Hope--Advent 1 2022
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I hope you will join me over these next several weeks as we spend our daily devotional time with this little book called “Let Us Adore Him.” We have some of them available this morning for you to take with you. We are asking that you help to offset the cost of these books by paying $6/book. They are also available on Kindle, if you would rather read that way, for $8.49. Our weekly candle lighting readings and messages will parallel our readings.
I would like also to invite you to join us on Christmas Eve, for an evening of Candlelight, Carols, & Communion. That will be on Saturday evening, December 24th. Also, on Christmas morning, with Christmas falling on a Sunday, we will gather for worship at our usual time of worship, but we will not gather for Sunday School on that day.
Before we get to our celebration of Christmas, though, we are entering in this morning into the season of Advent—our annual celebration of the arrival of Jesus. During this season, not only do we celebrate that He came, we also celebrate that He is coming again, and that He enters in to our daily lives here and now. It’s going to be a great Advent season!
As we begin this season of Advent, let’s turn to the scripture for today.
SCRIPTURE Romans 13:11–14
11 And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.
12 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
13 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.
14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
INTRODUCTION
FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT
Advent is the season of the dawn. I never used to like early morning. There are morning people, and then there are night owls. My suspicion is that there are people from both camps here this morning. When I was in college, I traveled with a ministry group with a guy who not only was a morning person, but he grew up on a farm, and he was able to mimic the sounds of chickens. The first time I traveled with him, I awoke to the sound of a rooster crowing. I thought it was rather strange, because we were staying in a home that was in the city. It was not a rooster, it was my friend, Bob! I was not a morning person in college, but I have come to see the beauty in the early morning hours.
There is nothing quite like the beauty of the sunrise. I took this picture of a sunrise on the beach a couple of years ago. I took this picture from our deck just yesterday morning. There is no scene quite like the sunrise. As we enter in to the season of Advent, the light is coming, we can see glimpses of pink and orange and pale blues along the horizon, but the sun isn’t up yet. There are still long stretches of shadow and we don’t have to look very far to see that our world is still full of places of darkness. The noises of the day are barely audible as everything from animals to infants begin to wake. Another week has gone by, and we have once again been reminded of the evil that continues to exist in our world. Sometimes the news is overwhelming, and we may even wonder what difference has it really made that the Advent has come. Advent is the season of the dawn, where we live in the space between the darkness of a world without Christ and the light of a world with Christ; where we see the light coming, yet it hasn’t fully come.
While we observe this season of Christ’s birth, the coming of light, we are also reminded that we are still Advent people, living in the glow of the dawn while we await His return. Sometimes we think of Advent as simply a remembrance of when He came as a baby, but Advent is not just about looking back to His birth, it is also a look forward to His return, and a reminder that He enters in to our daily lives as we invite Him in. While Advent has come, we are still planted firmly in a world that is still full of darkness. We experience the pain of loss and we witness the devastation of evil, but as we wait, we no longer are people of the darkness, we are people of the light. Romans 13 reminds us, “The night is nearly over; the day is almost here.” We are called and reminded that we are Advent people—people of the dawn. We live in the reality that the kingdom of God is now, yet is still to come in its fulfillment.
On this first Sunday of Advent we have lit the candle of hope, a reminder of the hope we have in Christ coming in a stable so long ago, but also a reminder of the hope we have that Christ will someday come again. It’s a reminder that we are people of light in a world that is still so often covered in darkness. And we are called to live, to love, to serve, to celebrate, and even to mourn, and to grieve—all in the light of hope. The light has come, and the light is coming.
BODY
1) Understanding the present time is an important statement in Romans 13.
a) It communicates to the early church that there is an understanding of how the current world is still full of suffering, death, and pain.
i) When Jesus came, these things weren’t eradicated. We know that all too well, don’t we?
ii) Suffering and sin still existed in the world, and the early church was familiar with them.
iii) Romans is a letter to the early church in Rome, the home of the Colosseum, where all kinds of gruesome torture occurred among the early church— so they were well acquainted with the pain and suffering of the present time. They were, understandably, wondering what difference the Advent really has made.
b) This phrase “the present time” could easily be used to describe what we are experiencing in our time as well.
i) We often talk about difficult times or seasons in our lives.
We all have experienced the loss of loved ones, and as we enter in to Advent, the memories are everywhere and sometimes even overwhelming. Since holidays are often times when we gather with family, the pain of loss is magnified when we gather, but our loved one is missing.
