies from some of our newly confirmed adults in the December Priory Magazine will tell you that this is a book which takes us back to the truths of the Bible in ways that are helpful both for enquirers and long-time believers. There are details on the Notice Sheet; please sign up soon if you'd like to come along.

Prayer. Study. And lifestyle: holy living. I guess every parent's had the experience of knocking on their teenager's bedroom door in the morning and calling out "It's breakfast time! Are you awake yet?" And a muffled voice comes from somewhere in the depths of the duvet: "Yea… I'm awake. Go away. Leave me alone!" Ten minutes later - still nothing's happened. You see it's all very well saying you're awake, but until you give some evidence of it, by your actions, it doesn't mean very much. And the trouble is, too many folk say they're Christians, but they don't give much evidence that they're really living in the light of Christ. "Be careful," said Jesus "or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap" (Lk 21: 34). Or, as it's put in Mark's gospel, when the Lord comes suddenly, do not let Him find you sleeping (Mk 13: 36).

At Baptism and Confirmation, we respond to God's invitation to die to sin and rise to new life with Christ. Because we're fallible human beings who make mistakes, that pattern of turning away from all kinds of evil, and even from lesser good, and turning to Christ as Saviour and Lord - that pattern needs to be repeated day by day and show itself in our lifestyle.

In his letter to Christians in Ephesus, Paul put it like this: "Among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people… For once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light…" (5: 3,8). What might you and I need to turn away from, to chuck out of our lifestyle and habits, this Advent - in order to show that we really are seeking to live in the light and obedience of Christ?

Prayer is our oxygen; study of God's Word is our food and drink, our fuel; and holy living is our exercise, our activity. Without these three, Christians sink into apathy and inertia. With them, in the power of the Holy Spirit, we can shine as lights in the world to the glory of God the Father. May God strengthen our hearts so that we will be blameless and holy in His presence when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones. (1 Thess. 3: 13) Amen.

Mary Barr