repentance

House of Cards

/ JJS / Leave a comment

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 5; 145, 2 Samuel 13:23-39, Acts 20:17-38, Mark 9:42-50

We are a nation built on a house of credit cards.

Buy now, pay later. Ninety days same as cash. Getting what we want when we want it seems great, but the people who market credit to us (and it’s a product, not a favor) make more money when we can’t pay them back right away. It’s not called interest for nothing. Middle class households easily overextend themselves into bankruptcy, and between interest and fees poorer people borrow their way right into modern indentured servitude.

Delayed payments are always the most expensive.

It’s difficult to say whether David learned this lesson the hard way, or not at all. When David’s first-born son Amnon raped his half-sister Tamar, David was angry but did nothing because he loved Amnon. Tamar’s full brother Absalom spent two years plotting his revenge on Amnon. He invited all the king’s sons to a feast, and when Amnon was “merry with wine” he ordered his servants to strike Amnon dead. Afterward Absalom fled. It was three more years before he would reunite with his family, but even then the rift between them grew ever worse.

When we sin against others – as individuals, as families, as cultures, or as nations – we don’t do ourselves any favors by delaying payment in the form of repentance. Even if it seems we got away with it, the undercurrent is waiting to drag us down. Especially when it comes to past societal sins, we might want people to just “get over it” … but David could have told you how well that works.

If we sin at an individual level – abuse, neglect, greed, deception – we need to make individual repentance. If we sin at a societal level – systemic oppression, environmental devastation – we need to make repentance at a societal level. That can be tough pill to swallow, because we don’t always feel individually responsible. Yet scripture tells us time and again individuals rise and fall with their communities, regardless of personal culpability. That’s a pretty good reason to participate in the conscience of your community before the cards come due and tumble down.

Additional Reading:
For thoughts on today’s reading from Mark, see There is no eye in team Jesus.

Comfort: Repentance will set you free. 

Challenge: When repentance seems unfair, remember it is not about guilt, but healing.

Prayer: But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, so that those who love your name may exult in you. (Psalm 5:11)

Discussion: How do you feel about cleaning up messes you didn’t personally make?

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Ax to the Roots

/ JJS / 1 Comment

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 47; 147:12-20, Daniel 2:31-49, 1 John 2:18-29, Luke 3:1-14

Considering how little effort he made to appease anyone, John the Baptist’s popularity was kind of surprising. He called the people who came to him for baptism a “brood of vipers.” He warned them to take no comfort in being descendants of Abraham (that is, of Jewish descent) since God could raise children to Abraham from the stones. He compared them to trees who were about to get the ax for bearing bad fruit.

Many people took God’s favor for granted because they were born into Judaism. They fell into the assumption that being (somewhat) observant Jews made up for a lot of other bad behavior. Are Christians much different today? It’s awfully easy to decide that if most Christians engage in certain behaviors, they must be acceptable. That sort of thinking is a dangerous trap. After all, Christians of the not-so-distant past (and some in the present) have used the Bible to justify slavery, domestic violence, bigotry, and war. These stances were not radical, but normal.

John told the people what repentance looked like: if you have a spare coat or meal, give it to someone who has none; don’t rip people off; don’t be greedy if you already have enough. As Christians we can look back in hindsight and wonder how these acts of decency weren’t obvious choices, but remember that it took nineteen centuries more for the western world to criminalize owning people and beating your wife. Just because lots of Christians do something doesn’t make it good and just.

In another one or two centuries, what things that today’s (somewhat) observant Christian does or tolerates will seem obviously unjust? Denying health care to people who don’t believe the same things we do? Finding new excuses to soothe our consciences when we turn away refugees who don’t look or sound like us? Being more upset by methods of protest than about the circumstances which make them necessary?

John called his followers to prepare the way of the Lord. He encouraged them to start by being honest with themselves. Let’s stop pinning our lack of mercy on Christ.

Comfort: God is more merciful than we would allow.

Challenge: Ask yourself what people are outside the limits of your mercy.

Prayer: Merciful God, teach me to discern my will from yours. Amen.

Discussion: Have you ever knowingly distorted scripture to support your own biases?

