BAdvent2

Isaiah 40:1-11; Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13; 2 Peter 3:8-15a; Mark 1:1-8

December 7, 2008

Repent!

The man in the desert clothed with a camel hide

held together with a thick leather belt 

who ate wild locusts and honey cried out,

‘Repent!’

We have long rightly understood repentance as being:

An awareness that you’ve done something wrong

A confession/admission of that

A change of thought and action

A resolve to stay with that change rather than go back to the old way

An attempt to make restitution or reverse harmful effects of the wrong.

When you attach this definition to the word ‘repent’,

You think, so what’s so bad about that?

We hear the same process from modern writers such as Eckhart Tolle.

And I think he’s very okay with the Christian lens being applied.

Awakening is a shift in consciousness. For most people it is not an event but a process they undergo. Even those rare beings who experience a sudden, dramatic, and seemingly irreversible awakening (a conversion experience/being saved) will still go through a process in which the new state of consciousness gradually flows into and transforms everything they do and so becomes integrated into their lives.  [In other words, even after you have been baptized and given your life to Christ, there will be countless moments of repentance which will bring you more and more into conformity with the new creation you have become in Christ.]

The awakening process is an act of grace. You cannot make it happen or accumulate credits toward it. A tidy sequence of logical steps won’t get you there. You don’t have to become worthy first. It may come to the sinner before it comes to the saint. That’s why Jesus associated with all kinds of people, not just the respectable ones.

We hear from Anthony de Mello, Jesuit priest:

Love springs from awareness. It is only inasmuch as you see someone as he or she really is here and now – not as they are in your memory or your desire, your imagination or your projection. You must drop your desires, your prejudices, your memories, your projections, your selective way of looking. Really see the other.

Then, you ruthlessly flash the light of awareness on your motives, emotions, needs, dishonesty, self-seeking, tendency to control and manipulate

If you achieve this kind of awareness in yourself and the other, you will know what love is.

[In other words, when you repent of these hindrances, when you become aware of them and seek to become free of them, you are then free to love.]

But so often, we have been taught to see repentance as

a preacher yelling that we must repent or be damned to eternal hell.

We have been placed in front of an angry Judge and told to repent with fear and trembling,

hoping not to be cursed eternally for the bad things we have done.

When we have gone astray we expect to hear God say,‘Hey you! Get back here!’

And we see anger on his face and a switch in his hand.

But what is the tone of that word repentance in the face of a loving God?

In the words of a song our youth are singing these days:

Come back to me with all your heart

Don’t let fear keep us apart

Trees do bend though straight and tall

So must we on others fall

Long have I waited for your coming home to me

And living deeply our new love.

In the words of Isaiah:

Says God to the prophet:

Comfort, O comfort my people.

Speak tenderly and tell them that for all the wrong they have done

God doubles that amount in mercy.

He comes with might, his arm rules for him;

His reward is with him.

He will feed his flock like a shepherd;

He will gather the lambs in his arms

And carry them in his bosom

And gently lead the mother sheep.

God’s love and mercy are new every morning.

Opportunities to wake up, to be aware of ourselves

and the ways we could be free to grow in grace – to repent –

is something I look can forward to when a loving God is waiting

to assist me with double the love and mercy to replace my shortcomings.

In the context of the Roman Empire to which Mark’s readers were subject,

Mark pronounces Jesus as the anointed king of Israel.

This would have been a direct parallel to what they had heard before:

The good news (gospel) of Caesar as the “Savior” who brought  peace/Pax Romana to the world.

This good news from Mark about Jesus as Savior comes in two parts:

First, to know that we are okay.

God loves us before we love God.

Jesus loves us just as we are.

This peace is far beyond the peace of Rome’s rule that brought order to the land.

I was at the beach a couple of weeks ago for my son, Daniel’s, wedding.

On the last morning there, before checking out of the condo we had rented,

even though it was very cold for Florida,

I decided to go for one last walk on the beach.

Everyone had left the afternoon before, so I had a little time by myself.

On the Atlantic coast of north Florida,

it is rare to find large seashells that are unbroken.

Most of the time you find ‘shards’ ,

pieces of conk shells, scallop shells and other familiar kinds.

You collect them to make wind chimes or fill jars.

Well, that morning I was walking along while the tide was out.

I saw something on the sand, way ahead of me.

Was it a jelly fish? An old shoe? A washed up chunk of Styrofoam?

When I got close to it, I almost couldn’t believe my eyes.

I saw a large conk shell that looked like it was in good shape.

I expected to pick it up and turn it over to see the bottom cracked.

But, it was perfect.

For a moment, for many moments, I felt I had received a gift timed for me.

That appeared at the time I could receive this secret gift and enjoy it all to myself.

I felt gratitude, I felt lucky, I felt connected.

God’s love comes first. Jesus loves me just as I am.

I just have to go over, bend down, open my hand, and take it.

The second part of the good news of God’s love in Christ

is that in him, we can begin the process of change.

But this is a complete inside-out change.

We call it metamorphosis.

With each little repentance, each turning, each awakening, we are changed.

Not just in our behavior.

But like coal turned to diamond.

Dead organic matter gradually transformed into petroleum.

When I was going into Greenville Hospital this past week

I saw several women in the large lobby.

They were all dressed in Christmassy colors

and each was holding a nice potted poinsettia.

While waiting at the elevator, I asked one of the women, what they were up to.

She said that they were delivering the poinsettias to hospital patients.

She went on to say that one of the women

had been to visit a friend in the hospital a few years back.

She had visited her friend several times and one day when she was bringing yet another flower to add to the friend’s growing bounty of

flowers, cards, baskets, books and magazines.

The friend asked her if she didn’t mind giving it

to the patient on the other side of the curtain.

That person in the other bed had no visitors, no flowers,

no sign of any outside visits.

I was told that the woman had not previously noticed the contrast.

And so now, this group has a tradition at Christmas

of delivering poinsettias to patients who don’t have signs of support and care.

The patient gave the woman a chance for a little repentence.

Her eyes were opened to something she had not noticed.

As de Mello says, she flashed the light of awareness on the situation

and she was changed.

She took this moment of awareness to her women’s group.

And so, there is good news in what we have from God.

But then, each time we are aware of how our love compares to God’s

We have a chance to, once again, wake up, to become aware, yes, to repent.

As individuals, what freedom and safety this gives us to change and grow

into the love we already have in Christ.

As the Church, what we can together be as Christ, the Body of Christ,

for each other, our community, and the world.

As Jesus said, “The one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.”

Given the fact my shortcomings and sins will be a daily event,

I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait for the next opportunity to repent!