In Keeping with Repentance

I really appreciate Parker Palmer's book, Let Your Life Speak. One of the book's big ideas is this: if you will listen carefully to what you have to say, you might actually learn something. His theory is that we learn valuable lessons in life that go unnoticed. But when tested by our circumstances and challenged in our conversations, these lessons are revealed as we articulate positions and values influenced by our experiences.

As a teacher who is entrusted with--and hopefully empowered for--the sacred chore of exposing the life changing truth of God's love, there are times I find myself listening with interest to what I am saying. There are segments of some talks that are completely unplanned and I choose to trust that the tangent is providing exactly what someone in the room needs to hear from God. At times those detours are for other people and at times they are for me.

This past week I found myself traveling down one of those roads less traveled that I think was for me. I can't get it out of my mind. The topic was repentance and I kept quoting John the Baptist from Matthew 3:8, "Produce fruit in keeping with repentance." The surprise element that was occurring to me as I verbally processed this truth was the "keeping" portion of the command. I had never consciously thought about keeping with repentance.

In my mind I had relegated repentance to what happened on our own personal road to Damascus. We see the bright light of God's truth and we place our faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins and the eternal justification our souls. It's the one-time turnaround from the broad road whose destiny is destruction, and the subsequent repositioning of our lives on the narrow road which leads to life. Most of my conscious thinking in regards to repentance has been this once-in-a-lifetime turn to the truth of God's love, grace, and mercy.

However, John's teaching at this point is clearly about the repentance of sanctification, not justification. There are times in our lives where we get disoriented on the narrow way and we find ourselves lapsing into what we know best, broad-road living in the flesh. This was the state of our being prior to the moment of our conversion. Broad-road living is all about looking out for number one and when we are stricken with vertigo of the faith, we go back to what we know best and lose our way.

JB's message is that when we struggle with those bouts of vertigo we must examine the expected fruit of our decision-making. Will it be fruit that is in keeping with the narrow road of justifying repentance? Or will it be the rotten, self-destructive fruit of the broad road? The very clear meaning of his exhortation is that there are times in our lives that call for re-repentance; literally turning back around and getting reoriented on the narrow road. This re-turning is in keeping with repentance. As a matter of fact, the re-turning or re-repentance of sanctification, is proof of the life changing repentance of justification.

Paul summed it up this way as he defended his own preaching to King Agrippa in Acts 26:20, "First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles also, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds."

Slow down and let your life speak today, or better yet, let your fruit speak. Are your deeds proof of your repentance? In keeping with repentance, do you need to re-turn to the narrow way that leads to life eternal and life abundant?

The Modern Day Pharisee

For weeks now I have been reading the four gospels, studying about the life of Jesus. Even though this is very familiar territory for me, I have still been consistently amazed by his interaction with the Pharisees. I won't bore you by reintroducing the biblical Pharisee, but suffice it to say that Jesus had them in his cross hairs until they put him on the cross.

Reading about those caustic exchanges spelled out in scripture always makes me wonder if I'm a Pharisee. Would Jesus have the same problems with my spirituality that he did with theirs? What about yours? As followers of Jesus, we need to entertain the notion that we might be modern day Pharisees.

Here's my litmus test for Pharisaism: If your spiritual privilege becomes another's predicament; you're a Pharisee. When my privilege becomes your predicament, I'm doing the work of a Pharisee.

In his diatribe against those do-gooders Jesus said, "They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them." (Matthew 23:4)

The "heavy loads" to which Jesus refers are the rules and rituals of righteousness that the Pharisees lived by. Living up to those standards proved to be a full-time job and yet they placed those same expectations on people who couldn't afford to devote their lives to rule keeping. So instead of helping people connect with God's mercy and love, they were loading them down with guilt and condemnation. So their unique privileges in life were putting the people in a very difficult predicament.

Modern day Pharisees do the same thing. I was in a worship service one evening where the Pastor told the congregation that he spent four hours a day reading and studying scripture. He went on to imply that if we were serious about our relationship with God we would do the same thing! I wanted to stand up and OBJECT in hopes that the statement would be stricken from the records of our minds. Studying the scripture for four hours a day was his job and his privilege; making it my predicament was Pharisaical.

Most people who have substantive walks with God enjoy certain privileges. They have been graced with unique passions, gifts, talents, or resources that are fruitful for their walk. Each of those privileges are wonderful gifts from God that should be explored and celebrated, but never assigned!

When my privilege becomes your assignment and therefore your predicament, I have become a Pharisee by tying a heavy load on your back and doing nothing to remove it.