Pulling an All-Nighter for God

Pulling an All-Nighter for God
Rev. Mark Schaefer
Kay Spiritual Life Center
December 2, 2007
Isaiah 2:1-5; Romans 13:11-14; Matthew 24:36-44

Isaiah 2:1-5
The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
In days to come the mountain of the L ORD'S house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. Many peoples shall come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD!

Romans 13:11-14
Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Matthew 24:36-44
"But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour."

I. BEGINNING

How tired are you?

It's about that time of year when everyone is dragging. Fifteen weeks of classes, papers, exams, fire alarms, loud roommates, extracurriculars, LSATs, GREs, trips to friends', trips home and back, service projects, going out, study sessions, review sessions, cramming session, and drama--let's not forget the drama --takes its toll.

Everyone's tired.

Some of you may be facing the very real possibility of an all-nighter before too long. Perhaps that paper you've put off for too long, or the studying you have yet to do, or maybe you're just one of those people who stays up when their roommate is up and you can't get any sleep.

The one thing we're all looking forward to, perhaps more than anything, is the opportunity to go home for vacation and get sleep.

So, something tells me this is not the time of year when you want to hear Scripture lessons where Jesus is saying, "Keep awake!"

II. THE TEXT

And yet that's what we have in front of us. It is a passage from the Gospel of Matthew in which Jesus is talking about great apocalyptic events: The destruction of the Temple, wars and rumors of wars, false messiahs, nation rising against nation, famines and earthquakes, false prophets, the desolation of Jerusalem. And then Jesus continues:

But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. ... Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.

The disciple is to be prepared, to be ready, and to keep awake. It is a sentiment that Paul echoes two decades later in the Epistle to the Romans:

Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep

The Christian is called to stay awake, and if not awake, to wake from sleep.

III. THE WAIT AND THE EXHAUSTION

How many of you have pulled an all-nighter? It's exhausting, isn't it? There are few things more depressing when writing a paper or working on a project than to see the sun come up. You'd much rather get some sleep while it is still dark. When the sun rises and you've been working all night, you have this sense that your opportunity for rest, for restoration, has been lost. And that fact alone--is exhausting.

A couple of years ago while preparing the written answers to the questions I had to answer for the Board of Ordained Ministry--a document that was nearly 70 pages long--on the last night before the written responses were due, I wound up staying up all night. Now, I had actually been working on them for weeks, so it wasn't like I put it all off until the last minute--but the work was certainly more that I had counted on.

I kept looking at the clock and saying: "Alright, it's 1 a.m., and I have x number of questions left. I should be done by 3." And then it would be: "Alright, it's 3 a.m., and I have y number of questions left. I should be done by 5." And then it was 5 and 7. I finally left at 8:30 in time to meet my friend who was driving us up to Baltimore to deliver them in person by hand.

For the entire night, all you want to do is go to sleep but you know that the important work that cannot be neglected is right in front of you and you have to keep awake. Your eyes get heavy, your head nods. You find yourself jumping up to get the blood flowing. You drink lots of caffeine.

A. Life in the Church

It sometimes seems that our lives as Christians are in effect, requiring us to pull an all-nighter for God. There is so much to do and so little time to get it done in.

There is so much in the world that demands our attention: hungry people, people without homes, communities that are oppressed, children with AIDS, workers without rights, people who feel alone, people who are lost and in need of comfort, people who are sick, people who are emotionally upset, people who are brokenhearted.

People who have never experienced the love of God. People who want to know more about Jesus. People who feel the Spirit's call but don't know how to respond. People who want to understand their faith. People who struggle with their faith. People who doubt their faith and lose hope.

There are people whose lives are racked with sin and others whose lives are racked with guilt. There is environmental degradation. There is killing, and murder, and rape, and violence. And then there is Jesus' list of things that tells us that we're in the end times: wars and rumors of wars, false messiahs, nation rising against nation, famines and earthquakes, false prophets...

It's overwhelming.

How on earth do Christians cope with all that? It's exhausting. There is so much to do that at times it seems that our reaction is not so much despair as it is simply exhaustion. We're waiting so much for that wonderful vision of Isaiah's we read earlier:

...they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more

We want to work toward that vision, to continue to make a difference, but we're so tired.

B. Personal lives

And it isn't just in our lives as Christians. Every aspect of our lives is exhausting.

We live in a world that expects an instantaneous response from us and doesn't wait. There are demands on our time as individuals and communities.

And I know you people. I know what kind of people you are. You are a caring, committed group of people. Things matter to you. You care very deeply about other people and the problems that afflict them. You care deeply about the other members of this community. You care deeply about your faith and desire to be active in it.

You easily overextend yourselves. You easily get overburdened. Overworked. Burned out.

You take other people's concerns upon yourself and they weigh upon you. You are involved in your relationships with one another and when they are tense or difficult, you feel it. You bear it.

