The Rev. Dr. Kenneth H. Saunders III
Greeneville, TN
First Sunday of Advent
November 30, 2025
I have got to be honest with you, when I was little, I was a little afraid of the dark… Not that I believed that there were monsters hiding under my bed or in the closet… It was just that the darkness made things seem so different. Different in a way that was a bit scary.
Needless to say, I was a child with a very active imagination, and the darkness held the unknown and unseen, which made it difficult for me to relax and fall asleep. Sometimes the shadows of the darkness
cause me to see things differently…
What I knew to be a coat hanging on the doorknob became a short person standing guard at the entrance to my closet. Or what was a chair with an afghan thrown over it, became that odd-looking goblin that I had never seen in my life…
I would sometimes stare at these things for hours, waiting for them to move… waiting for the light to come on again in the room, and reveal their true identity.
I can bet that perhaps some of you don’t like the darkness. And though you probably won’t admit it, you don’t like not being able to recognize and understand what lurks in the shadows. No matter how much we mature, our natural instinct is to be afraid of the unknown – fear what we can’t see.
And the absence of light makes it very difficult to see anything. Now, we have several ways that we deal with this… We can age, and simply grow out of the fear… We use night-lights (or artificial sources of light) that give us a sense of false security… but some of us never deal with it, and just end up living in the darkness.
These folks sometimes need assistance (a professional) to help them deal with the darkness in their lives, a counselor. That is what our scripture lessons are talking about this morning…
About keeping awake, putting on the protective armor of true light, and walking and living in the light of the Lord... the light of Christ. A place where there is no fear, and there is peace and rest. We deal with the darkness in our lives by relying on the wonderful counselor, Jesus Christ.
In the season of Advent, we all become the keepers of the watch and must keep awake and be ready. Even though it’s dark and scary sometimes, we know that this is our time to wake from sleep, and live honorably, and keep watch. We watch in active anticipation for the arrival of Christ. Not just to commemorate the birth of Jesus being born in a barn, but to watch and wait for the arrival of Christ in all His power and glory, reclaiming the world for justice and peace!
Waiting for the establishment of a Kingdom under His rule... A kingdom where there is no war and the swords are beaten into plowshares and the spears into pruning hooks. But we live in a world that doesn’t honor faithful living… and we are not prepared for this kind of righteous kingdom.
Like Paul asks the Romans, we need to wake up and recognize our salvation because the day is near. But, we are not good watchmen… We want to be comfortable, so we chase after things that give us that “quick fix”... things that do not gratify our desires in the long run (things like reveling, drunkenness, debauchery, and licentiousness) aggressively going after pleasures, and overindulging in frivolous pursuits.
Think about the holiday that we just celebrated… Thanksgiving in the United States. Though it has a bit of a sordid past, it’s a national holiday set aside to give thanks. It’s an intentional time to pause and be thankful... A time to celebrate a shared meal with friends and family. A time to make peace with strangers and help feed those who may not have anything to eat. But society has hijacked it and rearranged it into a gluttonous feast followed by football and shopping.
Even with their issues, I am wondering if our forbearers, the ones who sat down with strangers to give thanks to God over a shared meal, would be proud of what we have become… Instead of walking in the light of Christ, we wander in the dark cloud of consumerism.
The consumerism that has convinced us that we need this or that… it has become an artificial light in our darkness. And we wonder why this time of year is so difficult for folks who are dealing with depression and anxiety… It’s because, in our American way of life, we have replaced the true foundation in Jesus Christ with the “Stuff” that doesn’t satisfy.
We try to overcome our anxiety by hanging tinsel and lights, by trying to make it happen quicker by decking the halls earlier and earlier… somehow trying to make that euphoric holiday feeling come and make us happy… thinking that the artificial lights will, somehow, chase away our darkness.
Jesus said that he would come back… and, like the days of Noah before the flood, life has been one big party, not concerned with doing anything to honor God or giving God the glory… And we know the story. We recall what happened during the time of Noah – the flood waters came and swept it all away…
So Jesus warns us to keep awake and be ready because we will not know when He will come to restore the earth… be ready, because… The time will come like a thief in the night at an unexpected hour.
Our advice today from our Lord Jesus Christ, our Wonderful Counselor, as we start the new church year together, is to stay alert and live faithfully… Like the scriptures tell us, we should “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” – Be clothed with Christ as we take on his teaching and model his holy righteousness… This is our “armor of light” that repels the darkness…
We are the keepers of the watch… and what we do as Christians, our work in this world is accomplished in the spirit of wakefulness and watchfulness. We are called to a faithful work of awareness and sensitivity, living in the mystery of what is to come. And it’s not an easy place to be… It’s like living in the middle of the “already” and the “not yet.” We are called during the season of Advent to a period of eschatological waiting, anticipating the return of our Lord Jesus Christ to vanquish the world’s darkness…
Today, we have a beautiful new Advent wreath here, adorned with candles. With the passing of the Sundays in Advent, we light another candle, symbolizing the light of Christ that is coming into this world… as the light grows brighter and brighter, casting away the shadows of darkness, until the day we celebrate the incarnation when the true light came into the world, and all the candles will be lit…
So keep watch, my friends, put on the armor of light, and let the light of Christ grow in our hearts and in our lives… and be ready to receive our Christ at His coming.
