Stay Awake
Sermon December 3, 2023
The Historic New Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church, Detroit, MI
Advent is a time of expectation, looking for the coming or arrival of something or someone special or important. In the church, we celebrate the Advent season expecting and preparing for the arrival and birth of the Christ child and the second coming of the Messiah. It is also a time for personal introspection, devotion and observation. For some, it is a sad season because life situations have changed. Lost a loved one, relationship, health; any number of reasons for sadness rather than joy.
Two advent scriptures read in your hearing today were written long before the birth of Jesus by a psalmist, and a prophet.1 The third was written from the oral tradition by a disciple who wanted to record Jesus’ teachings as they were given to him.2 Asaph, Isaiah, and Mark. Each tells a portion of the history of Israel, a history of shared struggles: the divided nation in captivity in Babylon and Assyria, the return to Jerusalem, and centuries later living under Roman occupation in Palestine. Never forget that Jesus was a brown-skinned Palestinian Jewish rabbi while still the son of God and the Messiah.
Asaph, a worship leader appointed by King David, is believed to have written Psalm 80 after Israel was divided into 2 kingdoms, Judah and Israel. Judah was conquered by Babylon, and the people were taken into captivity. Israel was conquered by Assyria and also taken into captivity and exiled. This psalm is a lament, wailing, crying out to God against the pain and suffering of the people of Judah, and prayer for God to restore the kingdom to its former glory. The psalmist asked how long will God be angry with us. Turn your face toward us again and restore us to our rightful place. Or come get us out of this trouble we have gotten ourselves into because we turned away from you. If you do this God, we will never turn away from you again.
After 70 years of exile, when the people returned to Jerusalem In the 8th century, the prophet Isaiah or his disciples are credited with writing this section, a community lament. They are back in the land but they’ve got troubles. There are other people in the land and they are trying to reestablish themselves. So, the prophet asks God on behalf of the people to do something spectacular so their adversaries would know not only who God was, but who they were, the special chosen people of God. Cause an earthquake to shake the mountains, or fire to come down from the heavens. That would show them.
He was telling God their troubles, asking God to fix it. Come down- shake the mountains! Let our enemy know who You are; show Yourself by Your awesome deeds. Making excuses: the people sinned because God was hiding from them. They couldn’t hear or see God anymore, so they slipped into sin. Now they want God to remember, and restore them despite their transgressions.
Has anyone here been in or felt an earthquake? I’ve had two experiences. One was quite scary, but the second one was almost undetectable. In 20113 I was at work, sitting at my desk, working on the computer. There was a clear glass of water on the desk. First, I began to feel a little lightheaded and wondered if I might be experiencing some vertigo or dizziness. Then I noticed the water in the glass gently moving. I wasn’t shaking the desk. There was no big truck going down the street. What was happening? It only lasted a few minutes, but I had no idea what it was till I heard the news later that day. There had been a 5.8 magnitude earthquake near Mineral Virginia that sent shock waves through the East Coast and Midwest. It is about 580 miles from Detroit. No lives were lost, but there was significant damage to buildings in DC and Virginia.
The gospel of Mark is considered the first written gospel. It is the retelling of the Jesus story to Gentile believers. According to the Africa Study Bible, John Mark was from Cyrene, a city in modern-day Libya in North Africa. This is the same city of Simon of Cyrene, who carried Jesus’ Cross. (Luke 23;26) Mark was an AFRICAN MAN. It is important for us to see ourselves in scripture, especially where our presence, stories, and importance have been whitewashed, covered over, or erased.
Mark must have been educated, multi-lingual, multi-cultural, and world-traveled. For a time, he traveled on missionary journeys with Paul and Barnabas, but he was really a disciple and student of Peter who, unlike Paul, was an eyewitness to Jesus’ ministry. Mark recorded and wrote down what he learned from Peter about Jesus’ life, ministry, and teachings. His was probably the first writing to take the message of Jesus into Europe. Yes, The Gospel of Jesus traveled from the Middle East and Africa to Europe first, not the other way around as many would have us believe.
Today, I want to focus on Jesus’ teaching and message to his disciples as recorded in Mark 13:28-37. Stay Awake. I’m re-reading verses 33-37 from the English Standard Version
“33 Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. 34 It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. 35 Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows or in the morning— 36 lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. 37And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.”
Don’t let Him find you asleep! Stay awake.
