Repentance: A Way of Life
Note: This is the manuscript for a sermon I preached at Gonzalez United Methodist Church, Sunday, 8/26/2007. I am not very strict in reading my manuscript, so the sermon I actually preached may differ. Then again, nobody recorded it, so I’m probably safe!]
Introduction
One of the functions of preachers seems to be to confront you with theological words. We learn boatloads of these words in seminary, thus providing us with constant fodder for new sermons. There’s always some word that we can spend a good 20-25 minutes explaining to you in a Sunday morning sermon.
So our word for today is repentance, and we’re going to let the prophet Ezekiel explain it to us with a little help from his priest buddies back in Leviticus.
The simple form of today’s sermon is this: Repent means “turn.” Living a life of repentance means regularly checking your course, and turning if you need to. Of course, the flip side of that coin is not turning if you don’t need to.
Paths, Roads, and Directions
A few years ago I led a mission team to Hungary and the Ukraine. Because our team was spit into two parts, arriving in the country at separate times, and I also had a side trip to take on my own, scouting out what would become our Ukraine mission, I arranged for a rental car which I would pick up in Debrecen, Hungary, where we would conduct our camp.
Mission trips are a good deal like military operations. How many of you are veterans? _____ Have you heard the saying that no battle plan survives contact with the enemy?
Well, in mission trips there is something similar. No plan survives departure. In this case, it was our travel agent who caused the problem. She had scheduled me with less than two hours to transfer from one plane to another in Atlanta. Now I don’t know how many of you have worked your way through Hartsfield. It’s not badly structured as airports go, but you do need some time.
In addition, she had scheduled me on an independent flight into Atlanta. What did that mean? Well, the airline was not responsible for connections. (In her defense, she did a good job on many, many tickets, and this one caught her off guard!) Then my flight was an hour late, cutting my transfer time down to an hour. Did you realize somewhere in there that because my flight was independent, I had to pick up my luggage and recheck it in on Air France. Bottom line—it wasn’t going to happen in an hour. I had to send on the rest of the team ahead while I argued with airlines and travel agents in order to get myself there later. It was unfortunate that the “rest of the team” were first time mission travelers, but they did OK. They got there!
Time for the travel agent to strike again. I called Jody—did I mention that I’d left my cell phone at home because I wouldn’t be needing it? Thus I was working with pay phones all the way! So, as I said, I called Jody, and she called the travel agent. I said, “Get me on the earliest flight possible to Budapest. We’ll pay the ticket and argue about refunds when I get back.”
With all the changes, it turned out that I would get to Budapest after having been on the road for 30 hours or so. We would already have had the camp van come and go once for the well over 100 mile trip, so I took a simple expedient. Please, tremble as you hear that word “simple.” There is nothing “simple” in military operations or mission trips. Here was my simple plan. I had my rental car changed from Debrecen to Budapest. I would pick the car up there and drive myself to the camp.
Now I’m not completely stupid, or at least I like to think not. So realizing that I would be pretty tired, and it would be late at night, I arranged for a hotel room. Now here’s what I asked the travel agent for: I wanted a hotel very near the airport, on the same side of Budapest. That was more important than any other consideration. Why? Because the airport is on the eastern side of Budapest, and Debrecen is to the east. If you leave the airport and drive to Debrecen, you don’t have to go through Budapest! There are a number of hotels in the immediate area.
So I get to Budapest—really, it eventually happened, shocking as that may seem. I got the rental car. I made an international phone call, and the travel agent had called Jody with the hotel reservation. So I ask the rental care agent, who spoke English, for directions. He pulled out a map and started to highlight this route. Imagine my horror as the route went WEST. NORTH and WEST, not EAST. It went right through downtown Budapest. It took numerous turns, or so it looked to me, though the agent assured me I’d be on the “same road.”
Here in Pensacola, we drive on the same road and name it five different things. In Budapest, it appeared, you could turn several times and be on the same road. I exaggerate, but at this point I was in the mood for exaggeration.
How did it go? Well, the one good thing about the hotel was that it was on the same side of the Danube River that divides Buda and Pest. About the time I looked to my right from a bridge and saw I was crossing the river, I knew I was in big trouble. There followed a wild ritual as I would drive for awhile, stop for directions, and then drive some more, until finally I found myself at the entrance to my hotel. The hotel, by the way, cost twice as much as the one I used on my return journey that was a couple of very straight miles from the airport, and wasn’t any nicer. But that’s just whining!
The trouble with getting directions was that I knew the Hungarian words “nem” or “no” and “igen” or “yes,” and I had some vague acquaintance with left, right, and straight though I don’t remember them any more. I’d get my directions with many gestures, and let me tell you that the Hungarian people, every last one that I encountered on that odyssey, were overwhelming courteous and helpful. They’d take all the time necessary to get me to understand as much as I was going to. Unfortunately, that wasn’t much!
As I drove around the city a verse came to my mind. It’s repeated twice actually in the book of Proverbs:
There’s a way that looks right to a person,
but in the end it’s a path to death — Proverbs 16:25
The same verse can be found also in Proverbs 14:12. You see, I was constantly taking a road that SEEMED right, but when it came right down to it, it was the wrong way.
