The Gifts of Repentance
Sunday,
December 13, 2009
Rev. Janice Palm
Luke 3:7-18
Did you hear those words Dana just read? You brood of vipers! The Peterson translation makes it even clearer for this crowd of folks coming to John to be baptized. “Brood of snakes! What do you think you're doing slithering down here to the river/ Do you think a little water on your snake skins is going to deflect God's judgment? It's your life you must change, not your skin.” Bear fruits of repentance, says John the Baptist.
Well, no one wants to be reamed out by John so close to Christmas! No one wants to be challenged by John's words, as she sits in the pew enveloped in joyous music or thoughts of final preparations and purchases and with our district superintendent in our midst, too! Are we really that bad?
But the lectionary has us considering such. The lectionary is telling us there is no getting to the birthing town and no receiving of the Infant Savior in the mange, no matter how much straw we use because of our acts of kindness to pad the manger, without first hearing this rough prophet out in the wilderness calling us to repentance.
When I think of a call to repentance, I can't help but think of the world events this past week. The United Nations gathering of more than 190 nations who are talking about the fate of our earth home stands out as an historic meeting. The hope initially was to leave the gathering having formed a binding agreement on how nations would go forward repairing the spiraling effects of CO2 on earth's environment. Hearing a young, 16 year-old-voice from the country of the slowly disappearing Maldives describe how it took two weeks to come to an agreement on its statement to the UN gathering made him adjust his expectations. Now the hope is to have a non-binding agreement where nations would work toward a non-binding agreement next year. The hope is that all nations can change their ways of living, producing; and consuming so that climate warming doesn't continue to rise but is stabilized.
There are very many obstacles to having this hope realized; primary among them is repentance. Nations need to change how they do business. There are many perspectives: each UN participant is embedded in his own way of seeing. There are the rich nations vs. the poor; the developed vs. developing nations; island/coastal nations vs. the clock; OPEC vs. clean technology to name just a few perspectives pitted against each other. How can we as a global society move ahead with life on earth at stake? Can we let go of our blinders that keep us only looking ahead long enough to realize that without looking at who/what is beside us, without cooperation, without give and take, without change, we all fail?
But perhaps it is easy to point fingers elsewhere, to place blame out there on nations, or organizations other than our own individual selves. Perhaps, we, as individuals, need to pay attention to what John was calling for. John was after all speaking to individuals in that crowd of folks looking to be baptized. Perhaps then it is more significant for us as individuals if we consider how we change our ways of living. Perhaps we need to repent of our consumerism, purchasing patterns, our individual waste, our use of oil products, our own recycling bins, or our initiatives for alternative renewable energy sources. Perhaps, too, we need to pay more careful attention to our employers' or our church's attitude toward the environment.
But maybe we could hone in a little more. John was speaking to individuals in the crowd; he spoke to the tax collectors and to the soldiers. He spoke to professionals and individuals. Each asked John, what could they do to repent? How could they lead different lives? To the crowd of individuals, he said share with anyone. If you have two coats, share one of them. If you have food, again, he said, share. John speaks to our abundance and says, you have so much, and there are many without anything. Change that.
To the tax collectors who asked what they could do to change their lives, John spoke not only of their greed but their dishonesty. He said, “Don't collect more than what the government is asking for. You're not entitled to take that kind of a cut. Similarly to the soldiers seeking baptism, John said, ‘Be satisfied with honest earnings. Don't mistreat those you are to protect.' In other words, John is saying care for the poor, practice truth and justice. Make unselfish choices, live within your means, and do what is just.
What might John say to us as individuals: as teachers and professors, state workers, those of us who are in medicine, spouses, our brothers & sisters, small business owners, parents? Where do we fall short in our choices, in our living, in our loving, in our honesty with others or ourselves? Where do we fall short in our care for neighbor?
This Advent time, I am making plans and preparing for the Coming of Jesus. Even though parts of my house are in complete disarray because of ongoing construction, I am deliberately making space and taking time for Jesus' coming by decorating for Christmas. Normally, I approach the hanging of greens at the house as a task: one more thing to be done on the list of many. But this year, it is different: it is an act of preparation and invitation. As I weave and place greens and ornaments, miniature toys, and trees throughout the house, where I am inviting Jesus not only into my house but also into my time and activities and heart.
John's demand for us to change our ways perhaps has us recoil, defensively – but if we were to really sit down and think about it, I don't believe anyone of us can say he or she is free of the guilt of wrongdoing. Deep down we know offenses we have committed against a neighbor or a relative or even our own selves. For some of us, the offenses are rehearsed or replayed night after night as we lie in bed.
I believe that's why in order to fully prepare and invite Jesus into our lives again, opening not just our homes but our hearts as well is important. Facing the past or even the present with God at our side helps us move forward, helps us turn our lives around, helps us more fully meet Christ's birth. Christ's birth marks a radical break through for humanity offering a new way for humanity – the Way, the Truth and the Light.
For the most part, I don't think we are intentionally bad. We do things unintentionally that hurt, we forget when it is important to remember. Little liberties and freedoms slowly become gaping holes of silence or disappointment. Some things just don't dawn on us until they are pointed out. Or we might come to a point of having to make a decision where neither choice is a good one. Even so, these behaviors or attitudes that just miss the mark leave us unhappy with ourselves.
But facing these behaviors and attitudes head on, giving them over to God, and changing, we can experience a God freeing us from the past and offering us grace for the future. For God is love. God opens new possibilities for life. I saw a sign yesterday that said something like this; we are sinners, each trying again and again to get it right. The gift is that God is there with us again and again. That ever present God, and seeing new possibilities for life are the gifts, the fruits, of repentance. That's what makes us readied to meet the new Savior. That's what makes for peace beyond our understanding.
Won't you pray with me?
Hidden deep inside us, O God, is a yearning to see your face, to feel your love, to know your acceptance. Yet we cover up this desire and think we can make it our own way. We try success and submerge ourselves in work. We try activity and pride ourselves on full calendars and busy lives even while we put in our cries of complaints ass to how busy we are. Longing comes to the rise, O God, in this time of waiting for our Savior to come to us. We want to be loved by God, for only God's love makes us whole, loosens us from frantic searching and grants us peace beyond understanding. Help us to make new pathways, toward You, and who You would have us be. Forgive us where we fall short, forget, overlook, harm unintentionally. Holy God, let us enter into this mystery of Your coming and find ourselves loved and forgiven. Amen.
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