02202021 – Mark 1. 9-15
REPENT is the “OPERATIVE WORD” for this First Sunday in Lent.
REPENT does not mean “breast-beating and lamentation.” NO tears. NO drama.
NO crying out to God. No sobbing. No tears of remorse.
It literally means to re-THINK; to put some QUIET TIME aside; to STOP; to interrupt our ROUTINES; to re-ASSESS and to re-ADJUST our PRIORITIES and our sometimes-ridiculous BEHAVIOR.
It is an “action,” something we DO or DO NOT DO. Something we EMBRACE or something we IGNORE.
For all intents and purpose – it is like “TAKING A BREAK.”
Sorry, not a break FROM God.
But rather, if anything, a break “TO GOD.”
A RETURN, if you will.
It is a NEED, a DESIRE…to REORDER our lives and to bring them back in line with God’s plan for us.
Lord KNOWS, we must constantly REPENT to get ourselves right with God. CONSTANTLY.
The tendency (of course) is to BACKSLIDE. We are good at BACKSLIDDING.
You know, to “LAPSE.” To go in the opposite direction. To “RETROGRESS,” to go “ASTRAY,” to “DETERIORATE.”
“Relapsing,” you know what that is like.
For whatever reason we “revert back.” Just slip-sliding-away…AGAIN.
As we begin “this SEASON of REPENTANCE,” we are reminded that “OUR” FORGIVENESS is “conditional.”
Gods’ is NOT.
OUR FORGIVENESS depends on OUR capacity and OUR willingness to forgive… to PURGE ourselves of GRUDGES, RESENTMENTS, HATREDS… the POISONS that destroy families, friendships, communities, and even nations.
How many SLIGHTS and HURTS AND WOUNDS are still FRESH in our minds?
You would be surprised WHAT WE REMEMBER!
How many WOUNDS do we carry around with us waiting for PAYBACK TIME?
What a burden! What a waste!
Hate HARMS the hated, but it DESTROYS the hater.
FAILURE TO FORGIVE makes us slaves to the PAST and blind to the FUTURE.
To “jump start Lent” … to repent… we should “clean out our spiritual attics, CLOSETS, and basements.
We must DUMP the SPITEFUL JUNK that has been piling up… reminding us of past SLIGHTS and FESTERING HUMILIATIONS and petty embarrassments.
We must let in the FRESH AIR and SUNLIGHT of grace. We must FORGIVE OR SUFFER THE consequences.
Then, see what a difference it makes… to be REFRESHED AND RENEWED… to confidently AWAIT the coming of the RISEN CHRIST AND LORD free from garbage and excess baggage.
From the time of Abraham, the chosen people had also WAITED for the Christ… for the Messiah…for THE ANOINTED ONE…for the Kingdom of God.
They were NOT QUITE SURE what that meant; but they KNEW that God had something HUGE in store for them.
Then, Jesus comes along, and tells them that their time of waiting is AT AN END.
He is the Messiah… the Promised One of God. Doubtless, he IS NOT what they expected. But God knew better. The kingdom he promised WAS NOT a “TRIUMPHANT WARRIOR KINGDOM.”
It was not a FEUDAL SYSTEM where one neighbor gets to LORD IT OVER ANOTHER. IT IS a KINGDOM of LOVE.
It is a FAMILY where we all have EQUAL ACCESS to our loving God, and we all SHARE a responsibility to LOVE EACH OTHER.
That the kingdom was, and is, NEAR, has sparked two millennia of SPECULATION: little of it VERY PRODUCTIVE.
In Christ, God IS NOT remote, NOT unapproachable…NOT DISTANT. He is TO BE a PALPABLE presence in our lives. He is NEAR.
These ARE precious days. PRECIOUS MOMENTS. Let us not waste any time. REPENT.
BANISH ALL HATRED and rejoice in the relief that brings. For the next forty days let us live IN HIS kingdom. SHARE HIS love. SPREAD HIS good news. AND let us EMBRACE HIM. It is Lent, you know…
AMEN.