The Direction of Repentance

The Church of St. Paul & Incarnation, Jersey City NJ

December 8, 2019

Year A: The Second Sunday of Advent

Isaiah 11:1-10

Psalm 72: 1-7, 18-19

Romans 15:4-13

Matthew 3:1-12

The Direction of Repentance

            The second Sunday of our Advent journey begins with more of the Prophet Isaiah’s vision of a transformed world.

Isaiah envisions a world ruled by a righteous and faithful descendant of Jesse and King David, a leader who will side with the poor and strike down the wicked.

Isaiah envisions a world of peace and safety where hunter and prey, wolves and lambs, live in harmony, and where the most vulnerable of us – the nursing child – can live in a world free of danger.

It’s a beautiful vision, isn’t it?

It’s a vision that has inspired people for thousands of years.

It’s a vision that we Christians see beginning to come true in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

But, you don’t need to be particularly alert or well informed to know that Isaiah’s vision of a transformed world, his vision of a world of peace and safety, his vision of a world where children are out of harm’s way, is still far beyond our grasp.

Here and now we live in a world where angry men armed to the teeth open fire on people in schools or churches or synagogues or movie theaters or even military bases (as we saw twice last week), killing or injuring people who were just going about their day until random violence changed everything.

Here and now we live in a world where drivers race up and down Kennedy Boulevard, seemingly unconcerned about their fellow drivers and pedestrians and all too often causing destruction and death as happened just around the corner from here early Friday morning.

Here and now we live in a country where tax cuts make the rich even richer and programs like food stamps get cut, making life for the poor, especially poor children, that much harder.

Here and now we live in a place where the Family Promise families many of us met just a couple of weeks ago – those wonderful children - have no place to live, except for church basements and Sunday School classrooms.

Here and now we live in a place where each of the 80 plus tags on our giving tree represented a child whose parents aren’t able to provide them with much of a Christmas at all.

But, but…thanks to Isaiah – and thanks most of all to Jesus – we can glimpse that transformed world – we can see the way things were always meant to be – we can envision our final destination.

But, how do we get there?

We need directions.

We need direction.

Enter John the Baptist.

We’re told that John dressed in a way that would have reminded people of Elijah, that important figure from the past who was expected to someday return.

We’re told that John ate nothing but locusts and wild honey – totally avoiding what we might today call “processed foods,” and signaling his total dependence on God.

We Christians mostly think of John as preparing the way for Jesus, but in his day John seems to have been well known and highly respected in his own right, attracting large crowds to the River Jordan to hear him preach and, most of all, to be baptized by him.

I have to admit that as someone who spends a good bit of time thinking about how to attract people to religious services, John’s success is kind of surprising to me because his message is so challenging:

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

Repent!

And, repentance is not just confessing our sins and asking forgiveness, though that’s part of it.

Repentance is a change of heart and mind.

Repentance is living our lives in a very different way.

Repentance is the direction that will get us to our final destination.

But, true repentance isn’t easy – it can only be done with God’s help – and some people both then and now are not willing even try to change direction.

Maybe that’s what was going on with the Pharisees and Sadducees.

As we heard today, John really lets them have it, calling them, “You brood of vipers!”

It’s hard to know exactly why John was so unhappy to see those people who we might today call “religious professionals” but maybe it’s because he knew that they weren’t willing to follow the direction of repentance – maybe he knew they were just there to watch or even to make fun, thinking that they had everything all figured out, that, thanks to their pedigree, everything was good between God and them.

We know the type, right?

But, back then, a lot more people knew that they didn’t have everything figured out, that they were heading in the wrong direction, and so they came to John and they repented – they changed direction – or, rather, they allowed God to change their direction, they were dunked in the Jordan symbolizing their fresh start and then they headed off, continuing their journeys.

And, things are not so different today.

We don’t have everything figured out and it often feels like we are headed in the wrong direction, both individually and as a society.

But, the direction of repentance is before us – allowing God to change our hearts and minds – allowing God to change our lives – allowing God to get us on our way to our final destination.

And, you know, when I look around here I see signs that we are on our way.

Even under less than perfect circumstances, our Family Promise guests were so well cared for. In fact, I know they were sorry to move on.

And, then there’s our giving tree.

Our friends at Garden State Episcopal knew that they sent us way more tags than we’ve gotten in the past. The need is so great. But, they told us that they understood if we couldn’t manage to take care of them all.

Frankly, knowing that so many of our parishioners struggle to pay the bills and provide for their families, I wasn’t so sure we could do it.

But, with the help of a few neighbors, every single one of those 80 plus tags was taken! In fact, a neighbor came by on Sunday evening to take a tag and we both looked at the bare tree in surprise and wonder.

And so it seems to me that by providing some Christmas joy for children and families we don’t know and will probably never meet, we have already made a beautiful Advent journey, taking a few more steps in the direction of repentance, on our way to the transformed world envisioned by the Prophet Isaiah, the transformed world proclaimed by John the Baptist – the transformed world begun by Jesus Christ.

Amen.