Repent

​The Christian year always begins with John the Baptizer. That makes sense. John’s mission is to prepare the way of the Lord by helping us to get ready for the kingdom of heaven come near. And in all four Gospels, Jesus’ ministry begins with his baptism by John. John’s ministry and Jesus’ ministry are clearly linked.
 
But John and Jesus can sound so different.
 
Jesus is so forgiving. As just one example, when scribes and Pharisees brought to Jesus a woman caught in the very act of adultery, Jesus replied, “Let anyone among you who is without sin throw a stone at her.” None of them were without sin, of course, so they went away one by one. Then Jesus asked the woman, “Has no one condemned you?...Neither do I condemn you” (John 8:1-11).
 
Compare that to the Baptizer, speaking to the Pharisees and the Sadducees. “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance.” John certainly sounds different than Jesus! And considerably less attractive to me.
 
So, every year during Advent, I wrestle with the Baptizer’s message of repentance. Every year, I look for the good news of God’s love in John’s preaching, usually without much success. Finally, this year I got help from a book called Soul Mending by an Orthodox theologian with the fabulous name of John Chryssavgis.
 
Chryssavgis makes three astonishing claims about repentance, (1) “The focal point of repentance is…not our imperfection but the perfect love of Christ.” (2) “Repentance is a fundamentally joyous, restorative return to life in its fullness.” And, best of all, (3) repentance is “resurrection begun.” [1]
 
What does Chryssavgis mean? And how do his claims contrast with what I take to be the normal understanding of repentance?
 
Start with Chryssavgis’ first claim. I normally think of repentance as all about me, about some bad thing I have done. That’s not entirely wrong. It is my sin that makes my repentance necessary.
 
But the Gospel is not about me. The Gospel is about God and about God’s love for us revealed in Jesus Christ.
 
And so, I repeat Chryssavgis’ first claim: “The focal point of repentance is…not our imperfection.” It’s not about us. “The focal point of repentance is… the perfect love of Christ.” We repent not just because we have committed some sin, true though that is. We repent because Christ offers us the forgiveness of sin. It’s all about Christ. And if the focal point of repentance is Christ’s love, then the message of repentance is good news.
 
A second contrast. Repenting can seem like a dreary obligation, something we may have to do, but not something that feels good. That’s because we usually associate repentance with guilt and shame and regret. Again there is some truth in that.
 
But if repentance is really all about Christ’s love, then—Chryssavigis’ second point—repentance is, or at least can be, fundamentally joyous and  restorative. That’s because repentance is not about our guilt. Repentance is about releasing our guilt and receiving God’s love.
 
A third assumption that I think many Christinas make about repentance: we repent now in the hope of eventual resurrection to eternal life at some time in the distant future. Chryssavigis would surely agree. But he also says that repentance is “resurrection begun.” Our repentance can be an experience of resurrection even now.
 
Here's an example. Pretend I said something obnoxious and mean-spirited to Carrie. This is just a hypothetical. You know, of course, that that would never actually happen! But in this hypothetical, I have said something obnoxious. What happens next when things go well for me spiritually?
 
Well, usually my first reaction to my own obnoxious comment is to reassure myself that I was totally justified, that Carrie had done something to deserve my comment.
 
I think that kind of self-justification is common. It’s also always wrong for a Christian. Even if Carrie had done something obnoxious to me first, that wouldn’t justify my poor behavior. We follow a God who forgave the people who crucified him, and who commands us to forgive the people who trespass against us. However people act towards us, we are not supposed to attack. No matter what other people may do, we are always called to act as Christians.
 
It helps to reflect on the experience of self-justification, what it actually feels like.
 
When we spend emotional energy telling ourselves that we were perfectly justified in our own bad behavior, a LOT of things are going wrong. We are focused on ourselves and specifically on our grievances. We are refusing to love our neighbor. And when we refuse to love our neighbor, we are drawing away from God, too.
 
Self-justification may feel good in the moment. Most of us like to think of ourselves as good people and of others as not-quite-as-good-people. But self-justification compounds our sin and is literally the road to death. And in the long run, we feel that. Holding on to our anger, justifying ourselves and blaming others, is not a recipe for a happy life.
 
This is one of the many reasons we need a regular prayer practice. When I have done something bad, sooner or later, I am going to pray. And in prayer, my self-justifications tend to get stripped away. God helps me to see that I haven’t done right, and that I therefore have some repenting to do.
 
We need to think about that experience, too. Acknowledging our failures can be painful in the moment. It can be hard to let go of my illusions about myself. But whenever I stop trying to justify myself and confess my sin to God, my attention shifts away from me and my self-righteous self to where it belongs, to God.
 
And, whenever I confess my sin, and hear the words of absolution, and receive God’s forgiveness, it is a relief. It feels good and right. That’s what Chryssavgis means when he says that repentance can be joyous.
 
But, in the case of my obnoxious comments to Carrie, there is still work to do even after I have confessed and received God’s forgiveness. I still have to apologize to Carrie.
 
One final time, we need to pause to consider what has happened. I started by blaming Carrie for my own obnoxious comment. That’s a tear in our relationship, basically the opposite of intimacy and love. But if I apologize, all going well, we’ll reconnect. Love is restored.
 
That’s what Chryssavgis means when he says repentance is a return to life in its fullness, and resurrection begun, a little taste of God’s kingdom.
 
I come back to the Baptizer. When John calls the Pharisees and Sadducees a brood of vipers and commands them to “bear fruit worthy of repentance,” he sounds harsh. Nobody wants to hear that.
 
But underneath the harshness is a promise and an invitation. The promise is God’s forgiveness. The invitation is to focus on the perfect love of Christ, to repent joyfully, and to experience new life in God and with each other.
 
That’s John’s message to us, too, in this Advent season. I encourage you to accept John’s invitation this week, to spend time reflecting on a struggle in your life, to repent and confess your part in the struggle, and to experience the joy of God’s forgiveness and the blessings that come with it.
 
And I say that in Christ’s name. Amen.


[1] John Chryssavigis, Soul Mending: The Art of Spiritual Direction, 2000, page 1.