Repent

Reverend Philip Stringer

Isaiah 11:1-10

Matthew 3:1-12

LET US PRAY: Come, Lord Jesus -- and fill us with expectant waiting. Give us ears that hear your coming and receiving hearts. Come and lead us into the world to serve you, as we watch and pray for your coming in Glory. AMEN

The people of Calgary, Canada, had a few hours of excitement when a full-grown bull moose wandered into the suburbs and got lost among the houses. After two hours of trying to coax the magnificent and massive animal from one owner’s backyard, the Fish and Wildlife officer finally shot a tranquilizer at it. The moose bolted down the lane and eventually collapsed on someone else's lawn. The reporters who had been following these events interviewed the lady at that house. They asked what she thought about the moose which was passed out on her lawn. "I'm surprised," she answered, “but not as surprised as my husband will be. He's out moose hunting."

Advent is called a season of watching -- a season of looking for the coming of God. The story of the moose on the front lawn seems to illustrate pretty well the danger we face when we go looking for God. I wonder if we often aren't like the moose hunter who went out looking for his prize and came home later only to find it was in his own front yard.

We are told in our gospel reading that the people of Jerusalem, all Judea and the region around the Jordan were coming out to the wilderness to be baptized by John. They went to him because they were looking for something — they were hungering for something — someone — to give them hope. They were looking for assurance, and deliverance and promises. And they wanted it so badly that they left their homes in the cities and went out to a wild man in the wilderness who ate locusts and honey and preached flamboyantly about the purging fires of judgment.

But when they came to him looking for their answers, John told them, “It’s good that you have come -- but your answers aren't here. I'm not what you're looking for. All I have are words and some water. All I can do is get you to think and I can help you to look in the right place. But I will tell you, now is the time to look and to watch -- for the one you are looking for is coming -- and repentance is the beginning of understanding what he is all about.

What John said to them is a message for us, too. What is proclaimed to us today is: To find what you’re looking for is easy; just turn around. The kingdom of God has come near.

Christ did come, as John promised and Christ is revealed to us. But still, in our daily lives, we must seek him out. The season of Advent, the first season of the church year sets the framework for the rest of our year and reminds us that the first order of business is to look for Jesus. Seek after his kingdom. Search for the living God who comes for you. And still -- just as in John's day -- repentance is the beginning of understanding what he is all about.

The more one takes the search seriously, the more one discovers that it is a life-long quest that is not so much a searching for Christ as it is a searching out the desires and expectations of our own hearts. Jesus calls us to come looking, but not because he is lost. Our seeking after him isn't a bizarre game of hide-and-seek. Instead, he reveals to us through our seeking that, although he is plainly here, our expectations of him, and the desires of our hearts often cause us to overlook him and seek our satisfaction elsewhere. That's why repentance is so important. Repentance is a turning around -- it is like coming home again to the place where Christ first meets us.

"Repent," John cries out, "for the kingdom of God has come near." Come home -- for the kingdom of God isn't out there in whatever place you are headed to.

Jed Harris was a famous movie and theater producer in the early-to-mid 20th century. He was notoriously demanding and hard to please — which might explain why he was married three times — once for one year, once for 2 years and once for 4 years. He became convinced that he was losing his hearing, so he went to a specialist, who gave him a thorough checkup. The doctor didn’t see anything obviously wrong, so he pulled out a pocket watch and asked, "Can you hear this ticking?" Harris said, "Of course." The specialist walked to the door and held up the watch again. "Now can you hear it?" Harris concentrated and said, "Yes, I can hear it clearly." The doctor walked out the door into the next room and said, "Can you hear it now?" Harris said, “Yes." The doctor said, "Mr. Harris, there is nothing wrong with your hearing; You just don't listen."

The call of John the Baptist is simple and clear in its meaning -- perhaps too simple for us to take it seriously(?) Maybe it's so simple that we just don’t listen. Maybe we insist that happiness and fullness of life can only come by a great effort on our part to work for it and achieve it through dedication, career planning, and elbow-grease.

Is it too simple for us to believe that the fullness of life is in the kingdom of God, and that the kingdom of God is already among us?

Is it too simple for us to believe that where two or three are gathered in Jesus’ name, he is there?

Is that too simple for us to hear?

"Turn around” says John. "The kingdom of God is back here."

The Scribes and Pharisees had a hard time with this concept, as you might expect. They had dedicated their lives to the idea that righteousness was the result of hard work and careful living. There were strict laws to be followed, and those who fell short of the law, fell short of God's favor.

That's why John reacted with surprise when they came out to him in the wilderness. These guys didn't think they needed to repent, so why were they coming for baptism? To them, life was a game with winners and losers, and they were convinced that they were on the winning team. They taught that the holy life was a solitary journey of self-disciplined righteousness. They taught that a holy life was one lived according to laws.

But when Jesus came, he taught that the holy life is one lived according to love -- in particular, love that issues forth by way of a relationship with the Father. Jesus taught that the holy life is one that is rooted in love for one’s neighbor. That turns the whole meaning of life upside down.

Some friends came to C. S. Lewis, begging him to play cards with them. And they always played for money. C. S. Lewis hated to play cards, for one thing — But he especially hated playing for money. So, he’d say to his friends, “Okay! How much money do you want to win from me?” And then he’d pull out his wallet, and stuff some bills into their hands. It kind of took the fun out of the game!

In our human games of wheeling and dealing, we want to be the winners, and that often means someone else has to be the loser. The way to know you are a success is to judge someone else to be a failure. That’s what the Scribes and Pharisees were counting on -- winning a game with rules -- a game of laws. But John said that the only way to win is not to play the game. Live by love, not by law.

Repentance is an expression of remorse over the breaking of relationship. It is an expression of desire to restore relationship. To repent is to long for relationship -- and the foundation of relationship is love.

That's why John speaks of repentance as the beginning of a new life. Not because it's a legalistic ritual that earns salvation, but because repentance is about understanding relationship. If we are going to understand Jesus and his kingdom, we are going to have to see that he came out of love. It's just that simple. He came because God loves us and wants to restore us to the life God intended for us from the beginning.

We begin our worship service with a confession -- not because it is a formal/technical way to pay for our sins and thereby earn forgiveness, but because when we sin, we break relationship -- and to confess is to say, "I want the relationship back. I want to be restored to you." And when we come to this realization, God already waits with an answer. "Yes. I want the relationship back, too -- so badly, that my arms have been open to you all along."

John called the people to repentance, because repentance, turning about draws one into a different way of relating to others and relating to God. God's plan for us is that we live in relationship with each other and with God. It is here, in our midst that we will find the kingdom -- it is here in our midst that we will find Christ dwelling with us. It is not complicated. But are we listening?

Sin is the breaking of relationship. It is the seeking of the fullness of life on our own terms, where it cannot be found. Repentance is the return to relationship. Repentance is the beginning of understanding that Jesus is about restored relationship.

We come together and confess that we have sought our own selfish paths. The words of absolution that the pastor speaks assure us that he who has gathered us into one body through our baptism, gathers us still. Around one table we share one bread with each other. And in our midst as we look into the faces of one another, we find one Lord and savior of all.

In our season of Advent -- our season of active watching for the coming of the Lord, John the Baptist calls to us with a simple message: To find what you’re looking for is easy; just turn around. The kingdom of God has come near.

"Repent -- come back. For the kingdom of God has come near."

AMEN