Repentance: It's Not All that Bad

Repentance is not an emotion.  It is not feeling sorry for your sins.  It is deciding that you have been wrong in supposing you could manage your own life and be you own god; it is deciding that you were wrong in thinking that you had, or could get, the strength, education, and training to make it on your own; it is deciding that you have been told a pack of lies about yourself, your neighbors, and your world.   And it is deciding that God is Jesus Christ is telling you the truth.  Repentance is a realization that what God wants from you and what you want from God are not going to be achieved by doing the same old things, thinking the same old thoughts.  Repentance is a decision to follow Jesus Christ and become his pilgrim in the path of peace.  (Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, p.30)

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.  (Matthew 13:44)

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What if repentance didn't make you feel bad?  What if the emotional marks of repentance was love, joy, and peace?  When I think about it, I find that repentance usually ends up in relief and joy.  I can finally let go of something that I thought I needed because I find there is something else so much better and greater.

No, what makes me miserable is my resistance to repentance.  Approaching the corner I mean to turn, I find myself full of fear, worry, and even anger.  Part of me doesn't want to repent.  That's the part of me that causes all the pain.  Repentance is the relief, the sunrise.

So Jesus also explains some of the top "dreads" that keep me from repenting in another parable.

Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path.  The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy.  But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.  The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.  But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.  (Matthew 13:18-23)

Ignorance is the first.  What I don't know can hurt me.  Persecution is another problem.  Other people's resistance can become my resistance through fear.  Worry and greed can eventually outgrow even the best of news.

Repentance asks, seeks, and knocks.  Repentance must come from certainty and fearlessness.  Repentance must weed out worries and all sorts of lust and greed to last.  Such repentance doesn't yield a mere 10% in a year, but 30,000% to 100,000%.

Is Jesus exaggerating?  Is he just advertising the kingdom with the current marketing techniques?  The message is clear.  The influence and work of God in my life is more valuable than anything else.  It is worth giving it all away.  Repentance may seem foolish to those who cannot see the hidden treasure, but it makes perfect sense to the one who has found the treasure.

Lord, you are my treasure and my triumph.  Save me from all that would take me from you.  Let my decision be wise, fearless, and lasting.  Amen.

Immersion into the Trinity

The Trinity is a concept about God.  No doubt it falls short of capturing who God is.  As honored and true as it might be, I must never forget that it cannot capture the fullness of God nor set boundaries around him.  Words and ideas fail to hold God.

With that said, the Trinity is a concept of genius.  As a tool for plumbing the depths of God, it is powerful and compelling.  It is simple and yet profound.  It captures many truths in Scripture and brings them together into an idea of just how personal God is. 

It is always the same God, but the ‘person’ or the ‘face’ or ‘voice’ by which we receive the revelation varies.  But here’s the thing: every part of the revelation, every aspect, every form is personal – God is relational at the core – and so whatever is said, whatever is revealed, whatever is received is also personal and relational.  (Eugene Peterson, Eat This Book, p.27)

The Trinity is a revelation of how intimate God is with us.  It is not close enough to call him Father.  It is not dear enough to know the Son alone.  It is not intimate enough to live with the Spirit.  The intimacy of God spans the universe and reaches into its most remote corners; the Father is above, beyond, and fills all things.  The friendship of God walks with me and talks with me and teaches me as a human being; the Son is my brother, my friend, and my teacher.  God speaks through my thoughts and feelings and through the voices of other people moved in their minds and empowered in their hearts; the Spirit blows all around me and through my very being.  God is above me.  God is beside me.  God is within me.  Trinity.

No wonder I am baptized into this faith.  Baptism is not about water, but about immersion.  I am baptized into the reality of the Trinity.  Baptism is not a once and for all occasion, but a continuing reality that I live in and share with others: immersion in the Trinity.  I am brought under this God.  I and buried with this God.  I am filled with life from this God.  Everything in me is soaked with God.  The symbol of baptism is like a wedding to a marriage.  It is special.  It is a beginning.  It is a promise.  It is not the reality, though.

Trinity also captures the fact that God has life without me.  He is relational without my contribution.  Within himself, he is family and community.  God is not lonely.  God is full.  God is life.  God is love.  Trinity shows that what he brings is a gift.  He does not need me is the sense that I need him or other people.  It cannot be said “It is not good for God to be alone” like the Bible says about people.  He is enough for himself and complete in himself.

But God does need me in his love.  Because he loves so deeply, so intimately, and so completely, he does not want to live without me.  For me to love him, he must allow that I might not love him.  Trinity shows that as personal and close as God is to me, he is different from me.  I can choose to be a part of his reality or choose another.

Lord, may I live a baptized life, one immersed in your intimate love.  May I find ways to relate with you as Trinity, not neglecting your pervasive presence.  Fill my life like a cup to overflowing.  Amen.

The concept of Trinity is not a remote theological term intended merely for apologetics and other religious talk.  Eugene Peterson puts it well.

We must not, even for a moment, suppose that Trinity is something thought up by theologians to deal with advanced mysteries quite remote for the daily work of people like us who have babies and to work for a living.  No it was the work of Christians like us (some of them maybe a little smarter than we are!) learning and teaching each other to read their Bibles as fully and attentively and personally and responsively as they were able.  They wanted to read in such a way their lives became congruent with the text.  (Ibid,  p.28)