We were watching a Key and Peele video on YouTube, laughing like crazy. This particular skit involved secret agents wherein one of them says the trigger word, activating the other who is a sleeper FBI agent. He had no awareness of his true identity as a secret agent until triggered by the key word.
I keep waiting for the church to awaken, hoping we are like a sleeper cell, positioned for activation into our true identity as the Beloved community. If there was ever a point in history when this world needs an invigorated, robust, proactive Church; it’s now. If we ever needed communities of people who demonstrate what it looks like to be centered in love, it’s right now. If this world was every hoping to see groups of very different diverse people who remain in community with one another, we are hoping for this now. If ever our society needed organizations who reflecting light, giving grace, and making peace in this troubled world, we are there. If ever there was a time when this world is hungry for a taste of what’s found at God’s table, we are currently famished.
So I find myself fantasizing the Church will awaken, vigorously embracing it’s identity, living out it’s purpose in transformational ways in our crazy culture. Perhaps it’s that all the many sermons, Bible studies, and renewal events were embedded with the key word which activates us as the robust Church this world needs. Perhaps it’s like God shouts through the universe a word like, “AWAKEN,” and the Church immediately rises out of its comfortable slumber. The reserves of power from all those many Christian formation activities we’ve engaged for years kicks-in and we are launched into proactive engagement with our communities. We are individually and collectively awakened to love-focused robust living.
Maybe this sleeper cell Church fantasy is kicked-up today since I read from Hebrews 6 in the Holy Bible (Message Version). It goes like this:
“So come on, let’s leave the preschool fingerpainting exercises on Christ and get on with the grand work of art. Grow up in Christ. The basic foundational truths are in place: turning your back on ‘salvation by self-help’ and turning in trust toward God;….Let’s get on with it!”
Yes, thank you Eugene Peterson for this paraphrase of the preacher in Hebrew’s, calling us to living with eyes wide open. Let’s get on with it! May we hear and respond to God’s shout reverberating through the universe.
AWAKEN!
mark tidsworth 