Dear Beloved of Trinity Church,
There was a time when sleeping was no problem for me. Once I went to bed, I could sleep through the night without stirring until morning. But then, the battle would begin. The alarm would go off, and no matter what I set my “clock-radio” to—classical music, smooth jazz, or nature sounds—no matter how soft or soothing the volume, it always felt like a fire truck siren pounding my eardrums with a sledgehammer. I would groan as if in pain, hit the snooze button, and repeat the cycle every eight minutes for three or four rounds until someone downstairs would yell, “Paul, wake up! Get up! You’re going to miss the bus!”
Waking up can be hard. Sometimes we don’t want to wake up—we’d much rather stay wrapped in the warmth of our bed and the comfort of our dreams. But life isn’t meant to be slept through. We sleep because our bodies and minds need rest in order to live and thrive. What would life be if we slept through it? Unfortunately, at times that’s exactly what we do.
Easter calls us to wake up. Wake from our slumber. Open our eyes, ears, hearts, and souls to the amazing gift of life and the truth of God’s love.
In Growing into God: A Beginner’s Guide to Christian Mysticism, John Mabry writes:
“We come from God, and to God we long to return. But how? The Christian tradition is filled with saints and sinners just like us, pilgrims and mystics who have traveled this road in search of spiritual maturity. They sent us letters outlining exactly how to wake up, how to remember our true nature, and how to return to the Divine Presence.”
John Philip Newell, in Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul, reminds us that our Christian journey—perhaps more accurately, our human journey—“is about waking up to a knowledge that is deep in the very fabric of our being. It is about living in relationship to this wisdom.” He continues, “The problem is that we keep going back to sleep, or otherwise live in ways that neglect this deep knowing.”
Dear friends, the alarm has sounded in the joyous proclamation of Easter:
Alleluia. Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia.
Wake up, dear ones!
Wake to life and love.
Wake to joy and hope.
Wake to beauty and possibilities.
Now is the time to live—fully awake, fully alive—in the truth of God’s redeeming love.
Easter Blessings,
Paul