A Communion Meditation
Presented by Rev. Merlin T. Batt
Intentional Interim Pastor
St. Matthew’s United Church of Christ
Maiden, North Carolina
The First Sunday of Advent
December 2, 2007

Scripture Lesson: Romans 13:11-14
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If you were present for worship last Sunday, you may recall I mentioned in my sermon a brief encounter I had some years ago in a hospital elevator in Fort Myers, Florida. If you don’t recall or if you weren’t present last week, let me describe the scene briefly.

I had visited one of my parishioners on the third floor of Southwest Regional Hospital and was waiting for the elevator to take me down to the lobby. A young man waiting there with me was a hospital employee who worked on the maintenance staff. Looking at me dressed formally in suit and tie, he ventured a guess that I was a doctor or lawyer, but I told him that I was neither; rather, I was a pastor.

As the elevator slowly made its way to the first floor, I took advantage of his having asked me a personal question by also asking him something quite personal. I asked whether he was a Christian. As the elevator door opened he said, “No, but my mother is. She goes to church all the time. But I want to have my fun first.”

As he said that, he walked out of the elevator and in a direction opposite to the one I wanted to go. So I never saw him again. But I have thought of him since, and I have imagined what I might have said next, had I the opportunity.

Well, after I mentioned this brief encounter in last week’s sermon, I got to thinking more about the issue his comment raised, and realized that it was one many of us think about from time to time – why be good? Why subject yourself to the extraordinarily high moral standards that come with being a Christian? Why open yourself up to feeling guilty for failing to live up to them, when you could live by the lower standards of the world which promise much more fun, require less effort, and do away with feelings of guilt? Why not just go about your life, do what comes naturally, go with the flow, and have fun?

It may surprise you that the Apostle Paul was dealing with just this issue in his letter to the Christians in Rome, particularly in today’s Second Reading. You should know that these Christians were a tiny group of people, much smaller than the membership of this church. Some were Jews who had accepted Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah, but the majority of the Christians in Rome were Gentiles - in other words, they were former pagans; and in not a few cases, some were quite recent converts to Christ from this or that pagan cult.

These Christians lived as an insignificant minority in the capitol city of the vast Roman Empire. Meeting in someone’s living room from time to time, if they were noticed at all, they were seen as just another of the many religious options available to Roman citizens in a diverse religious environment. Of course, Christianity would soon spread like wildfire in Rome and become quite significant, but when Paul wrote to them, these Christians existed as an imperceptibly tiny island in the vast sea of pagan culture. It is to these beleaguered believers that Paul wrote as follows, “Let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy.”

Here we have a window through which to look at the society from which these Roman Christians had come to Christ, and when we look carefully, I think, we will find the view quite similar to our own society in the 21st century. For example, pay attention to the first pair of words Paul used to describe the Roman world of their day, “reveling and drunkenness.” Reveling has to do carousing and lewd behavior; drunkenness, of course, has to do with drugging yourself into a stupor. Both reveling and drunkenness have to do escape – escaping from troubles or responsibilities. Roman night life was legendary for its reveling and drunkenness, but these behaviors didn’t present a moral problem to the Romans, nor do they to many Americans, but Paul knew living in these ways led to self-destruction, and so he warned the Roman Christians to avoid them and live honorably.

In the same breath, Paul warned these Christians about engaging in “debauchery and licentiousness” – fancy words, these, for sleeping around and experimenting with every form of physical pleasure. You see, in first century Rome, as in much of 21st century America, such behavior was viewed as harmless, as accepted, adult recreational activity. Paul knew otherwise - that it had to do with exploitation, using others for one’s own pleasure, regardless of consequences, so Paul warned the Christians in Rome to avoid them and live honorably.

Then Paul mentioned the final pair of these so-called works of darkness: “quarreling and jealousy.” These are not bodily behaviors in the sense of the first four. Instead, these have to do with the desire to be number one, with the effort to dominate others. This desire to be number one results in endless quarreling. As for jealousy, it is the envy of those who are dominant. In the Roman society of Paul’s day, to “be somebody” meant that you had to be ahead, one-up on someone else, capable of evoking that person’s jealousy. Social domination was simply assumed as the natural form of human relationships, and so squabbling and envy were common.

Now, in this regard, do you see any similarity between life then in the Roman Empire and life now in the American Empire? I do. Dominating others is the value that ties together the athletic field to the political arena, to Wall Street, and to foreign policy, not to mention the more personal aspects of life together.

Domination, exploitation, and escapism – these were in Paul’s day, and remain in our day, “works of darkness.” These are the behaviors which Christians are expected to lay aside in favor of “putting on the armor of light.” We might say more simply that, in view of these bad things, we Christians are expected to be good.

But why? Why march to the beat of a different drummer? Why not just fit in to the culture around us? Why not just go on having fun, as the man in the elevator intended to do? Why go to all the effort to reject the ways of escapism, exploitation, and domination?

Well, let’s allow Paul to tell us why in his own words. He writes,

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; 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; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

If you need an “English” translation, try this one on for size: Paul is saying that we Christians live in anticipation of the return of Jesus Christ, the one in whom we see what it means to be truly and fully human. What I mean is this: Jesus did not try to escape when faced with challenging responsibilities or with trouble and suffering. Jesus didn’t exploit others for his own purposes – he came that others might have life. Jesus didn’t seek to dominate others – he came to serve, not to be served.

Therefore, as his followers, we reject escapism, exploitation, and domination in whatever forms they appear. With the help of the Spirit, we seek to live honorably. We are not perfect in this regard. By no means - we fall short of our high calling to live as Jesus did. Again and again, we must ask for his forgiveness; and receiving his grace, we go on trying to live in his way, because we know, not only who he was, but something about the future – that it belongs to Jesus Christ!

The Scriptures speak with one, clear voice: “Salvation is nearer to us than when we became believers.” In other words, Jesus Christ will come again to preside over God’s new creation in which those who belong to him  shall live forever. His appearing may happen this afternoon, or next week, or a year from now, or a thousand years from now. The timing of his glorious arrival is not the important thing. What is important is our being ready for his arrival, not by calculating the times and the seasons, and not by preaching a gospel of fear, but by living honorably.

So, why be good? Why live against the grain of our society – why be  responsible and loving, serving the needs of others? Because in Jesus we have seen this is what it means to live as a truly human being, and because the future belongs to him. Indeed, “Salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; 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; let us live honorably….”