"Awake, Sleeper" — A Poem for Easter

Maybe I don’t shop at the right stores, but, this year, I couldn’t find enough suitable Easter cards fro all the friends, relatives, church people and shut-ins to whom I send cards. Well, when you care enough to send, and can’t send Hallmark’s very best, you may end up sending your very best. Here is the verse from the cards I ended up making this year. Christina Rossetti and Adelaide Proctor have nothing to fear, but it was my best. With it goes my best wishes that you a lovely Holy Week, and that you’ll keep the joy of Easter all year long!

*  *  *  *  *

The wailing filled the doleful night.
The daughter never stirred.
Then spoke the Voice that first roused light,
And then Talitha heard:

Awake, sleeper, and rise from the dead,
And the sun will shine on you!
Leave myrrh in the forest,
No need for it here.
Let nard scent a wedding
Instead of a bier.
Awake, sleeper, and rise from the dead,
And the sun will shine on you!

In stony cell the captive lay.
Outside, his sisters grieve.
Parole denied, but the fourth day
The Judge read the reprieve:

Awake, sleeper, and rise from the dead,
And the sun will shine on you!
Come forth, be untied
From that grim robe of fate!
When I buy the pardon
It’s never too late!
Awake, sleeper, and rise from the dead,
And the sun will shine on you!

To all us stillborn spirits who
In deadly darkness grope,
The Judge and Maker calls us to
Life, Light, and Mercy’s hope:

Awake, sleeper, and rise from the dead,
And the Son will shine on you!
Your passions are bondage,
Delusions are lies!
Don’t study the dungheap;
Look up to the skies!
Awake, sleeper, and rise from the dead,
And the Son will shine on you!

Awake, sleeper, and rise from the dead,
And Christ will shine on you!
*  *  *  *  *
As we say at our church, He is Risen! He is Risen, Indeed!

Your Church May Need Missionaries, Too

Most of us can't go to a foreign mission field, but, have you ever realized, we have a mission field right here? I don't mean merely among our friends and neighbors, I mean at your own church. It occurred to me once that church board members are, in a sense, missionaries to the rest of the church. Board members do for the church what field workers do for the believers in te communities where they serve: they help organize this church, and work to provide direction, guidance, and opportunities for spiritual growth to the rest of the congregation.

Now, you may think, "Why would a church need missionaries for itself? We're all saved here!" The prophet Jeremiah gives the answer: : The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9) We don't know what's really going on in the minds of the people we know. For instance, in Sunday School, we got to talking about Ananias and Sapphira. You remember them from Acts 5. When the couple saw what a reaction Barnabas got when he gave the church the money he had made on the sale of some real estate, they wanted some of that admiration, too. So, they sold a piece of land, and brought part of the money to the church, claiming it was the whole price. Peter rebuked them, not because they hadn't brought more money, but for lying about the portion they did bring. They were lying to God, not to Peter, and, as a reminder that God takes the rightness of those who claim Him seriously, they both died.

What was startling, though, was that, before they lied to God, they were already lying to the church about their relationship with God. By all indications, they were fine, upstanding members of the church, but, it turns out, they weren't there to worship the God who Redeemed them; they were trying to make people think they worshiped Him. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been so eager to draw attention to their offering. When that thought occurred to me, it frightened me a little. How many people might be doing the work of the church, not because they love Jesus, but because they want others to think they love Jesus?

Church boards work to provide the structure through which the people of the congregation can come to know themselves – and come to know and truly worship God. Those willing to serve on boards, like any other missionary, have to sacrifice some of their time and energy. But they serve God's purpose in ways just as important as those working in foreign lands. And you don't need a passport to do it!