TIME TO REPENT
Does anyone remember Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In? It was a T.V. comedy show that ran from January of 1968 until May of 1973. Thinking back on it, my parents probably shouldn’t have let me watch it. I’m not sure I was quite old enough for that kind of humor. In any case, there was one particular sketch where people would pop open doors on a great big wall to recite their comedic lines. I’ve never forgotten one of those lines. It must have been in December of 1969. A woman opened up her door and said, “If the 1970’s are anything like the 1960’s, we may not be around for the 1980’s!”
Perhaps we could say the same thing today. If the two thousand tens are anything like the two thousands, we may not be around for the two thousand twenties! Could anyone have predicted – or even imagined – the tremendous tumult our nation has endured over the last ten years? The Bible talks about how in the end times there will be wars and rumors of wars. There have been wars – in Iraq and Afghanistan – and now there are rumors of wars in North Korea as well.
Our collective sense of security was upended after the events of nine-eleven. Small towns all across the country are seeing their populations decline and a tremendous gap being formed between the so-called “haves” and “have-nots.” Why it’s almost as if there is no middle class any more. And who could have predicted the economic collapse of 2008? People lost as much as a third of their assets. That’s a pretty sizeable chunk of change when you’re dependent upon investment income for your retirement years, isn’t it? And all the while, we push God farther and farther to the margins of our existence. Church attendance all across the nation is plummeting, particularly in what we call the old mainline denominations. People will stampede a Buffalo Target store at 4:00 in the morning to get a jump on Black Friday sales, but they seem to worship God only when they’ve nothing better to do. Ah, yes, if the two thousand tens are anything like the two thousands, we may not be around for the two thousand twenties.
It was a similarly depressing scenario for the people of Isaiah’s day. Let me set the scene for you. The time was likely somewhere around the year 700 B.C. The Jewish state had become a divided monarchy. Israel and its capital city of Samaria were to the north, and Judah and its capital city of Jerusalem were to the south. The northern kingdom of Israel had fallen to the Assyrians in the year 721 B.C. The southern kingdom of Judah was little more than a vassal state by this time. They may have maintained their status as an independent nation, but they were forced to grant Assyria certain “concessions” in order to maintain their existence. Suffice it to say that it would not have been a pleasant way to live: in constant fear for one’s life, replete with anxiety about the future. And all the while they managed to push God farther and farther to the margins of their existence as well. How so?
The nation of Judah had become a sin-infested society. Isaiah himself describes the state of their affairs throughout the book of Isaiah. There was a basic ignorance of God. There was rebellion among people who were upset with Assyrian rule. The worship of God had become insincere. There was infidelity, injustice, murder, dishonesty, bribery, and oppression among the people. Isaiah lamented their idolatry and their pride. He noted the greediness of their rulers. There was irresponsible luxury, drunkenness and carousing, the rejection of God’s law, the confusion of evil with good, and a distinct lack of faith in God. Why, it almost sounds like 21st century America, does it not?
It was to this southern kingdom of Judah that Isaiah was called to be a prophet. What did Isaiah say to the sin-infested society of his day? He said, “O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!” Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord. In other words, it’s time to change the way you are living. It’s time to have a change of heart. It’s time…to repent.
Many years ago, a minister friend of mine came to talk to me about his son. The minister’s
son was in trouble – real trouble. The young man was accused of being in possession of child pornography and was facing an extended period of time in jail. All judgments regarding the son aside, as you might suspect, my minister friend and his wife were utterly devastated. Sometimes parents suffer even more than their children when they get into trouble, don’t they?
During the course of one of our conversations, my minister friend showed me a picture of himself and his son that was taken in his church sanctuary during the season of Advent. There in the picture was the minister on one side and his son on the other. In between them – just over their heads – was a sign on the wall of the church. That sign read, “Time to Repent.” It sent an eerie chill up my spine when I saw it. It was like a sign from God…literally.
That young man should have heeded that sign when he first saw the picture. He should have repented of his evil ways right then and there. To fail to repent is to continue to live in sin and to suffer the consequences of one’s actions. We do indeed reap what we sow, and that young man eventually did. He went to jail for a long, long time. To repent is to have a change of heart and to begin life anew. When one repents, one confesses one’s sin, but to repent of one’s sin is more than to merely say, “I’m sorry.” To truly repent, one must also vow to live a better life in days to
come.
That, in essence, is what Isaiah was saying to the people of Jerusalem. It’s time to repent.
It’s time to have a change of heart and to begin life anew. It’s time to put aside the self-centered, godless ways of the past and begin a new kind of life…one that has God at the center. For if you do, your life will be much better than it has been in the past.
Right before Isaiah calls upon the people to repent, he tells them what God will do for them if they but turn to him. “In days to come,” Isaiah says, “the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills. All the nations shall stream to it. Many people shall come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations and shall arbitrate for many peoples. They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” In other words, as I like to say, God wins in the end. God always wins in the end.
The world to come God promises is a world of justice. The world to come God promises is a world of peace. The world to come God promises is a world of harmony. But in order to get there, you have to repent. In order to get there, you have to have a change of heart. In order to get there, you have to believe that God indeed holds the secret to a better society, and that God can really do what he says he can do.
On Thanksgiving Day I watched an old movie called Miracle on 34th Street. The plot of the story is that a woman has hired the real Santa Claus to play Santa Claus at Macy’s department store during the Christmas season. Santa’s sanity was ultimately questioned in court. But there was a line in the movie that really struck me. That line was this: “Faith is believing when common sense tells you not to.” Again, “Faith is believing when common sense tells you not to.”
Do we believe that God can deliver a world of justice, peace and harmony? Common sense seems to tell us that our world is hopeless. Faith, on the other hand, tells us that it is not. So I say to you today: It’s time to repent. It’s time to have a change of heart. It’s time to turn back to God and trust that he can make our world a better place for everyone. Amen.
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