You’re probably thinking that Christ’s warning about the sudden coming of the Son of Man to our world has no more to do with sleeping during worship than it does about predicting the exact date when the world may end. Both uses make this passage from scripture seem ridiculous. Jesus wasn’t speaking about how we behave in worship. Nor was he concerned about whether the end of time comes after the collapse of the Soviet Union, or before the return of Israel to its ancient boundaries from the time of King Solomon. This is nonsense. But he did have something important to say about the suddenness with which the Son of Man will come to the world, and with how we tend to sleep through this important event. If it’s silly to get all worked up about falling asleep in church, let’s think for a moment about falling asleep in life itself.

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