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Mark 13:24-37

The Threat of Somnambulism

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Mark 13:24-37

The Threat of Somnambulism

Dr. Philip W. McLarty

Are you a somnambulist?  Do you suffer the effects of somnambulism?

O.K., so I learned a new word this week: Somnambulism.  It’s a fancy term for sleep walking.  I ran across it in a commentary by Richard Donovan.  It leaped off the page and made sense to me: When Jesus told his disciples to stay awake, that the Day of the Lord would come like a master returning unexpectedly from a long journey – or, as Paul says, like a thief in the night (1 Thes. 5:1) – he didn’t mean we couldn’t ever go back to sleep.  He meant for us to stay alert, pay attention to what’s going on around us, not be caught off-guard.  And when you think about it, that’s just the opposite of sleep walking.

Sleep walkers go through the motions, but they don’t know where they are or what they’re doing.  And when they finally wake up, they tend to be disoriented and confused.

We had a sleep walker in elementary church camp one summer.  He’d get up in the middle of the night, unlock the front door of the boy’s cabin and head out across the softball field.  By the time one of us could catch up with him, he’d be to third base.  We’d wake him up, and he’d look at us as if we were aliens from outer space.  “Where am I?” he’d say.  And we’d lead him back to his cabin and put him back in his bunk, and he’d be down for the night.

Jesus told his disciples, “Watch, keep alert, and pray; for you don’t know when the time is.” (v. 33).

Well, this is what I hope you’ll get out of the sermon this morning: If we’re to stand strong in the faith, we need to guard against the threat of somnambulism, because if you’re not paying attention, the world will pass you by, and whatever influence you might have had to further God’s kingdom on earth will be lost.

I’ll give you an example: General Motors announced plans this week to cut its work force by 30,000 employees and permanently close nine plants.  I can only imagine the anguish the families of all these people must be feeling.  Most of them are probably in a state of shock.

But not all of them.  According to one report I read, Bob Tyrrell, age 45, a GM employee in Oklahoma City since 1979, said, “Personally, I’ve been speculating this would come down the pike for a while, and I’ve been looking for work elsewhere.” (msn.com)

Now, that’s paying attention. Then there’s our own Chief of Police, Michael Strope.

Chief Strope launched a program this year to win the trust of the Hispanic population in Bryan. So far, he’s held a number of community forums, mostly at St. Teresa Catholic Church over on the north side, and he’s requiring police officers to take Spanish.

What Chief Strope noted is that there’s been a rise in violent crimes against Hispanics, especially undocumented workers.  But a lot of these crimes go unreported because, historically, Hispanics are leery about talking to the police.  So, in effect, we have a situation here in which a second community is developing within the City of Bryan, and it’s fraught with lawlessness.

Plus, it’s growing.  In the year, 2000, the Hispanic population of Bryan-College Station was 32%.  It’s sure to be more than 50% in the next five years.

Not that this is a bad thing.  It’s just that, if you’re not paying attention, you’re likely to wake up one day in a different world.  So, Chief Strope is right – do what you can now, while there’s time, to win the support of the Hispanic community.

It’s the only way to go.  To do otherwise would be like walking in your sleep.

Which is what we seem to be doing with regard to Internet gambling.  Did you see 60 Minutes last Sunday night?  From what I heard, there will be more gambling sites on the Internet by the end of this year than all the casinos in the world today.

Now, that’s scary.  No longer will you have to fly to Las Vegas to throw your money away, you can do it in the comfort of your own home.  And, while that may sound harmless enough, can you begin to imagine the consequences this is likely to have on otherwise healthy and hard-working families?

Gambling may be a source of pleasure for some, but, for many, it’s an addiction.  And once it gets a foothold, it soon becomes epidemic.

And it’s not as if this were a Tsunami in Southeast Asia or an earthquake in Pakistan.  This is by design, and it’s happening in our own back yard.

I was driving into to Bryan Friday afternoon, having spent Thanksgiving with my family in Winnie, when I passed a pickup truck heading in the opposite direction pulling a large billboard-type sign on a trailer.  The sign read: “Sportsgambling.com”.  I’m guessing he was coming from Kyle Field, probably parked in the Fan Zone before the game giving out brochures.  As far as I’m concerned, he may as well have been giving out cigarettes or shots of heroine.

It’s an addiction, and the question is, are we going to speak up and try to do something about it, or are we going to look the other way and try to convince ourselves that “God’s in his heaven and all’s right with the world?”

The point is the world is changing at warp speed, and the word to the wise is, “Be alert.”  Pay attention.  Take stock of what’s going on around you.  Because the greatest threat to faith is not atheism, and the greatest threat to the well being of our country is not terrorism; it’s somnambulism – going through the motions of life oblivious to the dangers surrounding you.

