Straight Paths

In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, 2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” 3 This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’” 4 Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, 6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 7 But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit worthy of repentance. 9 Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 10 Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

John the Baptist sorta crashes our Advent party here - like the Residence Hall guy making us put our beer away and turn off the music. . . Well, let’s humor him a bit, pretend we’re back on the straight and narrow, and once he leaves the building, we can turn the music back on, and resume the party. . .
Do we need to reclaim repentance today?
Have we always needed to “reclaim” repentance as a true turning to God?
I think - for some odd reason - of this opening paragraph by Walter Brueggemann in his essay “The Liturgy of Abundance, The Myth of Scarcity” Christian Century, March 24, ‘99.

The majority of the world's resources pour into the United States. And as we Americans grow more and more wealthy, money is becoming a kind of narcotic for us. We hardly notice our own prosperity or the poverty of so many others. The great contradiction is that we have more and more money and less and less generosity - less and less public money for the needy, less charity for the neighbor.

I guess this comes to mind because this sounds a call to me to repent. Or maybe, more accurately, because I hear it as something SOMEONE ELSE needs to hear for THEM to repent. Sort of like that Oliver Wendell Holmes quote:

“Humility is the first of virtues - - for other people.”

or John Seldon:

“Humility is a virtue all men preach, none practice, and yet everybody is content to hear. The master thinks it good doctrine for his servants, the laity for the clergy, and the clergy for the laity.”

Could the same be true for repentance?
Here’s something I said in a sermon on this text once.

Yet, repentance is not at all shame or self righteousness. It is, in fact, a receiving and a knowing. It is receiving the love God has poured out for you, and living in that love. It is setting aside the vain pursuits and powers that threaten to undo us, and a following of God.

Maybe the call to repent is fitting for Advent, maybe it is something I want for myself. Maybe John the baptist hasn’t so much crashed the party, as he has set the tone so the party can actually begin.