Rethinking Repentance

                 "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." (Matthew 4:17)
That's the TNIV and NRSV translation of Jesus' first sermon.  A new translation that is out in its New Testatment form, the Common English Bible, translates this verse in Matthew:  "Change your hearts and lives.  Here comes the kingdom of heaven." 

I like that new translation of that passage for a couple of reasons.  First, it reminds us that one of the first ways we welcome the grace of God is altering our lives and our hearts to align with the force and reality of the kingdom of God that comes to rule in our midst.  Such a response is exactly what the word, repentance, means:  to change our minds, to reverse our judgments, to change our directions, to turn around. 

I know we hear repentance spoken of as expressions of regret, as being sorrowful for our faults and foul-ups.  Yet the truth is "I'm sorry" is a sad and useless excuse when not followed by changes in actions and behaviors. 

I suspect God hears enough of the "I'm sorry."  Given the intolerance and uncivility of our culture right now, the unchristian comments and behaviors toward other religious faiths, the condeming of other religious groups because they are not like we are, the threats to burn their holy scriptures,  "I'm sorry" is a pretty lame response.

Fortunately ( or unfortunately) I have been reading the book of Jeremiah for the past weeks.  Jeremiah 8 and 9 are particularly insightful right now.  The chapters immerse us in the grief of Jeremiah and of God over the condition and the consequences facing the people.  In frustration and grief,  God and Jeremiah announce that the people are not ashamed at all about their lot, "they don't even know how to blush!"
(Jeremiah 8:12)

So I am rethinking my practice of repentance.  Recovering the capacity to blush at my actions and the actions of others AND  realign my heart and life to more adequately correspond to the rule of God that is coming toward me.

This aspect of the journey with God is worth pondering.

Rethinking Repentance

Like most religous words, "repentance", often needs  reinterpretation.  It is not that the word and action have changed.  It is more that our understandings need retuning from time to time.   This week I began to consider a little different way to think about the action and necessity of repentance to add along side some of these understancing.

Repentance is:
                        Turning around, changing directions.
                        Turning "God-ward."
                        An appraisal of my life, actions and behavior.
                        Being changed for the better.

This week I have been thinking about repentance as realignment.  As my car need realignment from time to time, so my life needs realignment with God's will.

We practice the alignment of repentance when we ask ourselves, "At what times today did I fall short of  faithful service to Christ?  When were those times I failed to act as God depended upon me to act?"

The journey of  faith is a day by day practice of realignment.