Now Is the Moment to Wake from Sleep

 

Romans 13:8-14 (NRSV)

8 Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, "You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet"; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, "Love your neighbor as yourself." 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. 11 Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now 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 lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; 13 let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery 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.

 

Paul was a man with a mission to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles.  He started new churches and provided leadership to see them grow and flourish.  Today, in his letter to the Church at Rome, he touches the cornerstone of discipleship and instructs his listeners to embrace love.  As this church is growing into its identity, Paul instructs them to wake from their sleep and clothe themselves for the day ahead: “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”  For the past year, I’ve taken up the hobby of cycling.  And I’ve found that if I want to get my rides in for the morning, it makes it a whole lot easier to do so when I lay out my biking clothes the night before I go to bed.  When I wake up, I see the clothes, and I’m reminded of my commitment to better my health.  Seeing the clothes when my eyes open increases the likelihood that I will put on those clothes for the task at hand.  What if we as Christians set out our spiritual clothes for the next day before we go to sleep each night?  What if when you go to bed tonight you set the environment for success for the morning when you wake up?  Each morning, we should put on Christ for the task that is in front of us: to better our spiritual health and to work for the kingdom of God to come on earth!  There have been several mornings when I didn’t feel like getting on the bike and riding while the rest of the world slept.  There have been mornings that I’ve seen my clothes and skipped getting geared up, but there have been far more mornings that I’ve remembered my goals and put on my biking clothes to pound the pavement.  May God help us put on the garments of Christ's love each morning so that we can be prepared for the journey life will bring us day after day after day.

Get Behind Me Satan

Lectionary Reflection for August 30, 2020 by Pastor Mark Wills

http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55872

Matthew 16:21-28

21 From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, "God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you." 23 But he turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things." 24 Then Jesus told his disciples, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life? 27 "For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. 28 Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom."

Last week Peter knocked it out of the park with the revelation of who Jesus is, or so it seemed:  “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”  While Peter mouthed the words, he didn’t really comprehend their depth.  Many times, we merely repeat the mantras we’ve heard and even those to which we’ve been enlightened just like Peter.  We may even feel the same maverick spirit of Peter, the Rock, from time to time and think that our defense of the faith is holy and justified only to hear Christ’s rebuke to get behind him. 

How does Peter go from a foundation to a stumbling block?  It revolves around the original question of identity.  When Jesus reveals the type of savior he is going to be Peter cannot envision it.  Jesus informs his entourage that soon he will be a tortured, suffering servant, a martyred prophet, and a resurrected savior – “God forbid,” Peter retorts.  One can hardly blame Peter who knows that Jesus is God’s Son.  How can God’s Holy One be weak, abused, and murdered, “This must never happen to you!”  But it must!  It must, Peter.  Jesus’s identity cannot be fully perceived without a cross and resurrection, and neither can ours.  “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”

Earlier, in Matthew 4, Jesus had a similar encounter with Satan who tempted Jesus’s identity with the same moniker “If you are the Son of God.”  If you are the Son of God, you have authority.  If you are the Son of God, you have power.  If you are the Son of God, you have prestige – use it for your benefit rather than supplementing God’s painful mission of reconciliation.  This is the same temptation that is most dangerous to us as Christians.  Will we use our power, authority, and prestige for self-preservation and entitlement, or will we chose to identify and collaborate with a leader that will die for us, our brothers, our sisters, and even our enemies?

One of the oldest hymns of Christianity is quoted in the opening of Paul’s epistle to the Philippians.  To internalize it is to embrace the journey of sanctification or what John Wesley would call becoming “Perfected in Love:”

“If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,

who, though he was in the form of God,

   did not regard equality with God

   as something to be exploited,

but emptied himself,

   taking the form of a slave,

   being born in human likeness.

And being found in human form,

   he humbled himself

   and became obedient to the point of death—

   even death on a cross.

Therefore God also highly exalted him

   and gave him the name

   that is above every name,

so that at the name of Jesus

   every knee should bend,

   in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue should confess

   that Jesus Christ is Lord,

   to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 1:1-15, NRSV)