While You Were Sleeping

Maybe you were literally sleeping. Maybe you were in your bed, secure in the fact that no insects or wild beasts would interrupt your night. You were well fed. You had no fear of your neighbors, or your government. Your children were all accounted for, and safe.

 

 

Maybe your sleep was figurative. Maybe you were worried about which antique theological text to begin next, or whether it was o.k. to hide eggs for your kids this Easter. Maybe you were trying to figure out how to convince your friend next door that her church’s reliance on electric guitars and smoke machines during worship was wrong. Maybe you were trying to decide if you were striking the right balance between welcoming the unchurched kids up the street into your home and sheltering your own family.

While you were sleeping, the Gospel was preached. People stepped forward—sometimes in fear and trembling, under threat of violence— to lean in to the tools that would allow them to share their faith.

Ours is not a faith of complacency. It is not a faith meant to be clutched to our own bosoms and kept silent, or wound up in a process of sanctification so focused on minutiae that it can not overflow our heads, our hearts, and our homes.

Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”—Ephesians 5:14b

Awake, O Sleeper

F. Bland Tucker