In the name of full disclosure, the
sermon today is culled from an article by David Lose (Lohss), Marbury
E. Anderson Biblical Preaching Chair at Luther Seminary in St. Paul,
MN.
What do you think of when you hear the
word, 'repent,' or 'repentance?' What do you think of when your
priest says, “Repent?” Maybe it's different if I say,
“Repent!!!!”
Maybe you have a feeling of guilt, of
not doing what you should or of falling short of God's ex-pectations.
Maybe you rationalize away your actions or non-actions by comparing
yourself to “real sinners” or “worse sinners.” Maybe you
think repentance should be reserved for Lent and not brought up
during this Advent time of preparing to celebrate the birth of
Christ.
Repentance, though, and the confession
that precedes it, is not about guilt or assigning particular acts of
penance as punishment. Episcopal priests do not have a sheet of
mandatory sentencing guidelines for sins that we carry with us into a
confession (that'll be seven recitations of Psalm 51 and you need to
pick up the leaves at church). Instead of assigning a punishment,
repentance is a reorientation of our life. It's a change of
direction back to God. It's a commitment to live differently.
This is the call of John the Baptist
today, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Turn
around. Change direction. Bear fruit worthy of repentance.
This is part of the reason why Advent
is known as a penitential season. The kingdom has come near. Christ
is coming. Now is the time to make a course correction. As in Lent,
we can use this time to prepare so that we will be ready to live out
and into a holy relationship with God when the time comes.
Last week I preached on the question,
“How much is too much?” In that sermon I asked/challenged you to
look at all the stuff generated by companies for us to purchase
supposedly to make our lives happier, and to consider scaling back.
Scale back on purchasing stuff for people who already have more than
enough and give more to people who have little. Scale back on food
and give the difference to the food bank. Scale back and listen for
God.
Today, I am going to suggest the
opposite. Advent is a time of holy expectation. It is a time when
we anticipate the coming of the Christ, both in the manger and in the
future. It is the time when we prepare for the in-breaking of the
one, holy, external, almighty God into our lives. With the Advent of
that event on the horizon, how would we act if we knew that this was
the year Jesus would physically arrive on the scene? I think we'd
repent.
Let's imagine Jesus will arrive this
year. Instead of scaling back and doing less in the name of a holy
and quiet Advent, I’m going to ask you to do more. Imagine more
peace, more joy, more hope, more justice, more
welcoming. This is the time to dream big.
In your pews are pieces of paper, and
pencils are in the book racks. First, jot down a quick list of what
you need and/or want to accomplish before Christmas – shopping,
decorating, hosting a party, attend-ing a concert or two, special
donations, whatever. Write down as much as you can on one side of
the paper.
Now, on the other side, write down your
dreams for a perfect Christmas. What does that day look like? What
do your relationships look like? What does this city, country and
world look like? Is there more understanding, more peace, more
equality, justice and safety? Is there less arguing, conflict,
death, hunger, disease and waste?
Maybe hearing the words of Isaiah from
the past two weeks might help: In days to come the mountain of the
Lord's house shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to
it. For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the
Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall
arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into
plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not
lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
. . . A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch
shall grow out of his roots. He shall not judge by what his eyes
see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall
judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth.
Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness
the belt around his loins. The wolf shall live with the lamb, the
leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the
fatling together.
Now take a look at what you've written.
Circle those things on your to-do list that directly contribute to
achieving your hopes and dreams of the perfect Christmas. Put
another way, what tasks on your to-do list contribute to establishing
the reign of God on earth?
The point of this little exercise is
twofold. First, it's hopefully a concrete way of showing where
repentance might take place. If repentance is a turning back to God,
a changing of direction, sometimes it's good to have the map of that
new direction in front of you.
Today John urges us to bear fruit
worthy of repentance. That fruit is the result of a new path or a
new direction that reflects the reign of Christ in our lives.
Second, we have heard many times, last
week included, about scaling back in Advent. Slow down, listen,
experience a holy Advent, are all admonitions from a variety of
sources helping us push back against the over-indulgence that often
pervades the holiday season.
But this exercise is about more,
not less. We believe in and proclaim a God of abundance, not of
scarcity. And I’m not talking prosperity gospel stuff here. I’m
talking about abundant love, abundant mercy, abundant justice,
abundant equality, abundant welcoming and the like. If our hopes and
dreams that we wrote down really do reflect a kingdom mentality, then
what would/could this place look like if we strove for more? Can we
get to a place where the abundance implied in “All are Welcome”
truly does dominate our thoughts and actions?
Every time we welcome a stranger, every
time we clothe, shelter and care for another, every time we look at a
person and see a child of God instead of “one of Those People,”
God's reign is that much closer. And every time we do this we repent
of those thoughts, words and deeds that separate us from God.
It just may be, then, that Advent is
about more – more hope, more joy, more welcoming, bigger
dreams for God and bigger visions for the kingdom.
It's Advent. Repent and bear much
fruit.
Amen
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