Rethinking Repentance
Dear Friends,
Last Sunday we began the Season of Advent, a time of preparation in the church’s liturgical year for the Christ who has come and is coming, not just in some far away time in the future, but in the everyday reality of right now. And as it is every year, our gospel reading for the Second Sunday in Advent tells of the wild figure of John the Baptist in the desert crying out, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”
Repentance as a means of preparation for Christmas has been all but lost on our to-do lists of decorate, bake, sparkle, and buy. (I know.) Repentance, a word that in the Greek and Hebrew means “a change of heart and mind” or “turning in the right direction,” is more commonly self in embodied in human life, John’s call to repentance in the areas of our life that are “missing the mark” invites us all to recollect who we are as created in God’s image and likeness.
At the heart of our festivities of good cheer, our hymns of holy longing, our extra gestures of kindness typical this time of year, our lights strung in the darkness, our gift-giving, our stories and the movies that touch us deeply—there is something in us that wants to remember, to understand what really matters, to make a way for new life. But in truth, that something is not easily packaged; it takes time and attention and quiet contemplation to realize our need and give ourselves over to God, again and again.
The practice of repentance recognizes that we miss the mark, get off track, mix up our priorities (all of which underlie the meaning of the word “sin”), both personally and collectively. Things are not the way they are meant to be. We have our part to confess. But we are not to get stuck there; as John the Baptist declares in our Gospel reading for this morning, “Bear fruit worthy of repentance.” As we act with mercy and forgiveness, with charity and justice, we experience God’s kingdom at hand, in the here and now, and can more genuinely celebrate with joy.
My invitation to you as we enter this second week of Advent is to take time each day to put down your to-do list. Enter your inner wilderness. Take a deep breath and pray for release of all that is clenching your heart, hurting you, others, and creation. Let whatever tears that may flow be your reminder of the water of John’s baptism into what is yet to be imagined. Through our messy, broken, and beloved lives may Christ, God’s Spirit, come into the world now.
In Christ,
Amelie
