Advent: A Wake Up Call Romans 13:11-14

Is there anything harder to do in November and December than to wake up on dark, mornings and get ready for school, work or worship, convincing yourself that even though it is pitch-black outside, somehow it is actually "morning" and time to wake up to a new "day"? These are the days that I just want to roll over tug on the blankets, snuggle in and go back to sleep.

Scripture for the Advent Season invites us to become spiritually awake.
Awake in the knowledge of Christ and the way God desires us to live

• Wake up and see that "salvation is nearer to us now ..." (v. 11);
• Wake up and see that the "night is far gone, the day is near" (v. 12);
• Wake up and "lay aside the works of darkness ..." (v. 12);
• Wake up and "put on the armor of light" (v. 12);
• Wake up and "live honorably" (v. 13);

In short we are told "Wake up and Get a Clue."

To help with the process, I turn to the words of Alfred Delp, a prisoner of the Nazis, to explain this concept. Although not as well-known as Lutheran Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Delp is just as spiritually deep.

Delp was a Jesuit priest charged with treason. The charge stemmed from some group discussions Father Delp had during the war, in which the participants imagined that Nazism collapsed, and they were creating a new social order from scratch. For his "defeatism," Father Delp was sentenced to imprisonment and death.

The only kindness shown to him was a jailer who left his shackles loose enough to slip one hand free so that he could write these words, with handcuffs dangling and clanging as he wrote:

"Advent is a time for rousing. Human beings are shaken to the very depths, so that they may wake up to the truth of themselves. The primary condition for a fruitful and rewarding Advent
is renunciation, surrender ... a shattering awakening; that is the necessary preliminary. Life begins only when the whole framework is shaken."

-As quoted by Bill Wylie Kellerman, Seasons of Faith and Conscience (New York: Orbis, 1991), 137-138.

Life begins when we are shaken to the core. What would shake you and rattle your life to the point that you’d admit you were powerless?

What would need to confront you so that you have a fruitful and rewarding Advent of renunciation and surrender and realize you had no option other than to fully rely on Christ?

Advent is a time of waking up and recognizing our true selves. It would be easier to just examine others, but the call is to get our individual lives in line with God’s will and purpose so we to are ready for Emmanuel, God with us.