Awake! Salvation Is Near

Romans 13:11-14

The letter to Christians in Rome, known to us as Romans, is the Apostle Paul’s finest, most complete and most intellectual explanation of the essentials of the Christian Faith. Paul writes this letter to Christians living in the power center of the world, so he wants to declare the Good News of Jesus with power, passion and penetrating insight. He wants to penetrate, break through, the ignorance that passes for wisdom in Rome and gain a hearing for a Jewish Carpenter from the farthest reaches of the empire.

In the thirteenth chapter of of this letter to the Christians in Rome, Paul summarizes his moral teaching with these words that come straight from Jesus:

“Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor, therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law.” (Romans 13:10)

Then Paul continues”

“Besides this...”

In addition to this, this summary of the law of love for neighbor
On top of this great principle of morality

“Besides this...”

Paul is about to tell them something important that they need to remember in order to be fully empowered to live for Jesus. What will follow is a reminder, an admonition, a theological insight, today we would also call it a depth psychological insight, that is as critical for the Christians in Rome to hear as the law of love, if they are to live for Jesus. Listen to this instruction, Romans 13: 11-14:

READ TEXT:

Besides the law of love for neighbor, which each Christian knows full well, Paul reminds them of something else that they each already know but which they are having a hard time remembering.

They are having a hard time remembering...

...and you would too if you were living under the daily threat of persecution
...if you were living in terror of Roman power
...if your worship services were being held in underground catacombs
...if you were but a small band of believers hoping to avoid detection and martyrdom

They are having a hard time remembering that God is close and that their salvation is near. They are struggling not to give into the darkness of their underground habitats. They are barely holding on to hope. They have been praying for deliverance for SO LONG, without an answer.

I have heard just a few stories about Christians hiding out in Afghanistan. But try to imagine it–a small band of believers trying to survive in Kabal or Kandahar, just trying to hold out and stay alive–forget about worship and evangelism and outreach and Bible Study and fellowship–they just want to stay alive, in the centers of Taliban domination and oppression. They are a tiny enclave of Believers in the Way of Jesus trying, in the midst of terror and oppressive darkness, to remember that God is with them. In grave fear and trembling one of this despairing band of Christians, hidden away in the darkness of a cave outside Kabal, takes out the scriptures and reads, whispers:

“Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is the moment for you to wake up from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is gone. The day is near.”

They, the Afghan Christians of the 21st Century, just like the Roman Christians of the First Century, just like the disciples of Jesus immediately after His crucifixion, just like Christians from every century, and Christians today who have nearly given up on God–They say, “God cannot possibly lead us out of our darkness into the light. The night will never end around here,” they say. Yet, deep within, where faith sustains a barely flickering hope even in the darkest time, these Christians all know–they can be reminded, Paul can remind them:

“You know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake up from sleep.”

Wake up!
Get up!
Get going!
Rub the sleep out of your eyes!
Arise!
Walk!

Now!
Before it is too late!
For your salvation is nearer now than when you first believed.

So don’t give up!
For heaven’s sake, don’t give up now!
The night is almost done.
The day is almost come.
Don’t give up now, for heaven’s sake.
Awake!

I wonder if any of you remember a sermon I preached here a couple of years ago. The title of that sermon was a Greek word, the same word used by Paul in Romans 13:11, translated as “wake from sleep.” The Greek word is “egiero.”

It is found hundreds of times in the New Testament and is the primary image used by Jesus to call people to new life, to transformation, to rebirth. Variously, the Greek word “egiero” is translated as:

Wake up
Get up
Arise
Walk

Jesus cries out again and again.

To the crippled man–Get up (egiero) take your bed and walk
To Lazarus dead in his tomb–Come out, get up, get going

Paul quotes in Ephesians the words spoken by the church as a new believer comes out of the waters of Baptism:

“Wake up sleeper (egiero), rise from death, and Christ will shine on you.”

Not only is it time to wake up, but the Roman Christians, despite their despair, KNOW that it is time to wake up. Deep within, though their knowledge may be like only the tiniest ember of hope, these Christians know that God can lead them out of darkness into light. And that is exactly what Paul is counting on, that deep within–even if barely detectable--their commitment to Jesus is strong enough to empower them to follow God out of the darkness into the light.

Out of the darkness? What does it mean to be in the darkness?

How many of you have read the popular Christian novels, This Present Darkness, and, Piercing the Darkness, by Frank Peretti? Millions of Christians have read these books, not including me. In the same way that I don’t go to horror movies, I kind of figure that I get to see enough of the darkness in real life without having to read a fictional account of the battle between good and evil. On the other hand, Peretti’s vivid story telling does convince some people of just how terribly real the darkness is. Maybe they are then awakened to how desperately important it is for them to leave the darkness behind and with every last ounce of strength seek to live in the light.

Some of my most vivid images of the utter bleakness and desolate horror of the darkness come from reading, many times as a young man, JRR Tolkien’s, Lord of the Rings. Frodo, a character of the highest morality and courage, battles a darkness so absolute that even the greatest heroes and powers of Middle Earth cannot resist its destructive pull. This darkness destroys lives. It drags people down into a sewer of stench and a horrifying ugliness. This darkness destroys body, mind and spirit. In the end, even Frodo’s goodness and his alliance with all manner of faithful friends and glorious powers is not enough. How then is the darkness to be defeated? To find out the answer in Tolkien’s universe, you will have to read the books or see the movies.