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Flip

/ JJS / 1 Comment

20170208_175756-01.jpegToday’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 89:1-18; 147:1-11, Isaiah 59:1-21, 2 Timothy 1:15-2:13, Mark 10:1-16

We can all struggle with decisions. From dinner to voting, sometimes we just get stuck. A friend once advised that when we find ourselves spinning our mental wheels, we should flip a coin. The result is not binding: if it lands and we feel satisfied, let it ride; if we think, “Maybe two out of three…” make the other choice. When we go to friends for advice, they often tell us, “You know what to do.” At that point we’re not seeking advice so much as a nudge in the right direction. When we are determined to do something we know is a bad decision … those are the times we don’t seek advice at all.

Sin is that last type of decision: we deliberately turn away from God and conscience. Isaiah promises God’s arms are not too short to reach us, or His ears too weak to hear. Rather, we erect our own barriers through sin. Isaiah describes sinners who weave webs to snare others and clothe themselves, but find no shelter in them. He talks about the serpent eggs they hatch to poison others. Webs of lies. Hatched plots. Such sins cover us in barriers of shame, fear, and guilt that can make it feel almost impossible to turn back to God. Always there, he can’t offer forgiveness we don’t seek.

Jesus tells us to receive the Kingdom of God like little children. Children are shameless. They can grind peanut butter into a shag carpet and still ask for the jelly with a smile. We raise them to understand consequences, but spend little time training them to accept forgiveness. To stop reaching for us and to start obeying us – or hiding when they don’t. To see God that way. Tearing down those barriers built by sin means trusting that God will forgive us. That’s a lot of unlearning, but we don’t have to be defined by our bad decisions; Christ practically begs us to make the one good choice which restores us to wholeness.

We don’t need to flip a coin; we just need to flip an attitude.

Comfort: God is always waiting for you to seek His face.

Challenge: Learn to ask for forgiveness, even when you don’t feel like you deserve it.

Prayer: Thank you loving God for the gift of your grace. Amen.

Discussion: What conditions do you put on yourself (or others) before you can forgive?

Join the discussion! If you enjoyed this post, feel free to join an extended discussion as part of the C+C Facebook group , visit comfortandchallenge.tumblr.com, or follow @comf_and_chall on Twitter. You’ll  have the opportunity to share your thoughts with some lovely people. Or feel free to comment here on WordPress, or even re-blog – the more the merrier!

Prodigal Son of God

/ JJS / Leave a comment

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 36; 147:12-20, Joel 2:21-27, James 1:1-15, Luke 15:1-2, 11-32

In The Parable of the Prodigal Son, a young man demands his inheritance from his father, then squanders it on “dissolute living” until he is forced to become a swineherd and live among the pigs – a particularly low state for a Jew. When he is reduced to hungering for the pig’s slop, he decides he must return home. He is ready to humble himself before his father, but while he is still far off, his father runs to him, embraces him, dresses him in finery, and throws a celebratory feast. His older brother is displeased, and asks why the son who lived so recklessly deserved a party, while he who had been faithful to his family got nothing. The father famously replies:

Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.

Jesus told this story because the Pharisees were complaining that he ate with tax collectors and sinners. Like the prodigal son, these people only had to take the first few steps toward Christ, and like the father he welcomed them with open arms and embraced their presence at his table. In a sense Jesus was also a prodigal son, but rather than being recklessly extravagant with his money he was scandalously generous with God’s love, much to the distress of his Pharisee brothers.

In ways large and small, we can all turn our backs on God. Maybe afterward we feel unclean, like we’ve ruined our lives and lain among the swine, and struggle to find the words that will render us acceptable again. Others may not think we deserve forgiveness, but no matter how far we have strayed, a contrite heart is all the apology God needs to not only welcome us home, but to celebrate our return.

In all of the Good News, is there any better news than a God who rushes toward us in love and forgiveness the moment we take that first step towards home?

Comfort: As soon as you come home to God, it’s like you never left.

Challenge: Call or visit someone you miss and haven’t seen in a while.

Prayer: Loving and merciful God, thank you for always being there with open arms. Amen.

Discussion: Have you ever felt distant from God? Did you wonder whether you’d feel His embrace again?

