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December 10, 2006: Second Sunday of Advent

Luke 3:1-6
"Repent!"

She looked great. The change was almost unbelievable. Sandra? Is that Sandra Grannitelli? My high school friends and I exclaimed at our class reunion. We who easily managed in high school to stay size 6's while living on a steady diet of Shoney Big Boy hamburgers, shoestring potato fries and Coke, The Real Thing. But now twenty years later we were all striving mightily to stay out of the plus sizes. Sandra Grannitelli? Naaah… THE Fat girl in our class? The girl who's school uniform it was rumored, was made by the nuns themselves—loose on Sandra in the fall, but by Easter, well all of us who've tried to wear clothes a size too small for us, get the picture.

But here she was! In the flesh, and a lot less flesh than what we remembered. Svelte. Lean, a radiant complexion. Better than any of us could have imagined, much less thought possible. Sandra's secret? With help from the 12 step group, Food Addicts Anonymous, Sandra turned away completely from wheat and food with sugar and turned towards a diet of whole grains, fruits, vegetables and protein. You don't go hungry she confided.

Of course not only did Sandra look better. She felt better! Better about herself, how she looked and more hopeful about what she had to live for. So as I talked with Sandra I learned the biggest change, the biggest turning away from death and towards life, was her inward disposition, her attitude. Any of us who have ever kicked addictions or bad habits, know of what she speaks.

I think of Sandra's transformation, when hearing today's gospel lesson about the word of God revealed to John the Baptist in the wilderness. Luke tells us the word of God John preaches is repent! Repent from your sins. Be baptized and receive forgiveness.

The biblical meaning of repentance is literally a turning, a change in direction. A change in direction like Sandra's. A change in direction on the magnitude of valleys rising up, and mountains being leveled. To repent from you sins is more than confessing your wrong behavior before God, and who ever you have wronged, saying you are sorry and asking for forgiveness. That is expressing remorse and acknowledging your guilt. To Repent is more than feeling bad about having done wrong. These are good first steps towards repentance, but it's not repentance the way the bible teaches us.

A wise pastor once pointed out that the chronic guilt we feel is the price we are willing to pay to avoid repenting--changing, turning our lives and behavior in the right direction. We would rather learn to live with the guilt and periodically ask for forgiveness than commit to the hard work of repenting, of turning our lives around, of actually changing our behavior! After all to raise up a valley or bring a mountain low is a humongous task that takes steadfast perseverance and time.

Repentance is a continual, ongoing attitude of orienting one's life towards the life God yearns for each of us to have. A life where we are reconciled with one another and our own demons and addictions that keep us from fully trusting and loving God and our neighbor as ourself. The Quaker Douglas Steere reminds us that to come near to the God of revealing love is to change. It is to repent! To turn away from behaviors and lifestyles which lead to death for us and our neighbors and turn towards, to respond positively to God's call and claim on our lives. When we understand repentance as an ongoing attitude of reorienting our behavior away from the addictions, the sins, that bind us and towards God, then sin becomes not simply a set of behaviors to be avoided, but rather, sin is a way of life to be exposed and changed by our repenting, by turning our direction toward God and the life God would have us live. Or said another way, sin is not so much a violation of laws, but the violation of relationships, our relationship with God through Jesus Christ and our relationship with our self and others. Sin is not following the Great commandment to love God with our whole heart, mind and soul, and loving our neighbors as ourselves. And repentance begins with our decision to re turn to right relationship, to live as reconciled people. It often involves making amends to folks we've wronged.

The four weeks of preparation for Christ's birth on Christmas is all about our turning away from superficial concerns, worldly priorities that can easily consume us this time of year. As we prepare our hearts and mind's for Our Lord's special presence with us in the sacrament of Holy Communion, I invite you to ponder what in your life is God inviting you to turn away from? What are your addictions, your sins that inhibit living a life of wholeness, of holiness? What do you need to turn away from, repent from, so that, as Paul tells us in today's epistle lesson God can complete the good work God began in you at your creation? For as Sandra Grannitelli proudly proclaimed. “it's never too late.”