Text: Romans 13:11-14
Date: November 27, 2022
Event: The First Sunday in Advent, Year A
Romans 13:11-14 (EHV)
And do this since you understand the present time. It is already the hour for you to wake up from sleep, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12The night is almost over, and the day is drawing near. So let us put away the deeds of darkness and put on the weapons of light. 13Let us walk decently as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual sin and wild living, not in strife and jealousy. 14Instead, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not give any thought to satisfying the desires of your sinful flesh.
Prepare for Advent
The time of year calls for a lot of preparation. A great deal of work likely went into getting your Thanksgiving meals ready. Maybe the Christmas decorations have gone up at your house already or you’ll be doing that shortly. We’ll be decorating the sanctuary next weekend. All sorts of plans get laid for the start of a new calendar year. Prep, prep, prep!
And that helps us this morning because that’s really what the start of a new church year is all about as well. Advent is a season of preparation; we even have “Prepare” emblazoned on one of the two banners here in the sanctuary. We are preparing for Jesus’ advent, his arrival. And during this season, our preparation focus is two-fold: we are preparing to celebrate his first advent at Christmas, but we’re also keeping our end times focus, looking forward to his second advent at the end of the world.
Our focus for the last Sunday of the church year last weekend was that of Christ the King. It was a triumphant and celebratory reminder that Jesus reigns and rules all things for us. Today’s focus to start a new church year is a slightly more somber—a reminder that we have things to do to get ready for our King’s return.
In our Gospel, Jesus reminded us that the end is certainly coming, but when it’s coming is anyone’s guess: “The Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not expect him” (Matthew 24:44). Unlike Thanksgiving, or Christmas, or the New Year, we don’t have a date or time. We can’t schedule our life around it. We don’t have a traditional deadline. As such, because Jesus may return at any moment—even before this sermon is over (but it’s not that long, don’t worry!)—we need to find a way to be in a state of readiness. We need to be prepared. And that’s what the apostle Paul helps us with as he writes to the Romans Christians about this very topic.
Ahead of our Second Reading, Paul brought two encouragements to the Roman Christians in chapter 13 of his letter: submit to the governing authorities as God’s representatives and that Christians love one another, echoing Jesus’ command to his disciples on the night he was betrayed. And it’s with that context that our reading begins, “And do this since you understand the present time.”
We might often find ourselves looking at society around us and thinking, “Wow, the end must be near. Look at all of these ridiculous and scary things that are happening.” It is, perhaps, sobering to remember that Christians living in the first century AD would have thought the same thing. They saw their present time and thought, “Well, the end must be near.” And Paul stokes that fire with scriptural urgency: It is already the hour for you to wake up from sleep, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.
On the one hand, since things seem to be crumbling down around us; we can rightly see the end of all things drawing near. On the other hand, because they’ve always looked like this, for our entire lives and even for the two millennia since Jesus walked the earth during his ministry, we can also get lulled into a sense of apathy and contentedness that this is always that way it will be and that nothing will ever change. This leads to the philosophy that says we should eat, drink and be merry because tomorrow we die, that nothing matters but pleasure and happiness now. If that is our approach, we will be caught completely unaware when Jesus returns, which means we will not be ready, which will end disastrously for us. So, since we don’t want that to happen, we want to prepare for Jesus’ return. Paul outlines for us how to do that.
The night is almost over, and the day is drawing near. So let us put away the deeds of darkness and put on the weapons of light. Let us walk decently as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual sin and wild living, not in strife and jealousy. A theme that we will see in Paul’s encouragement is that sin leads to not being prepared, while a life of good works shows that we are prepared. But that’s not because of the deeds themselves, but what they reflect about our hearts. Embracing sin means that we’ve abandoned our Savior. If we love sin, we hate God, because the two are diametrically opposed. And since we don’t want to have anything to do with hating God, Paul tells us to “put away the deeds of darkness.”
As you scan through your thoughts, words, and actions from the last week, where are there “deeds of darkness” that you are clinging to? In what places in your heart do you harbor sin? Where are your sins not just a point of weakness but a point of pride, something that you cherish? Are they in that list that Paul gives as examples, or are they different? Our Advent preparation, the preparing for the arrival of our King and Judge, requires us to purge that love of sin from our hearts.
But Advent preparation is not simply about looking good or even being well-behaved. Because on our own, we can’t do that at all. We can’t put away the sin that permeates every aspect of our heart and mind. We actually need Jesus to get us ready for his own arrival. Instead, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not give any thought to satisfying the desires of your sinful flesh.
Jesus’ first advent was the beginning of his work to be our Savior. Because these deeds of darkness clung to us so hard and fast, we needed rescue. No amount of bleach could get these insidious stains our. So Jesus’ arrival on this earth was to bring us the cleansing that we needed.
By the faith he’s given to us, then, we are no longer clothed in the filthy rags of sins, but in the perfect robes of his love and forgiveness. Perhaps Paul’s words make us think of when the apostle John saw the huge crowd of believers in heaven in his vision in Revelation. They were all around God’s throne wearing gleaming-white robes, and of them we are told: These are the ones who are coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Because of this they are in front of the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in his temple. He who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them (Revelation 7:14-15).
Notice how the people didn’t bring the soap—they washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb, in Jesus’ blood. And in what Paul says in Romans, we are not clothing ourselves with our best efforts and strength, but we are clothed with the Lord Jesus Christ. You no longer stand clothed in the sinful deeds of darkness, but clothed in the perfection of your Savior who has taken every sin away.
Advent preparation is not really about getting yourself ready—it’s about acknowledging that God is the one who prepares you. We spend time this season in repentance, with sorrow over sin and trusting in our Savior’s forgiveness. We spend time seeking to amend our ways in preparation for Jesus’ return. But we do so not because we’re worried that we’ll get in trouble if we don’t. Our motivation is still—as always—thanksgiving for what God has done for us.
So we spend time with our Savior. We cherish his Word in our lives and perhaps seek out extra time in the Word that we hadn’t before. In each mailbox in the back of church is a Advent devotional booklet from Martin Luther College that can be used in service of our Advent preparations. In each box there’s also a new issues of the Meditations quarterly devotional booklet. These can supplement our weekly Bible classes and worship so that our time in God’s Word blossoms and increases.
And here’s the amazing thing: the more we are in God’s Word, the more we are studying and enjoying what God has done for us, the more the love of sin that we have by nature starts to fall away. Slowly, God strengthens me to put away those deeds of darkness. Because the more I value God’s love, the stronger he makes my faith through Word and Sacrament, the more repulsive sin at large becomes to me. Not that any of us will ever be perfect, but God will strengthen us to say no to temptation more often and be more ready to reject Satan’s ploys.
The more I’m in God’s Word, the more prepared I am for my Savior’s return. Not because I have to be good enough for him, but because God’s Word reminds me over and over again that I am perfect because Jesus has taken all of my sins away. God’s wrath has been satisfied in Jesus’ death and that triumph is proven by his resurrection. That comfort means that while I don’t know when he is coming, I know that when he does come it will be a good thing, not a scary thing. I won’t be facing my angry Judge; I’ll be meeting my Savior who loved me enough to die for me.
In that spirit, now and always, let’s keep getting ready. Advent allows us a joyous focus on preparation for eternity, so let’s prepare together! E’en so, Lord Jesus, quickly come! Amen.
