Hermeneutical Journey of "Staying Awake"

This is a hermeneutical journey report for my sermonette "Staying Awake" preached at Princeton Theological Seminary on September 30, 2015.

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Week Prior to Wednesday, September 23^rd

As part of the required reading assignments for “Preaching Paul” on Wednesday, September 23, I read Ephesians in its entirety multiple times. While I did read it out loud several tines, I admit I should have read it more times in what I would call my preaching voice. Based on my readings of Ephesians, I knew for this upcoming sermon assignment I would want a passage from one of the follow sections: Ephesians 1:1-14, Ephesians 1:15-23, Ephesians 3, or Ephesians 4:1-16.

Wednesday, September 23^rd

As a class, we took turns reading a portion of Ephesians out loud. We did this twice, once towards the beginning of class and once towards the end of class. By practicing reading the text out loud, I did see certain passages in Ephesians in a different perspective. While I still wanted the selected texts listed above for the assignment, I was now at least more open to preaching a sermon from the other sections. I was among the last two to sign up for a text. Another student and I had the final two choices of text between Ephesians 5 and Ephesians 6. Remembering this other student said one of his favorite passages from the epistles was found in Ephesians 6, I chose Ephesians 5. Either chapter would have been among more of the more difficult of the Ephesians texts to preach. I knew this would be a fun challenge in which I would deeply explore a text. After class, I explored Ephesians 5 by reading the entire chapter out loud in a preaching voice. I still did not have my specific passage selected.

Thursday, September 24^th

At Chapel the next day, as I was flipping through the Red Presbyterian Hymnal to find the next hymn we were about to sing, I saw a hymn titled, “‘Sleepers, Wake!’ A Voice Astounds Us.” This made me think the second half of Ephesians 5:14 where the author quotes, “Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” The note at the bottom of the hymn said the song is in reference to the Parable of the Ten Bridesmaid found in Matthew 25:1-13. I wanted to explore this passage in addition to Ephesians 5 to see if there was any connection. Because of this hymn and the exploring I wanted to do, I knew I wanted to include verse 14 as part of my selected passage. Because of the reference to “children” in verse 1 and verse 8, my passage I had initially selected was Ephesians 5:1-14. I now read began to read only these selected fourteen verses out loud rather than Ephesians 5 in its entirety. From this reading the passage out loud, I had these initial questions:

• How do I stay true to a text where judgment is a part of it? How do avoid a sermon that comes across as too judgmental?
• What does evangelism look like in this text? Is this an appropriate message for me to preach? (I understand it’s an appropriate form of ministry, but it is not one of my gifts in ministry.)
• What would be equivalent to Paganism in our modern world? What should we as “children of light” renounce?
• What is Paul (or the author) saying and doing in the passage?
• What is the good news in the passage?

Friday and Saturday, September 25^th – 26^th

I kept the sermon on the back of my mind, but it was not my main focus. Rather, if I had an idea for the sermon, I would enter it as a note in my phone. My final list of notes ended up looking like this:

• We are Children in the Light when we were once Children of the Darkness
• Having a childlike faith; Foolish and ignorant; you are invited here to be a child; to tell it like it is; to ask questions; we are here together in a community; to say the wrong things;
• “‘Sleepers, Wake!’ A Voice Astounds Us” – Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids
• Seeking Goodness, Righteousness, and Truth
• Asking questions; being vulnerable with one another; do we pretend that our life is fine?
•  “The Light Shines in the Darkness, and the Darkness shall not overcome it”
• Come as you are, lacking answers, needing love
• Resurrection and Transformation
• Light needing to make a shadow; “That Shadow, My Likeness” by Walt Whitman

Sunday, September 27^th

On Sunday evening, I approached my first set of commentaries. As I researched commentaries, I saw most preaching scholars (but not all) would have separated Ephesians 5:8-14 into its own section. Because of this, I reduced my selected passage from fourteen verses to these seven. I also looked into commentaries on Matthew 12:1-13 to see if there was any connection between these two passages. I could not find any connection between the two passages besides two similar phrases. But while exploring commentaries on Matthew 12:1-13, I had asked myself questions about this parable in relation to my text in Ephesians: “Does it matter if we are the wise or the fool? What if the fools stayed in the dark and cried out to the Lord rather than leaving and getting oil?” I figured the answers to these questions could be used in my sermon as an introductory story. As for the Ephesians commentaries, major influences came from the writings of (but not limited to) William Loader, Richard Carlson, Margaret Aymer, and Sarah Henrich.

