Turning

What are we supposed to do during the season of Advent? Oh, I know, it's a time of waiting. But is waiting all we're supposed to do? Isn't there something else? John the Baptist tells us to repent. Maybe we should take him more seriously than we usually do.

Repent! Repent!

I don’t know what image the word “repent” brings to your mind, but I can tell you what it brings to mine. I imagine a Bible-waving, pulpit-thumping, hellfire and damnation preacher who reminds his congregation week after week how terrible they are, and how they need to change their ways if they want to escape the wrath of God. John the Baptist from this morning’s reading (Matthew 3:1-6) fits that image very nicely. Wearing clothing made of camel’s hair and eating nothing but locusts and wild honey, he is the very picture of one of those Bible-thumpers. “Repent!” he tells his audience. “The kingdom of heaven is nearly here!”

So, what is this text doing in Advent? It seems to fit much better into Lent than into Advent! Lent is, after all, the time to examine our lives; to discover how far we have strayed from what God wants of us. Advent isn’t the time for that, is it? Advent is the time of waiting for the Messiah to arrive, the One who will heal the sick, mend the broken, and bring hope to the hopeless. So… what does repentance have to do with Advent?

Before I can answer that question, we need to take a closer look at what repentance really is. Many people understand “repentance” as being sorry for something. If Chuck whacks little Susie because she made fun of him, and Chuck’s mother finds out, she will certainly make sure that he is sorry for what he did! But Chuck hasn’t necessarily repented. Chuck only repents if he vows not to hit Susie again in the future, no matter how obnoxious she may be! Repentance isn’t merely being sorry; it’s changing our behavior. The New Testament Greek word that we translate into English as “repent” actually means “to change your mind.” That’s what John the Baptist is telling his audience to do: change their minds! Change your mind, Chuck, about what to do when Susie is her little obnoxious self! Don’t just be sorry about hitting her; do things differently in the future! Looking back even farther, the Old Testament Hebrew word that we translate as “repent” means “to turn.” When we truly repent, we go in a different direction. Don’t keep following the path of violence, Chuck! You don’t even have to be sorry about hitting Susie in the past; it’s avoiding that path in the future that really counts.

Now I can start to answer the question: “What does repentance have to do with Advent?” We know that Advent is the time that we recognize that the world is broken, and that we need a Messiah to help us fix things. It should be painfully obvious that the way we live isn’t working! Like little Chuck, we are violent; and we are jealous, greedy, and hateful, too. Oh, we may not have murdered anybody recently; but didn’t you want to smack that guy who cut you off in traffic this morning? But all the while, in our heart of hearts, we know that kind of behavior is counter-productive! Jealously breeds greed; greed breeds hate; hate breeds violence; and violence breeds death. Surely, no one wants to live that way! But to be able to welcome the Messiah, we need to turn from those paths onto a new path. We need to repent.

And there is another, even more deadly consequence if we insist on walking in these ancient paths. If we don’t turn from our ways, we won’t even see the Messiah; because he isn’t arriving on the path of power or violence or greed or hate. the path of power is ultimately futile, so he comes walking on the path of humility; the path of greed leads nowhere, so he comes walking on the path of generosity; the path of hate isn’t in God’s nature, so he comes walking on the path of love; and the path of violence is evil, so he comes walking on the path of peace. If we continue to look for him where he will never be, we aren’t likely to see him, let alone recognize him, when he breaks into our lives!

“But pastor,” you may say, “when the Messiah comes, he will bring us all those things: humility, generosity, love, and peace. Why does it matter which path we are on now?” Early in the last century, A. J. Muste, a Congregationalist clergyman, gave the answer to that question briefly and honestly. “There is no way to peace,” he said. “Peace is the way.” We will only be able to receive what the Messiah has to offer us if we turn to the paths that he walks himself. “There is no way to peace. Peace is the way.” We might have also add: there is no way to humility; humility is the way. There is no way to generosity; generosity is the way. And there is no way to love; love is the way. If we focus only on the place that we want to end up, we will miss the truth that the Messiah’s healing takes place on our journey.

So, during this Advent season, repent! Change your mind! As we wait for the Messiah to arrive among us, turn away from the paths of death toward the paths of life! And when our humble, generous, loving, peaceful Messiah is born in a barn to peasant parents, you will recognize him right away for the Savior that he is.