Sleeper, Awake!

Ephesians 5:8-14 and A Prayer of Consciousness by Paula McCaslin

March 15, 2026

Welcome as you are, with whatever you are carrying today. I invite you now to take some deeper breaths, breathing in love, breathing out hate, breathing in hope, breathing out despair. As you are moved, I invite you to join me in a spirit of prayer, God may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight our rock and our redeemer amen.

The words felt all too familiar, “we cannot wait” for “final proof” we are in grave danger. 

 “Their mass destruction are controlled by a murderous tyrant who has already used chemical weapons to kill thousands of people. This same tyrant has tried to dominate the Middle East…” From the fall of 2002 when I was in seminary in Berkeley.

From the spring of 2026

Iran is the world's number one state sponsor of terror, and just recently killed tens of thousands of its own citizens on the street as they protested. It has always been the policy of the United States, in particular my administration, that this terrorist regime can never have a nuclear weapon…For these reasons, the United States military is undertaking a massive and ongoing operation to prevent this very wicked, radical dictatorship from threatening” us

The pattern repeats, different occasion, but the same play, and now for a $1 billion day. 

It should not be radical or partisan to say this is wrong, this is the result of a population that is sleeping, maybe numb, overwhelmed, locked into a death dealing loop that we can’t afford, that the earth cannot afford. Clearly we need to be among those who aren’t afraid to say it out loud, sleepers awake!

That is our theme for today, waking up, becoming conscious, aware of what is really happening. As we heard from Paula’s words, let us break into full consciousness…

Her poem is inspired by parts of the Gospel of Mary, as many of you know, among the early Christian writings not included in the Bible, not among those that made the cut for what- would be, should be, included in the official books of what would be seen as the right version, the ortho-dox or correct belief system for the new religion. 

But we know the Gospel of Mary existed and along with many others not included, it circulated for hundreds of years. The Church Fathers preferred the narrative Gospels, with the exception of John, that’s a whole other story, but many of those not included are higher level teachings, kind of odd, the ones offered to those who had shown themselves ready for the next class so to speak. So what we read in the Gospel of Mary is a teaching about how to overcome what happens when we are hooked by anger, specifically wrath, a kind of energy that hooks us, deceives us, and takes us away from love, from God, from what is good and right and true.

The teaching is meant to offer a path to shifting how humans show up in the world, how we participate in what comes, what happens to us, how and what we can choose to be conscious for, how we respond, what power we have internally, when an Empire is bearing down on us, killing some of us, dominance, prominence everywhere… 

The early followers of Jesus were forging a new way, grounded in these teachings, building upon old ones, starting to form a new identity beyond the ones given to them. And here is how it was in the beginning: they were gathering around orthopraxy, not orthodoxy. What I mean is they were coming together living out Jesus’ teachings rooted in right practice, not right belief. The test of their commitment wasn’t what they said they cared about; but what they were actually willing to do.

And from what we read and can understand, even with just this snippet that we have from the letter to the community that had gathered around Jesus’ teachings in Ephesus, is their wrestling with their identity in light of this new reality. What does it mean to “live as children of light?” 

What does it mean to break free from what was known to live into full consciousness in this new reality? 

If they are no longer who the Empire said they were, who are they now that they no longer belong to Rome?

In the book After Jesus and Before Christianity, the authors remind us that identity and belonging was challenging under the Roman Empire, living with, and resisting violence left families broken, displaced and by official policy of the Roman Empire anyone they conquered were classified as barbarians, which is another way of saying not really, not fully, human. 

Some scholars argue that in this letter to Ephesians when people are called “the faithful brothers” “these men may be experimenting with a group identity different from the one they lost either in broken families or conquered nations.” If they are no longer going to see themselves as or call themselves barbarians, who are they? What do they call themselves? Or does that matter?

As scholar Gay L. Byron writes, “Their identity is defined by pleasing God” (which to them means) “exposing unrighteousness, and producing fruit that overcomes former barriers and distinctions and eliminates the invisible walls erected in their community.” To their minds, darkness is equivalent to the time when they felt outside of the covenant and without God in the world. To them there is the side of hopelessness and despair and the side of “the fruit of the light…” The aim of the letter is to outline the rules of living in Christ. Living not from hopelessness and despair, but from an awakened state, a higher frequency path, grounded in what is good and right and true.

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

Ancient words, both aspirational and a blessing for what is, for what is possible when we are awake, because it is when we can see things as they are that we can break free what from is binding us. 

We are living in a moment in American history where too many are sleeping and too many are satisfied with the power they are receiving from the fact that many are sleeping, wandering around drowsily, numb in a culture that has normalized violence -shootings in schools, wars that are rebranded with the death of children also rebranded as collateral damage. No! Last week, I watched what is called a Dignified Transfer. Those of you who served maybe know this term. It happens in total silence to honor the fallen soldier. It’s the process of bringing the body home. I decided I couldn’t turn away. I watched and sobbed. 

What our country is doing in Iran is not being called a war. And this fact reminded me of one our calls right now: and it feels really important. Part of staying awake is keeping our grip on the truth. That’s a huge part of what staying awake means right now, as people of faith- refusing to get confused or tossed about, thrown off course, in this tumultuous sea of lies. Let us break free into full consciousness, let us be free of ignorance, sleepers awake!

I don’t know how long it will take, for more to wake up, to take up the work of making peace, undoing the incentive to profit from these military endeavors and from the pain they create. I don’t know when it will happen, when more sleepers awake, but in the meantime, it is on us, people of faith, people of conscience, we must not give up on the truth.

I give thanks that together we remember the power of love, a power that does not cause harm to prove itself, a power that shines light, brings warmth, reveals possibilities. And when we are awake to this power and living in Christ consciousness, there is only “the fruit of the light” … hope from our web of love, from all that is “good and right and true…” What matters orthopraxy, right action, how we wake up to our shared humanity, our connectivity.

Regardless of what is being said from the highest places, from the well-funded marketing campaigns, the Empire is driven by greed and a hunger for more power, proving a point with total destruction, and lies about some lives mattering more than others. We cannot buy into this. The propaganda being propelled outward is that we are to care more about the school girls of Boulder than the girls' in Minab, province in Iran- the site where our weapons took the lives of an estimated 150 people most of them girls ages 7-12. They are us too. Living with and resisting violence is leaving families broken, displaced, and it seems we are still classifying some as barbarians, not fully, human. But beloved of God, we refuse to believe the labels given by the Emperor.

As Episcopal priest Steven Charleston writes, “Instead of seeing strangers in the dark, we recognize fellow climbers in the light.” You are children of the light, called to keep awake and to help others wake up too- to be light and to shed light on the truth, in ourselves and all around us. “Sleepers awake!” 

It is on us and in us, yes us, yes you, to live not from hopelessness and despair, but from an awakened state, a higher frequency path, grounded in what is good and right and true! Beloved of, let us break into full consciousness in all of the ways that we can; Sleepers awake!

What parts of your inner or outer life need to be awakened? Where are we called to shed light on something?

“Sleeper awake Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” May it be so. Amen.