“Stay Woke”

December 1. Today brings us to the last month of such a year. There have been so many losses. This past weekend a wonderful young man at my church lost his mother and our good friend James Clay lost his eldest son. We grieve with them and with all the families who have lost loved ones, jobs, homes, parties and proms, education and vacation, etc. etc. Today brings me to the last day of my 60’s. I confess to struggling with the loss of youthful vitality.

This morning I read an article about Stephen Colbert in Vanity Fair. Except for occasional clips on my news feed, I have never watched him much as I am not a late night person. My daughter is a fan, I have always enjoyed what I did watch, and the title included the word “loss,” so I was interested in the article. I was surprised to discover how strongly his Catholic faith informs his world view. I was especially struck by something he said: “Loss is not the same as defeat.” [Visit the article.]

He also said, “The message of Christ isn’t that you can’t kill me. The message of Christ is you can kill me and that’s not death.” So very appropriate a message for the season of Advent when we look forward to the return of the Risen Christ.

Because “Advent,” from the Latin adventus meaning “coming,” was for centuries about the second coming of Christ, not about a baby born in a manger. Which is why the lectionary Gospel tellings this year begin with the “Little Apocalypse” in Mark. When we made a recording on that story last week James Clay told it, commending us all to “Stay woke.” A powerful concept from popular culture that well captures what Jesus was advising.

James had planned to tell the story again in church on Sunday, live-streamed on FaceBook and YouTube (no congregation). Then Saturday night his son passed suddenly, unexpectedly. So the telling fell to Tom who did the best he could on short notice, bearing grief for James.

As James travels to California for the funeral, our hearts goes with him. So also our conviction that loss is not the same as defeat, nor death as final as God’s love. This story will always remind us of James, and his love for his son, Timothy O’Brien Clay.

Visit the GoTellStory YouTube channel

My bishop, Gregory V. Palmer, sent a pastoral letter on this story, also noting the significant connection to “stay woke.” Bishop Palmer’s words on the story and Advent are both encouraging and motivating:

Stay Woke is a phrase that entered our lexicon in the last decade. It is a reminder to pay attention to the world around us. It is an invitation to live in expectancy of God’s reign pressing in upon this world. It is a call to rise above a benign passivity to the pains and misery, the injustice and unfairness of our world. Erykah Badu perhaps more than any other artist has emblazoned Stay Woke on our culture and embedded it in our hearts and minds.

But we Stay Woke not just to gaze. We stay alert in order to know what the work is we are called to do. In the mini-parable in our text for the First Sunday in Advent that starts at verse 34 the waiting pictures those who are given responsibilities when the householder goes on a journey. He puts his employees in charge and each is given “work to do”. 

We too are in a period of waiting:

For the coming of Christ

For relief from suffering

For healing

For justice

For peace

For hope

But our waiting is not and cannot be passive. It must be assertive. It must be active. We wait not in idleness as if we have not been given an assignment. We are called and commissioned to do all that we can to repair the world to bring healing, justice and peace. These are all things that we long for a messiah to come and give us and ultimately he will. But Advent is always about what we are doing “in the meantime.”

Bishop Gregory V. Palmer, from the official site of the West Ohio Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. Read the entire letter