I know how tired you are. I can see it. I can feel it.

And you're thinking, I don't know that I have enough energy to be the member of this community I want to be, to be the Christian I want to be, to be the person I want to be. I don't think I have the energy.

IV. EVEN YOUTHS WILL FAINT AND BE WEARY

You don't. None of us does.

It's too much. We can't possibly do it all. We can't do it alone. We can't stay awake. But that doesn't matter. Elsewhere Isaiah writes: "Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted..." That's you. Even those with the most energy will run out of energy. But the entire passage reads:

"Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint." (Isaiah 40:28-31 NRSV)

We will all tire, but our renewal comes not in abandoning our work, or sleeping on the job, as it were, but in trusting in God.

V. END

It is not upon our own strength that we rely. It is a long wait. It is exhausting, but we do not only wait for God--we wait with God. God is with us. That's what Immanuel means, after all.

We do not live our lives apart from the presence of God, but in the midst of the presence of God. Tonight we celebrate a sacrament of Christ's presence. We believe that as we share this meal, Christ is present with us in the eating of the bread and the drinking of the wine (grape juice). This meal is a foretaste of the coming Heavenly Banquet--that great feast that is part of the magnificent vision of the coming kingdom that Isaiah writes about. The meal itself is a reminder of the future we await.

As you partake of this meal tonight--linger. Stay at the communion rail or simply walk slowly back to your seat and savor the taste of the bread and the wine in your mouth. Feel this meal nourishing you, filling you. It doesn't have enough calories or carbs to give you a natural energy boost, but this meal represents the power and presence of God in our midst. Feel that presence, feel that power. Experience the love and grace of God in the sharing of this meal and the breaking of the bread. Take a moment to be renewed.

It has been a long road this semester. There will be many long roads ahead. But God is present with us. It is the truth we proclaim during Advent. It is the truth we will proclaim at Christmas. It is the truth we proclaim in all the times of our lives, when the night flies by and we are without our rest. When we are feeling stretched thin and on our last bit of energy.

We're pulling an all-nighter, and we are tired. Advent is a season of waiting, but we are not waiting for vacation. We are not waiting for semester break. We are not even waiting for Christmas. We are waiting for the coming of Christ again into our lives and into our world.

And because we wait for the Lord, and we shall renew our strength, we shall mount up with wings like eagles, we shall run and not be weary, we shall walk and not faint.

