Keeping Awake

Sean Boisen

References: Isaiah 2:1–5, Psalm 122, Romans 13:11–14, Matthew 24:36–44  

I’d like to begin with a story. It happened in January of 2007, in the Washington DC Subway, just before 8 in the morning on a Friday, in the middle of rush hour.

• People were commuting to work, following their daily routine; drinking their coffee, carrying a newspaper, listening to music on an iPod, or stopping to buy lottery tickets.  
• A man in a t-shirt and ball cap positioned himself next to a trash can, opened a violin case and began to play. Busking is a common activity in the DC subway: the acoustics are good, and he was at the top of the escalator, so people could hear a bit before they got to him. He put a few dollars in the case to encourage donations.  
• Over the next 45 minutes, he played six classical pieces. He was very good. In fact, he played some of the most difficult violin pieces in classical music.  
• During his 45 minutes of playing, over a thousand people passed by. He was playing loudly, but seemed to be invisible to the passers-by. It was six minutes before anyone even stopped to listen for a few minutes. In total, during the entire 45 minutes, only seven people stopped to listen for a minute or more. 27 people threw money in his case, most of them on the run. Some people gave quarters or even pennies: he earned a total of about $32. That doesn’t count a $20 bill from the one person near the end of the performance who recognized him.  
• You see, this was no ordinary street musician, but acclaimed classical violinist Joshua Bell, conducting a social experiment conceived by Washington Post reporter Gene Weingarten, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his account. A hidden camera captured what happened. On this day he was playing a Stradivarius violin valued at $3.5 million dollars. He is arguably one of the finest classical musicians in the world. Donna and I had the privilege of listening to him with the Boston Symphony orchestra last weekend, and he was amazing. He’s regularly paid over $1000 a minute for a performance.  
• But on this occasion, almost no one turned aside from their daily tasks to hear one of the greatest violinists in the world for free. Why did they miss this extraordinary event? It was just another day, commuting to work as always, going about their business. The cares of life can blind us to what’s happening around us, to the things that may be the most important of all.  

Jesus warns us about this same danger in today’s passage from Matthew’s Gospel, when he talks about the days of Noah.  People were eating, drinking, getting married: simply going about their everyday lives. They did not expect that something extraordinary was about to happen, and they were caught by surprise. In the same way, people will be going about their ordinary lives when Christ comes again.  

Today is the first Sunday of Advent, and the beginning of the liturgical year: happy new year! The word “advent” simply means “arrival”. And we begin this new year both celebrating Christ’s first arrival, when he took on human flesh, and looking forward to his second arrival, when He comes again to inaugurate his kingdom and establish his reign.  

So we live in what theologians call the “Already/Not Yet Kingdom of God”.  

• The kingdom of God is already present, inaugurated by Christ’s birth, his death for our sins, and his resurrection from the dead. As his church, we live in the age of God’s kingdom.  
• At the same time, the kingdom is “not yet” because we look forward to Christ’s final reign when he comes again in judgment, as described here in Matthew and many other passages.  

Each Sunday we recite the Nicene Creed and proclaim together that Christ will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.

• When will it happen? Christ tells us even he himself does not know the day or the hour.
• How will it happen? Scripture paints a variety of pictures, and I don’t have time today to explore all that. 
• But we know this: it _will_ happen, because Jesus promised it.  

And because it will happen, we do well to heed what Jesus told us to do, which is to keep awake; or to keep watch; to be ready; and to be faithful and wise servants of the things he has placed in our charge.  

What does it mean to keep awake and be ready?  

Noah demonstrated this by being obedient to what God told him to do, even though it hadn’t yet appeared. Noah lived as if God’s future were real. That is exactly what Jesus is calling his disciples to do.  

I’d like to read a few additional verses that continue our passage in Matthew and talk about readiness. (Matt 24:45-47)

> ⁴⁵ “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has put in charge of his household, to give the other servants their allowance of food at the proper time? ⁴⁶ Blessed is that servant whom his master will find at work when he arrives. ⁴⁷ Truly I tell you, he will put that one in charge of all his possessions.”

In Jesus’ story, the servants are household managers, charged with feeding the other servants while the master is away.  He goes on to compare the good servant to a wicked servant who fails to obey the master’s charge. 

Neither the good servant nor the wicked one knows when the master will return. They can’t wait for him at the door: they have to be about their master’s business. The difference between the two is in how he finds them behaving when he arrives.  

I see here a picture of the church, where we care for each other and encourage each other to live in faithful readiness for Christ’s return.  

I also see the charge here to use the gifts that God has given us.  

• I will admit that I’m not always excited about preparing and preaching a sermon. It’s hard work: it takes time and effort, and sometimes I struggle to feel confident that I’m faithfully presenting God’s word. But I believe that God has given me gifts and experience that can be useful for teaching and preaching, so I have a responsibility to use those gifts for the benefit of the church. 
• God has given you gifts as well, to serve the church and the community. Are you being a faithful steward?
• I know that many of you give countless hours to serve the church as well, or to serve others in our community. “Blessed is that servant whom his master will find at work when he arrives”

The season of Advent is a reminder to order our lives, not according to the habits of the world around us, not slumbering or distracted, not heedless of the wonders around us.  

As we think about our readiness and faithful stewardship, let us consider Paul’s words in our passage from Romans, and understand the present time we live in.  

I love the way J.B. Phillips renders this passage in his paraphrase of the New Testament: “.. as I think you have realized, the present time is of the highest importance—it is time to wake up to reality. Every day brings God’s salvation nearer. The night is nearly over, the day has almost dawned. Let us therefore fling away the things that people do in the dark, let us arm ourselves for the fight of the day!”  

Those commuters in the subway rushed past one of the world’s greatest violinists. They missed something extraordinary because they were absorbed in the ordinary. As we enter this season of Advent, may we live differently – awake to God’s promises, ready for Christ’s return, and faithful in the work he’s given us to do. 

As we wait in expectation, and with hope, let us put on the Lord Jesus Christ; let us clothe ourselves with Him; as Phillips says, let us be Christ’s people from head to toe–in order that the Master might find us ready when He comes again.