Repent and prepare, there's joy in the world
Our gospel reading (Matt 3:1-12) includes the words of John the Baptist, 'Repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near'. Repent is one of those words which is not used very much but it seems to suit the advent season as we're asked to think about our relationship with God. John the Baptist was the one who was in the wilderness helping to prepare the way for Jesus and we are called to listen and to learn from him, but also, as Christians, to emulate him as we seek to prepare the way for Jesus in the world today...
And one of his calls to his listeners was to repent... At this point it seems appropriate for a pretty awful joke !
Jock, the painter, often would thin his paint so it would go further. So when the Church decided to do some deferred maintenance, Jock was able to put in the low bid, and got the job. As always, he thinned his paint way down. One day while he was up on the scaffolding with the job almost finished he heard a horrendous clap of thunder, and the sky opened.
The downpour washed the thinned paint off the church and knocked Jock off his scaffold and onto the lawn among the puddles of thinned and worthless paint.
Jock took this as a warning from the Almighty, so he got on his knees and cried: “Oh, God! Forgive me! What should I do?”
And from the thunder, a mighty voice: “REPAINT! REPAINT! AND THIN NO MORE!”
Anyway back to repentance... As John called on the people to repent it could easily have seemed like a threat of some enormous condemnation, but actually in the light of Jesus it is more of an invitation into a relationship which changes us forever...
Repentance is more than being sorry. It is a complete desire for change in our lives. It is becoming vulnerable in order to gain strength, and that strength comes from our relationship with God who makes all things possible...
So John calls for repentance and he talks about preparation... Another story here !
There was a couple who were going on holiday and were checking in their bags at the airport... In the long queue the husband suddenly said, 'I wish we'd brought the piano', and the wife replied, 'Why ? We've brought 14 bags already !' 'Yes', the husband replied, 'but the tickets are on the piano !'
Repentance means to have our lives changed and that includes preparation... Preparation of ourselves in terms of our relationship with God will mean prayer and it will mean study of the bible and it will mean worship and fellowship with others... So many people fail to enjoy the fullness of life that God wants for all his people because they don't even know the promises that God has made to us...
And so we need to grow closer to him, and that is one direction of our preparation but as Christians there is another direction too... As John the Baptist was preparing the way of the Lord we too are to be prepared to share good news into a world desperately needing hope and good news...
As we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus once again we are to recognise the good news he has brought and challenge ourselves to ask what it means to us and for us.... Changed lives, a desire to grow close to God day by day and a need to share good news...
Advent is a season of preparation - preparation to celebrate the birth of Jesus again and preparation to meet Jesus ourselves. In the gospel John the Baptist makes the promise that one greater than he is coming.... Jesus has come and will come again and in the meantime we are waiting, but not passively waiting but seeking to show the world Jesus through our words and our actions - through our whole lives...
And sometimes it seems we can underplay what Jesus is capable of. When we worry about falling attendances in church, when we worry about a lack of money or a lack of young people. When we look at a world with so many problems, and where so often bad things seem to happen, we can sometimes look a bit gloomy and think that there's nothing anyone can do to make things better, but we can tell people of Jesus and do that confidently...
To be honest who will be attracted to something that preaches good news but seems depressed and worried most of the time !
Think of the words in the reading from the prophet Isaiah (11:1-10) where he writes of all kinds of unlikely things - the wolf living with the lamb, the leopard lying down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, the cow and the bear grazing, the lion eating straw like the ox...
All of these things seem unlikely but when the earth is full of the knowledge of the Lord (to quote Isaiah again) then nothing is impossible.... The God who has promised so much and fulfilled his promises in Jesus can deliver hope and peace and reconciliation with love and that love has to be revealed through us too.... Because when we fail to live like Jesus, to seek to love like him, to show tolerance and understanding and welcome to all, then we risk people judging Jesus by looking at us...
Changed lives aren't easy - we're human after all ! But we keep trying, and we don't make excuses for failing, we repent, we become vulnerable in order to seek God's strength to be different and we proclaim hope and peace and reconciliation where we can and we do it with love....
A missionary had arrived in a small Chinese town and after she arrived she heard that a gang had destroyed much of the village. A Christian living in the town showed the missionary the ruins of the town, including his burnt house and furniture and even his bible and a hymn book but one page of the hymn book had survived. It was the hymn 'Joy to the world, the Lord has come'.
It seemed so odd, joy in the middle of such destruction, and yet it was so appropriate because in the middle of whatever sorrow or destruction or misery or heartbreak or hurt or pain, we can have joy because Jesus has come into the world... Jesus who makes possible all kinds of unlikely things in terms of hope and peace and reconciliation wants to break into our lives more and more...
