Advent Raises an Alarm: Wake Up, Lay Aside & Put on

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,

27^th November 2016

(Sermon preached at St. Peter’s Church and Chaplaincy, Manchester on the first Sunday of Advent.) 

‘For Your Tomorrow We Gave Our Today’: Remembrance Day

Last year when I was invited to preach on Remembrance Day at our University Quadrant addressing the young cadets of our University, it wasn’t a comfortable experience to prepare a sermon for such an occasion like this. My colleagues mentioned to me that this is a Christian tradition in Britain, and it does have a pastoral practice of preaching on such occasions remembering those died in the war. In my cross-cultural ministerial engagements, here in UK this was one of the difficult tasks for me to reflect on Remembrance Day. As a pastoral calling in this context, pinning a poppy on to my stole, I (ad)ventured in making this reflection, from an Indian subaltern perspective.

 In my own personal reflection, I could only think and remember those Dalit brothers and sisters who are killed brutally in the name of caste by the dominant groups, for whom we never have any Remembrance days. Therefore, Remembrance Day for me cannot go without remembering several Dalits who sacrificed their lives at the altar of the inhuman system of caste. On this day, I remember those innocent people in Kashmir & North East India who are killed by the forces of State using AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Protection Act), I remember several Palestinians who are killed by the occupying forces, and I bring to my memory all those innocent people who are killed across the globe in the name of religion, gender, region, class etc.

Personally, I must but remember two people in my family on this Remembrance Day. One is my paternal great grandfather Mr. Patta Jogiah, of whom our family tradition say that he died in a war in Rangoon. The other was my maternal grandfather Mr. Palaparthi Devaraju, who served the Royal Indian Navy during the early years of his life.  

As we gather here on this Remembrance Day, we are called to revisit our memory, to re-member several people who lost their lives at a war, to resist the logic of war, to remember the families, widows & children left behind and to renew our commitment for global peace.

Coming from India and reflecting on war memorials, I recollect my visit to the War Memorial cemetery in Kohima, in the north-eastern State of Nagaland. It was a commemorative memorial in the memory of soldiers died in Second World War. One epitaph and the words inscribed on it caught my attention, and it was written, “When you go home, tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow, we gave our today.” This inscription made me to think, that several Indian soldiers who died along with many others gave their “todays” for someone else’s “yesterdays.” They left behind widows and orphans, but history too has orphaned them, with very little evidence & record of their lives.

On this Remembrance Day, we are called to remember several unsung heroes and sheroes of wars, whose lives were lost, whose histories were lost and whose memories are also lost. It was said that approximately 1.3 million Indian soldiers served in World War I, not representing their country or their geography, but risking their lives and ultimately paying their lives. Over 74,000 Indian soldiers lost their lives, fighting on a distant foreign land for a foreign cause & countries. Those Indian soldiers included Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, people of faith and no faith and had to sacrifice their lives.

On this day, may we re-member those & several other people, whose names, lives & histories have been erased & forgotten and whose lives & their deaths were unrecognized, unnoticed and undocumented. It is time to dis-member their lives, histories & local narratives of resilience as war soldiers, sepoys, jawans & several others.

The gospel of Jesus Christ and the values of Kingdom of God is built on small mustard seeds; whose germination was unwarranted for, yet when bloomed could nest several birds. Small narratives and little stories, do have such scope to inspire many people. Jesus’ earthly life had to end with an unjust trial, political crucifix and a premature death at the age of thirty-three, at the hands of cruel Roman Empire. This reminds us to re-member several young people who at the age of 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 etc. lost their lives prematurely at a war for the sake of their people and nations. The memory of Jesus death was de-membered with his new life experience in resurrection, which instills a new hope to remembrance. The memory of Jesus’ premature death and his resurrection that followed it, has sustained the Christian communities of all generations that kept to live lives in a hope. It is a memory of grief, a memory of empathy, a memory of consolation, a memory of hope, so it is with the memory of all those died at war.

On this day, we are called to join in the vision and prophecy of Micah as he says,

“God shall judge between many peoples,

    and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away;they shall beat their swords into plowshares,    and their spears into pruning hooks;nation shall not lift up sword against nation,    neither shall they learn war any more” Micah 4:3 

When the great British poet Wilfred Owen was to return to the front to give his life in the futile first World War, he recited Indian Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s parting words to his mother as his last good bye. When he was so tragically & pointlessly killed, Owen’s mother found Tagore’s poem copied out in her son’s hand in his diary:

When I go from hence

let this be my parting word,

that what I have seen is unsurpassable.

I have tasted of the hidden honey of this

lotus, that expands on the ocean of light,

and thus am I blessed

-let this be my parting word.

In this play house of infinite forms

I have had my play

and here have I caught sight of him that is formless.

My whole body and my limbs

have thrilled with his touch who is beyond touch;

And if the end comes here, let it come

-let this be my parting word.

Let our memories not fail us and let us re-invoke that “for your tomorrow we gave our today.”

Rajbharat Patta,

11^th November 2016