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Faith and Figs

/ JJS / 7 Comments

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 42; 146, Zephaniah 1:14-18, Revelation 14:14-15:8, Luke 13:1-9

One of the most troubling clichés in Christianity is blaming someone’s misfortune on a lack of faith. Many an action contains the seed of its own consequences, and we want to avoid those tragedies, but catastrophes like illness and natural disasters happen to the faithful, the doubtful, and the indifferent in equal measure. We don’t know the details of why or how the tower of Siloam fell and killed eighteen people, but Jesus – unlike many of today’s televangelists – used the tragedy not to shame the victims, but to point out the need for everyone to repent:

Do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.

In other words, don’t put off until tomorrow what could be prevented forever by a falling tower today.

Why are we eager to link tragedy with sin, especially when Jesus said otherwise (see also “it rains on the just and the unjust” in Matthew 5)? Maybe because we want the world to make sense. Maybe because the inverse proposition is that a lack of tragedy assures us we are doing faith “right.” Maybe because we trust the (imaginary) justice in front of us more than God’s eternal justice. Whatever the reason, Jesus tries to redirect our thinking away from externally-directed blame and inward toward repentance.

Jesus follows up with a parable about a vineyard owner with a fig tree that hasn’t produced fruit in three years (perhaps not coincidentally the length of Jesus’s active ministry). He wants to cut it down, but the gardener asks for one more year to tend and fertilize it. We never learn the fate of the tree.

Rather, it bends us toward God regardless of fortune. Like the fig tree we need to develop roots that dig deep and branches that stretch for the light so we can bear fruit through all kinds of weather. We repent joyfully because God loves us enough to offer a future regardless of our past.

Comfort: Whatever the question, faith is the answer.

Challenge: Think about something in your life you wish would change. Is there something you could change within instead?

Prayer: God of possibilities, do with my life as you will. Amen.

Discussion: How do you typically react to problems that are beyond your control?

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Guilt-Free

/ JJS / Leave a comment

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 103; 150, Hosea 5:8-6:6, 1 Corinthians 2:6-16, Matthew 14:1-12

Guilt makes us behave in strange ways. Take Herod, for example: as Jesus and his ministry became more prominent, Herod became convinced Jesus was really John the Baptist resurrected with supernatural powers. Earlier Herod had executed John (who had embarrassed the family by publicly criticizing a marriage scandal), but he didn’t really want to. He actually liked listening to John preach, but his wife (whom he’d taken from his brother) and her daughter forced his hand. Guilt and embarrassment about his marriage forced Herod into a rash decision to execute John, and the guilt of the execution made him paranoid about the world. Like many a guilty party, he was looking over his shoulder waiting for the shadow of his misdeeds to overtake him.

Guilt urges us to overcompensate, sometimes by becoming falsely generous and sometimes by attempting to turn the tables and project our wrongdoings onto the people who remind us of it. Politicians and preachers who rail about conservative family values and then get caught doing the very things they condemned aren’t just hypocritical, they are suffering the destructive side effects of guilt. Very often spouses who cheat handle their guilt by buying their partners extravagant gifts, making accusations against them to deflect attention from their own wrongdoing, or avoiding them. It’s the rare individual whose behavior remains unaffected by feelings of guilt, and those effects are corrosive and unhealthy.

Fortunately Christians know a healthy alternative to guilt: repentance. Repentance is not the same as penance (good deeds to make up for the bad) or mere remorse; when we repent, we turn in a different – and better! – spiritual direction. We may not be able to avoid the consequences of our past actions, but we no longer repeat or dwell in them. Where guilt keeps us chained to shame, repentance severs those bonds and frees us to move on. Our past, once a minefield of failings waiting to detonate in our present, no longer threatens our peace of mind.

John the Baptist called the world to repentance. We answer that call by accepting the grace God offers through Christ.

Comfort: If you suffer from guilt, there’s a better way.

Challenge: Take an inventory of your guilt. How could you trade it for repentance?

Prayer: Loving God, thank you for your mercies. May the compass of my heart always seek your true North. Amen.

Discussion: Do you think it’s possible to forgive yourself for something you think you might do again?

Join the discussion! If you enjoyed this post, feel free to join an extended discussion as part of the C+C Facebook group or follow @comf_and_chall on Twitter. You’ll  have the opportunity to share your thoughts with some lovely people. Or feel free to comment here on WordPress, or even re-blog – the more the merrier!