However, in God’s universe, how is the darkness to be defeated? The answer, in a word, is Jesus. And the Christians in Rome know this answer–Jesus.

They must lay aside their own works of darkness
They must end their alliances with the darkness
They must cease believing in the power of darkness

Meaning, they must:

Stop lying, cheating, stealing, seeking vengeance and nursing anger, back-biting and gossiping–these being the works of darkness that suck the goodness out of our lives.

Give up affiliations with those stuck in the darkness; stop hanging out with people who have no idea how to live without fear and do not want to learn. Name the darkness. Stand with Christ against the darkness.

Abandon once and for all the bad news that has possessed their lives, like, “I’m not good,” or , “God does not care,” or, “There is nothing that I can do.” Exit the darkness of sick ideas that make you sick.

The darkness is so disgustingly slimy. It is not just darkness as the absence of light. It is darkness as the presence of despair so thick you can taste it, so putrid that it squishes like maggots. The darkness is people who have become so used to the slime and the despair and the fear and the ugliness that they think it is home and can no longer respond to beauty and love and light when they call.

Maybe you recall a scene from the movie, What Dreams May Come. The movie depicts images of darkness and light, heaven and hell, hope and despair. Robin Williams stars as a husband desperate to rescue his wife from hell, but first he must confront his own darkness, including the fear of feeling the pain that is part of life, and including his fear of drowning. He is on a ship on the sea of despair–I was going to show you this film clip but decided it is not something I wanted to share with the children–when suddenly thousands of lost souls try to get into his boat, eventually capsizing it. For Williams, being cast into that raging sea is THE darkness.

For one person, the darkness may be a paralyzing fear.
For another person, the darkness may be an all consuming anger.
For another, a sin that is so controlling that it has become an addiction.
For another, a sin like gossip that cuts others to shreds–but the sinner is completely blind to the evil within.

I have talked with Christians whose darkness is their beliefs about God;

that God is absent
that God is always angry
that God does not care

But these Christians cover up their darkness by trying to be;

extra religious
meticulously perfect
unceasingly judgmental of others

The darkness can be:

emptiness
oppression
violence
hatred
loneliness
condemnation
persecution

The darkness is:

The Nazi concentration camp
The prisoner of war camp in North Viet Nam
The fate of women under Taliban domination
The life of an American child born into desolate poverty
The alcoholic or drug addict who knows they are a sinner but sees no way out
The mindless pursuit of wealth that leaves a life devoid of meaning
Ravaging illness that assaults the body, the mind and even the spirit
The marriage where neither person can stop blaming
The church where members will not stop fighting
The king, Herod, and the Pharaoh of Egypt, who were so weak they had to slaughter innocent children

These are manifestations of the darkness, the forces of evil present, seemingly unconquerable, in history. Darkness, evil, convinces us that it will conquer us. This is the greatest lie, a lie that has power only if we believe it, because the truth is...

Jesus is the light, for any darkness.

“Out, out, out,” Jesus assaults the demons, and then he tells us, “Wake up! Don’t give up. The night is almost past. The day is nearly upon you!”

“Stop fighting,” he cries out, grieving for each of those who squabble, but even more for those who will never hear His Good News unless the Christians start to live in the light.

“Stop blaming,” Jesus pleas with a husband and wife whom he loves.

“Change your priorities,” he challenges the man with no time for anything but work and no ambition for anything other than possessions and power.

“Follow the light. I am the light. Leave the darkness behind. I know that you know there is a better way,” Jesus teaches frightened and despairing humanity.

“My light shines in the darkness and no amount of evil can extinguish this light,” Jesus reminds those who are persecuted, for righteousness sake.

Referring back to our text from Romans, the Roman Christians know how to exit the darkness and live in the light; they know, but with a just barely sufficient confidence, that the night is almost over and the dawn is about to break upon them. So they hang in there. They persevere. They do not succumb to fear and condemnation and loneliness and despair. They continue to believe in the light even when the dawn of a new day has not yet broken in upon them. You also, you who are in Christ, you know how to exit the darkness and live in the light; you know, even if just barely, that the night IS almost over and the dawn is about to break upon you. So hang in there. Persevere. Do not succumb to fear and condemnation and loneliness and despair. Continue to believe in the light even when the dawn of a new day has not yet broken in upon you.

I pray you understand that this text is written to no one and is relevant to no one if it is not written to and relevant to you and me. All of this applies to our lives and to our church. We are the Christians in Rome and we are the Church in Rome. We are the believers who have almost forgotten what God can do; who have been fiddling around in the darkness so long that we have almost given up our belief in the Light. For most of us:

Problems do not get solved quickly enough.
Our particular darkness appears impenetrable.
Someone else is totally to blame and they will not move.
Success seems like an impossible dream, and besides we are kind of comfortable in the familiar muck of our failure.
Our eyes have gotten used to the darkness. We think we can see in the “gloom of our lives as they have been.” The initial rays of light are blinding so we almost flee back into our caves of doom.

But we do not flee. We know, even if only with the faintest spark of hope. We remember, even if with only a fragment of the wondrous memories of all that God has done.

So, believing Jesus and summoning courage, we call the darkness, “DARKNESS.” We name the evil, “EVIL.” We admit that our sin is, “SIN.” We confess that our fear is, “FEAR.” And we muster the courage to take a step, as hesitant as it may be, out of the darkness and into the light.

That is what we are doing this Advent season. Has the star begun to shine brightly enough that you have begun to see what God is doing?

May it be so.

Amen.