Friday, March 21
Read: Psalm 63:1-8; Daniel 12:1-4; Revelation 3:1-6
Many years ago on a family vacation, my youngest sister had a sleepwalking incident at a hotel. Sometime during the night she left her bed, exited the room, and ended up locked out in the hallway. I don’t know if any of us would have even known it had happened if we hadn’t all been awakened by her knocking on the door to get back in. Had she been down to the lobby, walked by the pool, or grabbed a snack? We’ll never know. All that mattered was that she was safely back home in our room. Once she was back inside, we were able to wake her fully, get her reoriented and recalibrated.
One of the gifts of Lent is the opportunity to recalibrate ourselves to faithful living. The season begins in a sobering way by asking us to consider our mortality on Ash Wednesday. Six weeks later it concludes with the gut punch of Good Friday and the raw emotion of Holy Saturday. If we’re not experiencing those kinds of emotions, we’re not doing it right. Lent, therefore, shouldn’t permit any of us to stay on the sidelines.
Chapters two and three of Revelation offer decrees to the seven churches in Asia Minor. Today’s text is the one directed at the church in Sardis where the congregation is in danger. John notes that they have a solid reputation, at least to outside observers (3:1), but inside the people are spiritually dead. They haven’t been evil, per se, nor have they purposefully been disobedient. Rather, it’s as if the church in Sardis has been spiritually sleepwalking.
To be clear, their problem isn’t apathy, it’s their comfort with the status quo. To them, things are fine. They have what they need, they are keeping their heads down, and they have a good name, but that is not what Christian witness looks like. Faithful discipleship isn’t about going through the motions, and that’s the problem. The church in Sardis seems destined for a painful future.
Still, while John’s decree is ominous, it’s not without hope. Like the other decrees to the struggling churches, there is an opportunity for change – the chance to repent. “Wake up, and strengthen what remains” (3:2) says the messenger. There is still time to turn from your blasé faith and your spiritual water-treading. The time for sleepwalking is over.
Lent is the shakeup that many of us need. It’s a season built into the church year for repentance and examination. This is a season of recommitment to Christ-following, not only in name, but in action as well. It’s forty days of holy wakefulness, in God-seeking, soul-thirsting, and faith-parched purpose, as the psalmist says (Ps 63:1). This season may not be easy, but if we do it right, it promises to be just what we sleepwalkers need.
Prayer:
God, help all of us hear your wakeup call and may the grace of Jesus Christ guide us safely home. Amen.
The Reverend Dr. Tyler Christiansen is Pastor of Grace, a United Methodist Congregation, in Birmingham and serves on the Huntingdon College Board of Trustees.
