MUSINGS - The Joyful Penitent

I could remember it as if it were yesterday!

I hadn't laid eyes on him for the better part of a decade. And...he looked as if he had spent every day of those ten years climbing out of some terrible emotional pit. He was completely soaked from the torrential rain that was falling when he ran the 15 feet from his pick-up truck to the the glass doors of the warehouse that was home to the church's office. Our volunteer admin didn't recognize him, but she waved him through to me when she detected the note of familiarity on my face.

As if the rain wasn't enough, the stories started to pour!

He told me of a life of decadence that made me even more thankful for the narrow escape I had made from the strange drug-sex-and-alcohol underbelly of my hometown! We had been school friends, but not much more. We hadn't been particularly close, but I had thought about him every now and then while I had been preparing to be a Christian pastor. He was what Americans call a skilled, blue-collar worker. The last I had heard, he was doing fairly well. As my office chair absorbed the liquid from his wet clothes and the tears that flowed from his face, I realised that I must have missed the real story of my friend's success.

But - as I listened to him tell his tales of woe and cry - a terrible realization began to dawn upon me: He wasn't repenting. For all his sobs, my friend wasn't sorry for what he had done! He had squandered his money, mistreated his body, been unfaithful to his wife and neglected his children. Yet after sharing more details than I wished to hear, the only question that he had for me was, "Can you help me fix this?"

I couldn't.

Honestly, I didn't know how to help someone "fix" their life - espcially if they aren't actually sorry about the things they had done to break it in the first place!

So...with a prayer under my breath I spoke the hardest words that I had ever uttered as a pastor.

"There's nothing that I can do for you. I know that your life is messed up. But, I can't help you if you're not sorry for the way that you have sinned against yourself, your wife, your kids and God. So, I need you to leave my office and stop wasting my time. Please call me! I will be ready to help you at any time and on any day that you are willing to face your sin and repent!"

He didn't linger long... even so, he was still in my line of site when the prayers began. I wasn't confident that I would ever see him again.

I did.

About two weeks later, the same friend - but a very different person - returned to me. Same stories. Plenty of tears. Real sorrow. A different question: "Is there anyway that God would forgive me?"

He had come to himself... terrible as that self was... and now was asking the really important question: "What does the Father do with those who have repeatedly sinned against themselves, their loved ones and against God himself?"

On that day my friend had arrived at the place that Jesus wishes that we each will revisit on this Third Sunday of Advent. And...because of this he was able to hear again the most incredible news that anyone can ever hope to hear:

"On that day, it shall be said to Jerusalem:
Fear not, O Zion, be not discouraged!
The LORD, your God, is in your midst,
a mighty savior;
he will rejoice over you with gladness,
and renew you in his love,
he will sing joyfully because of you,
as one sings at festivals.."
~ Zephaniah 3:16-18

This is the Gospel!

This is how our heavenly Father treats those who repent from the heart! It is for this reason that the Son can say, "Come to me all you who are weary. I will give you rest!" This is the reason that the penitent rejoices!

On this Advent Three, I pray that the Lord will open your eyes and mine. May we see ourselves as we truly are, so that we might see the wonder that the Gospel truly is!

..........

Today's Readings: Sunday, December 17th, 2006.