At the opening of this chapter, Jesus is having a private conversation with Peter, James, John, and Andrew. He tells them what they could expect after He was no longer with them physically. He tells them about the wars, earthquakes, famine, world unrest, false prophets, and false messiahs to come before the end and His second coming. But don’t panic. It’s not yet the end. He reminds them to learn a lesson from the fig tree, to watch for its new summer leaves to know the season. When you know the seasons, you know what to expect.
But He is adamant about telling them to STAY AWAKE. What does it mean to be or stay awake? Definition: to cease sleeping: to wake up; to be fully conscious, alert, and aware: not asleep.4 What was Jesus telling the disciples about being awake? So I would have a good understanding, I checked other English translations: the New International Version, New Revised Standard Version Updateded Edition, New Living Testament, and the Common English Bible. They all said almost the same thing: Be on guard, take heed, watch, beware, keep alert, be alert, keep watch, keep awake, or stay alert. If Jesus said the same thing four times in five verses, it must be important.
What could this mean for us today? Well, how about stay woke!! Being awake and staying awake has become my theme for 2023. I consider myself a Woke Black Woman. Saying that puts some folks on edge, especially since there are so many in this country who now are anti-woke, especially those holding on to and promoting a white supremacist ideology. And doing anything they can to block what they call “the Woke Agenda,” like banning books, eliminating certain history from classrooms, gutting voting rights. “Woke”, to be awake. Simple. But why does this bother so many, especially some who don’t look like me? Let’s examine what it means to be awake or woke in 2023 going into 2024 and what Jesus may be saying to us in this passage.
First, let’s establish what “being woke” is and why it puts fear in some people. To give anti-woke white conservatives a clear and truthful definition, let me provide the Merriam-Webster online dictionary entry for woke: to be “aware of and actively attentive to important societal facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice).5 I’ll also refer them to New York Times columnist Charles Blow’s 2021 article where he defined woke as “being aware of and alert to how racism is systemic and pervasive and suffuses American life.”6 The Merriam-Webster dictionary definition agrees with him.
And here is a short history lesson on the origin of the term “woke.” It was coined by the Black blues singer Lead Belly in 1938 about the plight of the Scottsboro Boys7 to “remind Black Americans about the dangers of navigating a world structured by … violence, racial stereotypes, and multifarious forms of antiblack violence, especially toward black men in the South, including lynching and false arrests. The African-American community knows and understands this term as an internal language.” The NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund says:
Black people have never been silent — or at a loss for innovation — when articulating demands for justice. In fact, the use of “woke” as an in-group signal urging Black people to be aware of the systems that harm and otherwise put us at a disadvantage is documented as far back as the 1920s. The Jamaican philosopher Marcus Garvey, exhorting members of the Black diaspora in America, Jamaica, and elsewhere to join the cause of Pan-Africanism, called on them to “Wake Up!” By 1938, the iconic American Blues musician Lead Belly (born Huddie Ledbetter) had recorded the song “Scottsboro Boys.” The ballad tells the true story of four Black youths who were falsely accused of raping a white woman in Scottsboro, Alabama, and subsequently convicted by an all-white jury and sentenced to death — though they were thankfully freed after several appeals and trials. In the song, Lead Belly says of Alabama, “I advise everybody to be a little careful when they go down there. Stay woke. Keep your eyes open.” 8
Woke was a word coined in and for the Black community, fully intending to alert us to the racism and oppression affecting black and brown people, warning us to be safe and keep our eyes open for danger. It is interesting to me that being woke was never a problem as long as the concept remained within the Black community, and until the Black Lives Matter movement made the term popular, most whites had no idea that it existed or what it meant. Now it threatens those who suffer from white fragility. That includes African Americans who have publicly called for the end to wokeism like Ben Carson, who said, “Political correctness, wokeness, cancel culture, this is going to destroy us as a nation if we don’t get a grip on it.”9 and John McWhorter who writes that being woke is a new religion that will harm Black people.10
So to me, being anti-woke is simply another blatant form of racism, a way to gaslight the American public. “Woke” has been stolen, co-opted, berated, redefined, and criminalized by the very system and power players who have historically promoted and perpetuated systemic racism and kept its practices in place. It is a continuation of white supremacy at its best, trying to deceive those who are afraid of equality “with liberty and justice for all” because they choose to maintain a
broken, fractured, limping America where the voices of the historically marginalized are continually silenced. Wake up! American democracy is on life support!!
But when I really think about it, it appears that those in the anti-woke camp are trying again to erase and “whitewash” history so the complex and harsh realities of American systemic racism and oppression are hidden from view, kept away from white students so they will not feel ashamed of the very history that has brought the nation to this volatile political place, very possibly making way for some difficult American and world history to be repeated.
