Dear Friends in Christ -
I didn't mince any words in my sermon this morning about what God asks of us this Advent, because the words of the RELENTLESS prophet John the Baptist kept ringing in my ears. Every time I thought about preaching something "milder," I could hear John shouting, "The message is simple: REPENT!"
It's a hard message to preach, because I know my own heart. I'm not perfect. When I point the finger at you and call you to repentance, I feel the other fingers pointing back at me.
Fortunately, God's word keeps coming to me in fresh new ways. This week, I heard a fresh word on repentance from the Rev. Amy Richter, another Episcopal priest:
“Repentance is not the same as remorse or regret. It is not listing all the ways things could have gone differently. It is not wishing you were a better person, that some things had never happened, that bad things wouldn’t keep happening to you. It’s not feeling guilty or ashamed. It’s not feeling afraid. It’s not something that leaves us stuck, or standing still, or spinning in circles, going nowhere.
Repentance is about movement, letting yourself be grasped by God, getting new bearings, and relying on God for [new] directions.”
May her words do for you what they did for me: nourish my soul - and call it to do the hard work necessary in this season of anticipation.
Faithfully,
Janet+
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