"Repentance and forgiveness," 12.23.12

Isaiah 40:1-11

Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. ²Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

³A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. ⁴Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. ⁵Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” ⁶A voice says, “Cry out!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field. ⁷The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass. ⁸The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.

⁹Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!” ¹⁰See, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. ¹¹He 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.

Luke 3:1-18

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, ²during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.

³He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, ⁴as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. ⁵Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; ⁶and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”

⁷John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? ⁸Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. ⁹Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

¹⁰And the crowds asked him, “What then should we do?” ¹¹In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” ¹²Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?” ¹³He said to them, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.” ¹⁴Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what should we do?” He said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.”

¹⁵As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, ¹⁶John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹⁷His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” ¹⁸So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.

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            I’ve got good news for you and bad news. We’ll start with the good news: God loves you and welcomes you into his kingdom. That’s the best news. God welcomes us with open arms. The Lord is waiting to pardon our sin, to throw out all the garbage that stands between us and God. God is ready to set the past aside and welcome us into a future free from judgment and shame and guilt. God is ready to do that right now for you; for everyone. That’s a fact.

            The bad news is that you need to change. I need to change too. We need to repent, which means to turn around. We need a fundamental change in the way we approach life, the future, God and everything else. Repentance and forgiveness go together, but not always in the way we expect.

            Often we have this image of God like a strict father. He stands over us and makes us say we’re sorry with the threat of punishment in the background. A lot of people go to church because they are worried they will go to hell if they don’t. Behind door number 1 is saying we’re sorry, forgiveness, following the rules, going to church, and finally, going to heaven. Behind door number 2 is having fun, not following the rules, not going to church and finally, hell.

That’s a theology of punishments and rewards. There are some pretty huge problems with this theology. There’s some truth to it, but it’s not the freeing, joyful, transformative life God calls us to. Thinking about our relationship with God that way leads to questions like: what’s the least I can believe and still go to heaven? Can I repent at the last minute before I die? Why does God let people who repent at the last minute into heaven the same way as those of us who have been going to church for years? What do we get for following God for our whole life.

            There are definitely times the Bible talks in terms of rewards and punishments. Our passage from Luke is one of them. John paints our choices in stark terms: God comes to judge, to gather the wheat into the granary and to burn the chaff with unquenchable fire. John calls the audience to choose between blessing and curse, life or death, wheat or chaff.

            It sounds like a simple choice, and in some ways it is, but there’s more to it than that. We can only repent because God opens the door for us. God’s grace comes first: before our first confession, before our repentance, before our first breath. God’s grace, God’s amazing love for us paves the way for us to realize our mistakes and turn around.

           

Even the call to confession is grace filled; that’s part of why Luke says John is preaching good news to the people. Even in John’s challenging words and his call to repent and change their lives the people recognized something important. His message touched them, so people came from all over to be baptized. They recognized that they were not right with God, and they felt John had a way to come back home.

"Expecting a child in a broken world," 12.16.12

Luke 1:5-25

In the days of King Herod of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly order of Abijah. His wife was a descendant of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. Both of them were righteous before God, living blamelessly according to all the commandments and regulations of the Lord. But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were getting on in years. Once when he was serving as priest before God and his section was on duty, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and offer incense.

Now at the time of the incense offering, the whole assembly of the people was praying outside. Then there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was terrified; and fear overwhelmed him.

But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John. You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He must never drink wine or strong drink; even before his birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit. He will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. With the spirit and power of Elijah he will go before him, to turn the hearts of parents to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

Zechariah said to the angel, “How will I know that this is so? For I am an old man, and my wife is getting on in years.” The angel replied, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. But now, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time, you will become mute, unable to speak, until the day these things occur.

”Meanwhile the people were waiting for Zechariah, and wondered at his delay in the sanctuary. When he did come out, he could not speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary. He kept motioning to them and remained unable to speak. When his time of service was ended, he went to his home. After those days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she remained in seclusion. She said, “This is what the Lord has done for me when he looked favorably on me and took away the disgrace I have endured among my people.”

