Sermon: Dressing for Action

First Sunday in Advent, 2010

Romans 13:11-14

Rev. Brian L. Kachelmeier

 

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

 

Today marks the first Sunday in Advent and the beginning of the new church year. Once again, we reassess where we stand before God and where we are going. Our goal and destination is heaven. Thus, we ought to be on the move. Either we are walking toward this goal or walking away from it. Now is not the time to doze off. We are to remain awake recognizing that there is not much time left. As our epistle lesson puts it, “salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.” (Romans 13:11, ESV) We have come a whole year closer to our end goal. We have come a week closer since the last time that we met together in this space. In fact, we have come about 30 minutes closer to our final salvation since we first arrived here on this day.

 

In the season of Advent, we wait for Christmas Day. Each Sunday, we light another candle to help in the count down process. There are four candles for the four Sundays in Advent and one candle for Christmas. Now we can understand what it means to wait in anticipation for our goal. In fact, we are waiting for the new building to be complete at the end of January. The actual building is nearer to us now than when we first conceived the idea of having our own building. For this reason, we are making plans and getting ready. We’ll have a building meeting tomorrow night. We’ll have a voters meeting on next Sunday. Over the next course of weeks we’ll see more and more changes in the appearance of the building. Eventually, we’ll move the furniture. Then we’ll move in to our new location. We are excited and we just can’t wait. Now is not the time to forget about the building and fall asleep on the job.

 

How much more then should we anticipate and get ready for the salvation of our souls and the resurrection of our bodies? We long to see the fullness of the kingdom of God. Our epistle lesson for today opens with these words, "Besides 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." (Romans 13:11, ESV) Earlier in chapter thirteen, St. Paul had addressed the second half of the Ten Commandments in which we are called to serve our neighbor in love. 

 

He opened the chapter by explaining that all governments come from God and therefore we are to willingly put ourselves under man-made forms of government. Our service to the government officials flows from our service to honor our father and mother as given to us in the fourth commandment. Rebelling against God’s order is rebelling against God. Of course this biblical understanding of service to government goes against our American concept of the right to rebel even in small things like the use of a radar detector. Paul goes on to list the rest of the commandments. We are not to murder, commit adultery, steal, or covet. Of course such a life of service goes against our ingrained sinful desire to serve ourselves. We are in need of divine instruction. 

 

We are learning to ask ourselves these diagnostic questions, “How does this action serve our neighbor in love? Are we serving ourselves our own desires or are we serving the needs of others?”

 

In chapter thirteen Paul continues to teach us after addressing the Ten Commandments. He writes, "Owe no one anything, except to love each other…” …and… “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." (Romans 13:8,10, ESV) In this way we serve our neighbor in love. For this reason, Paul says that the law is fulfilled in love. Now we know that love does not justify. Our love for others does not make us right in God’s sight. Rather, we have been justified by faith alone on account of Christ alone. We have been pardoned and made to be servants of God who serve God and others. Christ served us by dying for us. Apart from Christ we are self-serving. In Christ we are learning to be of servants of all. This is a process that we are beginning to understand. Thus, we look for opportunities to serve others. 

 

Now as the people of God, we already know that we are to serve one another in love. So Paul adds on top of this by saying, “Besides this you know the time… …for salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.” (Romans 13:11, ESV) Since we know that the days are short, how much more should we make the best use of the time that we have to serve one another in love? If you knew that there were only a few days or hours left in someone’s life, how different your attitude and interactions would be toward that individual? Thus, we assess ourselves and ask the question, “How does this action serve our neighbor in love? Are we serving ourselves our own desires or are we serving the needs of others?”

 

St. Paul writes in today’s text saying, “…the hour has come for you to wake from sleep.”(Romans 13:11, ESV) Again, we can follow the simple imagery that the Holy Spirit uses. Just like each morning when our alarm clock goes off we know what hour it is. It is time to wake up and face the day. Each day is a new beginning in which we rise to serve the Lord. Now, when we first get out of bed, we are a little groggy. Sometimes it may take us a snooze button or two. We may need a cup of coffee or two. We’ll surely need some nourishment to start the day right. But eventually we are up and ready to go. Each morning we realize that we have things to do from a horizontal perspective. 

 

Yet as disciples of Christ, we also see things from a vertical perspective. We know that as we serve others in our vocations and stations in life, we are serving the Lord. Realizing that we are nearer to our salvation than when we first believed, how much more should be ready to serve the Lord each morning? Realizing that we need to sustain our bodies with physical food, how much more should we nourish our souls with spiritual food? Why not start off each morning with God’s word and prayer?

 

St. Paul strengthens the image by stating, “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.” (Romans 13:12, ESV) Christ has delivered us from darkness and placed us into His kingdom of light. More than just waking up, we are to cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light. Now this is no easy task. This is a struggle and a battle. Thus, we are to dress for warfare. We are called to dress for action. Again, we can easily understand the imagery here of being properly dressed. 

 

Over Thanksgiving, we went target shooting at the ranch. We dressed for action. We wore our jackets because it was cold and we wore our ear protection because it was loud. However, we didn’t wear mittens, because mittens would have hindered our ability to pull the trigger. If we had put mittens on, we would have quickly taken them off in order to shoot at our targets.

 

In a similar way, we are called to dress for action spiritually for we are fighting a spiritual war. Therefore, we want to cast off anything that would hinder us in our battle. The Apostle lists such works of darkness as orgies, drunkenness, sexual immorality, sensuality, quarreling, and jealousy. If we were to dress ourselves in works of darkness, we would be making provisions for the flesh and gratifying its desires. In essence, we would be fortifying the strength of our spiritual enemies.

 

Paul then switches gears to a different image stating, “Let us walk properly as in the daytime…” (Romans 13:13, ESV)  As those who have been redeemed by Christ, we should not confess Him with our lips and then deny Him with our actions. As they say, “If you can talk the talk, then walk the walk.” You see, we are either walking toward our goal of salvation and eternal life or we are walking away from it. We are either walking by faith or by unbelief. We are either walking in the light as He is in the light or walking in the darkness as offspring of the devil. We are either walking in the Spirit or in the flesh. We are either walking in wisdom toward outsiders and making the best use of the time or we are walking in foolishness toward outsiders and wasting what little time we have. We are called to walk in love. We cannot do this in ourselves. It is God who is at work in us.

 

When I went target shooting over Thanksgiving, the pistol, the rifle, the bullets, and the ear protection were all provided. I don’t even own a gun. The weapons I needed for the task were given to me. The weapons we need for our spiritual task are given to us. Here the Apostle uses baptismal language about dressing and walking properly and concludes by saying, “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ…” (Romans 13:14, ESV) In his epistle to the Galatians, the Holy Spirit adds this promise to baptism declaring,"For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ." (Galatians 3:27, ESV) Our sufficiency is not in ourselves. Our sufficiency is in Christ who took upon the form of a servant to serve us by the greatest act of love which was giving Himself for us unto death so that we might become sons of God and heirs of the kingdom. We are weak, but He is strong. While sin clings to our flesh, faith clings to Christ who was put to death in the flesh. We have been crucified with Christ and raised to newness of life. Amen.