I describe anti-wokeness as white fragility11 at its highest form of schizophrenic psychosis.12 These anti-woke folks are subjecting their children and the nation to historical amnesia, the forgetting or purposeful and intentional erasure from the memory of American citizens its troubling historical truths in an effort to hide, sanitize, and exonerate history from the oppressive atrocities committed by and in the United States to persons and communities of color.
So, I hear Jesus telling us to wake up!! We must wake up so we can watch what the enemy is planning and plotting against us. We have gotten comfortable and complacent, but that is like being lulled into slumber. Jesus says WAKE UP!! “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” (1Peter 5:8 NLT) If we are not the doorkeepers, our enemies can come in, dressed in sheep’s clothing, and destroy our communities.
Some examples of how that prowling lion is working today. On the national front.
Our freedoms are under attack because judges appointed by the previous president are slowly but surely eroding and turning back hard-earned voting rights. A Nov. 20, 2023 article in the Daily Kos reports:
An appeals court of Trump-appointed judges eviscerated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. If this gets upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, it could be devastating. In a substantial break with 50 years of precedent, the judges ruled that only the U.S. Attorney General — not individual victims of discrimination or even longstanding civil rights groups like the NAACP — can sue states or localities that implement racially biased voting procedures.13
If the supreme court holds up this ruling only the US Attorney General can sue states for racist voting practices.
Locally, here in Michigan: Michigan Live reported that in Ottawa County, on the West Side of the state, an ultraconservative faction called Ottawa Impact has been in place since the 2022 elections. But they are making decisions for the county behind closed doors, making public policy out of public sight. Their lack of transparency and openness in government is against the law. “The elected leaders are doing their deliberations outside of the open meeting forum and then refusing to explain themselves to the media or the public.” This does not follow the Opening Meetings Act and the Freedom of Information Act. Any governmental decision taking place behind closed doors erodes democracy and puts all our freedoms at risk.14
In Michigan A group seeking to eliminate all property taxes in Michigan plans to begin circulating petitions in January 2024 to get their measure on the state ballot. The group called Ax MI Tax is trying to have a ballot proposal placed before voters in the November 2024 election that would estimate the constitutional amendment for property taxes and supposedly save taxpayers a collective $14 billion a year. If it passes, all property tax in the state would be eliminated, cutting drastically funding for public schools and other services funded by local governments, such as libraries, museums and zoos. On the surface, it may sound like individuals will save money by not having to pay property taxes, but the weakening of the state budget would play right into the hands of the far right, crippling public education and libraries.
And watch out for the group Moms for Liberty. Nice sounding name, but according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, they are “a far-right organization that engages in anti-student inclusion activities and self-identifies as part of the modern parental rights movement. The group grew out of opposition to public health regulations for COVID-19, opposes LGBTQ+ and racially inclusive school curriculum, and has advocated for book bans.”15 There are chapters in Wayne, Oakland, Monroe, Kent, and Livingston counties. They will infiltrate school boards and push their racist agenda if we don’t stay awake and be sure their candidates are not elected or appointed to local school boards.
For the past election in Southfield, two ballot measures asking voters to approve the city manager’s appointment of a clerk and treasurer instead of electing them were both defeated. A sly way to erode the opportunity to vote for city officials, but voters were awake and voted against each measure.16
How can you stay awake and vote with your dollars? Here are two ways; I’m giving the information. You decide what to do.
On November 28, 2023, A GOP megadonor Bernie Marcus, the billionaire co-founder of Home Depot who supported Trump in his first two bids for president, said that he’s “never been as vocal” as he is today in his support for Trump. Make your dollars count. VOTE WITH YOUR DOLLARS; CHOOSE ANOTHER HOME IMPROVEMENT STORE. How many of us like a nice chocolate candy bar? Maybe Mars Bars, 3 Musketeers, Milky Way, M&Ms, Snickers, Twix, and Bounty (chocolate bar). Or a Dove bar. Do you know where the chocolate comes from? I didn’t either until I saw a November 29, 2023, CBS evening news investigation story about the Mars Candy company knowingly resourcing its chocolate from cocoa farms in Ghana where children as young as 5 are harvesting the cocoa pods with machetes almost as large as they are. Dangerous work for adults, let alone little children. I’m giving up my left and right Twix bars to let the Mars company know this is not acceptable and call on us all to wake up to the ways international companies use labor practices that would not be accepted here. You don’t have to give up chocolate all together. Hershey and Lindt ethically resource their chocolate, according to my research, so you can still enjoy a Reese’s, Mounds, Almond Joy, or Kit Kat.
