Turn Around

Lent is like a day at the beach. We go out to play in the waves. We splish and splash. We surf and sink. Then we look up, and Mom and Dad are gone! We look around, and there they are, way up the beach, waving their arms and encouraging us to come back.

Lent is about grace not guilt. It’s God’s invitation to us to see where we are, to recognize it’s not where God calls us to be, and to begin the journey back.

Psalm 120 is a song of someone who has looked up and recognized they are not where they ought to be: Psalm 120:5 (NRSV) Woe is me, that I am an alien in Meshech, that I must live among the tents of Kedar.

Where are Mesech and Kedar? It really doesn’t matter. What matters is where they are not; they’re not in Jerusalem. They’re not in the promised land of peace.

The Psalmist recognizes that he’s in the wrong place at the wrong time. Psalm 120:6-7 (NRSV) Too long have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace.I am for peace; but when I speak, they are for war.

Eugene Peterson writes, “A person has to be thoroughly disgusted with the way things are to find the motivation to set out on the Christian way. As long as we think that the next election might eliminate crime and establish justice or another scientific breakthrough might save the environment or another pay raise might push us over the edge of anxiety into a life of tranquility, we are not likely to risk the arduous uncertainties of the life of faith. A person has to get fed up with the ways of the world before he, before she, aquires an appetite for the world of grace.”

“The usual biblical word describing the no we say to the world’s lies and the yes we say to God’s truth is repentance. It is always and everywhere the first word in the Christian life. John the Baptist’s preaching was Matthew 3:2 (NRSV) “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Jesus’ first preaching was the same Matthew 4:17 (NRSV) “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Peter concluded his first sermon with Acts 2:38 (NRSV) “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. [And in Revelation] the message to the seventh church is Revelation 3:19 (NRSV) Be earnest, … and repent.

Repentance is a gift of grace. It is God’s invitation to us to turn around. Repentance is not an exercise in neurotic self-examination! Lent is not 40 days of “what’s wrong with me.” We’ll leave that to the TV talk shows. Lent is a chance to be renewed by grace; it’s a chance to be different and make a difference.

Peterson writes: “Repentance is not an emotion. It is not feeling sorry for your sins. It is a decision. It is deciding that you have been wrong in supposing that you could manage your own life and be your 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 and your neighbors and your world. And it is deciding that God in 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 the same old thoughts. Repentance is a decision to follow Jesus Christ and become his pilgrim on the path of peace.”

“Psalm 120:5-6 (NRSV) Woe is me, that I am an alien in Meshech, that I must live among the tents of Kedar.Too long have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace. But we don’t have to live there any longer. Repentance, the first word in Christian immigration, sets us on our way to traveling in the light. It is a rejection that is also an acceptance, a leaving that develops into an arriving, a no to the world that is a yes to God.”

Lent is about grace not guilt; it’s about God’s love for us. God is on the beach, waving like mad, trying to get our attention; the tide is taking us away, but we can do something about that. We can go against the tide. We can choose the path of peace. We can choose acceptance not hate; we can choose forgiveness not vengeance; we can choose to say yes to God’s way, yes to Jesus Christ, yes to the path of peace. We can choose to turn around. Amen.

The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. 1989. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. 21.

The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. 1989. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

Peterson, 25.

Peterson, pp. 25-26.

The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

Peterson, p. 29