Luke 1:26-45

²⁶In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, ²⁷to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” ²⁹But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. ³⁰The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. ³¹And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. ³²He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. ³³He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

³⁴Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” ³⁵The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. ³⁶And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. ³⁷For nothing will be impossible with God.” ³⁸Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

³⁹In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, ⁴⁰where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. ⁴¹When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit ⁴²and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. ⁴³And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? ⁴⁴For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. ⁴⁵And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”

Luke 1:57-66

⁵⁷Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. ⁵⁸Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. ⁵⁹On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him Zechariah after his father. ⁶⁰But his mother said, “No; he is to be called John.” ⁶¹They said to her, “None of your relatives has this name.”

⁶²Then they began motioning to his father to find out what name he wanted to give him. ⁶³He asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And all of them were amazed. ⁶⁴Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue freed, and he began to speak, praising God. ⁶⁵Fear came over all their neighbors, and all these things were talked about throughout the entire hill country of Judea. ⁶⁶All who heard them pondered them and said, “What then will this child become?” For, indeed, the hand of the Lord was with him.

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            This week has been a stark reminder that the world is broken. There’s nothing I can say that will explain the tragedy in Connecticut. It’s hard to make sense of a world where children are massacred at school. Nothing can make that OK.

I can’t tell you why tragedy happens. I do not believe it is God’s will. I can’t tell you why God lets things like that happen. What I know is that the world is broken and God weeps over that brokenness. I’ve got an opinion on gun policy like you probably do. Inadequate access to mental health care is part of the problem, as is our culture’s fascination with violence and our decreased ability to get along with people with whom we disagree. The pieces of this puzzle are complex and there is not an easy solution.

A tragedy like this one in a place that seems so normal and safe shakes our assumptions about what normal and safe means. But the truth is that innocent kids die every day in staggering numbers. As some of the most vulnerable members of society, kids are often the ones who suffer for our sin and our mistakes. Daily, about 20,000 kids under 5 die worldwide from preventable causes like malnutrition, malaria and other diseases you and I never have to think about, mostly in the so-called third world.

Part of the problem is that those of us in wealthy and powerful countries feel far away from third world poverty, so we put a higher priority on our dinner reservation or Christmas shopping than on the lives of the children who will die tomorrow or next week. Some of those closer to the problem see opportunity for themselves in aid money rather than a responsibility to make sure it gets where it should go. Other issues of responsibility, dependency, economics, psychology, race and politics also get between resources and those in need. The common theme across the world is that those with the least power suffer first and most.

With so much trouble in the world it almost seems silly to open an old story like the Bible today. The truth is, we need to light candles most when it’s dark, and we need to sing songs of hope most when the world doesn’t make sense. The truth is the story of God’s love and promise in the Bible, is closely connected with children in Connecticut and children in Africa. God created this beautiful world. God weeps over violence and misery, and God sent his son Jesus to bring new hope and a clearer vision of love into our troubled world. Through Christ’s life, God knows the pain of losing a child to a violent death. God sees the terror and heartbreak on the faces of children and teachers in a suburban school and in a rural village where clean water seems like an impossible dream.

In a world where power speaks loudly and violence is assumed, God’s story began a new chapter in a conquered piece of desert. Zechariah was a priest. He and his wife Elizabeth were probably respected in their town, but Elizabeth was also shamed for not having kids. Mary and Joseph were regular folks from a small town in the middle of nowhere.

God stepped into these ordinary lives to keep the promise of redemption. The Angel Gabriel came to Zechariah to tell him the hope he’d given up on, the hope of being a father was coming true. Not only would Zechariah have a son, he’d have a son who would get people ready for the Lord, a son with an important role to play in God’s story of grace. While Zechariah is doubtful at first, when his son is born he praises God aloud with strong and grateful faith.