Repentance: A few
rather unorganised, random Lenten reflections by an all-too-imperfect
Lutheran pastor
The
prophet speaking of The Suffering Servant, in Isa 53:5 says: “But
he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we
are healed.” Jesus beginning his public ministry in Galilee in Mk
1:15 has this to say: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of
God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” King
David, after the prophet Nathan had pointed out his sin of committing
adultery with Bathsheba, had this to say in Ps 51:17: “The
sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite
heart, O God, you will not despise.” Peter, while Jesus was on
trial, denied him three times, cursing and swearing an oath in Matt
26:74: “I do not know the man!” Paul, described himself as “chief
of sinners,” and declared in Rom 7:15 with raw honesty the state of
his sin-sick soul: “I do not understand my own actions. For I do
not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” And again in
verses 19 & 20: “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil
I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no
longer I that do it, but sin what dwells within me.”
In more recent times, one of the
famous 20th
century poets, T.S. Eliot had this to say about our sinful state and
hence the need to repent in his play Murder
in the Cathedral: We are
soiled by a filth that we cannot clean,/united to supernatural
vermin/It is not we alone, it is not the house,/it is not the city
that is soiled,/But the world that is wholly foul.
Then in our time, there is
contemporary prophet-poet, Bruce Cockburn, who is one of my favourite
Canadian singer-songwriters. Some of his lines, I think are so
brilliant and all encompassing that they speak volumes. In his song
“Tried and Tested,” listen to these lines: Tried and tested/Tried
and tested/By “What does love require”/By the lure of false
pride/By the need to take sides/By the weight of choice/By the still
small voice/By things I forget/By what I haven’t met yet. At the
end of such trials and tests, Bruce concludes, “I’m still here,”
likely if asked, he’d say he’s still here by the sheer grace and
love of God. Bruce, reflecting on the song, had this to say, which
again underscores our need to repent: "You
look at war and environmental problems and you look at what’s
causing them and what’s preventing us from solving them and the
trail always leads to human greed. Somebody’s getting paid to keep
it that way or make it worse. Everyone’s wondering what it all
means and what we can do about it."
Lent is the
heavy-weight season of the church year. Most of us would rather
fast-forward and eclipse Lent by moving from Epiphany right on to
Easter. But it doesn’t work that way. We Lutherans value our
theology of the cross, and someone once said that for us Lutherans,
Lent is our favourite season of the church year. Lent is the season
of repentance and Luther himself said that life for sinner-saint
baptised Christians is a life of daily repentance.
Why
is repentance and Lent so important? Well without Lent, there would
be no Jesus dying on the cross to forgive and atone for our sins
because the gospels themselves would not contain the Passion Story.
It is believed by many New Testament scholars that the gospels
started with the Passion narratives and after that grew and expanded
into what they are now. So without Lent, the story of Easter is
empty, trivial and meaningless. Without the suffering and death of
Jesus, there is no resurrection and new, redeemed, set-free life. So,
this Lenten season I encourage you to read the Passion Story,
meditate on it, read it prayerfully. Do you see yourself in the
story? In response to what Jesus has done for you through his
suffering and death, are you able to repent? Repent is not only
confession of your sins, although we need to do that too—repentance
literally means returning, turning back to God and God's ways. Lent
is a season that offers you and me the opportunity to return back
into a deeper, closer relationship with Jesus through such
disciplines as spending time in prayer, fasting, and giving
generously and sacrificially to causes and organisations like Canadian Lutheran World Relief that work with and help the poor. That's why we can sing in one of
our Lenten Gospel Acclamations: “Return to the Lord, your God, for
he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in
steadfast love, and abounding in steadfast love.”
Prayer: Loving and merciful God, help us during this Lenten season
to return to you in true repentance not only by reciting and being
sorry for our sins, which are many, but also by living lives worthy
of our calling as your followers with ever greater gratitude for what
you have done for us by your suffering and death on the cross and
your victory over death through new, resurrection life. In Jesus our
Suffering Servant's Holy Name we pray. Amen.