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*Pulling an All-Nighter for God* Rev. Mark Schaefer Kay Spiritual Life Center December 2, 2007 Isaiah 2:1-5; Romans 13:11-14; Matthew 24:36-44 Isaiah 2:1-5 The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. In days to come the mountain of the L ORD'S house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. Many peoples shall come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD! Romans 13:11-14 Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. Matthew 24:36-44 "But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour." I. BEGINNING How tired are you? It's about that time of year when everyone is dragging. Fifteen weeks of classes, papers, exams, fire alarms, loud roommates, extracurriculars, LSATs, GREs, trips to friends', trips home and back, service projects, going out, study sessions, review sessions, cramming session, and drama--let's not forget the drama --takes its toll. Everyone's tired. Some of you may be facing the very real possibility of an all-nighter before too long. Perhaps that paper you've put off for too long, or the studying you have yet to do, or maybe you're just one of those people who stays up when their roommate is up and you can't get any sleep. The one thing we're all looking forward to, perhaps more than anything, is the opportunity to go home for vacation and get sleep. So, something tells me this is not the time of year when you want to hear Scripture lessons where Jesus is saying, "Keep awake!" II. THE TEXT And yet that's what we have in front of us. It is a passage from the Gospel of Matthew in which Jesus is talking about great apocalyptic events: The destruction of the Temple, wars and rumors of wars, false messiahs, nation rising against nation, famines and earthquakes, false prophets, the desolation of Jerusalem. And then Jesus continues: But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. ... Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour. The disciple is to be prepared, to be ready, and to keep awake. It is a sentiment that Paul echoes two decades later in the Epistle to the Romans: Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep The Christian is called to stay awake, and if not awake, to wake from sleep. III. THE WAIT AND THE EXHAUSTION How many of you have pulled an all-nighter? It's exhausting, isn't it? There are few things more depressing when writing a paper or working on a project than to see the sun come up. You'd much rather get some sleep while it is still dark. When the sun rises and you've been working all night, you have this sense that your opportunity for rest, for restoration, has been lost. And that fact alone--is exhausting. A couple of years ago while preparing the written answers to the questions I had to answer for the Board of Ordained Ministry--a document that was nearly 70 pages long--on the last night before the written responses were due, I wound up staying up all night. Now, I had actually been working on them for weeks, so it wasn't like I put it all off until the last minute--but the work was certainly more that I had counted on. I kept looking at the clock and saying: "Alright, it's 1 a.m., and I have x number of questions left. I should be done by 3." And then it would be: "Alright, it's 3 a.m., and I have y number of questions left. I should be done by 5." And then it was 5 and 7. I finally left at 8:30 in time to meet my friend who was driving us up to Baltimore to deliver them in person by hand. For the entire night, all you want to do is go to sleep but you know that the important work that cannot be neglected is right in front of you and you have to keep awake. Your eyes get heavy, your head nods. You find yourself jumping up to get the blood flowing. You drink lots of caffeine. A. Life in the Church It sometimes seems that our lives as Christians are in effect, requiring us to pull an all-nighter for God. There is so much to do and so little time to get it done in. There is so much in the world that demands our attention: hungry people, people without homes, communities that are oppressed, children with AIDS, workers without rights, people who feel alone, people who are lost and in need of comfort, people who are sick, people who are emotionally upset, people who are brokenhearted. People who have never experienced the love of God. People who want to know more about Jesus. People who feel the Spirit's call but don't know how to respond. People who want to understand their faith. People who struggle with their faith. People who doubt their faith and lose hope. There are people whose lives are racked with sin and others whose lives are racked with guilt. There is environmental degradation. There is killing, and murder, and rape, and violence. And then there is Jesus' list of things that tells us that we're in the end times: wars and rumors of wars, false messiahs, nation rising against nation, famines and earthquakes, false prophets... It's overwhelming. How on earth do Christians cope with all that? It's exhausting. There is so much to do that at times it seems that our reaction is not so much despair as it is simply exhaustion. We're waiting so much for that wonderful vision of Isaiah's we read earlier: ...they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more We want to work toward that vision, to continue to make a difference, but we're so tired. B. Personal lives And it isn't just in our lives as Christians. Every aspect of our lives is exhausting. We live in a world that expects an instantaneous response from us and doesn't wait. There are demands on our time as individuals and communities. And I know you people. I know what kind of people you are. You are a caring, committed group of people. Things matter to you. You care very deeply about other people and the problems that afflict them. You care deeply about the other members of this community. You care deeply about your faith and desire to be active in it. You easily overextend yourselves. You easily get overburdened. Overworked. Burned out. You take other people's concerns upon yourself and they weigh upon you. You are involved in your relationships with one another and when they are tense or difficult, you feel it. You bear it. I know how tired you are. I can see it. I can feel it. And you're thinking, I don't know that I have enough energy to be the member of this community I want to be, to be the Christian I want to be, to be the person I want to be. I don't think I have the energy. IV. EVEN YOUTHS WILL FAINT AND BE WEARY You don't. None of us does. It's too much. We can't possibly do it all. We can't do it alone. We can't stay awake. But that doesn't matter. Elsewhere Isaiah writes: "Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted..." That's you. Even those with the most energy will run out of energy. But the entire passage reads: "Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint." (Isaiah 40:28-31 NRSV) We will all tire, but our renewal comes not in abandoning our work, or sleeping on the job, as it were, but in trusting in God. V. END It is not upon our own strength that we rely. It is a long wait. It is exhausting, but we do not only wait for God--we wait with God. God is with us. That's what Immanuel means, after all. We do not live our lives apart from the presence of God, but in the midst of the presence of God. Tonight we celebrate a sacrament of Christ's presence. We believe that as we share this meal, Christ is present with us in the eating of the bread and the drinking of the wine (grape juice). This meal is a foretaste of the coming Heavenly Banquet--that great feast that is part of the magnificent vision of the coming kingdom that Isaiah writes about. The meal itself is a reminder of the future we await. As you partake of this meal tonight--linger. Stay at the communion rail or simply walk slowly back to your seat and savor the taste of the bread and the wine in your mouth. Feel this meal nourishing you, filling you. It doesn't have enough calories or carbs to give you a natural energy boost, but this meal represents the power and presence of God in our midst. Feel that presence, feel that power. Experience the love and grace of God in the sharing of this meal and the breaking of the bread. Take a moment to be renewed. It has been a long road this semester. There will be many long roads ahead. But God is present with us. It is the truth we proclaim during Advent. It is the truth we will proclaim at Christmas. It is the truth we proclaim in all the times of our lives, when the night flies by and we are without our rest. When we are feeling stretched thin and on our last bit of energy. We're pulling an all-nighter, and we are tired. Advent is a season of waiting, but we are not waiting for vacation. We are not waiting for semester break. We are not even waiting for Christmas. We are waiting for the coming of Christ again into our lives and into our world. And because we wait for the Lord, and we shall renew our strength, we shall mount up with wings like eagles, we shall run and not be weary, we shall walk and not faint. Back to Sermons page Back to AU UMC Home Copyright © 2007. Mark A. Schaefer. No part of this text may be reproduced or otherwise disseminated without the express written consent of the author.

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