Dear Christian friends:

In our text St. Paul says to the Christians: "The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed." He means time to wake up from laziness and sin; time to wake up and live right and serve God.

Why? Because the night is fading; the day is dawning. What night? What day? The night of when people were in ignorance of God and always did sins. Darkness is compared to ignorance and sin; white light is compared to knowledge and doing good. The day, the light of God which He shows in His Son Jesus Christ has come.

Therefore people should not stay in ignorance and sin, but see God's love in Jesus and do His will. Our text is the epistle lesson for this Sunday, The first Sunday in Advent. It is the first Sunday of a New Church Year. So God is giving us another year of light and love and life in Jesus. Therefore we most live wisely and nobly not like the unbelievers who still walk in darkness and ignorantly sin against God and their neighbor.

In our text Paul urges us to walk and


This means that we reject the works of darkness. What are the works of darkness? They are sins which all unbelievers do because they are ignorant of God and blind to God's love and blessings and blind to Jesus Christ. We Christians, too, are still tempted to do these works of darkness, and we often are tempted and fall into sin and shame. So God urges us to remember we are children of the day and not children of the night.

Now Paul lists some of these works of darkness: First reveling and drunkenness. This means going out at night to celebrate and then eat and drink too much and stay out until 2:00 or 3:00 am on Saturday night. Sometimes when young deaf people do not come to church I ask them, "Why?" Often they answer, "I must sleep on Sunday morning. I stayed up till 4:00 am." That is reveling and this leads a person to other sins such as drunkenness.

I went to a drug seminar two weeks ago and a professor, Dr. Roy Pickens, from the university talked to us about the various drugs: alcohol, nicotine, LSD, heroin, marijuana, sleeping pills, tranquilizers and pep pills. He showed us pictures comparing the various drugs and how they hurt our body if we use them. The professor said something which was very interesting and surprising to me. He said many parents are upset because their children smoke pot and some use LSD. But he said the parents themselves use drugs worse than that. Two very common drugs, alcohol and nicotine.

The professor showed us that alcohol and nicotine hurt our body health much more than marijuana or LSD and other drugs that young people use. Smoking and drinking are works of darkness and ignorance. Christians should not hurt their bodies, but use their bodies and strength to do good works for God and their neighbors. Also costs a lot.

The next work of darkness is "sinning sexually or living wildly." We hear and read much today about the "sexual revolution" and "sexual freedom." Many people today are saying that we should not have laws about sex, that young people should enjoy sex with one another before marriage and that husbands and wives should be free to have sex and make love to others if they want to. But the Bible calls these ideas and deeds "works of darkness."

If we follow these ideas we will destroy holy marriage, the family and our nation. Other nations of the past have collapsed because of sexual sins. The Roman Empire is a good example. Marriage is much more than sexual or bodily union; it is a union also of the spirit and mind commanded by God to serve God. If we do not understand that, we are still in darkness.

The final work of darkness which we should reject: quarreling and jealousy. When we forget to serve God in thanks and with gladness then we think only of ourselves and our desires and needs. We become self-righteous and very proud. We become greedy and jealous and quarrel and fight about money and other things. Then we hate and have wars and riots and hurt and destroy one another as you see worse and worse everyday now.

Christians who walk in God's light and day should not be jealous or quarrel about money. If someone wants our money so much that he cheats or steals to get it, let him have it. Don't hate him. Feel sorry for him and try to help him see his ignorance and wickedness. Forget it and keep peace.

This is not easy to do. We cannot put away the works of darkness by ourselves alone. Only God can change us and give us the desire and strength to do this. We often try without God, but then we are only hypocrites. We may do good and right works and obey, but we are not eager or glad to do it. We are always looking back and wishing and wanting to sin. You can't force someone to love God and serve Him. You can't force someone to be thankful.

He may be very polite and say, "Thank you!" On Thanksgiving Day he may go to church and say prayers of thanks to God and sing, "Now thank we all our God," but his heart is not thankful, he feels no love and praise to God or anyone else. Something must happen in our hearts that frees us from self-righteousness and greed. Jesus must happen to us. God's love and mercy and wonderful blessing we must see and remember and we must confess His wisdom and rule and purpose.

Then our hearts will change and we will be free from works of darkness to walk in His beautiful day. We will truly love Him and honor Him and we will show it by loving our neighbor. Living again through another church year each Sunday and Holy Day will give us this changed heart.

Amen.