Romans 13 11-14 2004 CPR
Advent 1
Romans 13:11-14
November 28, 2004
Getting Ready - Christ Is Near! Christ Is Here!
Visuals: various items such as potholder, pajamas, trowel or other small garden tool, fork, baby clothes and baby (all inside a paper bag).
Good morning, boys and girls of all ages! Today I brought a bag with some important items. In fact, you can tell just by looking at these things what I’m getting ready to do. Let’s see what good guessers you are. Take out items, one at a time. Have children identify each, telling what you’re getting ready to do: cook, sleep, dig in garden, eat, go to church or out to dinner. You did very well! All of these items help us get ready for something, don’t they?
This morning in church we’re starting to get ready for something too, and there are things here up in front that can help us. If you look around closely, you might notice some things that are different from last Sunday. Anybody see anything different? Children might mention parament colors or other decor, but especially the Advent wreath. Very good! Those are all special beginning today. Any idea what they’re helping us get ready for? Help as needed. Right. In just four weeks we will celebrate Jesus’ birthday! This is the season we call Advent. Advent means “coming,” and we’re getting ready for Jesus’ coming to earth—the first time long ago as a baby.
Why do we want to get ready for Jesus’ coming? Responses. Jesus came first as a baby, but one of these days he’s going to come again. That’ll be the end of the world, and it’s very important we be ready for that. When Jesus comes back, everyone who is ready he’ll take to heaven, but everyone who’s not will be lost forever in hell. We want to be ready, don’t we!
You know, Jesus made us ready. Jesus’ coming the first time made us ready. He was born at Christmas so he could grow up, die on the cross, and rise from the grave to take away our sin. Being ready for Jesus to come back really means having our sins taken away, and he did that! We are ready!
Sermon
Introduction: When you embark on a journey, you have to prepare and get ready. You usually know where you’re going and how to get there. Usually we prepare by putting on the right kind of clothes. If you were going to the beach you would want to put on a bathing suit. If you were going to go hunting on a cold November day you would want to dress warm. If not, you could be in big trouble. Today we begin a journey, and we know where we are going and how to get there. We want to make sure we have the right kind of clothing. We are going to Jerusalem, and we are traveling there in Christ. We know that because we have clothed ourselves with Christ. He has gone before us on the road to Jerusalem, so he has shown us the way. We followed him in our Baptism to his cross, rested with him in the tomb, and rose with him to a life that never ends. As we begin another year of God’s grace, we know our celebration of Christ’s Bethlehem is only a stop on our way to our destination in Jerusalem, on our way to a cross and empty tomb.
Yes, we are going on that journey because we are in Christ. And since today begins a new church year, begins that journey for us. Now, Advent, Is the Time to Clothe Ourselves with Christ, the time that proclaims to the world that Jesus was born to die.
Because Advent proclaims that Christ is near (v 11). One of our Advent hymns echoes these words of St. Paul in our text: “Hark! A thrilling voice is sounding! ‘Christ is near,’ we hear it say” (LW 18:1). Each of the last three Sundays has addressed Christ’s coming, emphasizing that the time is near. Christ’s coming at the end of the world is always to be seen as soon, for it is never farther away for an individual soul than the moment of death. We now that death can occur for any one of us in the very next moment. The last Sundays of the church year reminded us that we must be ready at any time for Christ’s coming in judgment.
On this First Sunday of Advent, however, we observe Christ’s coming differently: “Our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed” (v 11). Christ is near to save us! His first coming, not in glory but in humility, secured our salvation. His being born to die prepared us for his glorious second coming. We have, of course, been saved since we first believed, but here Paul is speaking of Christ’s return to gather his believers into the eternal joy of heaven. That salvation is nearer for us every day! The first-century church lived in daily anticipation, almost a fever-pitch eagerness, of Christ’s return—to the extent that Paul even had to calm them down and reassure them a bit (2 Thess 2:1–3). Perhaps we don’t live with this same eagerness for Christ’s return. But Paul wishes us to share the same excitement as the early church. Here is reason to “clothe ourselves with Christ”: we are preparing for an eternal celebration! Christ is near to save us! We want to celebrate with our Lord wearing our best! It is by being clothed with Christ that we are able to look forward to his return as salvation rather than judgment. Being clothed with Christ is the fitting—the only fitting—attire for this great event.
Nice illustration, being “clothed with Christ,” the sort of language Paul likes to use. But what does it mean? What does it look like being “clothed with Christ”? Paul explains by telling us what we wouldn’t want Christ to see us wearing.
Christ can see whatever it is we are wearing. None of us could endorse the theology of the song “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.” There’s that terrible sense of works-righteousness—“He knows if you’ve been bad or good, So be good for goodness sakes! Oh, you better watch out!” Especially troubling, perhaps, is that image of Santa seeing you when you’re sleeping, knowing when you’re awake. Scary! Do we forget that the one who really came at Christmas does see everything we do, does know everything we think?
We wouldn’t want Christ to see us clothed in some of the rags we wear (vv 12–13).
So many things we “wear” are things we do as if cloaked in darkness, things we’d never want anyone to see, certainly not Christ. Do we use his name “Jesus Christ!” as if he really weren’t right here in the room to answer, to include in the conversation? Do we act in the backseat of a car on dates in a way we wouldn’t if Jesus were in the front seat? Do we go behind a friend’s back with gossip or undercut him at work as we never would if Jesus were back there watching? Our coming Savior does see all our works as in broad daylight. Paul knows we don’t wish to be seen that way.
We desire to clothe ourselves with Christ because we want him to see us as he is. We desire to behave decently as in the day. To honor Christ in word and deed, to drink deeply of his Spirit in the Holy Scriptures and at his Table. To honor him with our bodies and take him wherever we go. To walk in peace with all those around us, as he himself is holding our hands. Christ is all of this . . . perfectly. The Holy One of God, the name that is above every name, the Word that was always loving, saving, never flippant or hurtful. The Holy One who laid down his body, gave his blood to be shed, for our eternal good, never for his own pleasure. The Prince of Peace who reconciled God to man and man to each other by his sacrifice on the cross. That’s what it looks like being clothed with Christ. Now, Advent, is the time to clothe ourselves with Christ, because Advent proclaims that Christ is in you (v 14).
What Paul exhorts us to do is not just an order—and it’s not just in the future. It’s not just something we ought to do—but keep failing to do. It’s not even something we have to wait for until Christ finally does come back on the Last Day.
In Galatians, Paul reminds us that “all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (3:27). That has happened; it’s a done deal. Everything that Jesus accomplished by his first coming, his perfect life, sacrificial death, glorious resurrection, has been given to you in your Baptism. You are clothed with Christ by your Baptism. You are righteous, beautifully dressed for the eternal celebration. You are people of light performing deeds of light. By your Baptism, Christ is in you—and he is seen in you. Paul’s Advent wake-up call, then, is simply to live as the people we are, to walk where we are destined to go.
Conclusion: And so the journey to Jerusalem begins. Christ is near to us! He is here with us because we are clothed with him and you sit at his Table. The light of Christ has dawned! Listen to that thrilling voice, calling you to cast off the works of darkness and clothe yourselves with light.