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Sunday, November
28, 2004
Rev.
Dr. Harold E Kidd
WAKE UP
EVERYBODY!
"And do this
understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your
slumber, because salvation is nearer now then when we first believed."
Romans 13: 14 (NIV)
One
of the remembrances many of us have who grew up during the period of the ‘60s
and ‘70s is that we came of age during a time of great social, economic, and
political change. The world we lived in was in swift transition from the war in
Vietnam to the civil rights movement, to the first lunar space landing in 1969,
it was a time marked with tremendous change. We were introduced to the Beatles,
hippies, tie-die shirts, long hair, the Afro, bell-bottom pants, and the
mini-skirt. In just the period of one short decade our nation lost such
profound leaders as Medgar Evers, John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy. All through assassination.
Many
of the recording artists you will recall -- Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, the
Temptations, Peter, Paul and Mary, Simon and Garfunkel, Marvin Gaye --wrote
songs whose lyrics seemed to prophetically speak to the conditions and issues
of our day. One such group was Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes whose 1975
release entitled “Wake Up Everybody”, was a smash hit.
And
someone right now might be asking himself or herself the question, “Preacher,
what does an R&B group, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, have to do with
the Gospel of Jesus Christ?” Well, I'm so glad you asked. The lyrics of the
song are timeless and are still found to be especially meaningful in today's
world. A world I might mention, which is just like the ‘60s & ‘70s, a world
in which there is tremendous social, political, and global change.
During
this past election noted recording artists and producers, including Kenny
"Baby Face" Edmonds and wife Tracey Edmonds, along with Russell
Simmons of Def Comedy jam, released a star-studded recording of this 1970's hit
featuring such hip-hop, R&B, and rap stars such as Missy Elliott, Jamie
Foxx, Faith Evans, Wyclef Jean, and Jada Kiss, to name a few.
Listen
to the lyrics of this song, which prophetically speak in similar context to the
words of John the Baptist in his day, and Paul in his day.
"Wake
up everybody no more sleeping in bed. No more backward thinkin’ time for
thinkin’ ahead. The world has changed so very much from what it used to be, so
there is so much hatred, war, and poverty. Wake up all the teachers, time to
teach a new way. Maybe then they'll listen to what you have to say. ‘Cause
they're the ones who's coming up, and the world is in their hands. When you teach the children, teach ‘em the
very best you can.
Chorus:
The world won't get no better if we just let it be. The world won't get no
better we gotta change it yeah, just you and me.
Wake
up all the doctors make the ol' people well. They're the ones who suffer an'
who catch all the hell, but they don't have so very long before the judgement
day so won't cha make them happy before they pass away. Wake up all the
builders, time to build a new land. I know we can do it if we all lend a hand.
The only thing we have to do is put it in our mind. Surely things will work
out, they do it every time.
Chorus:
The world won't get no better if we just let it be. The world won't get no
better we gotta change it yeah, just you and me."
When
we consider these words, truly they are timely and yet timeless. Not only did they
speak to the issues of the day in 1975, but they speak to us this morning in
2004. It’s time to Wake Up. In the words of the song, “The world won't get no
better if we just let it be.” When you read the words of Paul speaking to the
church in Rome over 2000 years, again Paul was basically making the same plea.
One
of the focal points of this particular chapter is Paul wanting the believers in
Rome to re-examine their commitment to Jesus Christ in light to the times in
which they were living. Listen to what he writes, "And do this
understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your
slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed."
Like
many who have labored with unceasing energy in what they believed, Paul as well
was haunted by deep conviction that time was short.
Many
have labored with unceasing energy, because they believed their time was short
and not something to be taken for granted. Even if we do not believe that time
in terms of this world is short, we ought to recognize that our time on earth
is short. Life is like a vapor. Our tomorrows are not promised. Jesus himself,
recognizing the urgency of his limited time here on earth, declared, "I
must work the works of Him who sent me while it is day, for the night comes
when no one can work." His Daddy gave him only 33 years, and then He was
gone. We are encouraged to make haste without delay and not wait for tomorrow
to do what needs to be done this hour, this day, for when tomorrow comes, it
just might be too late.
Urgency.
Give them their roses while they can smell them. Urgency. If we have wounded
any soul, or if someone has wounded us, let us seek to reconcile our
differences, for tomorrow might be too late. Urgency. If you have not received the
Lord into your life, won't you do it today. For tomorrow might be too late.
