Third Sunday in Advent Zephaniah 3:14-20 & Luke 3:15-18 Zephaniah 3:14-20 & Luke 3:15-18 December 13, 2009

       
                                                                                           3Advent2009                          Zephaniah 3:14-20 & Luke 3:15-18                   December 13, 2009

We can tell by today’s Gospel reading that John the Baptist wasn’t keen on manners. He called the very crowd that followed him a “brood of vipers.”  I Googled “brood of vipers” to see what would come up.  And was surprised that it was a picture of a 2009 Dodge Viper.  Then next came a picture of a Viper golf club.  I’m sure there were snakes too.  Certainly not a wise thing to call those with whom you keep company.  But for some reason, the crowds around John were able to hear past the insult to the urgency.  John believed what he was about – what he was called to – and took the risk of being rejected, even killed, which eventually we know he was.  But at this point he only urged, “Bear fruits worthy of repentance.”

Now repentance may seem like an uncomfortable word because the call to repentance is a sign that something is amiss.  But for John, repentance is how we ready ourselves for Christ’s coming.   It’s how we get ready for Christmas.  Are you ready yet?  According to John, the only preparation needed is this work that may not even be on our Christmas check list.  Did you write repentance  on your Christmas to do list? 

To repent means to take stock of what direction we’re facing and if we’re not facing the merciful arms of God, then to repent, which is to turn, and turn again until we fall into those waiting arms.  But the thing that is ever so important in this whole dance of turning is that we don’t do this turning in a vacuum.  Repentance is only possible when we already know we are accepted and loved just as we are.  

Radical love is the only thing strong enough to draw us to a new direction.  Others may think they know what we need to repent of and push us to do it, but repentance is about responding to the call of love. It’s a call to come home and only we can look deep enough into ourselves to see where love is urging us to turn. 

We can help each other, but only by modeling looking into our own wanting lives for how we have turned our backs on the blazing love of God. We can be models for each other, and we all need models, but in the end we each have to do the work ourselves.  And repentance takes different shapes in each of us – and different shapes at different times.  Some might need to repent of pride, while for others there might be just the opposite need – the need to repent of the lack of self-valuing, the lack of caring enough for one’s wellbeing.

The question is: are we facing God’s blazing love or have we turned away from it?  

Perhaps some of you have seen the film The Proposal.  A powerful woman who heads a large company is found out to be an undocumented foreigner.  In a desperate measure she demands her male assistant to marry her so she can avoid being deported back to her country.  Wanting to save his emerging career, he reluctantly agrees, though not without demanding that she get down on her knees and propose to him.  Feeling trapped, she goes through the motions and they coldly move ahead with the plan. 

As the story unfolds, she is forced to get to know her fiancé’s devoted family and finds her hard heart gradually transformed by the love that surrounds her.  What is powerful is her awareness that her life had not embraced her with that kind of love and devotion and the awareness of love’s power almost undoes her.  Overwhelmed by loved, her heart begins to melt.  

You’ll have to see the film to know more, but watching it reminded me of something author Wendy Wright writes on repentance.  She assumes repentance is usually thought of as saying you’re sorry for something you’ve done or said or for neglecting to do the good things you should do or admitting you need to change some attitude or behavior.

But Wright suggests something more.  I shared this at Centering Prayer a week or so ago and I’ve been thinking about it ever since.  She writes, “repentance is not necessarily the gloomy practice it is sometimes made out to be.  To repent is not to be confirmed in what that little voice within or without whispers: that you are no good, that everything bad that happens is your fault, that if others really knew you, they would cease to care for you.  No!” That’s not repentance, but this is: 

“True repentance begins with the felt knowledge that we are loved by God.  If we cannot see ourselves as beloved children, then perhaps our repentance might consist of the prayer that we might know ourselves as beloved, that the divine lover might reach into [our place of need and touch our longing heart].”  And I love this last line: “Repentance consists not so much in flagellating ourselves over our “failures” as in courageously turning our faces, like the sunflower, toward the light of God.” (The Vigil)

So this is what repentance looks like – turning towards the light – which is what the word for sunflower in Italian is – “facing the sun.” 

And when we do it together as a community this is what we look like! Isn’t that glorious! And God rejoices over our gathering in – where all are welcome and shine with the light of Christ!

True repentance is doing that self-valuing work of turning our whole lives towards the belovedness God has for us.  Learning to face into God’s love, puts everything else into perspective – the challenges of family, of work, of school, of church, of the community, even of our own heart – which can often be the most difficult. 

To know and accept ones belovedness is humility and repentance at its best.  It’s humble because being beloved doesn’t mean we’re perfect, it means we accept that God accepts us and welcomes and wants and makes room for us – just as we are – with our unique needs and issues and gifts. Accepting our belovedness is the first step – and for many the most difficult step – in accepting the love of others.   

These Advent days call us to make room for God’s coming in the midst of our stories and needs, terrors and joys. To allow God to meet us there, we need to be in touch with our own selves, our real needs, our unique struggles.  What terrorizes us in the middle of the night?  Where do we feel unwelcome and un-free?  How do we need Christmas to come in the Inn of our lives? 

To help us get in touch with this, I’d like to invite us to do a little exercise this week. What would you write in a letter to God – not as children write letters to Santa where you might ask for a free trip to Paris or something?  But what do you yearn for inside your heart and life? The main character in The Proposal needed to know herself as beloved.  What do you need to know?  That you are gathered in and welcomed home?  That your life has meaning? That your gifts have a place to be received? That there is a future and a hope for you and all creation? 

Repentance means to take a close look so we can be on our toes for how God’s coming this Christmas will match our need, our struggles, our hopes.  God comes – not maybe as we expect or hope, but God comes – concretely – to help, save, comfort and defend us.  And Zephaniah says, to delight in us.

The first reading this morning from Zephaniah has been the scripture reading I have read each night this week as I have crawled into bed.  Zephaniah offers several images: God who takes away judgments, God who says “Do not fear, I am in your midst.” God who deals with oppressors.  God who saves the lame and gathers those who have been cast out.  But the most surprising  image – at least the one that especially stood out to me this week – is the image of God bursting into joyful song over God's beloved people, which means all of us.

Now we do well to be on the edge of our seats to hear this, or up on our tiptoes ready because this is nothing short of amazing!  "God will rejoice over you with gladness! God will renew you in God’s love! God will exult over you with song.  Sleep on that tonight!  Savor Zephaniah’s words. The elation is off the charts.  God rejoices to gather us in!  What greater gift than this could the world have been given at Christmas!  You are, we are, rejoiced over with gladness. 

“We are accustomed to images of God as judge. We are used to images of God as shepherd. But how often do you picture God as rejoicing over you?  In Zephaniah, God and God's people are caught up in that kind of mutual joy.” It is not one-sided.  God and people both sing and shout with joy whenever God turns shame into praise and none of us bear reproach any more. (workingpreacher.org)

Take the news of God’s rejoicing with gladness into this new week.  And think of someone else who may need to know they too are rejoiced over with gladness by God.  Find a way to help someone know they are beloved, and your heart will be blessed too.  Perhaps you might invite them to Christmas Eve or Christmas Day worship. To come to know they are rejoiced over with gladness by God may be the very best Christmas gift there is to give.  And what a joy if that news comes to another through you.  Happy 3rd Week of Advent preparation to you!

                                                                                                            Amen

   +Pastor Peg Schultz-Akerson, to the glory of God
Faith Lutheran Church, Chico, CA