“Sleeping Spends the Night” by The Rev. Kaji Douša

This is the last time I have to preach under this regime.
This is the last time you will hear a sermon under this regime.
And it is lashing out! As we expected.
But can you see? Can you see just past the latest story?
Can anything good come out of this?
The answer is: yes.
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People have been leading a misinformation campaign against Jesus since the earliest days of his ministry.
They’d have us think that Good News to the poor is “fake good news”.
They’d have us to think that a ministry to widows and orphans, tax collectors and sinners, sex workers and centurions breaks the laws they choose to focus on.
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But if you want to hear Good News. If you want to see the glad tidings. If you want to experience and feel something that portends something better?
You have to be willing to look beyond.
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But in his toxic seclusion, Rip was so asleep to all that was *actually* happening around him that he *lost the truth of who he was*. He could not see community and understand his place in it. The world kept changing and he had no clue. As Dr. King put it, “our world is a neighborhood.” But Rip couldn’t see past his own eyelids, let alone to see his neighbor. And if you can’t perceive your neighbor as such, how are you supposed to love them?
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Folks: today, right now, all across this country, and, I dare say, all over the world, we have people with eyes wired shut holding machine guns. With their fingers hovered over the nuclear codes. Wilfully oblivious to the truth of their neighbor’s humanity to the point that they would hang a noose around their neck.
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God is standing before you with the very blessing you need. And way for you to receive it.
But we cannot be asleep. We have to open our eyes from whatever seductive slumber that may have led us away from God’s blessing.
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Sleeping may spend the night.
But in the morning?
We rise.