The COVID season has been particularly difficult. The reality of suffering, pain, and grief have been very evident for everybody.
ii) Just these past few weeks, while we all were getting ready to celebrate Thanksgiving and while we were awaiting the arrival of Advent, we have seen some horrific things happen, and lives were lost - college students in Idaho, killed in their sleep - people in a club in Colorado, and workers in a WalMart in Virginia, shot when they least expected it - You don’t have to look very far to see that suffering and sin still exist in our world today.
c) Paul is highlighting that “this present time” is different for the people of Christ.
i) While the church is well acquainted with the sin and suffering of the world, they are also fully aware of the power of the Holy Spirit and the resurrection of Christ in their lives.
ii) The present age is a thin veil dividing a world of suffering and sin from the glory that is to come. The early church lived in the midst of this thin veil, within the dawn of the coming reign of Christ.
iii) The present time is important for us as well. Although a couple thousand years and cultural differences divide us, we are still a church well acquainted with the sin and suffering of the world and equally and at the same time we are aware of the power of the Holy Spirit and the resurrection of Christ in our own lives and community of faith. We are still living in the midst of this thin veil, the dawn of the coming reign of Christ.
Because of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit,
2) Those who follow Christ already live as though Christ has returned.
a) Paul uses the image of waking up, which is a term used throughout the New Testament, often to point to those following Christ (they are asleep if they are not following), or to the idea of resurrection.
i) Paul is using a familiar image to remind the church they are awake in Christ. This is something they already know. It is also a reminder of their baptism - Paul has previously in this letter underscored the imagery of baptism, back in chapter 6, beginning at verse 3, he wrote: “Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”
b) In Christ, God invaded the old age to bring about the new age.
i) The people of Christ, then, are living in the new age while awaiting Christ’s return. We live as people of light.
c) In cultures where people have to deal with the heat of the day, the dawn is an important and very busy time of the day. That is especially true when you can’t escape from the heat of the day by going in to the air conditioning. Dawn is filled with activity when the heat is coming, and so people are scurrying, they are hard at work because much needs to be done. That is true of the church today as well - there is much to be done before it is too late.
3) The people of the light live as people of the light.
a) Darkness, especially in the context of this passage, was seen as a time when anything was permissible—yet the church is called to live as people of light.
i) Paul is not arguing that we somehow earn our salvation by doing good works. He is simply stating that those who live in the light—who follow Jesus—live differently.
ii) Those who live in the light do not participate in the acts of the night (where everything is permissible). People of the light are going to live differently than those on whom the light has not dawned.
b) Paul lists several acts that are associated with the darkness. These are things that are associated with the darkness of the night, and not with those who live in the light of daylight. We are to live differently than those that are people of the darkness.
i) The terms “carousing” and “drunkenness” are plural in the Greek; they refer to the banquets honoring Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, who is always associated with drunkenness and wild parties. As people of the light, we are not to live like this.
ii) “Sexual immorality” is also plural in Greek. It means a variety of different excesses that were practiced in Rome, and nothing really has changed when it comes to the darkness of our world and sexual immorality. We live in an era where there is mass confusion in this area of life. Confusion is one of the tools of the enemy of our souls to lead people astray. As people of the light, we are not to let the world define how we view sexual immorality.
iii) “Debauchery” is a word we don’t use very often, but implies an over indulgence in the seedy side of life.
iv) “Dissension” and “jealousy” are added to this list because Paul sees that these are things that seem to run rampant even in the church, among people of light sometimes, but Paul says, dissension and jealousy are not meant to be part of the life of people of light.
c) These acts are things that go on in the darkness, and they are used to contrast how those who live in the light are to act.
i) Those who have been baptized, those who follow Christ, have been transformed. They are clothed not in the garments of this world but in the Lord Jesus Christ. They are not focused on satisfying urges but on love, grace, truth, hope—the things of Christ.
d) Essentially, the people of Christ live as though the light already rules the world.
i) They live as though Christ has returned and made things right. They are a glimpse of the kingdom to come, already in the present world.
ii) This is not a call only for the early church of Rome but for us as well.
iii) We are people of the dawn. We are people of Advent. We live in hope, even while we still see the shadows of darkness. We live as people of the light.
CONCLUSION
Advent is the season of the dawn. Christ came, and our lives are radically transformed because of it. We are no longer people of darkness; we no longer behave as people of the night, we are people of the day. We cast off the ways of the world to live as people of the light. The kingdom of God hasn’t fully come, all things aren’t made right yet, and to deny the reality of suffering and sin in our world would be a heartbreaking mistake. But for those who live the reality of suffering, we are to be a glimpse of the world to come. Even now, in the rubble of decay, in the heartbreak of sin, we are to be a glimpse of the light. We are a community of hope, of grace, of goodness, of righteousness, and of love.
We are to live as people who exist in a different kingdom that is actively breaking into our world, just like the morning breaks into the night. So we light a candle of hope today. May it be a reminder to us that we are people of the light and that we carry the hope that Christ has come and that Christ will come again. Let’s live as people of the dawn.
Prayer: As we leave this place, Father, let us go as people of the dawn. Help us to go out to a world that is darkened by sin and hopelessness, taking the light of Jesus in to the dark places. Please help us God, to take the hope of Jesus into our family gatherings and into every place where we interact with others.