Paul's
sense of urgency was not only because of his awareness that his time was
growing short, but Paul was, as well, keenly aware of the crisis at work in the
times in which he lived. It was the crisis of the world's history, he believed,
that Christ would come at any moment because the world as he knew it could not
keep going the way it was going. The early church, the 1st and 2nd
century church, was living in a time of deep spiritual and world crisis. Rome,
the empire of the day, was viewed as the instrument and seat of Satan's power.
Something, Paul believed, has got to give.
When
we read Revelations, the letters of Christ to the Seven Churches of Asia are
primarily messages to encourage these congregations to be vigilant, because
time is winding up. Many of the New Testament letters convey this theme of
vigilance in response to the signs of the times. James in his letter writes,
"Count it all joy when you enter into various trials, knowing that the
trying of your faith worked patience."
Jude
in his letter reminds the believers to be steadfast in God's truth, knowing, he
says, "That in the last times, there will
be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires." In 1st
Peter, Peter writes to the church, "Be self-controlled and alert. Your
enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to
devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your
brothers and sisters throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of
sufferings." Yes, they saw their
world as a world in crisis, and believed the Lord's return was imminent.
"And
do this understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up
from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first
believed," he writes.
The
word slumber suggests a certain inertia, inactivity, or negligence due to the
power that sleep has over us. Like when you wake up on one of those cold
mornings with sleep still in your eyes, and it takes a few minutes to come to
full mental alertness. We're moving kind of slow. Not too fast too soon. Brush
your teeth, put the coffee or tea pot on. Go back and just sit on the side of
the bed for a minute.
We're
awake but sleep still has got a hold on us. So we're still a bit mentally
cloudy and physically inert. And so what Paul is suggesting in this call to
"Wake Up", is be spiritually alert. Live with a focused intent of
letting your light so shine before others. Let your love be genuine, for our
salvation draws near.
It
is a call for us to renew our consecration to the Lord. If we believe Christ
might return at any time, how can this inspire us to live as people of the
light. If we believe time is winding up, the irrelevant and distracting drop
out of sight, and love becomes the goal. If we live as though Christ might
return at any time, things that may have caused us to be spiritually half alert
and ethically listless are removed, the things that may have distorted our
vision have be washed from our eyes, as if we had taken that morning shower or
bath. The fact that we believe that we are about to meet our maker and must
give account of ourselves quickens the spirit to be vigilant.
Some
scholars have believed that the NT writers conveyed this message of the Lord's
sudden return in order to encourage believers to remain vigilant in living a
life pleasing to the Lord in a world filled with distractions. Because though
we are told to watch and pray, the NT writers such as Paul found that even a
willing spirit can be depressed by the weakness of the flesh and distractions
of this world. And so this is a call to Wake Up and live as though Jesus will
return soon.
When
you read the entire text of Romans 13, it is a call to wake up from a
slumbering faith, a casual faith, a lukewarm faith, and give witness of the
hope that is in us, in a world filled with crisis.
The
call to Wake Up was given not only in order to be found ready when He comes,
but as well to bear witness to a living Savior. Amen. We serve a Living Savior. In the first chapter of this letter Paul declared, "I
am not ashamed of this Gospel of Jesus Christ for it is the power of God unto
salvation unto everyone who believes."
And
Paul wrote these words at a time when the church was in crisis, the world he
lived in was in crisis, and he himself was in crisis. In times of crisis people
are ready to hear about Jesus. Amen. Sometimes it takes a crisis for God to
wake us up. Amen.
Wouldn't
you know that the church has grown more during times of crisis than in any
other time. When things are going well, we tend to forget about the Lord, but
when a crisis comes, we are more inclined to turn back to God on bended knee.
God has a way of using crisis to get our attention.
So
as we find ourselves living in times of crisis, we are God's living epistles,
God making his appeal through us. Hallelujah! Some may never hear a sermon but
they can read one through how we live. When world events are moving in a
direction of one crisis after another, "Let your light so shine." And what Paul is saying is give
reason for the hope that is in you, give no one reason by your words and action
justification to deny that God is at work in you.
"Shine on me, Shine on me,
let the light
from the lighthouse
shine on me,
Shine on me, Shine on me,
Let the light from the lighthouse
Shine on me."
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