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Let me know what you think. The church Email is: slumc@direcway.com, Phone: 480.895.8766
Easter
Sunday, April 11, 2004
Sermon: "Awake to the Light"
Scripture: I Corinthians 15:19-26
Reverend Larry Gerber
It is Easter, the day of resurrection. New life in Christ. Awake to the Light!!
Find the perfect sleep number and you'll finally get a good night of rest, and
you will be awakening fresh and ready to go the next morning! Looks like Jesus
had a lousy sleep number. He did not get a good nights rest on Thursday, nor
did he have a good day on Friday.
Kamato Hongo of Kagoshima, Japan, passed away last fall, and her death may have
gone unmentioned except for the fact that she died at the age of 116 —
at the time, the world's oldest person.
Hongo was born on April 8, 1887, married in 1914, had seven children, and lots
of grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.
She died with her sense of humor still quite active, and on the day of her death,
she performed a little hand dance peculiar to her native region in Japan.
But forget she was 116. Here's the interesting part: When she was 110, she had
a hip operation, and after the operation, her sleeping habits began to change.
She would sleep an entire day, which was then followed by being up for an entire
day. When she died, she was sleeping for two solid days, followed by two days
of staying wide awake. For the five years before her death this was her custom:
sleep two days, stay awake two days.
Here's a lady who obviously had discovered her sleep number.
What's our sleep number?
Our Resurrection Sleep Number is 1520. We'll get to that a little later.
Sleep numbers. That's the gimmick one major manufacturer of mattresses uses
to sell its sleeping systems — mattresses that promise to reduce pressure
points, provide for proper spinal adjustment, let you sleep on a hard surface
while your spouse sleeps on a soft one, and such a sleep system can be yours
for an enormous amount of sleep number dollars.
Kamato Hongo had no trouble sleeping, and when she died, you could say she entered
her final rest. She went to her eternal sleep.
In fact there is a long tradition in which sleep is a metaphor for death, and
the sleep/awakening cycle a metaphor for resurrection.
Scripture is full of such allusions. Today's text itself suggests this metaphor:
"But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those
who have fallen asleep" (v. 20 NIV). Earlier in this same chapter, the
apostle Paul uses the same metaphor: "After that, [Jesus] appeared to more
than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living,
though some have fallen asleep" (v. 6 NIV).
Even Jesus spoke of death as being sleep: Speaking to his confused disciples,
he said, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to
awaken him." The disciples said to him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep,
he will be all right." Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death,
but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. Then Jesus told them
plainly, "Lazarus is dead" (John 11:11-14).
Not surprising, then, to find the concept in the canons of literature as well.
William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878) regards death as something akin to lying
down on the couch for a nap. The closing lines of his poem, Thanatopsis, go
like this:
So live, that when thy summons comes to join the innumerable caravan, which
moves to that mysterious realm, where each shall take his chamber in the silent
halls of death, Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night, scourged to his
dungeon, but, sustained and soothed by an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
like one who wraps the drapery of his couch about him, and lies down to pleasant
dreams.
Easter morning is a reminder that Jesus, too, died. His body took on the appearance
of sleep. They laid him in a tomb, on a slab of rock.
"Vainly they watch his bed," writes the hymnist — who then provides
the chorus: "Up from the grave he arose, with a mighty triumph o'er his
foes."
Clearly, the apostle has no doubts that Jesus Christ, the same one who was crucified
and buried, has left sleep and death behind and is now our risen Lord. "Christ
has indeed been raised from the dead" (v. 20 NIV).
Yet, the larger point that Scripture makes here concerns our own life and death.
If Christ is our risen Lord, then we can take this as our guarantee that we,
too, though we die, shall live. These were Jesus' very words to Martha while
his good friend, Lazarus, still lay in the grave: "I am the resurrection
and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and
everyone who lives and believes in me will never die" (John 11:25-26).
The body may take on the appearance of sleep, resting as it will in the grave,
but the soul will not die.
The apostle emphasizes this central tenet of our faith once again in his letter
to the Thessalonians: "we do not want you to be ignorant about those who
fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope" (1 Thessalonians
4:13 NIV).
When we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are celebrating many
things. We celebrate his victory over sin. "[Jesus] has appeared once for
all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself" (Hebrews
9:26).
We celebrate his victory over Satan. "He himself likewise shared the same
things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of
death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery
by the fear of death" (Hebrews 2:14-15).
We celebrate his victory over death. "Death has been swallowed up in victory.
Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" (1 Corinthians
15:54-55).
We celebrate his role as our advocate at the throne of God: "I am writing
these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the atoning
sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole
world" (1 John 2:1-2).
We celebrate his presence in our lives. The last words of the post-resurrection
Jesus as recorded by Matthew assure us of this presence: "And remember,
I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20).
How great is that? There's no sleep number mattress that can offer that kind
of deal! He lives! We live! Forever. And ever. And ever.
We may not live in these mortal bodies of dust as long as Kamato Hongo. But
when the body takes on the appearance of sleep, we live! The resurrected Christ
is the guarantee of our eternal future in the presence of God!
But here's a final question and thought. It would appear that some of us —
we're all guilty of this at times — are going through our present lives
as though we've found our perfect sleep number. We're comfortable, dozing, napping
through life — through our vocations, through our careers, through our
marriages and relationships — as though we cannot hear the resurrection
call of Jesus Christ to awake from our sleep.
Resurrection Sleep Number? It's 1520, for 1 Corinthians 15:20 "But Christ
has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen
asleep."
If Christ has risen — and he has — then let us live as though we,
too, have been aroused from our slumber. Let's get to work for the kingdom.
Let's offer ourselves as channels of blessings through the power of the risen
Christ.
Let's climb off the mattresses of comfort and convenience.
Let's throw off the bedsheets of apathy.
Let's cast off the robes of discouragement and despair.
Let us instead go forth into the morning of a new day — of promise, of
hope, of life, of service, of mission. For that is the calling of the One whose
awakening from sleep we now celebrate.
Awake! Awake! He lives! Up from the grave he arose!! With a might triumph o'er
his foes.
Let me know what you think. The church Email is: slumc@direcway.com, Phone: 480.895.8766