Sermon: Advent Sunday Carol Service Parish of Pyrford and Wisley

Preacher:

Date:

Sunday 1st December 2013

Venue:

Parish of Pyrford and Wisley

+ In nomine Patris…

I have become very interested in sleep over the last few months. Not just being asleep, but thinking about sleep spiritually and theologically.

My interest in sleep was awakened (excuse the pun!) by participating in a multi-disciplinary seminar at the University of Surrey where I am Anglican Chaplain. At the seminar different disciplines spoke about different concerns around sleep. So biologists spoke of the evolutionary reasons for sleep, and in a nutshell the jury is out on that. Psychologists described the mental health benefits of good ‘sleep hygiene’ in other words, good sleep is good for our wellbeing, and of course they spoke about sleep and dreams. Sociologists spoke about sleep and social convention and control; and believe me there is voluminous literature on that, and a very relevant one given research they have done on sleep in residential homes and hospitals. And English Literature spoke about the way sleep features in Shakespeare and Milton amongst others.

I was left thinking, where does theology and spirituality fit into all of this? Ever since, I have been beavering away exploring how sleep features in scripture, in liturgical texts and pastoral practice. All of which brings me to Advent. Advent, beginning today, is the season that most obviously explores the phenomenon of sleep and the need to be alert and awake.

But, first, what does scripture say of sleep? On the one hand it is good, as we read in the psalms, ‘God gives his beloved sleep’ (Psalm 127.2), and ‘the LORD who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep’ (Psalm 121.7). Jesus himself famously sleeps on the boat during the storm and has to be woken by the disciples, (Matthew 26, Mark ) echoing another psalm, ‘Up Lord, why sleepest thou?’ (Psalm 44.23 ).

But in the scriptures sleep is paradoxical and contradictory. Sleep and sleeping isn’t always portrayed favourably. In Gethsemane Jesus says, ‘could you not say awake for one hour: stay awake, watch and pray’ (Matthew 26; Mark 14; Luke 22. In that instance he is aware that, as biologists say, sleep is a vulnerable time when we are switched off to the dangers and challenges. And yet sleep is a time of openness, a time when we let go of the controls of our ego. We let go so much so that when we are asleep we can be most alert to God, because we give up self-control, our anxieties and expectations, and God can speak to us. This openness to God in sleep is most classically shown in scripture through the great dreamers, Joseph, Jacob and Joseph.

The great cry of Advent is ‘wake up’! Wake up for the bridegroom is coming. It’s not that sleep is bad per se, but there is a time to sleep and a time to be alert and wakeful. Recall the ten bridesmaids of the parable are all asleep when the Bridegroom comes (Matthew 25.1-13). Both the foolish and the wise wake up together, but the wise, with their lamps trimmed slept prepared and ready to wake. The foolish slept unprepared and not ready for the day.

Advent is a call to wake up to God, and a reminder that when we sleep we are to sleep prepared. Jesus Christ is born into a slumbering world, a world that appears to have dozed off and doesn’t even dream about God, and doesn’t wake alert to God.

The great Advent hymn begins ‘Wake, O wake with tidings thrilling’ and that is the song of the watchmen, the lookouts, who stay awake on behalf of others. Our calling, in service of a sleepy world, is to be the lookouts, sounding the warning yes, but also heralding the arrival of Christ the Bridegroom. The disciple sleeps alert.

There is a desperate sense of urgency to this in St Paul’s letter to the Romans, ‘Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake out of sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone and the day is near’. (Romans 13.11-12).

Paul’s urgent appeal was to sleepy Christians, and that call is to us and to the Church in our own day. God’s world needs us to be awake to him, to be lookouts for the world pointing out the signs of the Kingdom, being signs ourselves of the Kingdom. We need to wake the world up to be prepared to receive the light and hope and love of God. Lamps prepared with trimmed wicks ready to ignite and set hearts aflame.

Advent really is a season full of expectation, preparation and hope. I don’t know about you, but when I’m expectant or excited, preparing either nervously or in a focused way, I tend not to sleep terribly well, I want to be awake; I want the morning to come. Advent tells us the morning has come. So the darkness of this night will not last, the light to enlighten everyone is in the world.

It will be at midnight that many of us will herald Christmas. The very time when we should be deeply at sleep, we will be awake, alert and expectant, our hearts filled with joy as we celebrate again the coming of the Saviour, the Bridegroom.

I pray that for you, and me, this Advent we will be alert, expectant, filled with hope, ‘so that’ to quote St Paul again, ‘whether we are awake or asleep we may live with our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing (1 Thessalonians 5.10b-11)

O Lord our God,
make us watchful and keep us faithful
as we await the coming of your Son our Lord;
that, when he shall appear,
he may not find us sleeping in sin
but active in his service
and joyful in his praise;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.