One of the texts for this Sunday is Romans 13:8-14. The passage includes the words “it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep,” and it may or may not be Paul’s reference to Jesus’ parable of the 10 bridesmaids. Either way, the phrase “wake up” reminds me of some music inspired by those words.
Philipp Nicolai wrote a hymn which is commonly translated into English as Wake, Awake, for Night Is Flying, and in 1731 J.S. Bach wrote a cantata based on it, which we call Sleepers, Awake. It is a beautiful composition that is one of my all-time favorite pieces to play in an orchestra. But more amazing to me than the composition itself is that Bach wrote it to be played on the Twenty-Seventh Sunday after the Trinity, a week in the liturgical calendar that can only happen when Easter falls extremely early. It happens so rarely, in fact, there there was only one more 27th Sunday after the Trinity in Bach’s lifetime, and so he only performed the piece once. Bach was so “awake,” and ready to serve God, he wrote an incredible piece he knew would have limited usefulness, but which far outlived him and his expectations for it. Here I am playing it 289 years later. We never know what God will do with our gifts, so may we be awake and ready to serve.