First
Sunday of Advent
November 30, 2003
Do you suffer from narcolepsy
of the heart? (or what makes your heart become drowsy?)
In
my days as a college student and beyond, I learned a very helpful survival trick.
I learned how to take twelve (or eighteen) minute naps. I was taking 24 hours
of classes that first semester and needed to study a ton. But my body also needed
sleep. So I’d set my alarm for 20 minutes, and for a while it would jolt
me into wakefulness. But, because it was a cheap alarm clock, it would start to
vibrate ever so softly for about a minute before it actually went off, so I’d
wake up just before it blared fully. And soon, I didn’t need to set the
alarm at all. I’d just wake up after twelve or eighteen minutes. Power naps.
The ability to fall asleep at the drop of a hat and wake up shortly afterwards.
It is a very helpful skill for my life. But it is a deadly skill for my spiritual
life. Do you suffer from narcolepsy of the heart?
Jesus warns us: Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing
and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life… “Beware
that your hearts do not become drowsy…” It’s so
easy, isn’t it – to ‘fall asleep spiritually.” We’re
frustrated with the ongoing presence of our troops in Iraq as we read daily of
more of them being killed, and wonder when will they come home, when will it end.
But, rather than let that deepen our prayer for that country, rather than to get
involved in the very difficult and nuanced areas of our foreign policy, we do
the nap thing. We let our hearts get lulled to sleep. Or we give up reading the
front pages of the newspaper because we can hardly stand it any more? It is too
much for our hearts to bear, all the stories of the breakdown of our society,
the scourge of the AIDS pandemic in Africa, the hunger on the streets of our own
city. We find there is no room for moral outrage, no room for righteous indignation,
no room for a gospel stand because we have let our hearts grow drowsy instead
of vigilant. Have you learned like I did with physical naps, how to also put the
heart asleep? Do you suffer from spiritual narcolepsy?
If so, then this Advent season is just the prescription the doctor ordered. In
today’s gospel, Jesus describes the world of his day in that cosmic kind
of end time imagery that would overwhelm even the most stout hearted. Wars, violence,
terrible signs in the sky. Things that we don’t want to notice. Things that
we want to avoid. And suddenly I realize that what you and I read in the newspaper
is no different than what the people of Jesus’ time knew in their day. The
world is difficult. Challenges and struggles have always been the lot of the disciple.
But watch what Jesus tells them and tells us about how you deal with this. “When
you see all these things happening, stand up and hold your head on high –
for your redemption is near at hand…” The response to
what threatens to overwhelm us in not sleep – but an active awareness of
the heart. HOLD YOUR HEAD HIGH, be vigilant, be watchful, be prayerful –
for in all these challenges, your redemption is near at hand. And through these
challenges, the redemption of the world is near at hand.
At the Newman Center there is a little watercolor of a very strange, upside down
creature. And the caption that goes along with the artwork is this: “Most
people don’t know that there are angels whose only job is to make sure you
don’t get too comfortable and fall asleep and miss your life.” We
are invited this advent season to a wakefulness – a watchfulness that is
the opposite of spiritual narcolepsy. We are invited to ‘not miss our lives’
by living each moment fully alive and fully awake.
So just as I taught myself how to take those 12 minute power naps, I invite you
and myself to learn how to take 12 minute ‘POWER WAKES’ – twelve
minutes of intimate awareness of this world around us. And whether that is 12
minutes of intense prayer each day of advent, or 12 minutes of really reading
and praying over the paper or the daily news, or 12 minutes of thoughtfulness
about what you avoid or where you get drowsy, hold your head high, for your redemption
– and that of the world – is near at hand…