1.
Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth and the meditation
of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our
Redeemer. Amen. Happy Advent to you all! During the Advent season, we as the church
prepare for the coming of Christ. Even as we make ready for the baby to be born
in Bethlehem, the epistle reading from Romans 13, this first Sunday of Advent,
takes us beyond the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus to a new
moment of expectancy as the Day of Christ approaches and the rule of God is
made fully manifest. Here in Romans 13
the Apostle Paul reminds us that 1). The night is nearly over 2). The day is
almost here, 3). So we as Christians are preparing ourselves accordingly. The message is entitled, “The Advent Call—Wake Up!” Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
Because Advent proclaims that Christ is here
we as Christians are called to wake up. Jesus is here to see whatever it is we’re
wearing. None of us could
endorse the theology of the song, “Santa
Claus Is Coming to Town.” There’s that terrible sense of
works-righteousness—“He knows if you’ve
been bad or good, So be good for goodness sakes! Oh, you better watch out!” Who could possibly have their good deeds
outweigh their bad deeds? We can’t save
ourselves by our own works the Bible tells us in Ephesians 2. But, especially troubling is the image of
Santa seeing you when you’re sleeping, knowing when you’re awake. Scary! Do we
forget that the one who really came at Christmas does see everything we
do, does know everything we think? We wouldn’t want Jesus to see us clothed in
some of the rags of sin we wear. Romans
13:11-14 says, “11Besides
this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For
salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. 12The
night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of
darkness and put on the armor of light. 13Let us walk properly as in
the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and
sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. 14But put on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”
3.
It’s no wonder that most people lie in
spiritual darkness because they remain in their sins and seek their heaven on
earth. Unfortunately, this applies not
only to poor, blind unbelievers, but also to most baptized, so-called
Christians. They don’t understand how
frightful sin is. That the life of a
baptized Christian is a life lived of repentance, daily confessing our sins
before God and receiving from Jesus forgiveness. The Bible tells us that each sin, no matter
how small earns hell and eternal damnation.
They also don’t know how blessed are those who cling to God alone,
possess His grace, and stand in communion with Him. Few of those who are surrounded by the dark
night are ashamed, even if they wear the most wretched clothes, the clothes of
repeated sinfulness.
4.
It’s
different for us Christians in how we live.
We live as the people who are awake to the sinful world around us. Of us Christians it is said, “The night is far gone; the day is at hand.”
In the heart of such a Christian,
the natural darkness is fading and the day of the knowledge of salvation has
dawned. Jesus Himself has risen in our
hearts as the bright morning star. We as
Christians know what sin is. When we
were converted to Christ, we recognized that sin is a horrible offense to
God. You experienced the torment of
conscience on account of your sin and you understood that sin separated you
from God, stirring up his wrath. No man
can atone for his own sins, and for that reason God’s Son had to die on the
cross.
5.
We
as Christians have also learned that the whole world, with all its glory, can’t
make anyone happy, can’t provide peace and rest, and can’t comfort in a time of
trouble. God alone, with His grace and
His Son’s body and blood given and shed for the forgiveness of our sins, is the
highest good of man. Isn’t this an
urgent reason for us Christians to awaken from the sleep of sin and to walk in
a new life? Yes! Just as a man can’t remain in his bedclothes
when the night is over, we as Christians, in our hearts where the light of
Christ has dawned, can’t continue to wear the night clothes of sin. We must instead strive to live in our
baptisms and live the holy and God pleasing life through the power of the Holy
Spirit.
6.
Take to heart the phrases that St. Paul uses
here in Romans 13, “The night is gone;
the day is at hand”; “the darkness, the light”; “clothe yourself with the
armor, clothe yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ.” The imagery here is
rich with the themes of Advent. Light and dark strike home this time of year as
the days grow darker and it appears as if the sun is about to die. Ancient
pagans, that is non-Christians, used to celebrate the death of the light and
its dawn at the winter solstice through feasting and drunkenness. Christians
certainly were tempted to join the festivities with its orgies and drunkenness.
