"Living in Joy" given Dec. 13th

            Suddenly there was this strange character John. Nobody knew where he came from. They said he came from out of the desert. The desert? What was he? One of those crazy hermits? Or maybe part of those Essenes--that group of religious fanatics who had formed a co-ed monastery in the bottom of the Dead Sea?

            Who knew? Who could tell you anything about this John? What were his credentials? Where had he gone to seminary? Who had ordained him? What was his social security number? Did he in fact even have a social security number? A VISA card? A Master Charge?

            Where did this guy come from? You couldn't place him. You couldn't even get a handle on him by the clothes he wore. He had no designer labels in his jackets. He didn’t have a jacket! He clothing wasn't bought--it was found.  John wore worse than Salvation Army rejects--a ratty old camel skin loin cloth with a leather belt--designer clothes hand tailored by God.

            He seemed to be from nowhere. Totally independent, untouchable and untouched. No home, no mortgage, no job, no family. John was nothing more or less than a mouthpiece if you will--a voice, a message in the wilderness of his broken, occupied nation. "Repent!" He cried.

            And they flocked to hear him. He must have been filling some deep spiritual needs. The people came in droves from up and down the Jordan valley. They came to the riverbank to be baptized and to listen to the Baptizer speak of the One who would come after Him, whose sandals John claimed he was not worthy to untie.

            No wonder people began to ask him. Who are you? Are you the Messiah? Are you the reincarnation of Elijah? Are you a prophet? Do you come from God to save us? Are you.... who... what... when...????

            And to all of these things John answered simply, directly, almost gently--for him.

            "No. I am none of these things--none of these people. I am not Elijah. I am not the Messiah. I am no more or less than a voice crying in the wilderness of your lives. I am a voice that cries in the deserts of this tortured world. I am a voice that cries out Repent! The Realm of God is at hand! Make straight the way of the Lord's coming. Repent! Turn your life around! The long awaited One is coming and coming soon!"

            Sisters and brothers, for a such a straight-forward statement, this carries an incredible amount of meaning and significance for the world. And just as significant, just as meaningful is the message of Paul, written a generation later:.

            “Rejoice in the Lord!  Again I say, Rejoice!”

            The two messages don't seem to go together too well, do they? How can repentance be joyful? The rejoicing--that we can handle. But repenting is a different story. We modern day believers have gotten a misleading perception of what it means to repent.  And that preconception, that image of repentance in our minds has little to do with rejoicing.

            When we think of repentance, most of us think of somebody like John the Baptizer or some mediaeval saint crouched out in the desert fasting, or eating locusts and honey, praying day and night until the calluses on their knees get calluses. We think of a monastery, or even a prison cell, a scratchy bundle of hay to sleep on, a rough homespun garment, a cross on the wall--and that's it.

            Repentance for us means giving up something --sacrificing money or comfort or pleasures.  We get then word "penitentiary" from the same root word as "repent".  And that's the image I'm afraid, that sticks in most of our heads.

            Sure, we recognize that we all could stand to be better people. But it doesn't sound like much fun! Another word that comes from the same root as repent is “penance”. And that's what our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters have to do after they confess their sins in the little black box where the priest can't see you but probably recognizes your voice. That certainly doesn't cut much ice in our Protestant eyes!

            You can't fool us. Repentance would be a pain in the neck. Why, in order to repent, we might have to give up some of our favorite things-- like overeating, or gambling, or smoking, or drinking, or kissing our spouse, or kissing someone else's spouse. We might even, horror of horrors have to give up chocolate!

            I'm afraid that we just don't get the point about Repentance. The truth is that repentance and rejoicing are two sides of the same coin.  To repent means nothing more nor less than to turn in another direction--to turn your life around.  The truth is that real and lasting joy in the faith must always grow out of repentance.

             At age eleven, another young man named John went to sea. His life in his younger years reads an adventure story. He was drafted into the British Navy, deserted, was  captured and flogged, deserted again, was recaptured, enslavd, escaped and went back to sea. Eventually he became the master of his own ship. John was sailing on what was known as "The Middle Passage". That was, from North America to the coast of Africa and back again. John was the captain of a slave ship. He traded in the lives of human beings.

            Slavers never enjoyed a very good reputation among the sailors of the world. The conditions in their ships were horrendous. The slaves were packed into the holds--literally like sardines. As many as a third might die en route to America.

            I won't ruin your morning by saying anything more. Let me only add that to be a slaver was about as low as a sailing man could sink. It was certainly less than respectable in the eyes of polite society--at least in the North. That's the life that John was leading when he had the experience that changed him.

            You might say that he was born again, or saved, or got religion, or found God, whichever phrase means the most to you. The point is that suddenly John became a believer in Jesus Christ. In mid-ocean. In the middle of a storm so violent he thought he was going to drown.

            I wish I could tell you that John immediately gave up the slave trade, turned his ship around, sailed back to Africa and set the slaves on board free. That’s what the legends say. But what really happened is a lot closer to your and my everyday lives.

            Because the truth is that John remained in the slave trade for a few more years wrestling with his conscience, until eventually, the Holy Spirit got the better of him and he repented, finally left the sea, and took up a new profession. That took him a while---possibly because of his previous occupation, but eventually John found a bishop willing to ordain him, and he became a pastor in rural England. I suppose we might say he was trying to make amends for what he’d done.

