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Advent 3 - Thursday
By Pat Lee | December 18, 2008
Thursday December 18, 2008
Repent
Scripture Reading: Matthew 3:1-11
Scripture Verse: Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist”
We move forward some 30 years. “Repent” proclaims the adult John, to get ready for the coming of Jesus.
Repent means to change, to be different. Change from what? From all that keeps us from being all that God intends us to be, from all that keeps the world from being all it can be.
It can be helpful the think of the “Big Repentance” and “little repentances”. The “Big Repentance” is to turn away from living a life in which God doesn’t matter to us and turning to a life in which we want God and God’s ways to touch our hearts and shape the way we live life. This “turning around” is the repentance to leads to the new life/new creation experienced in baptism when we are born anew as children of God.
The “little repentances” are the daily struggles we have to do the right actions that are in alignment with God’s will as expressed in Jesus. The crowds asked John, “What then should we do?” (Luke 3:10-14) Today John might say things like, “Be honest in your work and in you dealings with people; be generous with what God had given you; respect one another—especially those with whom we have a difference of opinion etc.”
If we take those daily repentances seriously, we discover that our culture pressures us to conform to its values of unrelenting self-interest. Often “little repentances” can be a struggle because issues are rarely black and white…the right way and the wrong way are not always clear…two “goods” or two “evils” often seem to compete or because it is difficult to see the value of a sacrifice we might be called to make. The “little repentances” are our daily struggle.
The Anglo-Saxon root of the word “merry”, as in “Merry Christmas”, means not only mirth-filled but also “mighty”. Robin Hood’s Merry Men were strong and gallant. Jesus came at Christmas not only for happy times but also to help us be “mighty” in our struggles.
Prayer Loving God, we thank you that, in Jesus, you became one of us so that we, with the help of your Holy Spirit, could live more like him. Amen
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