Monday, September 28^th

I started my sermon writing. Based off my own ideas and the work of the commentaries, I approached my writing with this question as my main focus: “How shall we live as children of light?” Based on the passage, the answer was found in verses ten and eleven: “Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.” I wrote the last paragraph of my sermon first. This paragraph was my own answer to my question above and the main point that I wanted the hearers to take away from this sermon. I usually write the last paragraph first and at the end, I make it edits to it so it is cohesive with the rest of the sermon. Next, I wrote the introduction. This is where I can be creative and add a story to the sermon to grab the hearers’ attentions. I based my story on the Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids. Finally, I wrote the first two paragraphs after the introduction to serve as an explicit descriptive connection of the story to the main point I wanted to make and as a transition into this main point.

Tuesday, September 29^th

            On Tuesday, I finished the sermon writing by diving deep into the text of Ephesians 5:8-14 one last time. I specifically wanted to focus on verses ten and eleven in relation to the surround passage. These two verses were the answer to my focus question. The explanation of verse ten was better explained in the previous verse in which the words “good and right and true” were used. Verse eleven did not have as clear of an explanation, so from personal experience of exposing darkness, I focused on “honesty, vulnerability, and asking questions.”  After writing these two central paragraphs, I made my final edits to my sermon. Most of this involved deleting sentences – including an entire small paragraph – that did add anything to the final message. After all, this was an eight-minute message. The sermon had to be clear and concise. Once the sermon was finished, I practiced preaching it out loud several times. Based on the message of my sermon and the initial inspiration, I decided to title it, “Staying Awake.”

Staying Awake

“Staying Awake” was preached in my class “Preaching Paul” at Princeton Theological Seminary on Wednesday, September 30, 2015. Each student was directed to write a short sermonette from a selected text found in an assigned chapter of Ephesians; I was assigned Ephesians 5. From there, we were then allowed to choose a shorter passage within our assigned chapter to be the text for our sermon. There was a strict eight-minute time limit enforced. In addition to the sermon, we also had to write a report on our Hermeneutical Journey of how our sermon came to be. You can find that report here.

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Ephesians 5:8-14

8 For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light— 9 for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. 10 Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly; 13 but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, 14 for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

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There once were ten bridesmaids. Similar to the bridesmaids found in a parable told long ago, they were told they must go out into the night and wait for the arrival of the bridegroom. Each of the bridesmaids went out and got themselves a lamp. Some were lanterns, some were flashlights; some let out a bright light; some were only a dim glow. Long through the night they waited… the luminous glow of their lights keeping them company. As they waited, the ten bridesmaids became drowsy, but unlike the parable told long ago, the ten bridesmaids stayed awake in preparation of the bridegroom. Five of them in this preparation went out and saw that the bridegroom had given them extra batteries for their lamps as they waited. The other five missed this gift, although it was given to them, and instead, they wandered the streets crying out to the bridegroom. Around midnight, they heard a shout, “Look! The bridegroom is here! Come to meet him.” Each of the bridesmaids grabbed their lights – their lanterns and their flashlights  - and went out to meet the bridegroom. Because they waited long through the night, their lights began to slowly dim and die. But five of the bridesmaids knew they were prepared. They replaced their old batteries with the ones they were given. The bridegroom immediately saw the first five in their glowing lights, and this pleased the bridegroom. Because of this, the first five bridesmaids were brought to the wedding banquet. They were brought into the light. The other five had no extra batteries, and they were soon swallowed by darkness.  Unlike the foolish bridesmaids in the parable told long ago, these five bridesmaids did not leave. They did not leave to gather more batteries. Rather they continued to cry out to the bridegroom. “Here! Here! We are here! We are here in the darkness! Bring us into the light!” The bridegroom heard their cries. He recognized their commitment and he smiled at their devotion for they had exposed themselves in their darkness. And so, the bridegroom found the other five bridesmaids in their darkness, and they too were brought to the wedding banquet. They too were brought into the light. The bridegroom looked upon the ten bridesmaids – now joined together in the community of light – with a look of love on his face, “Sleepers, you stayed awake. I have raised you from the darkness, and I have let my grace shine upon you.” All was well as all was in the light.

