Listening to Romans
13:11-14
On
this first Sunday of the new liturgical calendar, allow me to share with you
that Paul when writing to Roman church in Romans 13:11-15 appeals in urgency to
the early Christians to wake up and put on the Lord Jesus Christ, which comes to
us with even more urgency with a challenge for our times. We have heard of
advent calendars, advent candles, advent wreaths, advent decorations etc., allow
me to introduce you to an Advent Alarm, which has begun its ringing, for Advent
raises an alarm for us to wake up from sleep, lay aside the works of the empire
and to put on Lord Jesus Christ. During this season of advent, a time of
waiting, we are called to listen to the alarm of justice and act on it. Let
people that have ears will listen to this alarm and respond to the urgency.
1.
Advent Raises an Alarm to Recognise the Momentous Time:
Paul
in verse 11, calls on the Church ‘to know what time it is’, for the time is
ripe and the Kingdom of God is at hand. Advent raises an alarm to recognise
this moment in time, as the time appointed by God to act and work. It is
interesting to note that the word for ‘time’ used in Greek is ‘kairos’ rather than ‘chronos’. It is not the ‘chronological
time,’ that Paul is talking about here, rather it is the ‘appointed time’, a
time where God intervenes into our times at our end, a time for action, a time
for introspection, and a time for an audit of truth. Advent therefore raises an
alarm to recognise that God’s intervening time, the times at our end where the
signs of our times calls us to wake up from our sleep and act for justice and
liberation. Its time for us to install ‘Advent Alarm’ than feeling cool with
our ‘Advent Calendar.’ Hear O people of God, the alarm is ringing. Let people
that have ears listen to this alarm and respond to the urgency!!!
2.
Advent Raises an Alarm to Reaffirm in the Nearness of
Salvation:
In
verse 11b, we see Paul further exhorts that “for the salvation is nearer to us
now than when we became believers.” The distance and affinity to salvation
becomes closer to people of God in their journey of faith, in relation to their
initiation into the faith. Salvation is a journeying gift that comes closer and
nearer to those that wake up to stand firm in their faith. Salvation oscillates
between believing and discipling, and the call today is that salvation gets
closer in our true discipleship to Christ. Is salvation nearer to us than
before? Most times we are comfortable in singing ‘nearer my God to thee…’ but
the advent alarm is to reaffirm to pronounce that ‘nearer am I to your
salvation of God.’ If salvation is nearer to us, then we are invited to act
along with God at this appointed time in transforming our lives and our world.
Advent raises an alarm to reaffirm in the nearness of salvation. Hear O people
of God, the alarm is ringing. Let people that have ears listen to this alarm
and respond to the urgency!!!
3.
Advent Raises an Alarm to Reject the Works of Empire:
In
verse 12, Paul further appeals ‘the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us
then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armour of light.’ In the
context of the Roman empire, Paul explains in 13 verse the works of darkness as
revelling, drunkenness, debauchery, licentiousness, quarrelling and jealousy,
which have been the order of the day, for those in power indulged in such acts
and exploited the vulnerable colonized communities. In contrast to these acts
of the empire, Paul urges the Christians to lay aside the ‘pyjamas’ of darkness
and put on the ‘armour of light’, a vestment for the day, a vestment of the
Kingdom of God, which primarily exposes those ungodly deeds, dispels darkness,
and liberate people and communities with and towards light. Advent therefore
raises an alarm to reject the works of our neo-empire of our times, which
include exploitation, oppression, discrimination and exclusion and calls us to
put on the ‘armour of light.’ Hear O people of God, the alarm is ringing. Let
people that have ears listen to this alarm and respond to the urgency!!!
4.
Advent Raises an Alarm to Re-Cover ourselves with Lord
Jesus Christ:
In
verse 14, Paul finally appeals in all urgency to put on Lord Jesus Christ,
making no provisions to gratify the desires of flesh. In contrast to the Roman
dress which is muddled with power, authority and exploitation, Paul urges the
early Church to put on Lord Jesus Christ, who is stained in all dust and dirt
to identify with those on the margins. ‘Putting on Lord Jesus Christ’ is an act
of defiance to the colonial rules of ‘putting on Cesar’, the Lord of the
colonial powers. Advent primarily raises an alarm to affirm in the Lordship of
Jesus Christ in opposition to the Lordship of the empire. Putting on Lord Jesus
Christ calls us towards defiance to the powers, and to identifying with the
people on the margins. Those in power are called to pitch their tents among the
vulnerable communities, for it among them God works and Kingdom of God happens.
Advent raises an alarm to de-cover ourselves from the stinking chores of power
and re-cover ourselves by putting on Lord Jesus Christ. Hear O people of God,
the alarm is ringing. Let people that have ears listen to this alarm and
respond to the urgency!!!
St. Augustine in the 4th century found this passage from Romans, and heard to the alarm from the text and responded to put on Jesus Christ in his life, and eventually turned to become great time theologians of all times.
The
relevance of Advent therefore is to swiftly act to the alarm that is ringing.
The context of our times are so grim, for there has been a growing intolerance
towards the other, increasing hatred against the stranger, increasing rise of
consumerism where days like ‘black Friday’ are gaining their popularity forcing
many people to invest on spending, increasing unaccountability of leadership in
Church & society, an increasing refugee crisis, an increasing changes on
our climate and planet, increasing poverty, increasing homelessness etc. and
there is a sense of more urgency than ever to wake up to face and address the
realities of our times. Paul’s words “The night is far gone and the day is
near,” therefore conveys to us that this season of Advent raises an alarm to
the church and to each of us as disciples of Christ to wake us up from deep
slumber, to know the God’s momentous time, lay aside the works of empire and to
put on Lord Jesus Christ onto our lives. Let us stop pretending to sleep and
wake up with our eyes and hearts wide open to the ongoing acts of injustice and
evil around us to raise an alarm for change, so that we can collectively
partake and actively participate in transforming our world. Advent raises a
justice alarm, hear O people of God, the alarm is ringing to go and act swiftly!!!
Wishing you all a very meaningful season of Advent.
Rajbharat
Patta,
27th
November 2016
(Sermon preached at St. Peter’s Church
and Chaplaincy, Manchester on the first Sunday of Advent.)
3 comments:
Interesting read, enjoyable as well.
It gives me a new insight to provoke my thought to re-read Advent, the Coming of the Lord. Thank you so much Patta for re-inventing and re-routing the concept and context.
Enjoyable and interesting article, keep up the work!
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