December 14, 2009

Wake Up! Wake Up! Wake Up!
By Pastor George Van Alstine

This past Sunday we were blessed by the music of Amy Gustafson, who is the cousin of Sarah Fiala and has a professional career in Christian music. “Wake, O Sleeper!,” one of the original compositions she played and sang for us, is based on Ephesians 5:14
“Awake, sleeper!
Rise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon you.”

Biblical scholars believe that the Apostle Paul here is quoting lines from a very early Christian hymn, which itself was based on the words of Isaiah 60:1, prophesying Messiah’s coming:
“Arise, shine; for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.”

So in a sense, through Amy’s words, we are experiencing three generations of praise for Jesus’ coming into the world, from the prophet Isaiah several centuries before Christ, to a group of believers gathered for worship a few decades after Jesus came, to a worship leader with a guitar twenty centuries later.

Here are Amy’s lyrics:

Wake, O Sleeper!
Words & music by Amy Gustafson
© 2008 All rights reserved.

Oh, you find it hard to sleep tonight
You lie there wondering and listening for the signs that he has come
Will he come?
Oh, you find your thoughts have drifted into dreams
You question everything that you’ve been told, it seems that he won’t come
Will he come?

Wake, O sleeper! See the morning star
He’s come to meet you where you are
Oh, you lift your weary gaze up to the skies
You wonder if it’s real or is it in disguise that he has come
Has he come?

Wake, O sleeper! See the morning star
He’s come to meet you where you are… where you are

He has come, he has come!
So run to see the gift that you’ve been dreaming of
The one he hung upon the tree

Wake, O sleeper! See the morning star
He’s come to meet you where you are
He’s come to meet you where you are
Where you are

As Amy sang this song, I was struck by the words toward the end
“So run to see the gift that you’ve been dreaming of,
The one he hung upon the tree”
I had an image of the shepherds running to see the Baby in the manger, after the angels had told them the good news. I also thought of all the unfulfilled dreams the shepherds had, that Isaiah had, that we have.

And then the image of the tree hit me between the eyes. Was it a Christmas tree? Was it the wooden cross on which he died? Yes! and Yes! The tree of sacrifice was also the tree on which God hung his greatest gift to lost and struggling people of all ages.

(Copies of Amy’s Christmas CD may be purchased at cdbaby.com/cd/amygustafson1)