John's Prelude

Rev Dr Mark Porizky

12/10/06

Luke 3:1-6

      Over the past 169 years, the federal government has received almost $4 million in unsolicited funds from guilt stricken Americans who feel they have cheated the government and want to clear their consciences.

      Such money, usually received anonymously, is added to the Treasury Department’s obscure "Conscience Fund" almost every day. In recent years, the fund has received a check for 16 cents to cover the cost of two 8 cent stamps the donor said he had illegally reused. Another check was for $50 to cover the cost of a theft the donor said he had committed at an unnamed railway station 58 years earlier. Occasionally, the amounts are substantial. A few years back the government received, out of the blue, a $139,000 payment to settle old income tax debts.

      The 1^st deposit of conscience money is believed to have been made in 1811 during James Madison’s presidency and amounted to $5, officials at the Treasury Department said. Money has arrived in a steady trickle ever since, usually accompanied by brief letters explaining why the donors are sending the funds and offering their apologies, like this excerpt from a recent donor:

      "While I was in the U.S. Air Force for 4 years, I took a few things that did not belong to me. I am now a Christian and would like to make it right. I don’t know the exact value but this $100 should cover it." 

      Of course, some of the letters leave a bit to be desired.  Consider this one that was received in 2004:  “Gentlemen: Enclosed you will find a check for $150. I cheated on my income tax return last year and have not been able to sleep ever since. If I still have trouble sleeping, I will send you the rest.” Sincerely, A Tax Payer.   

      Today’s Scripture is for those who feel like they might perhaps owe something to the IRS, or perhaps even to God.  Today’s Scripture is the prelude to Jesus:  John the Baptist and the whole notion of repentance.

Luke 3:1-6

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberi-us Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysani-as tetrarch of Abilene, in the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness; and he went into all the region about the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

	Every valley shall be filled,
      	and every mountain and hill shall be brought low,
      	and the crooked shall be made straight,
      	and the rough ways shall be made smooth;
      	and all flesh shall see the salvation of God."

      I don’t think I would get much argument from many of you that we all have a need to repent of the sins in our life.

The problem of course, is that repentance, as most of us understand the word, repentance is a word that leaves a bad taste in our mouths. You can easily get a crowd together to talk about wholeness and spirituality. Those words sound interesting, affirming, safe. 

      But if you announce you're going to get together to discuss repentance, you have to take care not to overdo on the refreshments. It feels like sackcloth and ashes, and a stern self-discipline. It's OK for beginners, but we're ready to go on to better things.

      Yet, amazingly, people flocked to John; they went out in droves to hear him, there in the wilderness. Was it pure masochism, a desire to be heaped with guilt? In verse 18, Luke sums up John's ministry in this way: "So with many other exhortations, John proclaimed the good news to the people." Repentance is good news?

      How is repentance good news?  Well consider the story of Terry Anderson.

      Reporter Terry Anderson was imprisoned in Lebanon for more than six and a half years, 2,454 days, ending in 1985.  At first he was blindfolded most of the time and held in chains. He was losing his capacity to think.  When asked what he wanted, he replied that he wanted a Bible. 

      He removed his blindfold and found a Bible.  He began to read, starting with Genesis.

      Terry Anderson was raised as a Roman Catholic but had not been practicing his faith for many years.  That Bible was like a gift from heaven.  He read and read, and thought about his life.  He had lots of time to think.  He wanted to confess that he had hurt his first wife and daughter.  He wanted to confess his many mistakes and his arrogance.  He wasn't sure that people liked him and he certainly didn't like himself very much.

      Later in the first year of his captivity, Terry Anderson became aware that other hostages were living next door.  One was a priest, 

      Father Lawrence Jenco.  He asked the guards if he could see the priest.  "I am a Catholic and I want to make a confession," he said.  His captors agreed and Father Jenco came to Terry Anderson's room.  Both men took off their blindfolds. 

      It had been 25 years since he had made a confession. Father Jenco gently encouraged him.  Terry Anderson began telling the priest of his sins.  There was much to confess!  A bad marriage.  Chasing other women.  Drinking.  It was a tremendously emotional experience.  When he had finished, both he and Father Jenco were in tears.  Father Jenco then laid his right hand upon Anderson's head and proclaimed, "In the name of a gentle, loving God, you are forgiven." 

      This was a turning point in Terry Anderson' life.  His faith deepened.  He had begun the process of turning around, leaving the darkness and facing the light. 

      This is what is repentance is like.

      When the Bible says that John came preaching "Good news," we wonder how Luke can call confessing our sins and repentance "good news."  Then we see that it is only in confessing our sins and repenting that we open the way for Jesus to come to us.  He is waiting to hear us say, "Come, O Christ!  I need You!  I want You to take away my sin and walk with me!"  Do you see that in this light, repentance is truly "good news?" It becomes the Highway of Hope, because it opens us up to life with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

      Friends, our primary task in the Christian life is not to avoid sin, which is impossible anyway, but to recognize sin. Let me repeat that, because it’s what I most want you to remember:  Our primary task in the Christian life is not to avoid sin, which is impossible anyway, but to recognize sin.  

      But the problem is that the perfectionist in us seeks to avoid sin, and since we cannot humanly avoid it, we resort to denying it, covering it up, and refusing to recognize it.

      The good news of repentance is that God accepts us as we are, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we will be made new! But we cannot change unless and until we admit that there's something wrong. Gospel repentance means that we make honest admission of our sins and turn from them, sometimes painfully, toward God.

      Amazing Grace, Kathleen Norris tells of how she was teaching an elementary school class and had the kids write a poem. One boy wrote a poem called "The Monster Who was Sorry." He began by telling how he hated it when his father yelled at him. In the poem, he deals with his anger by throwing his sister down the stairs, and then wrecking his room, and finally wrecking the whole town. The poem concludes, "Then I sit down in my messy house and say to myself, 'I shouldn't have done that."

      My messy house" says it all more honestly than most adults do. We all live in a house made messy by our sins, and in the still of the night we have that nagging thought, "I shouldn't have done that."

      Sitting there in our messy house feeling sorry, we are on the threshold of repentance. This is not the place of misery, but of grace.

      Out of misery and sin, out of failure and loss, out or arrogance and pride, repentance opens the way to a new reality, a clean house. 

      That prospect is what filled people with excitement as they hiked out to the desert to hear John and get baptized in the Jordan River

      And so to receive Christmas we have to repent.  To welcome Jesus we must, says John the Baptist, repent and hear the good news.

      When the word repent brings more hope than guilt, we’re ready for Jesus. 

      Will you pray with me now?  

St. Andrew Presbyterian Church, Groton , CT

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