"A Call To Repentance"

Sermon for John the Baptist Sunday, 4th Sunday in Advent, Dec 20-21, 1997

by Most Rev. Dr. Robert M. Bowman, Presiding Bishop, United Catholic Church

1 Samuel 7: 2-6

Psalm 30: 2-3, 15-19

Acts 2: 36-39

Matthew 3: 1-12

Well, you’ve all heard the readings for today. Who can tell me what the theme for this Sunday is? ... "Repent." ... That's right. This is Repentance Sunday.

Those of you who are Catholics will know that a Novena is nine days of prayer. Making a Novena involves attending Mass, receiving Communion, and reciting lengthy prayers on each of nine consecutive days. It’s sort of the Catholic equivalent of a pilgrimage to Mecca. You have to know this in order to understand the following story.

One Saturday afternoon, Father Casey was hearing confessions, when one of his parishioners entered the box, slid open the partition, and said, "Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It’s been a year since my last confession. I work for a construction company, and I swiped some lumber."

"I see," said Father Casey, "and just how much lumber are we talking about? What did you do with it?"

" I built a doghouse," said the man. "Well," mused Father Casey, " that sounds like about three Our Fathers." "But I had a little lumber left over," said the penitent, "and I built me a garage."

"A garage!" exclaimed Father Casey, "That’s pretty serious. We might be looking at a whole Rosary here. Is there anything else?"

"Well," replied the man, I had a little left over." "And what did you do with that?" asked Father Casey. "I built a house," said the man.

"Good Lord!" said the priest, "Do you know how to make a Novena?"

"No," said the man, "but if you’ve got the plans, I’ve got the lumber."

Now there’s a point to all of this. There were several things missing from this man’s confession. One was restitution. The man had no intention of giving back the stolen property, even that portion of it he had not yet used. The second thing missing was remorse. He didn’t seem the least bit sorry for what he had done. And finally, of course, there was no repentance. He had not changed his attitude, and was therefore most unlikely to change his behavior. The bottom line is that confession does not necessarily mean repentance.

We see this in the Gospel reading from Matthew. John the Baptizer is calling the people to repentance, and he baptizes them for the remission of sins. But when a bunch of the Pharisees and Sadducees come, John lashes out at them, calling them a "brood of vipers." He told them it wasn’t enough to come to him and go through the motions. He knew their hearts were totally consumed by legalism. If you want to repent, John told them, "produce works worthy of repentance." It’s a lot like the "by their fruits you will know them" of Christ.

Now, it may seem strange for John to be so harsh on the religious leaders who probably followed the Jewish laws more closely than anyone else. What John, and later Jesus, tried to tell them was that following the law, filling the squares, even being "good" people isn’t enough. "Their hearts are far from me," said Jesus. Repentance is a matter of the heart.

Samuel, in the reading from First Samuel, told the people what they must do in order to repent. "Return to the Lord with all your hearts." They publicly confessed, "We have sinned against the Lord." But that wasn’t enough. Repentance is more than that. They had to change their ways. Samuel instructed them to get rid of their pagan idols of Baal and Astartes and return to serving the Lord only. They did, and the Lord forgave them, blessed them, and rescued them from their enemies. Unlike the construction worker in Father Casey’s confessional, they went beyond confession to a change of heart; and that change in heart caused a change in their behavior.

A change of heart. Yes, that’s what repentance is about. The psalm says, "Lord, make us turn to you." It’s about repentance, too. Repentance has been a part of Jewish and Christian tradition for thousands of years. It didn’t start with John the Baptist. The theme is throughout the Bible.

And, of course, it didn’t end with John the Baptist, either. Jesus called for repentance. And in the reading from the Book of Acts, we hear St. Peter, in his very first sermon, on the day of Pentecost, calling out, "Repent! Repent, and be baptized." The people to whom Peter addressed these words were good Jewish people. But they were responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus. In five days, they had gone from crying "Hosanna. Hosanna to the Son of David" to crying "Crucify him. Crucify him." They were in need of repentance. And repent they did. That very day, thousands repented and were baptized.

The call to repentance didn’t end with John the Baptist, or with Peter. It continues to this day. Just this week I read about a strange friendship between the former head of the NAACP and the Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. They met debating each other, many years ago. The Klansman taunted the black man and called him names. The black man responded that nothing the Klansman could do would make him hate him. He responded instead with love. Over a period of many years, the Klansman would call the black man and say, "Hello, nigger." But in 1991, he called and said, "Hello, brother." He went on to tell his friend that he had left the Klan, had accepted Christ, and was called to preach the Gospel, and that his conversion was due to the example of the black man returning hatred with love. Today, they share a pulpit and together preach God’s love. That’s repentance.

The call to repentance fills our religious history, all the way from Abraham to Billy Graham. But on this fourth and last Sunday of Advent, it is the call of John the Baptist on which we concentrate. "Repent. Prepare ye the way of the Lord." For that is what we are trying to do: prepare for Jesus to come into our hearts in a very special way.

How do we do that? What do our preparations consist of? Running around doing last-minute shopping? Trying to get cards written, addressed, stamped, and mailed? Cleaning our house? Baking cookies? Decorating? Stringing lights? Standing in line at the Post Office? Fighting the downtown traffic? Circling round and round the parking lot at the Mall, desperately trying to beat the other cars to the one parking place opening up? Looking for a popular toy almost everyone is sold out of? Fighting like Arnold Schwarzenegger for the last one on the shelf? Trying to arrange financing to pay for it all? Desperately trying to find time to write a sermon? Running for the shortest checkout line at WalMart? Trying to find someone to wait on you at Home Depot? Giving other harried shoppers that familiar greeting, "Same to you, fella!"?

If you recognize yourself in any of this, you’re not alone. But it’s not the way we prepare our hearts for the coming of a king.

A week or two ago, at Christ United Methodist Church, Maggie and I sang a song with their choir, "Is Your Heart Prepared For a King?", by Robert Lau. Listen to the words:

"In the quiet of the night, or in morning’s early light, is your heart prepared for a King? Will you hear an angel sing? Will your own hosannas ring? Is your heart prepared for a King? Wait! Watch! Pray for the One who brings hope to a wearied earth. Wait! Watch! Pray for the One who brings peace, who brings peace by His birth. Can you see the shining star? Does it call you from afar? Is your heart prepared for a King? Is the babe of whom we sing born to be our God and King? Is your heart prepared, is your heart prepared, is your heart prepared for a King?"

I guess that’s the question I would ask each of you this day. For us, repentance does not mean turning away from a life of evil. We are not members of the KKK. We did not cry for Jesus to be crucified. We do not worship Baal or Astartes. We are all good people.

But then so were the Pharisees. And when Christ came, they rejected him. Their hearts were cluttered with rules and customs and habits and wants. They had no room in their hearts for Jesus. What are our hearts cluttered with?

Repentance for us means emptying our hearts of the clutter and garbage, the busyness and baggage of the holiday season, and opening them up to the Lord. Is your heart prepared for a King? Let us pray.

Lord, we have sinned against you. We do not hate our fellow man. But we do get irritated, frustrated, impatient, and angry with them. Forgive us, Lord. We did not want Jesus crucified. But we have been so busy, we have ignored him, squeezed him out of our lives. Forgive us, Lord. We do not worship Baal or Astartes. But we have made idols of money, our job, television, Christmas parties, shopping, sports. We have filled our hearts, and left no room for you. Forgive us, Lord, for we do repent.

Cleanse our hearts. Help us to turn to you and open our hearts to you. Come to us at Christmas and always. Fill us with your love. Oh, Lord, we do repent. Amen.

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