            But John continued to wrestle with his conscience during those years, had a second spiritual awakening, and finally came to understand with crystal clarity that what he had been doing was not enough. That slavery was a sin. That his hands were still red with blood. That he was a wretched sinner for having followed that vocation. That he’d not truly repented, but had been hiding from his past sins, and by not speaking out he was still complicit in the slave trade. That he needed to do all in his power to make some REAL amends. That he could no longer in good conscience not speak out.

            And so once again John repented. This time, he went all the way. He turned his life around. He changed his mind. He changed his life.  He took up a totally new and different stage of ministry.

            He became, among other things, a passionate public activist against slavery. He wrote a scathing book describing the horrors that occurred on slave ships.  He mentored a young, rising political star named William Wilberforce, convincing him that God was calling him to remain in Parliament and lead the fight against slavery in England. 

            The other thing that John became was a song- writer, a hymn writer. He wrote of his saving, life-transforming meeting with Jesus Christ and of the pure, unadulterated joy that his act of repentance brought into his life. John Henry Newton wrote:

Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me!

I once was lost, but now am found. Was blind but now I see.

Through many dangers, toils and snares I have already come.

‘Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.

Yea when this flesh and blood shall fail and mortal life shall cease

I shall possess within the veil, a life of joy and peace.

When we've been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun

We've no less days to sing God's praise, than when we first begun.

            It's not exactly an Advent Hymn. But maybe it ought to be. The hymn speaks directly to the effects of Jesus Christ's entrance into human life. No wonder that Hymn has remained so popular for so many years!  No wonder it's witness is so powerful!  Besides being a terrific expression of faith, it arises from an inspiring act of repentance. What an expression of the joy of believing, of salvation, of Christ's Advent and power!

            Sisters and brothers, John Newton was a friend of mine. I never met him, of course. But I like to think that anyone brave enough to stand up for their beliefs, anyone brave enough to change their mind and begin living their life in a new direction (however long it takes) is a friend of mine-- and of Christ's-- and of the world for that matter.          

            Sisters and brothers you and I ought to never be afraid to change our minds, to try something new, to repent, to begin listening to God for direction, to make amends for our sins, and to begin living our lives in a new direction. It might well take the Spirit a while to get through to us—as it did for John Newton. But we ought to never be afraid that living the new life that our God calls us to live will be too hard for us, or too drab, or too cheerless. The life of faith is a life that is in fact, rich, and deep, and challenging, and joyous.

            Perhaps we need to begin listening more carefully for the call of the Spirit in our own lives. Where is God calling you to turn your life around? How long has the Holy Spirit been trying to get through to you? Who do you need to forgive? From whom do you need forgiveness? Where in your life, are you being called to be a friend of Christ, and a friend of the world?

            Maybe its completing your education, or volunteering at a food pantry, or  teaching ESL, or tutoring, or working at a Mission. Maybe you need to reexamine the relationships and practices you are engaged in. Perhaps God wants to use you as a Scout leader, or singing in the choir, or as a volunteer here at church. Maybe you could consider giving up smoking, or becoming a foster parent. Or just visiting that friend in a nursing home. That new direction in your life might mean making peace with that brother or sister that you're estranged from, or reaching out to that neighbor in need.

            Acknowledging our sins and the harm we’ve done can be painful, yes. Truly making amends can be terrifying and even humiliating, yes. The life of faith is a life of commitment, yes.  But more than that, it is a life of unexpected joy! The satisfaction that comes from knowing that you are at last trying to live out God's will for your life as you perceive it, is deep and abiding. The improved quality of your relationships will astound you. The opportunities that open up will flabbergast you. The people around you will surprise you.The grace is indeed amazing at times!

            Sisters and brothers, true repentance, becoming a friend of Jesus our Christ and of the world, living the new life of faith will not keep us from enjoying life. The honest pleasures of this life are not denied believers-- including chocolate-- thank you Jesus!

            And as for the illegitimate pleasures-- the cheating, the lying, the anger, the bullying, the back-biting, the greed, the sneaking around, the same old sinful ruts-- we will find ourselves giving them up. We’ll lose our taste for them. But we will find, miraculously, that we won't miss them. It will be no sacrifice. Indeed, it'll be a pleasure to get them off our backs and out of our lives.

            One thing is clear. You and I will never change this world until we ourselves begin to change our own selves. We'll never see that Joyous final Advent yet to come, until it has first taken root in our own hearts. "You can't do it for the world, until you do it for yourself." Until we're no longer afraid to listen for the Spirit, to admit our wrongs, to repent, to make amends, to change ourselves—however long it does or doesn’t take, we'll never be able to stand up for what we believe, much less  change the wrongs we see all around us.

            One thing is clear. This world we're living in could desperately use some friends right now-- people and families and companies and churches and nations and leaders and institutions who aren't afraid to change their direction and begin to live in a new way.

            This world of ours is going through some exciting and frankly rather frightening changes. Our own nation is being challenged to live up to its noble ideals in ways we never imagined.  In countries you and I may have never heard of, as well as in our own towns and cities, men and women and even children and young people  are striving, working, praying, dying, hoping to better their lives, their lands, their world.

            The Holy Spirit is at work in the world around us, using believers and non-believers alike, empowering them, inviting them to turn their lives around and join with their Maker in the task of remaking, and reforming and reviving this tired old world, becoming joy-filled friends of God's Creation.

            You and I are invited as well. Let us listen for the ways in which we can begin to lead new and joyous lives. Let us pray that more and more people around the world will become friends-- of Creation, of Christ, of one another, of the world. And when enough of them do-- then at last, the Advent of Christ, the Second Coming, the Kingdom, the Realm of Shalom, the long-awaited Day of the Lord will finally begin to dawn. Come soon, Lord Jesus! Amen.