{"id":487,"date":"2013-12-01T14:18:24","date_gmt":"2013-12-01T19:18:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=487"},"modified":"2014-01-02T14:30:09","modified_gmt":"2014-01-02T19:30:09","slug":"waking-up-spiritually","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=487","title":{"rendered":"Waking Up Spiritually"},"content":{"rendered":"

First Sunday of Advent<\/span><\/h2>\n

Is 2:1-5; Col1:1-12; Rom 13:1-14; Mt 24: 37-44<\/span><\/h1>\n

Deacon Larry Brockman<\/span><\/h1>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Are you asleep?\u00a0 Now you may be thinking to yourself that\u2019s silly because you are all physically awake or you wouldn\u2019t be here.\u00a0 But what about spiritually?\u00a0 Are you spiritually asleep?\u00a0 St. Paul was talking about people who were spiritually asleep.\u00a0 He tells them the time is right for them to awake from their sleep.\u00a0 Paul is acting as a prophet- warning people to mend their lives because their day of salvation is near.\u00a0 He advises the Romans to put aside the things of the world, and to \u201cput on the armor of light\u201d so they will be ready for that day of Salvation.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Jesus is also talking about people who are spiritually asleep.\u00a0 He uses the analogy of Noah and the flood to make that point.\u00a0 Now this is interesting, because there wasn\u2019t any prophet in Noah\u2019s day like Paul in his day. .There was just Noah- Noah read the signs and prepared for the flood.\u00a0 But he was all by himself.\u00a0 Everyone else thought he was crazy.\u00a0 They were eating and drinking and marrying.\u00a0 In other words, they were just living life, enjoying the good life.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So, the question for us is this:\u00a0 Is that so wrong- just living our life and enjoying the good things of life?\u00a0 Paul was talking about deeds of darkness, and he lists them- drunken parties, sensual pleasures, sexual immorality, quarreling, and jealousy.\u00a0 But Jesus was just talking about eating and drinking and marrying.\u00a0 These are things we all do, just like two men working in the field, or two women grinding some meal for a dinner.\u00a0 These people were doing the ordinary things of life, not the dark things that Paul mentioned.\u00a0 That\u2019s why spiritually asleep seems to me to be such a good description for what Jesus is warning us about.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Most of us don\u2019t go through life spiritually dead- consciously doing evil and seeking pleasure; denying the existence of God and the coming of the kingdom of God. But we are often spiritually asleep- preoccupied with basic things of this world; unconcerned with the fact that some day we will die; unprepared for the fact that at any time we could be called by God.\u00a0 Yes, we could be the person in the field or the woman grinding flour.\u00a0 In today\u2019s world, we could be the person in the path of a Tsunami or Hurricane or Tornedo; a bystander along the street of the Boston Marathon; the victim of a heart attack or stroke or tragic auto accident.\u00a0 And life is suddenly over for us, and we are standing before Christ the King in Judgment. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not so much that there is anything wrong with living life, but rather, it is foolhardy to be spiritually asleep while we live our lives.\u00a0 We need to be prepared and ready for the Coming of Christ at any time. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s what Advent is all about, the four weeks before Christmas.\u00a0 It is our time to wake up spiritually, and train ourselves to be constantly aware of our mortality, of our first priorities; and of our relationship with God so that we will be prepared at any time for the coming of Christ.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The preparation is twofold.\u00a0 While we live, we need to walk in the light of Christ, living our lives to the fullest, but in the pattern laid out for us by Jesus in the Gospels.\u00a0 And secondly, we need to be constantly aware of our calling to a higher life, a life in the kingdom of God.\u00a0 Isaiah describes this hope for us in very poetic terms, the heavenly Jerusalem on Mount Zion; the house of the Lord, where there is no more war or strife, only the peace of God.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So, this morning, let us resolve to use this next four weeks of Advent to awaken spiritually to get ready for the coming of Christ.\u00a0 We may be shopping and decorating and feasting and visiting and doing all the other rituals of the season at the same time.\u00a0 But, let us be constantly aware and ready spiritually of the coming of Christ.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First Sunday of Advent Is 2:1-5; Col1:1-12; Rom 13:1-14; Mt 24: 37-44 Deacon Larry Brockman \u00a0 Are you asleep?\u00a0 Now you may be thinking to yourself that\u2019s silly because you are all physically awake or you wouldn\u2019t be here.\u00a0 But what about spiritually?\u00a0 Are you spiritually asleep?\u00a0 St. Paul was talking about people who were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[155],"tags":[267],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=487"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":489,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487\/revisions\/489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}