"Woke" Up and Smell the Coffee!

 

...for everything that becomes visible is light. 

Therefore it says,

“Sleeper, awake!
    Rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”

Be careful, then, how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, 

making the most of the time, because the days are evil.

                        Ephesians 5:14-16

1 Awake, O sleeper, rise from death, and Christ shall give you light;

so learn his love, its length and breadth, its fullness, depth, and height.

2 To us on earth he came to bring from sin and fear release,

to give the Spirit's unity, the very bond of peace.

3 There is one body and one hope, one Spirit and one call,

one Lord, one faith, and one baptism, one God who made us all.

4 Then walk in love as Christ has loved, who died that he might save;

with kind and gentle hearts forgive as God in Christ forgave.

5 For us Christ lived, for us he died, and conquered in the strife.

Awake, arise, go forth in faith, and Christ shall give you life.

Voices United 566

I woke up early today, as is my pattern, and groggily made my way to the kitchen to perk a pot of coffee, thereby enhancing my "wokeness" with caffeine.

You may have noticed that the political and religious right, particularly in the United States, has appropriated the terms "woke" and "wokeness" as  derisive accusations against those who care about such terrible things as religious freedom, gender equality, racial equality, reproductive choice... and the list goes on. The implication is that real Christians will be opposed to all of these and back it up with the right to bear military assault weapons to the grocery store. 

It's bizarre to me because I'm at an age when waking up is one of the minor miracles of daily life. I am also at a stage of existence where I want to be more expansive in my understanding of what it means to live in this world and because of the grace of Christ in my life I want to "draw the circle wide" as the hymn lyrics encourage us to do. If that makes we "woke" I'm willing to wear the criticism. I may never use that term but I want to be alive, awake to what really matters in the world because I am a Jesus follower. 

Historically "woke" was an African-American term going back a century or more, meaning awareness. It gained traction as part of the Black Lives Matter movement, along with the phrase "stay woke." Hmm, could the derision be...racist? 

You may have seen or heard about the response of Republican Sarah Huckabee Sanders' response to President Biden's State of the Union address the other evening. In her rant she decried the "woke mob" of the liberal left, along with other key phrases thrown around by conservatives. She didn't bother defining what the term meant, but she didn't need to for her crowd. Sanders is now the governor of Arkansas but she doesn't mind mixing religion and politics. If you recall, she was Trump's press secretary and believed God made him president. I can't believe in that sort of wrathful deity. 

I'm glad I woke up today and I want to smell the coffee of justice and inclusion, God being my helper. If I can find a woke mob, I'll join it!

(Refrain:) 

Draw the circle wide. Draw it wider still. 

Let this be our song, No one stands alone, 

Standing side by side Draw the circle wide 

God the still-point of the circle, ‘round whom all creation turns; 

nothing lost,but held forever, in God’s gracious arms.

 (Refrain:) 

Let our hearts touch far horizons, so encompass great and small; 

let our loving know no borders, faithful to God’s call. 

(Refrain:) 

Let the dreams we dream be larger, than we’ve ever dreamed before; 

let the dream of Christ be in us, open every door