Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When they say, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape! But you, beloved, are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief; for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness. So then let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober; for those who sleep sleep at night, and those who are drunk get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.
(1 Thessalonians 5:1-11)
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It’s night-time. You’re blissfully asleep – or at least you think you are. But you’re consciously aware of the fact that there are visions going through your mind. And suddenly – you’re eyes open. You’re awake. It was a dream. It happens to all of us. On many occasions I’ve awakened suddenly and started laughing uncontrollably because something in a dream was funny. On at least one occasion I can remember waking up suddenly and feeling furious because something in the dream had made me angry, and it took me a few minutes to orient myself and to realize that it was a dream. But we all have them. They happen when you’re not quite awake but you’re also not deep in sleep. They’re somewhere between those two states – that time between awake and asleep. Paul wouldn’t have known that there was such a time. For Paul there was just awake and asleep. We know today that it’s more complicated than that. Sleep studies have shown that when you’re deeply asleep there are changes in your body. Your heart rate goes down, your blood pressure goes down, your breathing slows, your muscles relax and even your brain waves are reduced. But there’s a different kind of sleep. It’s called REM sleep (REM standing for Rapid Eye Movement.) This is when we dream. And, again, things happen in our body. In REM sleep, our eyes move rapidly as if we’re watching something, our heart rates go up, our blood pressure goes up, our breathing gets faster, our muscles start to twitch, our brain waves become stronger and sometimes a bit chaotic. Sometimes we even make noises. If you’ve ever watched a dog sleep – you’ll know exactly what I mean, because they experience the exact same thing. And I wonder – if Paul had known about sleep what we know about sleep – would he have worded things a little bit differently?
All Paul knew was awake and asleep. In the context of the passage we just heard, Paul was telling the church that it had to remain alert. Even though it appears in the Lectionary for today, this is actually a passage of Scripture that would work very well during the Season of Advent that’s still a couple of weeks away. Be alert, Paul was saying – be awake! - because you just don’t know when God is going to come; you just don’t know how God is going to come; you just don’t know exactly what God is going to do – so be alert! Be awake! That was his point. Because as far as he knew the only alternative to that was to be asleep – to be totally oblivious to the goings on around you, to not be watching or watchful, to be oblivious to the signs of God’s presence and to the impact of God’s actions in the world around us and even in our own lives. To be asleep is to live as though God doesn’t matter, as though God isn’t here, as though God isn’t coming. For Paul that was the clear and only choice – awake or asleep? Aware or oblivious? Watchful or Blind? That was it. But if he had lived today and if he had known all that we know, I kind of suspect he might have worded the passage a little bit differently. I suspect that he would have come down on the side of dreaming.
You see, there are problems with the church being fully awake as much as there are with it being fully asleep. Paul understood the problem of being deeply asleep. Simply put – you might miss something. You might miss something vital. It’s like falling asleep while you’re watching a hockey game. The last thing you remember your team was losing 2-0, and suddenly you wake up and your team is ahead 4-2. Obviously you’ve missed something pretty significant, and as much as you might see replays or be able to check out the scoring summary to see what happened you can never really have the experience. It’s the same with the activity of God. You might be able to discern after the fact that God was present in this or that event, but if you missed the event itself because you just weren’t paying attention somehow it’s not the same thing. It’s like the disciples falling asleep while Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. They missed out on the chance to offer Jesus some support and comfort. Thomas wasn’t in the upper room when the resurrected Jesus first appeared and he had a hard time believing that it could have happened. Many in Nazareth watched Jesus grow up, but they hadn’t been present when he was born with signs all around, and they were reduced to saying “isn’t he just a carpenter’s son?” You can miss so much when you fall asleep. We don’t want the church to be that asleep.
But you can miss a lot when you’re fully awake too. When you’re fully awake maybe you’re just a little bit too alert. Maybe you get just a little bit too fixated on the details around you. Maybe you become obsessed with the problems and the challenges and the limitations that sometimes seem to be all around. Sometimes being too awake can actually blind you to reality or paralyze you from taking action, because whatever it is that you feel the need to take action in response to seems so overwhelming that we don’t think we can make much of a difference. Sometimes I think we can be so awake that we’re actually blinded to the possibilities that are right in front of you. Which is why I think that, if Paul had known about sleep what we know about sleep today, what he might have said is not “stay awake!” but rather “dream some dreams!” I think that Paul might have wanted the church (at least every now and then) to experience some REM sleep – to inhabit that time between awake and asleep. And that’s because the church really needs to dream some dreams.
It’s believed that dreaming has some very positive effects on people. Many believe that it’s when we dream that we’re actually processing memories, sorting out things that puzzle us, coming to terms with our hopes and fears, dealing with our past, looking into our future. I mentioned the physical changes that happen to us when we dream – the increased heart rate and blood pressure, etc. Sometimes they actually rise above normal. You could say that it’s when we’re dreaming that we’re really the most awake. Is it any wonder that the pages of the Bible are filled with accounts of God speaking to people through dreams. From beginning to end, from Genesis to Revelation, the pages of the Bible are filled with accounts of people receiving dreams and visions that turn out to be messages from or revelations of God. It’s in that dream state when we’re most open to hearing what God is calling us to. When we’re deeply asleep we’re oblivious to God’s call and when we’re fully awake God’s call can be crowded out among all the other things that are happening. But when we dream – when we’re in that time between awake and asleep – we’re open vessels ready to be filled. Problems give way to solutions; challenges become opportunities; limitations become possibilities. The church needs to dream some dreams.
Yes – there are times when the church needs to be awake – fully awake, because it’s only when we’re fully awake that we can become aware of the world around us, and as the people of God we are called to respond to what’s happening around us and to reach out to those in need and to extend an open hand of welcome and acceptance to those who may feel cast aside. Yes – there are times when the church needs to be asleep – deeply asleep – because we can’t do everything all the time and sometimes a step back and a time to regroup is appropriate and necessary. But mostly I think the church needs to be dreaming dreams. I think we need to be open to God’s presence and available for God’s call and willing to do God’s work. That’s what dreaming is all about. That’s what it means to inhabit the time between awake and asleep.
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