Readings for 2 Advent: C
December 7, 2003
The Rev. Mary B. Blessing
St. Jude the Apostle Episcopal Church, Cupertino,
CA
Here we are in the second week of Advent. A time indicating the "coming" of Christ. In the early church, Advent was more like Lent-a time of penitential preparation. Believers prepared themselves for the coming Christ by fasting, going to confession, and generally cleansing themselves of the concerns of this world. We are not as strict about these rituals anymore. But today's gospel lesson clearly demands our attention as it calls us to repentance.
John the Baptist cries out, demanding we stop and think about what we are doing. Are we centered on God and God's ways? Or are we blindly trudging up a foggy mountain oblivious to our trail's end?
Some of us are traveling down the highway of life unaware that we entered the wrong way! Maybe we got on the freeway in "pea-soup" FOG-unable to see the front of our car. Unable to see the warning sign "Do not enter-wrong way". We think we are on the right road, but we spend all our time looking straight down at our feet--not looking up toward where we are headed. It's foggy up ahead. If we keep cruising down the wrong way, sooner or later we are bound to hit someone or something. CRASH! Of course, I mean this metaphorically, but let me tell you a true story.
Once when I was a small child, my family was driving home on Hiway 1, the Pacific Coast Hiway along the beach towns south of Los Angeles. The dark night had turned into a gray, "toolie fog". We saw nothing past the hood of the car. There were no "bots dots" to keep us in our lanes. My dad tried to play it safe and drive along the right shoulder. He literally opened his driver's side door and followed the solid line painted on the road. We inched along. We were safe as long as we kept to the right of that line.
But somewhere, after about 20 long minutes of feeling like we had gotten no where, my mom decided to look down on the passenger side of the street. In horror, she discovered there was a broken painted strip on her side of the car! My dad was carefully following the markings all the way over on the opposite side of the road, for the oncoming traffic, not the shoulder lane for our side of the road! My dad carefully turned the card back over to our side on the shoulder. Moments later an oncoming vehicle came barreling through the gray glow where we had just been driving. By the grace of God, mom's warning turned us away from certain tragedy. Something inside said, "Stop, take a good look at where you are going."
John the Baptist wanders the countryside, byways and hiways of Jordan, proclaiming to all "Stop what you are doing. Pay attention. Turn around. You are headed the wrong direction. Your path has curved. You have turned away from God. You have turned away from the One who offers new life through forgiveness. Turn around. Repent. Look again. God will clear the path. There will be no obstacles in your way if you turn toward God. Turn toward God and your fog will lift. Ask, and you will receive forgiveness of sins. Repent, and the light of Christ will lead the way."
John the Baptist is a biblical figure, and an historical figure, mentioned by the 1st century historian, Josephus. John was "A good man who exhorted his fellow Jews to live righteously and practice justice and piety. Josephus observes that John baptized, or washed people in a ritualistic way, as a "Godly parallel to inward cleansing…" (Anchor Bible Dictionary, vol. 3, p. 887.) What were Jews of John's time doing that showed they were not living righteously? First and foremost, they were not worshipping God. Oh, they may have gone to temple offering a sacrifice to God. They may have faithfully followed rituals and recited prayers. But, John notes, they were not turned inwardly toward God. They may have been following the law of Moses, but they were not following the spirit of the law--to love God and love neighbor. Some were not following God's commandments. Many had turned away from the God of Israel and worshipped other gods. Some submitted to the unspeakable and, in order to fit into Roman society, paid homage to the Emperor. Others were selfish and greedy. They committed adultery, they dishonored their mothers and their fathers, they coveted their neighbors' wives and things. In some cases they killed for no reason, and lied about it. They stopped caring for widows and orphans, they did not offer food for the poor. To sum it all up, they had turned away from God.
John was a "voice crying out from the wilderness" repeating what the prophet Isaiah said, demanding they seek repentance. John offered an opportunity to ask for forgiveness and mean it. If they made this inward shift of the soul, he baptized them with a full cleansing in the Jordan River. From the peasant on the street, to the Pharisee in the Temple, all the way to Herod, who wanted to be, but never was "King of the Jews", John presented the challenge to repent. Many listened to John, turned their lives around, and asked for forgiveness. John washed them as a sign of inner cleansing.
We have talked often here at St. Jude's about forgiveness. Each week we seek a general confession of sin. We recite the Lord's prayer and ask that our sins be forgiven as we forgive those who sin against us. We value the important work of Frederick Luskin's "Forgiveness Project" at Stanford. We know we can live healthier lives if we do as Dr. Luskin suggests, and "Forgive for Good."
We speak of offering forgiveness, but we don't talk much about how to ask for forgiveness. We don't speak much of repentance.
John the Baptist speaks of repentance. Our repentance. In order to turn our lives around and clear the fog hanging over our heads and enshrouding our hearts, we need to ask to be forgiven. We need to ask persons whom we harmed if they will forgive us. We need to ask God to forgive us. When we ask to be forgiven, a fog lifts from our soul. When we repent, we turn around, and we are forgiven.
The Episcopal church does not ask you to be literally baptized with water again, but we are called to cleanse our hearts for sinning against God and neighbor. As the holiday season unfolds, many of us are burdened by the sadness of hurt we have caused. We are in need of asking for forgiveness in order to clear the air. How about your life? Are you lost in a fog on a hiway to know where? Deep within do you suffer from holding grudges that keep you from a clear path toward truth and spiritual wholeness? Are there people you have harmed whom you know you need to ask for forgiveness? Can you do it this Advent? It is difficult to go to persons whom you have hurt and ask them to forgive you. Yet God has given you the means by which to get that strength you need. God has already given you Christ, the one who heals all wounds. There is no sin you have committed that has not already been forgiven by Christ. Ask God first for the grace of Christ's forgiveness, then go to those whom you harmed, and ask their forgiveness. Chances are, they are waiting to forgive you. When you do this, Christ comes and fills both your hearts with Love.
Following the death of my dad in 1984, my brothers, my sister and my mother and I seemed to be blaming one another for everything-Blame, a common behavior in grief. Somehow I realized we needed to get out of the blame mode and into the repentance mode, or we would never move on. So I wrote a poem and sent it to my family. I share it with you in hopes you to can repent, and turn back to God in love. This is how the coming of Christ is fulfilled not just in your life, but in all the world.
AMEN
Forgiveness
Begins with me, asking you,
asking God, accepting mine,
receiving yours.Love away your hate.
Embrace peace,
start within, forgiving self,
standing firm and strong.Give your for-give-ness,
accept our Father's
God our Father forgives before we know to ask,
we must accept;
there is no receiving without acceptance.Sister against sister,
Brother against brother,
cannot love without Father.
Choose God's perspective:
He love, He is love.Love is here now, each instant.
Express love with acceptance of others.
There is no love--for us--without forgiveness.Peace, love, happiness,
begin with forgiveness.Mary Brunner Blessing, November 1984
| Updated 12/7/03 |
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