1.
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from
God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The
message from God’s Word on this First Sunday in Advent is taken from Romans
13:11-4, and is entitled, “Wake Up!” Dear
brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
Are you a “morning person”? Do you find it difficult to wake up at the
beginning of the day? Are you someone who rises early, perhaps goes for a jog,
writes a few e-mails, reads the newspaper, and balances the household finances
all before starting your actual workday? Are you eager to embrace the day? Or
are you one of those people who needs time and maybe several cups of coffee in
order to feel ready to face the day?
3.
Some scientists suggest a morning
person’s preference for the early morning hours is at least partially based on
genetics, particularly on a gene that affects a person’s circadian rhythm and
response to sunlight. A true morning person has a natural sleep cycle that
depends on a bright light source arriving at the proper time. If he or she does
not receive this light cue during the early morning hours, he or she may feel
just as groggy as a night owl forced to wake up too soon. While night owls can
become morning people, it’s a difficult process that takes much time and
effort, and the chances of lapsing back into your natural sleep pattern are
very high.
4.
Are you a morning person? Do you find it difficult to wake up? St. Paul
tells us in our Epistle for this First Sunday in Advent that we are, in a very
real way, morning people, regardless of our bodies’ rhythms. He tells us, “The
Hour Has Come for You to Wake from Sleep. For Salvation Is Nearer to Us
Now Than When We First Believed.”
5.
“The hour has come for you to wake
from sleep.” Our inherent love of
spiritual darkness leaves us in a deep spiritual sleep. Martin Luther writes: “Now, note the
analogy between natural and spiritual sleep.
“The sleeper sees nothing about him; he is not sensitive to any of
earth’s realities. In the midst of them he lies as one dead, useless; as
without power or purpose. Though having life in himself he is practically dead
to all outside. Moreover, his mind is occupied, not with realities, but with
dreams, wherein he beholds mere images, vain forms, of the real; and he is
foolish enough to think them true. But when he wakes, these illusions or dreams
vanish. Then he begins to occupy himself with realities; phantoms are
discarded. “So it is in the spiritual
life. The ungodly individual sleeps. He is in a sense dead in the sight of God.
He does not recognize—is not sensitive to—the real spiritual blessings extended
him through the Gospel; he regards them as valueless. For these blessings are
only to be recognized by the believing heart; they are concealed from the
natural man. The ungodly individual is occupied with temporal, transitory
things, such as luxury and honor, which are to eternal life and joy as dream images
are to flesh-and-blood creatures” Martin Luther, The Sermons of
Martin Luther, vol 6 [Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1995], 11.
6.
By nature, we are all creatures of
darkness and people of the night. Works
of darkness thus abound in our words, thoughts, and actions (v 13). But now we’re called to walk as in the
daytime (vv 11a, 12). Put simply,
Paul gives instructions for what resurrection life looks like now in the Church, the domain in which Christ
Jesus rules by grace, mercy, truth, peace, and love. Such behavior is daytime behavior (living in the light) that
contrasts nighttime behavior (living in darkness). Under the
cover of darkness, all kinds of unseemly things happen — drunkenness,
orgies, shameless sexual immorality, the kind of stuff not done in broad
daylight. As Christians we are enlightened by the power of the Holy Spirit
working through God’s Word and Sacraments, to be of the Light. This means that we now live in the
resurrection life, the resurrection of a once-dead, now re-created human spirit
(Ephesians 2:1-6).
7.
The things of darkness, of course,
move into attitudes and dispositions: bad temper and jealousy, anger, and
bitterness. These things, likewise, aren’t of the enlightened soul, not of the Spirit of God. They,
too, are on par with drunkenness and sexual immorality — they are not of the
children of light; they are not the works of God.
6.
As it is with our physical bodies,
so also it is with our spiritual lives. Whether you are a morning person is
most likely determined by your genetic makeup; it is part of your identity. In
the spiritual life, the same is true. We become “morning people”—people
who are awakened from their spiritual sleep—not by our own efforts, but by
being clothed with Christ. He changes our identity, our spiritual DNA, so that
we live as those awakened from our spiritual slumber to be living sacrifices
and to offer to God our true spiritual worship.
7.
“Salvation is nearer to us now
than when we first believed.” God
has come near to us by taking on our flesh and blood, born every bit as human
as you and I. Jesus offered himself to
the Father as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. Jesus’ life “was an unbroken unity of
spiritual worship” Franzmann, 241.
8.
St.
Paul doesn’t just tell the baptized Romans what to “put off” but
also how to avoid the works of darkness. “Put on the
Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 13:14). The Christian Theologian & Pastor N.
T. Wright, provides a succinct explanation:
Putting on: comes from the night/day contrast once more. Here we are,
getting up while the rest of the world still thinks it’s night-time; we must
put our clothes on. The Christian’s “clothing” — which two verses earlier he
has referred to as “armour”, the “armour of light,” the clothing we need when
the light has begun to shine — consists of Jesus himself, Jesus the Lord, Jesus
the king.” N.T. Wright, Paul for Everyone:
Romans Part 2: Chapters 9-16
(London: SPCK, 2004), 90.
9.
What
Paul aims at here and what Wright has set forth isn’t about conjuring up an
attitude to merely “clothe one’s self” with the character of Jesus. “Putting
on” concerns conforming one’s self to the reality of the new creation, to
resurrection life that is the reality into which you have been plunged through
holy baptism. Your life is hidden in Christ in God. It’s about a regular and
daily remembrance of your baptism — the very act of God that translated you
from a kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light and life. This is what
Romans chapter 6 declares. Martin Luther admonished all disciples of the Lord
to this very remembrance when he wrote his Morning Prayer. Luther said, “In
the morning when you get up, make the sign of the holy cross …”, meaning remember your baptism and so conform your pattern of
thinking to living in the light, to embracing resurrection life here and now
10.
We have been clothed with the Lord
Jesus (v 14).
Our identity was changed as we were clothed with his righteousness in
Baptism (Gal 3:27). In it, we have died to sin and walk in newness of life (Rom
6:3–4). In the humble forms of bread and
wine, Christ comes to us, personally and individually, to forgive our sins and
renew our identity as living sacrifices who offer God true spiritual worship. While the world spends its weeks before
Christmas gratifying the desires of the flesh, we put on the armor of light and
live not in love of ourselves but in faith toward God and love for one another.
11.
Are you a morning person? Do you find it difficult to wake up at
the beginning of the day? You are a morning person! Christ has made it so! By
the power of the Holy Spirit, he has wakened you to a new day to live as his
child, clothed with his righteousness, and in him alone we cast off the works
of darkness, walk properly as in the daytime, and live not for ourselves, but
as living sacrifices to our God, offering to him our lives in true spiritual
worship. Amen. Now the peace of God
that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until
life everlasting Amen.
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