Art Reading Scripture

The Sleeping Congregation, William Hogarth, 1728, Minneapolis Institute of Art

Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Ephesians 5:10

Satire exaggerates people's failings or shortcomings. With humor it exposes things we might rather not see or consider. Surely no congregation universally falls asleep while the preacher drones on. But just as surely our powers of concentration, proneness to distraction, and yes, the shortcomings of the preacher to be clear, to the point and down-to-earth may interfere with the word of God connecting to the people of God.

The sermon has a purpose to wake us up rather than put us to sleep. I have not written a second time about a painting, (and admittedly this is not a masterpiece of art), but while reading Soren Kierkegaard, 19th century Danish philosopher/theologian, (within 100 years of this painting), the Spirit pushed me to pursue it a bit further. He was well aware of the tendencies this painting satirizes. In a series of discourses titled, "Thoughts Which Wound from Behind - For Edification: Keep your foot when you go to the house of the Lord," he pointed out a sometimes discrepancy between what people seek and what the sermon/word of God intend to do. "So it is in the actuality of life when it is God that preaches by means of circumstances to awaken. But in the house of God, in the splendid house of God, when the parson preaches ... to tranquilize." Where people might expect, desire to enter the sanctuary for peace, comfort, and easy sounding words to support their lives, words that might sooth them to sleep, the word of God sneaks up from behind to goad us, wake us up and change us in ways we may not like. Faith is not to lull us to sleep, assure us in complacency, or sooth us to passivity. Faith and proclamation wake us from such things to raise us from the dead, from dead spirits, deadened awareness of ourselves and the world in which we live, or the protection of self-defenses that assure us that since there are worsen sinners than us therefore we are OK and can relax.

The text Kierkegaard turned to was, "Guard your steps when you go into the house of God; to draw near to listen ..." Ecclesiastes 5:1. It was a warning like that given to travelers at railroad stations or subways as they step across the space between the platform and the car. "Watch your step! Watch your step!" "Mind the gap! Mind the gap!" When we step into the sanctuary to worship and hear the word of God we step over a gap from our world to the kingdom of God. We travel across a gap from self assuredness and self confidence and even self righteousness to a place of repentance, reform, and renewal. The task of the preacher is to awaken us to ourselves rather than to simply sooth our woes. The preacher also has to wake up before he can call others to the day of the day of the Lord. The sermon may not always be easy to swallow. The word of God is intended to disturb us, change us and raise us from the dead to new life. Certainly there is consolation in the word of God. There is mercy, forgiveness and grace. Yet along the way we are led through the valleys of shadows, the worlds and our own. Along the way we are called to wake up from dreams to nightmares, from "I'm OK, your OK," to nothing is OK and everything is in need of repentance and forgiveness.

So the word of God comes us. Kierkegaard says that it comes to us "from behind," it sneaks up on us. If it were to come directly at us our defenses might parry it or make it ineffective since the old Adam and the old Eve in us are very strong. The sermon may begin with a joke or a cute story, but beware it is on the way to waking us up to our need for mercy rather than lulling us to sleep in dreams of contentment.

Keep the faith. Say your prayers. Love like Jesus.

Pastor Tim Bauer