December 1998 Issue

This lesson continues the mood and imagery of expectation with an emphasis on the judgment to come. We are introduced to John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness. His message is stern and demanding: repent, for the in breaking of the messianic age is about to begin. Though he seems to single out the Pharisees and Sadducees for special condemnation (unlike Luke's account in Luke 3:7-9) the congregation who listens carefully to this passage will, no doubt, take the message more in the Lukan sense of applying to all of us, as well it should.

The obvious theme of this section is repentance, and it is delivered with great urgency. It is not something to put off; not something to deliberate after one has weighed all the pros and cons. Something about repentance demands that we give it immediate attention. However, pastoral sensitivity requires that we listen to this text from the perspective of the parishioner and realize that most of those who sit in the pews of our churches probably already have a natural disposition toward recognizing their need for repentance.

Repentance is, of course, associated with sin, and sin is quickly associated with guilt and shame. Certainly we should not retreat from a genuine confrontation with our sin and the authentic guilt that accompanies it. Guilt is about facing the harm we do to others and, thereby, indirectly inflict upon ourselves. The greater danger that arises in much of our preaching on this theme is to assume that guilt has to be stimulated in us in order to be appropriately recognized and subsequently brought to repentance. This is why it is helpful to be aware that many in our congregations are already beset with massive feelings of inadequacy and failure. Many others have been raised in family systems which intentionally and unintentionally made guilt a primary motivating force in their lives. To preach about repentance without knowing something about the burdens already being carried by one's congregation—those hidden and private torments that only a sensitive pastor is privileged to see—is to miss an opportunity for genuine introspection.

Several related themes present themselves in this passage that enable us to avoid some of the obvious difficulties we confront in preaching on the experience of repentance:

The emphasis is on repentance as a form of spiritual preparation. We are able to avoid the guilt-inducing implications of repentance by recognizing that John the Baptist is attempting to bring forth a readiness in us for God's blessing. Rather than associating repentance with sin and sin with punishment, it is far more effective for us to make a connection between repentance and blessing. This changes the conventional equation of unconfessed sin leading to some kind of punishment to unconfessed sin leaving us unable to enjoy and celebrate the miracle of God's redemptive entry into history. When our sin is unconfessed we remain hardened against the beauty and possibility inherent in God's advent in Christ. Repentance sharpens our capacity to perceive the magnificence of this event and its implications for our lives. Repentance as preparation is an active decision to participate in the new age of God's revelation in Christ. It is not, on the contrary, a way of avoiding punishment or being "good." It is a way of "joining" the celebration and making it real in our lives.

Repentance is not about the past, but the future. In verse 8 our text changes the locus of attention that is usually associated with repentance from the past to the future. How many of us live in the past? How often is the meaning of our lives determined by what has happened to us and or what has been done by us? The past is the primary arena of guilt because we inadvertently allow it to become the distorted reference point for repentance. If we listen carefully to John the Baptist, we hear echoes of some of the most incisive contemporary thinking about the nature of change at the deepest levels of our being. To change, in the literal sense of metanoia, is "to change one's mind." This suggests paying attention to what happens next, not what happened before. We are reminded here that our lives are far too often defined in terms of our history and not enough in terms of our present and future. This perspective is consistent with the discourse of Jesus in John 15:1-6. Here, again, repentance is not about the past actions and failures. It is about what is yet to come, the "fruit" of a new spirit within us that is forgiven and empowered to live at a different level of meaning and purpose. Once we connect confession and repentance with a new future, not an old past, we are true to the eschatological perspective of John's message, and we prepare ourselves a life that looks forward rather than backward.

The inability to repent leaves us without room for growth. There is a dimension of John's warning that should create authentic anxiety. When we cannot confess how we have done harm to others and ourselves and, thus, bring ourselves into genuine repentance, we limit our potential for growth. The apocalyptic imagery of a "burning fire" suggests that something in us is destroyed when we do not allow ourselves to confront our capacity for evil; that is, when we cannot see ourselves as capable of causing suffering. Though we do not want to instill guilt or manipulate those who are already over burdened with a deeply conditioned sense of shame, we also do not want to nuance the experience of repentance so thoroughly that it loses its power to shake us up. At its best the message of repentance should command a deeper look at what we would prefer to ignore. It takes great pastoral sensitivity to find the proper balance between a graceful exposure to repentance as an invitation to new growth and as a definitive "mirror" that accurately reflects back to us what we would rather not see.

The true pastoral challenge of this passage is to provide a context for repentance that enhances the possibility our listeners will see the benefit, not just the necessity, of confronting our capacity for harm to ourselves and others.

As long as the theme of repentance is associated exclusively with images of fear and punishment, we risk the unintentional deepening of wounds that have never received appropriate attention. Likewise, as long as repentance is construed as a reference to the past rather than a liberating power that opens us up to a new future, we keep ourselves locked in time. The ritual of confession and forgiveness becomes a compulsive repetition of chronic guilt-ridden anxieties that never achieves completion. The purpose of repentance is to free us from the tyranny of a graceless conscience so that we may be able to change in joyful preparation for God's coming reign.

Frank Stalfa, Jr.