Sermon Audio

Dear fellow blind-seers, "you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them."

If only it was as easy as it sounds from this snippet of the pen of St. Paul to the Ephesians. If only we could flick as switch, as it were, to turn on the light and rid ourselves of darkness. If only by the waters of Holy Baptism could we immediately be made perfect and sinless as the One whose death we are and have been Baptized into.

"Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light." What does it mean? Simply turn from our evil ways and live? Again, would it be so simple as to turn evil off and good on. Would it be so pleasant if we could do it ourselves. This world would be Paradise restored.

But, we know from experience that we have a difficult time walking as children of light. A look at our past—pick any one event or look even to the immediate past—this look will reveal that it is impossible to have no fellowship with unfruitful works of darkness. And then expose them? No, we'd rather keep them secret, after all, "[I]t is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret."

St. Paul even acknowledges so much in another of his letters, when, inspired, he wrote,

For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. (Romans 7:15-20)

A look at our past reveals shame, at least to ourselves. And this is a good thing, for that is the Law of God working in us. In fact, we find two laws at work in us: "I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members." (Romans 7:21-23) We are at war, even with ourselves. Reflecting upon this produces shame in the one who wills to do good, and that shame produces contrition by the will and grace of God.

"O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" (Romans 7:24) "Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light."

Yes, it is Christ who will deliver us from this body of death, and He has. And it is this will to do good that is reaching toward the light, if you will. We will, from time to time, all the time, stumble back into the darkness, back into the body of death. Now, I don't mean to make light of that (no pun intended), but so long as we struggle as sinner-saints, so long as we struggle as blind-seers, we need Someone to save us from this body of death, therefore someone to wake us from the dead, to shine on us.

And that is why the Christ was sent. That is why God descended from His heavenly throne in the person of His Son, took on our human flesh, and in that flesh, took from us our body of sin. And, on one very good Friday, God died with our body of sin. God being God, however, could not be contained in a grave, and rose again on the third day. That body of sin, however, did not.

This, dear fellow sinner-saints, dear fellow blind-seers, is what we have been Baptized into: the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ, the very Son of God, "God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God." By this, we have been brought over from darkness into light, as St. Peter declares: "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy." (1 Peter 3:9-10, emphasis added) Or, as we heard earlier from St. Paul, "[Y]ou were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord."

The switch was flicked, so to speak, not by us, but for us. No longer are we children of darkness, children of the devil, but we have been made into children of God, fellow sons with the Only-begotten Son and fellow heirs with Him of eternal life. Yes, God has transformed us, in those very same Baptismal waters; He "has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light." (cf. Colossians 1:12) Now, we are "all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness." (cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:5)

As for perfection, that will come. For "we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord." (cf. 2 Corinthians 3:18) This is the greatest and most beautiful of the Lutheran paradoxes: now-not yet. This is ours now, though we grasp it not yet. We are indeed sons of God, but we do not fully live in this absolute at the present time. We are simul justus et peccatur, at the same time sinner and saint; we are simul vides et caecus, at the same time seeing and blind.

But, the day will come when there will be no more simul; when there will be no more "at the same time..." On that gloriously dreadful day, the Lord will come again, and "will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts." (1 Corinthians 4:5) Then, all will be seen for who they are, children of darkness, who shunned the Light, will be fully shown as the darkness that they are, and you, dear fellow children of the Light, we be revealed as sons of God and be fully "transformed into the same image from glory to glory," taken up to meet the Lord in the air, and live eternally with Him in His kingdom which has no end, and which needs no created light, for the glory of God and the Lamb are its light! (cf. Revelation 21:23; 22:5)

"O wretched man..." You need not fret until that time, though there is shame over the works of darkness. That is to say, we do not discount the struggle or make light of it (again, no pun intended), for that struggle denotes the presence of shame and God-given contrition over the works of darkness and over sins committed. Therefore, we take comfort in this: So long as you struggle as sinner-saints, so long as you struggle as blind-seers, you are forgiven for all of your sins.