So, what’s the solution?  Is there a cure for somnambulism?  If it were a simple case of sleep walking, I’d say yes – most children grow out of it.  But, for us, it’s more complex.  Jesus put it this way:

“Now from the fig tree, learn this parable.
>When the branch has now become tender, and puts forth its leaves,
you know that the summer is near.”

(Mark 13:28)

We all know what that means: When you see geese overhead flying south, you know that cold weather is not far behind.  All you have to do is look for the signs, then get ready for a cold snap.

So, why don’t we simply read the signs of the times and take action?  One reason is we’re not paying attention.  Have you been following the news recently about the mudslides in Guatemala?  Whole villages were wiped out in a matter of seconds.  As many as five hundred people were thought to be buried alive in the city of Panabaj.

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It goes back to a pattern started years ago where local villagers began cutting down the trees from the surrounding mountains for firewood.  By taking away the root system that held the soil in place, they set the stage for what was to come.  But no one noticed.  Or, if they did, they didn’t say anything.

Then came this year’s hurricanes and tropical storms and relentless rains.  The hillsides became saturated, and it was only a matter of time before the face of the mountains gave way and swallowed up the villages below.

Sometimes we don’t notice the warning signs.  And sometimes we choose to ignore them.

One of my greatest concerns today is the national debt.  Last month it surpassed the eight trillion dollar mark.  And it just keeps getting bigger and bigger.  Plus the fact that it’s growing faster than ever.  It took six years to jump from six to seven trillion dollars.  It took less than two years to go from seven to eight trillion dollars.  It’s currently going up at a rate of $3.1 billion a day!

I’m no economist, and I’ve always heard that a certain amount of debt was a good thing; at the same time, I think it’s obvious: If you spend more than you make long enough, you’ll go broke.

Doesn’t that also hold true for the country?  What sort of legacy are we leaving for our children and grandchildren?  Will there be anything left for them to inherit, except this massive debt we’ve incurred?

So, why don’t we do something about it?  Why do we pretend it’s not a problem?  Why is this not the top news story of the day?  Are we walking in our sleep?

I went back and re-read the Screwtape Letters, by C. S. Lewis.  Here’s the story in a nutshell: Wormwood is the protégé of his uncle, Screwtape, who writes him letters coaching him in the art of winning the soul of a young Christian for Satan. Among other things, Screwtape advises Wormwood not to argue with or openly confront the young Christian, lest he develop his powers of reason and self-determination.  Instead, Screwtape counselsWormwood to distract and placate the young believer, all the while reassuring him that everything is O.K., that there’s no need to worry.  Let his natural instincts toward pleasure and personal pursuit lead him to take the easy road of self-indulgence, Screwtape says.

Well, not to leave you hanging, Wormwood fails.  The young Christian keeps his faith, dies in the thick of WWII and goes to heaven.  Screwtape tells Wormwood to cut his losses and work even harder to win the next soul he encounters.

It’s a classic little book.  Go back and read it again for the very first time.  Then compare it with this more recent commentary by Paul Harvey entitled, “If I Were the Devil.”  He says,

“If I were the devil, I would gain control of the most powerful nation in the world; I would delude the minds (of the people) into thinking that they had come from man’s effort, instead of God’s blessings; I would promote an attitude of loving things and using people, instead of the other way around; I would dupe entire states into relying on gambling for their state revenue; I would convince people that character is not an issue … I would make it legal to take the life of unborn babies; I would make it socially acceptable to take one’s own life, and invent machines to make it convenient … I would take God out of the schools, where even the mention of His name was grounds for a lawsuit; I would come up with drugs that sedate the mind and target the young, and I would get sports heroes to advertise them; I would get control of the media, so that every night I could pollute the minds of every family member for my agenda; I would attack the family, the backbone of any nation … I would compel people to express their most depraved fantasies on canvas and movies screens, and I would call it art … I would convince the people that right and wrong are determined by a few who call themselves authorities and refer to their agendas as politically correct; I would persuade people that the church is irrelevant and out of date and that the Bible is for the naive: I would dull the minds of Christians, and make them believe that prayer is not important, and that faithfulness and obedience are optional.  I would, well, come to think of it, I would leave things pretty much the way they are!”

Here’s the bottom line: The world is changing faster than we can imagine, and we’re called to stay alert, pay attention and take stock of what’s going on around us; and, taking stock, we’re called to stand up and speak out for sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

After all, it’s his coming that motivates us and inspires us, for the promise is, in the moment of his coming, the evils of this world shall be overcome, and we shall experience the joy of his salvation forever more.  Until that day, let us pray without ceasing, “Come, Lord Jesus.”

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  Amen.

Copyright 2005, Dr. Philip W. McLarty.  Used by permission.

Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB), a public domain (no copyright) modern English translation of the Holy Bible.