I believe God is answering Isaiah’s prayer to send an earthquake and shake the mountains so the world will see God’s awesome power, just not the way Isaiah prayed for. God is shaking the ground to get our attention, to wake us up. We may not know exactly where the epicenter is, but we can feel the aftershocks and rumblings across the land.
Perhaps learning these little-known facts has sent an earthquake like Isaiah sought, rumbling through this sanctuary, through your minds and spirits, and has shaken you out of your slumber. Think of it this way. Being woke is a biblical mandate, taught by Jesus. Anyone who is anti-woke is really anti-Christ, anti the teachings of Jesus. They don’t really have a problem with those of us who profess to be woke, they really have a problem with Jesus. But that should not surprise us. These so-called Christians don’t follow the Golden Rule: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself, so expecting them to understand this teaching in Mark to Stay Awake may be a stretch.
If we are true followers and disciples of this Messiah, Jesus, the one we are still waiting for this Advent season, let’s wake up from our slumber, stay awake, wake others up, and remember the modern-day prophetic words of Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes as sung in 1975.
Wake up everybody no more sleepin in bed No more backward thinkin time for thinkin ahead
The world has changed so very much From what it used to be so There is so much hatred war an’ poverty
Wake up all the teachers time to teach a new way Maybe then they’ll listen to whatcha have to say Cause they’re the ones who’s coming up and the world is in their hands When you teach the children teach em the very best you can
The world won’t get no better if we just let it be The world won’t get no better we gotta change it yeah, just you and me
Wake up all the doctors make the ol’ people well They’re the ones who suffer an’ who catch all the hell But they don’t have so very long before the Judgement Day So won’tcha make them happy before they pass away
Wake up all the builders time to build a new land I know we can do it if we all lend a hand The only thing we have to do is put it in our mind Surely things will work out they do it every time
The world won’t get no better if we just let it be The world won’t get no better We gotta change it yeah, just you and me17
Footnotes:
1 Psalm 80: 3-7, 14, 17-19, * NRSV , – Isaiah 64:1-9* NRSV,
2 Mark 13:28-37* English Standard Version
3 https://www.usgs.gov/news/featured-story/10-year-anniversary-uss-most-widely-felt-earthquake
4 https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/awake
5 https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/woke
6 Blow, Charles M., The War on Wokeness. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/10/opinion/wokeness-racism-politics.html?au-th=login-google1tap&login=google1tap&log-in=email&auth=login-email
7 https://www.aclu.org/other/aclu-history-tragedy-scottsboro-boys#:~:text=The%20Scottsboro%20defendants%20were%20ultimately,been%20called%20’an%20American%20tragedy.
8 https://www.naacpldf.org/woke-black-bad/
9 Hannity interviews Carson. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWu7C-OVbo0&ab_channel=FoxNews.
10 John McWhorter. Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America. Penguin. October2021. https://www.amazon.com/Woke-Racism-Religion-Betrayed-America/dp/0593423062
11 Robin DiAngelo. White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism: Boston: Beacon Press, 2018.
12 “Schizophrenia involves a psychosis, a type of mental illness in which a person can’t tell what’s real from what’s imagined.” https://www.webmd.com/schizophrenia/mental-health-schizophrenia#:~:text=Schizophrenia%20involves%20a%20psychosis%2C%20a,very%20strange%20and%20even%20shocking.
13 https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/11/20/2207080/-Federal-appeals-court-deals-blow-to-Voting-Rights-Act-ruling-that-private-plaintiffs-can-t-sue?detail=emaildkll&pm_source=DKLL&pm_medium=email&link_id=22&can_id=e3ad2acb26cb1f7e99c455b03e4384c1&email_referrer=email_2122707&email_subject=pink-hits-back-at-desantis-book-bans-by-giving-away-books-at-florida-concerts
14 https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=rm&ogbl#inbox/WhctKKZPDRpMJCjRcvmgkTVmwsxdBDvTxDLTXFGpdtTGWqVGRstBMvkDlDxJNQLrDlhzLnb
15 https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/moms-liberty 12/2/23
16 https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/elections/2023/11/07/jackson-grossbard-southfield-clerk-royal-oak-ranked-choice-voting-marijuana-measures/71473322007/
17 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axmBtBOlbVU&ab_channel=PhiladelphiaInternationalRecords; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJgxJ6JrPkc&ab_channel=johnlegendVEVO