This advent may we seek to enjoy our lives changed by him, preparing to meet him whenever that day may come, and preparing the way for others to see him too. Amen
And one of his calls to his listeners was to repent... At this point it seems appropriate for a pretty awful joke !
Jock, the painter, often would thin his paint so it would go further. So when the Church decided to do some deferred maintenance, Jock was able to put in the low bid, and got the job. As always, he thinned his paint way down. One day while he was up on the scaffolding with the job almost finished he heard a horrendous clap of thunder, and the sky opened.
The downpour washed the thinned paint off the church and knocked Jock off his scaffold and onto the lawn among the puddles of thinned and worthless paint.
Jock took this as a warning from the Almighty, so he got on his knees and cried: “Oh, God! Forgive me! What should I do?”
And from the thunder, a mighty voice: “REPAINT! REPAINT! AND THIN NO MORE!”
Anyway back to repentance... As John called on the people to repent it could easily have seemed like a threat of some enormous condemnation, but actually in the light of Jesus it is more of an invitation into a relationship which changes us forever...
Repentance is more than being sorry. It is a complete desire for change in our lives. It is becoming vulnerable in order to gain strength, and that strength comes from our relationship with God who makes all things possible...
So John calls for repentance and he talks about preparation... Another story here !
There was a couple who were going on holiday and were checking in their bags at the airport... In the long queue the husband suddenly said, 'I wish we'd brought the piano', and the wife replied, 'Why ? We've brought 14 bags already !' 'Yes', the husband replied, 'but the tickets are on the piano !'
Repentance means to have our lives changed and that includes preparation... Preparation of ourselves in terms of our relationship with God will mean prayer and it will mean study of the bible and it will mean worship and fellowship with others... So many people fail to enjoy the fullness of life that God wants for all his people because they don't even know the promises that God has made to us...
And so we need to grow closer to him, and that is one direction of our preparation but as Christians there is another direction too... As John the Baptist was preparing the way of the Lord we too are to be prepared to share good news into a world desperately needing hope and good news...
As we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus once again we are to recognise the good news he has brought and challenge ourselves to ask what it means to us and for us.... Changed lives, a desire to grow close to God day by day and a need to share good news...
Advent is a season of preparation - preparation to celebrate the birth of Jesus again and preparation to meet Jesus ourselves. In the gospel John the Baptist makes the promise that one greater than he is coming.... Jesus has come and will come again and in the meantime we are waiting, but not passively waiting but seeking to show the world Jesus through our words and our actions - through our whole lives...
And sometimes it seems we can underplay what Jesus is capable of. When we worry about falling attendances in church, when we worry about a lack of money or a lack of young people. When we look at a world with so many problems, and where so often bad things seem to happen, we can sometimes look a bit gloomy and think that there's nothing anyone can do to make things better, but we can tell people of Jesus and do that confidently...
To be honest who will be attracted to something that preaches good news but seems depressed and worried most of the time !
Think of the words in the reading from the prophet Isaiah (11:1-10) where he writes of all kinds of unlikely things - the wolf living with the lamb, the leopard lying down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, the cow and the bear grazing, the lion eating straw like the ox...
All of these things seem unlikely but when the earth is full of the knowledge of the Lord (to quote Isaiah again) then nothing is impossible.... The God who has promised so much and fulfilled his promises in Jesus can deliver hope and peace and reconciliation with love and that love has to be revealed through us too.... Because when we fail to live like Jesus, to seek to love like him, to show tolerance and understanding and welcome to all, then we risk people judging Jesus by looking at us...
Changed lives aren't easy - we're human after all ! But we keep trying, and we don't make excuses for failing, we repent, we become vulnerable in order to seek God's strength to be different and we proclaim hope and peace and reconciliation where we can and we do it with love....
A missionary had arrived in a small Chinese town and after she arrived she heard that a gang had destroyed much of the village. A Christian living in the town showed the missionary the ruins of the town, including his burnt house and furniture and even his bible and a hymn book but one page of the hymn book had survived. It was the hymn 'Joy to the world, the Lord has come'.
It seemed so odd, joy in the middle of such destruction, and yet it was so appropriate because in the middle of whatever sorrow or destruction or misery or heartbreak or hurt or pain, we can have joy because Jesus has come into the world... Jesus who makes possible all kinds of unlikely things in terms of hope and peace and reconciliation wants to break into our lives more and more...
This advent may we seek to enjoy our lives changed by him, preparing to meet him whenever that day may come, and preparing the way for others to see him too. Amen
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