Sermons for the Month
Living Between Night and Dawn
DATE: November 28th, 2004
SERVICE: First Sunday In Advent
TEXT: Romans 13:11-14“To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN
Many of you are awake and moving early in the morning. I know that some of the youth are on school buses around 7 a.m. and no doubt many adults are on the road to work then. This may be a bit much to ask, but I'm wondering, how many of you pause to notice the moment when night is becoming day?
I'm up early too. My cat will not allow me to sleep past 7 a.m. But, I'm usually reading the newspaper and drinking coffee and am not focused on that particular moment in time. That's probably because I think of it simply as chronos time - chronological time, clock time, just another hour in 24 - rather than considering it to be kairos time, a special moment.
When Paul says in Romans 13, "…you know what time it is," the Greek word kairos is used for time, which means that he's speaking of a significant moment. If the Greek word chronos had been used it would simply have been any minute among minutes. Instead, it's a kairos moment … a new time, a new age … that began when Jesus was raised from the dead.
And, when he says, "the night is far gone, the day is near," Paul is imagining that moment between the early signs of dawn and the sunrise. That's the moment in which we Christians live. What do I mean by that? Well, it's as if our whole lives take place during the moment just before sunrise. There is light and hope, because Jesus has been raised from the dead, but the full light of day has not yet come. That will not happen until Jesus returns. So, we wait in this post-resurrection moment with our faces turned to the east, oriented not toward the night and darkness but toward the day, the light.
Since that's the situation, I decided it would be good to pay attention to that time when dawn begins but sunrise has not yet come. It is, after all, a daily reminder of the moment in history in which we spend our lives. Tuesday morning - at great personal sacrifice - I put down the newspaper and the coffee cup and went outside just as it was becoming light. I watched and I listened.
What did I notice? It was so silent. The orange of the leaves still on the trees and the various hues of evergreens were vivid against the pale gray of the sky. Drops of water barely clung to braches and a white-faced, black-nosed cat peaked out at me from behind a bush. It was as if the earth was holding its breath for moment, waiting for the sun to rise.
And I thought to myself, maybe - for God - what for us is thousands of years since Jesus was resurrected and ascended into heaven is but a brief moment, like the one that begins each day. God is holding his breath, waiting to see what we will do. And, one day, God will sigh and breathe again. Then the sky will brighten, light will infuse every dark place, as Jesus returns in glory. What a great and glorious day that will be for believers … it will be the ultimate kairos moment.
Until then we are caught in that moment between darkness and day. As we wait for God to breathe, we are to live as children of the light; we are to live prepared, that is live ready for the coming of the light.
Paul has some things to say about the "nuts and bolts" of living ready. It's important to remember that when Paul writes about how we live, his focus always is on our Christian witness, not on salvation. We are saved, he says again and again, by our faith in Jesus Christ. But our effectiveness is influenced by what we say and do. So, he challenges Christians to live honorably, as is appropriate to who and whose we are. Remember we are children of the day; we are not of the night and darkness. Our behavior impacts our Christian witness.
Paul generally focuses on two areas when addressing Christian life-styles, how we treat ourselves and how we interact with other people. That's the case in today's reading. So, Paul says, stay away from self-destructive activity; he mentions particularly abusing alcohol and sexual sins. Then he goes on to talk about negative interactions - quarreling and jealousy - which are right up there with the other two when it comes to what is unacceptable for children of the light.
Instead, he says, we are to put on Jesus. It's a great image, isn't it? Can you picture someone looking at you and seeing the Lord?
And the fact is that if he is the Lord of our lives, we will still be tempted but temptation will loose its power. We will make difficult decisions, but they are not made alone, because we can ask Jesus for guidance. We will continue to struggle in relationships; there may be that one person with whom we can't quite connect. But, when we honor Jesus in our relationships, he helps us avoid hurting others. We will value ourselves more, in the sense that we have no desire to destroy what God has made. And, we will offer sin fewer opportunities to invade our lives.
I like imagining that God is watching all this - holding his breathe and thinking - "Wow, now that they've been forgiven and are drawing on our power (meaning the Trinity) some of them are coming pretty close to living how I want them to live!"
That's good, that's our "job", so to speak. Our task is to live as children of the light, focused on proclaiming the good news of Jesus in what we do and say. We know that one day Jesus will return, but we do not know when or what exactly will happen when he comes. I personally think the details of his return are obscure in scripture because that's not supposed to be the focus of our attention. After all, we know that his followers have nothing to worry about; the day of his coming will be a great and glorious day for us. Instead, we are to live ready in that moment just before the full light of day arrives, prepared for the Jesus alarm to ring, with our backs turned on the darkness.
I'm going to get back to that Jesus alarm is just a moment, but before I do let me make another observation. No doubt some of you are beginning to decorate your homes, inside and out, for the Advent and Christmas seasons. I hope your decorations include an Advent Wreath, or an Advent calendar - one with a holy not secular focus - that you will use at home along with the devotion book that the children in Explorers' Club created.
Perhaps you are dragging out the lights and the electric candles, plugging them in, and checking to see what bulbs need to be replaced. After all you don't want that tree, or the fireplace mantle, or the windows to be left in darkness.
But, have you thought about why it's traditional to use light and candles at this time of year? Of course there's the practical side of needing more light as days become short, but in the 21st century if it was simply a matter of it not being bright enough we could flip a switch. For Christians those lights on the tree and mantle, those candles in the windows, mean something. Advent and Christmas is the time when we focus on the light which has been revealed to the world in the birth of Jesus, shattering the darkness. This is a time of spiritual enlightenment. So, we use light to remind us of the true light who can never be extinguished.
So, as you are putting up those decorations, here's an odd suggestion of a new one, something that no doubt will be a conversation piece in your home. Buy an old-fashioned looking alarm clock. It does not even have to keep time, since our concern is not with day-to-day hours and minutes. Decorate it. Put it on the mantle, or next to the nativity set or the Advent wreath. When your friends and family comment on such an oddity simply say, "Oh that? It's our Jesus alarm. It reminds us that we live in a special moment of time between his first coming and his return, a moment between the night and full day. We look at this clock and remember that one day the sky will become bright and the Jesus alarm will ring. Until then, we want to live as children of the light."
Well, maybe you wouldn't say all that, but you know what I mean.
And, the next time you are awake early, take notice of that moment when night is fading and dawn is coming; it reflects the time in which we live. Can you imagine God holding his breath, watching us, and waiting for just the right moment to breathe again? If you can, it might put your life, and the concerns of that day, into a larger perspective. Then look east, and become determined to live that day as a child of the light! AMEN