Time to Wake Up, Salvation Is At Hand—Lectionary Reflection for Advent 1A (Romans 13:11-14)

Romans 13:11-14 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

¹¹ Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is already the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; ¹² the night is far gone; the day is near. Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; ¹³ let us walk decently as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in illicit sex and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. ¹⁴ Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

                ************

                For the past several years, I have been revisiting the First Readings (most of which come from the Old Testament) and the Gospels. Now it is time to once again pick up the Second Readings, most of which come from the Letters. So, for the next three years, this will be my focus. You can find my reflections on the First Reading and the Gospels here on my blog, always remembering that my reflections may engage with the current context. Then again, so do the biblical texts!

*******************  

                When it comes to Paul’s Letter to the Romans, it is good to remember that this letter is written to a community he has yet to visit. He seems to know people in the congregation, but this is not a congregation he founded. What he is doing is introducing himself and his message.  We will spend considerable time in Romans over the next months, in part because this letter speaks to Paul’s basic message. But this first reading, coming from Romans 13, serves as a wake-up call for the believers in Rome, warning them to clothe themselves with Christ and not make a provision for the flesh. That this is a “wake-up call” makes it an appropriate reading for the First Sunday of Advent. 

                When people think of Romans 13, they typically have in mind the admonition to submit to the governing authorities, because there is no authority on earth except that God has instituted it (Rom. 13:1-7). Our reading follows not only that message concerning the government, which, let us remember, is the Roman Empire. This passage has been used and misused down through the ages, often to support tyrannical governments. It is often used by supporters of one leader or another. I find it interesting that God chooses the candidate we support, but is somehow absent if the opponent wins. But that’s for another day. The message about submitting to the proper authorities is followed by one that calls for the followers of Jesus to owe nothing to anyone except love, by which he means the commandments, especially the one about loving one’s neighbor (Rom. 13:8-10). If you get the sense that Paul is encouraging the followers of Jesus to keep their heads down and stay out of trouble, you would probably be correct.

                Now we come to our reading (Romans 13:11-14). After Paul writes to the Romans, telling them that “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law,” he tells the reader that they should know what time it is. That is, they should know that it is time for them to wake up from their sleep (a good Advent reminder). That is because “salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers.” Although our Advent observances focus on the promise of the coming of Christ the first time, many of the texts, including this one, have a second advent in mind. Therefore, we have one of those apocalyptic moments. Paul wants the readers to keep on their toes and stay alert to what is happening around them. A Kairos moment is at hand when something transformative will take place.  In other words, God is up to something, and they won’t want to miss it. It all starts with loving our neighbors.

                Apocalyptic language tends to be dualistic. Paul makes use of language that contrasts night with day, and darkness with light. This is language we find in Genesis 1, where God separates night from day, and light from the darkness. Bad things happen under the cover of darkness. Thieves and creepy creatures inhabit the night. But, during the day, bad things don’t take place because the light shines. The good news is that night is far gone, while day is dawning. The light that comes from God is shining into the darkness, illuminating the presence of evil, so that it might be defeated. Thus, for Paul, there is a sense of expectation that the old age is about to pass away, and the new age will break in, such that believers will experience freedom from the bondage to sin.

                While Ephesians 6 speaks of putting on the full armor of God, here in Romans, Paul speaks of putting on the armor of light. How might one do this? According to Paul, putting on the armor of light involves living “honorably as in the day.” This takes us back to verses 8-9, where Paul reminds them that love fulfills the law, such that one will not commit adultery, steal, or covet. However, as Jin Young Choi notes, when Paul speaks here of putting on the armor of light, this “does not entail merely engaging ethical behaviors that the believers should choose; it also describes believers’ ontological status as those who put on Jesus Christ (Rom. 13:14; Gal. 3:27–28). In the new age, humanity is renewed into Christlike people.” [Connections, (Westminster John Knox Press). Kindle Edition. Loc. 565]. This is the way of salvation—putting on Christ, or clothing ourselves with him.

Paul writes this letter with a great deal of urgency. He believes that the Kairos moment is at hand. The new age of light is about to break into the world. He believes something is about to happen that will turn everything upside down, and that he is going to see it happen. By the end of his life, he might have begun to envision this inbreaking of the new realm taking a bit longer than he expected, but here in Romans 13, he’s still expecting something dramatic to occur that turns everything upside down. We’ve been on this journey now for nearly two millennia, so the anticipation may have worn off a bit. Thus, the value of Advent, for it calls us back to that moment of expectation. With that expectation comes the call to live in the light by putting on Jesus, which means living together in harmony and love. 

The message here is behavioral. He tells the Roman Church not to live in the darkness but in the light by living honorably “as in the day.” Therefore, he tells them not to engage in drunkenness, debauchery, or licentiousness. These are the kinds of behaviors associated with the darkness of night. But, as Sarah Heanor Lancaster points out regarding the people of Rome, “excessive behavior at evening feasts was common practice, and excessive behavior often leads to quarrels and strife” [Romans: Belief, p. 227]. But the night is passing away, and so should the behaviors associated with the night. Thus, she writes: “The passing of the old order means that we no longer have the cover of darkness and secrecy, so we should live at all times with the honor and integrity that can bear the scrutiny of the day” [Romans: Belief, p. 227]. How do we do this? By putting on Christ, such that we do not make provision for the flesh and gratify the desires of the flesh.

We might compare Paul’s words here with those he directed at the Corinthian Church. When he wrote to the Corinthians, he was speaking to people he had a relationship. After all, he planted that church. He was concerned about inappropriate behaviors found among these believers. One might wonder if the kinds of behaviors that took place at evening feasts in Rome were known to happen in Corinth (1 Cor. 11). If that was true of Corinth, might it also be possible in Rome?

What we have here is a wake-up call given to a people Paul was intent on visiting. With that in mind, we have this reminder of the need for us as followers of Jesus to keep awake and not become complacent, such that we do not fall into old habits from the old way of life. As we reflect on Paul’s words here, we also have this interpretive word offered by  Leonora Tubbs Tisdale:

The first is that what is often needed for Christians today is a wake-up call regarding the social evils of our day and our ethical injunction as Christians to respond to them. Often people are not so much intentionally evil as they are complacent and slumbering. Paul’s call to us to move out of the darkness of our sleeplike state and to move into the light of Christ’s work in the world is a needed one. Secondly, this text (given its locus in the book of Romans) reminds us that we do not do good works to earn our salvation. Rather, we do them out of gratitude to God and as a way of living into our baptismal callings in Christ. [Preaching God’s Transforming Justice, p. 4].

It has often been true of Christians, especially in those places where being a Christian is a cultural reality. We can find ourselves sucked into behaviors and perspectives that stand apart from the teachings of Jesus. We need not become “puritanical” to be watchful as to the behaviors we embrace.

Advent offers us one of those moments in the church year to receive this nudge from the Spirit of God.  We do this by clothing ourselves with Christ our Lord. Again, I turn to Sarah Heanor Lancaster, who writes that the usage of the title “‘Lord’ reminds the followers of their allegiance to the one who reigns in the new day. The one who reigns is Jesus Christ, the very one who died a shameful death by crucifixion. Unlike the shameful things that must be hidden by darkness in the old order, the shame that he took for the sake of others is not shameful in the day that is coming. For the ones who give allegiance to the Lord that rules the coming day, the flesh no longer rules” [Romans: Belief, pp. 227-228].  And we live at a time where we who claim to be Christians must consider to whom we have given allegiance.