Darkness knows no boundaries or points of reference in reality, and so we
stumble around, intoxicated, not knowing where we are going because we can’t
see. We give in to the desires of the sinful flesh because we think that in the
darkness no one can see our sins. So adultery and sex outside of marriage
abounds, and our unfaithfulness breeds quarreling and jealousy. Chaos ensues. Who
can deny that the goddess of sex has taken over the entertainment world of
today? The homage which is paid to her has had a corrupting influence on
morality in our society. It also constitutes a real danger for us who are
Christians. Today there are those in the
church who want to say that same sex marriage is ok, that living together
before marriage is fine, that it’s ok to divorce your spouse for no reason,
simply because you’ve grown tired of him or her. But, all of these things are condemned in
Scripture. The works of darkness throw us into a frenzy. No laws,
everything goes. Lawlessness rules. Advent, is the time to clothe ourselves with
Christ,
7. “Hark! A thrilling voice is sounding! ‘Christ
is near,’ we hear it say. ‘Cast away the works of darkness, All you children of
the day!’ ” (LW 18:1). So
many things we “wear” are things we do as if cloaked in darkness, things we’d
never want anyone to see, certainly not Christ.
Do we use his name “Jesus Christ!” as if he really weren’t right here in
the room to answer, to include in the conversation? Do we act in the backseat of a car on dates
in a way we wouldn’t if Jesus were in the front seat? Do we go behind a friend’s back with gossip
or undercut him at work as we never would if Jesus were back there watching? Our coming Savior does see all our works as
in broad daylight. Paul knows
we don’t wish to be seen that way.
8. Jesus has invaded our darkness and shines a
light in our dark world and exposes our hidden sins. In the light we see the
ugliness of our chaos. Like those who come to John the Baptist for repentance
we ask: “But what are we to do?” Paul
makes it simple: Throw off those old clothes of darkness and put on the armor
of light. That’s why Christians celebrate Christmas at the very moment when the
pagans were sunk in the depths of their depravity. We as Christians proclaim to
the world: “Let us celebrate the dawn of
Jesus Christ, the true light of the world, born in Bethlehem.” And so we
put on the Lord Jesus Christ and become what he intended us to be—children of
the light.
9. During
this Advent season we want to wear the day clothes of Jesus
because we want him to see us as he is. We
desire to behave decently as in the day.
To honor Christ in word and deed, to drink deeply of his Spirit in the
Holy Scriptures and at his Table. To
honor him with our bodies and take him wherever we go. To walk in peace with all those around us, as
he himself is holding our hands. Christ
is all of this . . . perfectly. The Holy
One of God, the name that is above every name, the Word that was always
loving. The Holy One who laid down his
body, gave his blood to be shed, for our eternal good, never for his own
pleasure. The Prince of Peace who
reconciled God to man and man to each other by his sacrifice on the cross. That’s what it looks like being clothed with
Christ.
10. Now,
Advent, is the time to clothe ourselves with Christ, to wake up and put on our
day clothes. Because
Advent proclaims that Christ is in you (v 14).
In Galatians, Paul reminds us that “all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (3:27). That has happened; it’s a done deal. Everything that Jesus accomplished by his
first coming, his perfect life, sacrificial death, glorious resurrection, has
been given to you in your Baptism. You
are clothed with Christ by your Baptism.
You are righteous, beautifully dressed for the eternal
celebration. You are people of
light performing deeds of light. By your
Baptism, Christ is in you—and he is seen in you. Paul’s Advent wake-up call, then, is simply to live as
the people we are, to walk where we are destined to go.
11. Dear
friends in Christ this is the Advent Call
to Wake Up, Jesus is near to us! He is here with us because we are clothed
with him and you sit at his Holy Table. The light of Christ has dawned! Listen
to that thrilling voice, calling you to wake up, cast off the works of darkness,
and clothe yourselves with light. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment