IT’S A NEW DAY

Today is the first day of a new church year. It’s New Year’s Day for Christians. We begin again. The season of Advent is like being awake at dawn, when night and darkness turn into the light of day. Advent is when we watch for Christ.

We join in spirit the Old Testament believers who were waiting for Christ. Isaiah said: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great Light.” They were looking ahead to Christ’s coming. We look back to when He came.

Like old Zacharias said in his song of praise on the day of John the Baptist’s birth, we wait to be visited by “the Dayspring from on high” – a beautiful word, “Dayspring,” which imagines that you can picture a point from which the light of the sun springs forth, breaks forth, into a world enveloped by darkness, cold and slumber, and it begins to spread light, warmth and life over the whole earth. The promised Christ is like that when He comes, Zacharias says.

The darkness isn’t that Christ had not come into the world yet. Abraham, who lived 2,000 years before Jesus’ birth, had the light of faith; Jesus says he “rejoiced to see My day” – to see Christ by faith. He walked in the light of joy. In the Old Testament time, the promises about Christ were the light they walked in. True darkness is the darkness of sin. That’s the darkness Jesus came to deal with.

Jesus coming to be the Light for you is about faith in Him. It was a new day for you when you came to faith. But faith is a struggle in this world; so the new day is each and every day. We now hear St. Paul speak about how each day is to be a casting off of the darkness of sin, and walking in the light. We are to know what the darkness is, but more importantly know what – rather Who – the Light is.

The Text, Romans 13:11-14. And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.

Lord, this is Your Word and these are Your words. Sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is truth. O Lord Jesus Christ, bright Sun of the world: Shine upon our spirits and drive away the night of sin, that we may walk in Your holy light all our lives and even forevermore. Amen.

In the name of Jesus, the Light who shines in the darkness, dear saints:

St. Paul reminds us who we are. We are Christians. He says: “Now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.” This reminds us that we are Christians, children of God, by faith in Christ Jesus. Our salvation has come.

This is what we hear today about Christ’s first advent, or coming. We heard: “Your King is coming to you, lowly.” We saw that Jesus was entering Jerusalem on a donkey. He entered Jerusalem to die – to die on the cross to pay for the sins of the world. The prophecy that they were repeating about Him goes on to say: “He is righteous, and having salvation.” He accomplished our salvation. He is the One “having salvation,” who has salvation in His hands. There is salvation in no other.

But He brings it to us. The salvation He has in His hands, He gives it into your hands in the Word, Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper. This is what it means that “our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.” You’re constantly receiving your salvation from Him: receiving it by faith. This is the light of faith. This is walking in the Light, following Jesus so closely that you’re in His light.

But because we’re in this world, it’s easy to fall back into darkness. In fact, St. Paul says this is what happens. This is what losing your struggle with sin is.

First it manifests itself in a spiritual carelessness and being apathetic, letting the unbelieving world set your priorities. Satan gets you to act as a spiritual zombie, walking along inattentively, separating your life in the world from your life at church, not judging things at work, at school, or at home by God’s Word but letting yourself be led by others. He says: “It is high time to awake out of sleep.” Here “sleep” is letting your faith slumber, not exercising your faith.

Second, losing this struggle with sin manifests itself in what St. Paul calls “the works of darkness.” The things he mentions are timely: “Revelry and drunkenness,” really carousing and losing self-control, is something that many excuse during the holiday season. “Lewdness and lust,”which has to do with sexual promiscuity and physical desires, are catered to by advertisers. And even though this season is supposedly about unselfishness, “strife and envy” often take over as hurt feelings and resentments, and feelings about what you don’t have, still manage to take over our thinking.

This isn’t even a comprehensive list. Just go to Galatians 5 where Paul lists the “works of the flesh,” and you’ll find more. Or Jesus’ words in Mark 7, where He too gives a list and says all these things begin “from within, out of the heart of men.” Back in Romans 7, St. Paul says: “The evil that I do not want do is what I practice. … It is sin dwelling in me (that does this).”

Well, this seems like a dark beginning to Advent! But the Light is coming. Paul is speaking to Christians. He reminds us that Christ places salvation in our hands, the Holy Spirit gives us the light of faith, which overcomes the darkness. 1 John 5 says: “This is the victory: our faith.” It’s faith in Christ that wins the victory.

In order to encourage us, St. Paul gives us a picture that his original readers – Roman Christians – knew well. It’s a picture of a Roman soldier. He compares the Christian Church to a Roman legion, and individual Christians to Roman soldiers.

The picture here is of troops on the frontier protecting the empire in remote areas. They stood guard day and night, divided into detachments keeping watch. Each soldier did guard duty for a single watch, a period of three hours. He wasn’t responsible for the entire battle. He guarded his post for the time of his watch. The fourth and last watch of the night was so important, for that was when the enemy was most likely to attack: at the crack of dawn (like Day 13 of the Alamo). In the Roman army the penalty was harsh for deserting his post or falling asleep.

We can be afraid by the darkness that’s out there – or even the darkness “in here.” But the key, St. Paul says is to “cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light.” Elsewhere he describes the armor of God in more detailed ways, in Ephesians 6 and 1 Thessalonians 5. But here the point is that when Christ came “lowly” and came to suffer and die, He actually won the battle by suffering and dying. He won our forgiveness and salvation, and when He gives faith He is giving the victory that He obtained for us to keep and retain, and use!

So what is the armor that He wants us to put on? Here he says it simply: “the armor of light.”What is this? Christ Himself! First it says to “put on the armor of light,” then to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ.”

The “armor of light” is Christ Himself, who is the Light of the world, who is “the true Light that gives light” (Jn 1:9), in whom is no darkness at all. So when you put Him on you also put on His righteousness, purity, and holiness. How do you put Christ on? He did this for you in Baptism: “for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on” – been clothed with – “Christ” (Gal 3:27). After you are baptized, this happens through repentance, when you are sorry for your sins and confess your sins to God, and He declares you forgiven and clean in His sight.

The last thing Paul says is that when you “put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” He gives you the strength to not gratify the sinful nature’s desires, which means to fight and resist sin with His help. The armor you have on is Him, the Light of the world. This is empowering. In Him you are strong. You are also part of an army, the Christian Church. None of us is responsible for the battle. Christ is. We are on guard duty, standing our ground in the name of Jesus, who arms us with His Word and with faith all the way to heaven, and gives us the victory.

In Christ every day is a new day. The sins of darkness are in the past. We walk in His light, “as in the day,” for Christ is the Day and the Sun that goes not down. Amen!