Romans 13:11-14
December 1, 2019
Advent 1A
Dear Saints of Our Savior~
It’s beginning to look a lot like Advent! The blue paraments and the big wreath hanging from the ceiling are dead giveaways. It’s also the Sunday when we come perilously close to running out of number threes on our hymn boards. Thanksgiving dinner is barely digested and it’s already Advent. How did that happen? Well, a late Thanksgiving conspired with a mid-week Christmas to give us an earlier-than-expected start to this holy season.
The traditional Gospel reading for this Sunday is our Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. You’ve heard it before: the donkey,
But it’s today’s epistle from Romans 13 that drills down deep into the nitty-gritty of daily life. Today’s Gospel tells us what Advent is about. Today’s epistle tells us what it means for daily living. It’s an Advent wake-up call. The hour has come for you to wake up from sleep. Advent is the season to rise and shine. Live in the light of Christ and have nothing to do with the deeds of darkness.
December is an especially good time to hear these words about waking up and living in the light because there’s no darker month than December. It’s tough to wake up in December. It’s always dark and the house is cold. Even for early birds like me, it can be a challenge to separate yourself from that Serta perfect sleeper at this time of year.
But don’t worry if you like to sleep late; Paul’s words aren’t aimed at you sleepyheads. His concern is over a different kind of snoozing—that even while our bodies may be awake and functioning, yet our hearts are asleep to the things of God—or even worse, that we’ve sleep-walked our way into a dark and sinful place where our very salvation is in jeopardy.
We baptized Christians are designed for the daytime. We are people of the light. Paul expressed it this way: The 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. Night is gone; the day is at hand. This is the urgency of the Advent season. It’s not the urgency of getting your shopping done or getting your baking done or the urgency of a calendar so crammed with activities that you’re either depressed or stressed to the max. The urgency of Advent is living in the light of Christ.
Advent—at least here in the church, historically—is not supposed to be a happy season of celebration. It’s a penitential season—a sober season of repentance in preparation for Christmas (which IS joyful and celebratory). But the thrilling voice of Advent always sounds out a warning—a warning to put off the works of darkness—to cast off the bathrobe and other duds of the darkness—and put on what befits the day—what Paul calls the “armor of light.”
Another way of saying it would be to put off the Old Adam with all his lusts and wicked desires, his sexual immorality and drunkenness, his quarreling and jealousy. Those are the works of darkness and death. And sadly, there seems to be more of those kinds of things going on at this time of year. Many offices and businesses no longer host Christmas parties for their employees. Why? Because people get drunk, behave badly, sin boldly, and sometimes get hurt. Don’t you follow that crowd this Advent. Those deeds of darkness don’t fit you. You don’t look good wearing them. They are foreign to who you are as a baptized child of God. And they totally discredit your Christian witness to those around you.
What should you wear? Put on the armor of light. Adorn your life with good works that leave no doubt as to who you are—and whose you are. What clothing will show you at your best as the child of God you are? Nothing other than the perfect righteousness of Jesus Himself. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ (Gal. 3:27). To be baptized is to “wear Jesus” as a robe—to be covered with His righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.
When our first parents fell into sin they tried to cover up their naked rebellion by clothing themselves with fig leaves. Not only did that look kind of silly, but those hand-stitched fig leaves couldn’t cover up the real problem, which is sin. That’s our problem, too. And the wages of that problem—the final, unavoidable result—is death.
That’s why we can’t forget that, before the Lord kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden, the Lord Himself provided them with new clothing. Not with fig leaves, but with animal skins. Some sort of animal had to die for that clothing to be made. I like to think it was a lamb—the very first sacrificial lamb—the first blood ever shed—the first vicarious victim to die for the sin of the world. No big deal EXCEPT that this all points ahead to Jesus, THE Lamb of God. Only He—only by the blood He shed and by the death HE died—can sinners like us receive what we need through faith: the forgiveness of our sins; and a robe of His righteousness, the armor of light.
And so we know what time it is. The hour has come for us to wake up. No more punching the snooze button. You snooze; you lose. No more lounging around groggy and hungover and ashamed. In Jesus you are a new creation. In Jesus you have salvation. And that final salvation is nearer to you now than when you first believed.
The Last Day—the Day of Resurrection—will be here before you know it. It sometimes sounds terrifying, but by Jesus’ own promise, you can hope for it and long for it—just as we do whenever we pray, “Thy kingdom come.” On that day, what we believe by faith will finally be seen and visible. What we long for, we will finally have. What God has promised us in Christ, will be given to us in full—forgiveness and life and salvation.
How will the promise of that day affect your Monday, your Tuesday, your Wednesday and all the days to come? Well, we did just celebrate Thanksgiving, right? Would you thank the fireman who saved you from a burning building by running right back into the flames? Would you thank the lifeguard who pulled you from the waves by diving back into the rip current? Would you thank your Savior, who called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light by running back into the darkness? Of course not! You can’t do that, dressed up the way you are in the righteousness of Christ. Would I wear what I have on right now to mow my lawn on a hot July afternoon? Unthinkable! No way!
And so it is for you on this the first Sunday in Advent in the year of our Lord 2019. Wake up! Rise and shine! You have been clothed with Christ. You are wearing the armor of light. The King of kings is drawing near; the Savior of the world is here!
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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