We may remember that this story I just told is similar to a parable concerning the kingdom of heaven found in the gospel of Matthew. But this story, unlike the parable, is not about the kingdom of heaven. Instead, the outcome has been altered to show a different perspective to the different ways Christ brings us into the light. See, in the parable told long ago, there were the five wise bridesmaids and the five foolish bridesmaids, a split between what was good and what was not, a separation between light and darkness. But in the letter to Ephesus, the author declares that living in the darkness was a former identity. Verse 8 says, “For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light.” Through the resurrection of Christ, we have gone through a transformation. And it’s not some transformation that will eventually happen; we are talking about a here and present, a current day transformation. We are now children of the light. Therefore, although it was Christ that brought us into the light, it is now our responsibility to live into this light. It is our responsibility to live in praise and thanksgiving – in Christian discipleship – to the grace that has been given to us in Christ Jesus. We must actively – and metaphorically – stay awake in our Christian faith.

Staying awake in our faith, according to this passage, is done through living out two commands. One, “Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord,” and two, “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.” Now these are easier said than done, especially finding the balance between the two. But as Christians, finding this balance is part of what we are called to do.

Let us start with the first one, “Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord.” Like the first five bridesmaids, they were actively searching for the bridegroom in the glow of their light that was given to them, and soon after, they were found and brought to the wedding banquet. We know that living in the light involves conduct that promotes goodness, righteousness, and truth.

And so, we must strive for goodness. Goodness for God and goodness for our neighbors. We know that our good works do not save us, but the act of our good works can show others how Christ lives within us. The act of our good works show that we believe that God has prepared us – has saved us – so that we may do good works.

We must push for righteousness. Our God is not only loving and good; our God is also just. Part of living in the light means we must live in a world where we seek good and honest justice. We fight for what’s right, and we reach out to what society has deemed “the least of us.” For we our all children of God, and we are all children of light. Our entire community is our family. We should support one another.

We must tell the truth. Telling the truth means more than just the words we speak. We must stay true in how we live in the light. In the words that we speak and the actions we do, we must show that we strive for goodness and we push for righteousness, and we must stay true to that. We must tell the truth to God; we must tell the truth to our neighbors; and we must tell the truth to ourselves.

Which brings us to the second command, “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.” We can interpret this as exposing the darkness of others, but I want to focus on exposing the darkness within ourselves. The last five bridesmaids knew they were in the darkness, and they admitted it in their cries to the bridegroom. And it was through their vulnerable cries that the bridegroom found them and brought them into the light. Exposing our own darkness can be done through being honest, allowing vulnerability, and asking questions.

We need to be honest. Living in the light is not always an easy thing to do. But this light is a gift freely given to us by God. And if we’re honest about the areas in where fall short of the light or if we’re honest about the areas in which we live in darkness, God’s grace still extends to us. This grace will make our shortcomings visible, and once again, we will be brought back into the light.

We need to allow vulnerability. We are bound to experience failure. And we can run from this failure or we can embrace it. We can learn from it, and we can grow from it. Cry out to God in these moments; allow God to bring you back to the light in which you were created to walk.

We need to ask questions. Ask questions to ourselves, ask questions to others, and ask questions to God. Yes, we need to support one another, but we also need to challenge each other. Ask questions that would help yourself grow; ask questions would make others better; ask questions that would make everyone’s light brighter. Expose the darkness by making the light more visible!

Stay awake, my friends. Live as children of the light. Live into this transformation. Please the Lord. Strive for goodness. Push for righteousness. Tell the truth. And expose the darkness. Be honest. Allow vulnerability. Ask questions. Stay awake. For the grace of Christ shines on you.

Amen.

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