When I got to camp and was asked to preach on Sunday there, I realized I had a built in sermon. The kids talked about Mr. Henry lost in Budapest for the entire duration of the camp, and learned to quote that verse!
Practical Repentance
Now I understand that a preacher is lucky if he gets across one point in a sermon, so let me make that point. Repentance is turning when you need to.
When I was driving around Budapest, what was necessary was for me to recognize that I was on the wrong road, discover where to go instead, and then TURN. It’s really rather simple, but it’s something we, as humans make very, very complicated.
In our passage in Ezekiel 33, we have just such a situation. If you read the rest of that chapter you’ll see it stated several ways. Did you know that you can repent of doing good? What? You thought that repentance was just something you do when you’ve done something awful.
No, that’s not it. Repentance is just turning away from one course of action to another. When I was driving, and I recognized that I was on the wrong road, I could have said, “Well, I’ve been doing pretty well. For the last half hour I’ve been on the right road. Everything was OK up until that last turn. I think I’ll just keep going. Since I’m such a good driver I’ll make it to my destination anyhow.
You laugh! But don’t we do that with problem areas in our lives all the time? I can tell you I’ve run full-speed down that road a few times with diets. I’ve done really good for so long, I think I can just take a break. And the break extends and extends, and soon I’m back where I started.
In Leviticus, there’s a passage that teaches repentance in graphic form. The priestly code teaches sins in two types: inadvertent and presumptuous. Inadvertent sins are ones that sneak up on you, and before you realize it, you’ve done something wrong. It’s sort of like not using the cruise control in your car and letting the speed climb slowly up. Before long you can be running 20 or more MPH over the speed limit.
When you’re pulled over you say, “Officer, I didn’t know I was going that fast.” He’ll probably give you a ticket anyhow, but that’s an “inadvertent sin.” You can tell him to read Leviticus, and maybe he’ll let you off!
On the other hand if you’re sitting at home, and you say, I have 180 miles to go and two hours to do it. I need to average 90 MPH. I know it’s against the law, but I’m going to do it anyhow, that’s a PRESUMPTUOUS sin.
There were no sacrifices on a daily basis for presumptuous sins. But there was a way out—repentance.
Leviticus 6:1-6—please turn to it. I’ll be reading this time from the NRSV:
Leviticus 6:1-7 (TNIV) (For astute blog readers, this is Leviticus 5:20-26 in the Hebrew Bible. I read from the NRSV during my sermon, but that is not available on Bible Gateway.)
There’s the process: 1) Realize your guilt, 2) Confess it publicly, in this case by bringing a sacrifice, 3) Restore.
This isn’t a politicians repentance. Politicians repent of the consequences. “If I did anything wrong, I’m sorry.” But the subtext says, “I don’t really think I did all that much wrong.”
Do you see the same process? In Ezekiel the wicked man turns from his way and does what is right, or the righteous man turns from his righteous ways and does what is wrong.
Following the wrong road after you’ve been on the right one will still lead you to the wrong destination. Following the right road after you’ve been on the wrong one leads you to the right destination.
So what do I mean by making it a way of life? I hope what you’ve seen in these passages is that repentance isn’t just for extremely wicked people. Repentance is not measured by how much you weep up at the altar, or how hard you pray. It’s measured by your turning back to God.
How much do you have to repent? Well, how far did you go off the road? When I crossed the beautiful Danube River, though I confess I didn’t appreciate its beauty that day, I knew I was WAY off track. I had to repent for quite a few kilometers!
At the same time, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. If you look at the road signs of your life and you see that you’re going where you’re supposed to be going, then just keep going straight.
It’s a way of life—constantly checking your course with God.
Conclusion
I don’t know how many of you like mysteries. I will confess that mysteries are one of my vices. I really like them. I especially like British mysteries. Agatha Christie is one of the more popular, though there are a number of other authors I appreciate. Mysteries in general illustrate what I’m talking about today. In so many mystery stories, one would never actually catch the killer if he or she didn’t run around murdering more people. But killing becomes somewhat of a habit, not to mention lying, and the culprit just can’t seem to quit.
One of my favorite characters is Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple. Is anyone acquainted with Miss Marple? Miss Marple is an elderly lady who has lived her life in an English village. She solves crimes by understanding character. I think there’s a point to that. There’s a logic to evil just as there is a logic to righteous living.
In one Miss Marple mystery there is a character who is a housekeeper, and she has committed one murder. As the story goes forward she accuses one person after another. She’s on a path, and it seems she can’t stop. Finally she’s driven to kill a second person, and finally she draws a circle around herself as the killer.
She just can’t seem to stop.
That’s how it is with sin. What Jesus does is to come into our life and hold up a stop sign. “It doesn’t have to be this way,” he says. “You can change.”
Now we very rarely believe that. Just let a reformed ex-prisoner go out looking for a job. All us good Christians have a very hard time believing that person has really reformed. But God does believe it. God says, “Stop going down that path to destruction, turn around, and live.”
And the things we turn away from don’t have to be the “big” sins like murder, or armed robbery. They could be sins of gossip, or complaining, or apathy. But they all inevitably lead down the same pathway.
God gives us an easy way to stay on the path of life. Keep checking the path, keep turning back toward the goal, keep trusting him.
