Wake! Awake!
By Rev. Wayne Haas
Friday, February 15, 2008 11:46 AM PST
It was in the wee hours of the morning. I was sleeping hard. Suddenly, I was wide awake. What jarred my slumber was the ringing of the telephone, which during the day isn’t too loud but during the night simply shatters the silence. Even so, I didn’t rush to answer it. I would let the answering machine do that, and if it sounded important, I would then rush to respond. The machine did its job, and the caller said something like, “Hello, Mr. Haas. This is Officer ____ of the city PD. We are outside your residence, and there is a door open on your garage. We’re wondering if you are aware of it. Please call us at ____.”
I bounded out of bed, but, instead of answering the phone, I headed for the back door and turned on the outside light. Yes, the police were there, two of them, as a matter of fact. By then, it had dawned on me that earlier in the day we had unloaded items from a vehicle and had apparently failed to close the door. In other words, we didn’t prepare for the night. I shared that with the officers, and then we looked around to make sure everything was as it should be. I thanked them as profusely as I could at that hour of the night, and before continuing on their patrols, they reminded me to give them a call if anything turned up awry, which it didn’t.
I returned to bed and thanked the Lord for our city police department officers doing their job. Several days later while we were shoveling our driveway, another officer whom we know stopped to chat. I expressed my appreciation to him for what the officers had done, and he said, “Oh, we do that all the time. Recently, a hatchback was open on a vehicle. Those folks had not done the same thing you did, but you never know. Nor, do you know what will happen if it’s not taken care of.” How true!
It pays to be awakened sometimes to take care of things before it’s too late, and that’s true of our spiritual lives, as well. The New Testament has much to say about our being awake, alert, on guard and prepared for the end of time and the return of Jesus. For example, on one occasion when speaking about the signs of the end of time and the son of man’s return, Jesus said, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come... What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’” (Mark 13:32, 33a, 37, NIV).
In his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul wrote: “The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light,” (Romans 13:11b, 12a, NIV). In another letter, after reminding us that the day should not catch us by surprise because we are children of light, Paul gives the following reason to continually be alert: “For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath, but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,” (I Thess. 5:9, NIV).
Jesus also told a parable of 10 maidens who went out with their oil lamps to wait for the bridegroom to come to the wedding. They had no set hours for weddings at that time, apparently. Knowing that, five of the maidens took extra oil for their lamps. The other five took no extra oil. The bridegroom was delayed. The maidens went to sleep. It was midnight when the bridegroom’s imminent arrival was announced. The five who brought extra oil refilled their lamps and went into the wedding feast. The other five went to buy oil, and when they finally arrived and pleaded to be let in, the bridegroom refused. And Jesus concluded: “Therefore, keep watch because you do not know the day or the hour,” (Matt. 25:13, NIV).
A 400-year-old hymn based in part on that parable begins by advising us: “Wake, awake, for night is flying!”
Pastor Wayne Haas can be contacted at (541) 372-3331.
