Grace to Repent

THE NATURE OF GRACE

September 29, 1996

Philippians 2:1-13 - Poured out for love of family

Matthew 21:23-32 - Two sons, neither of whom did as they said

Have you ever wondered why people are the way they are?

Have you ever wondered why YOU are the way you are?

Some of us seem always pleasant and loving— like the Colonel, for example— and some of us are congenital pessimists (not you or me, of course!) But there are "personality sets" that begin early in life, and often carry over into the way we express life's most important relationships, to our families, to ourselves, and to our God.

These passages of scripture raised the question: Can a person ever really change directions? What does it mean to "repent?"

THE GOOD NEWS ABOUT GRACE IS...PEOPLE CAN CHANGE      

To "repent" means basically "to turn around." One definition of repentance is "a godly sorrow for sin." But it is more than sorrow— it is a willingness to change one's mind— to change directions. Whenever anyone says, "Jesus is Lord!" there is the potential for a wonderful new direction in life! To "repent" means a willingness to take a new direction when new light is given.

We "repent" when we BECOME a Christian. But being a Christian is more than a one-time turn-around. Being a Christian is about becoming like Jesus. It is about loving to do God's will, having the same spirit that Jesus had. WE NEVER GROW PAST THE NEED FOR COURSE CORRECTION, AND THAT IS ALSO 'REPENTANCE.' "Faith" involves a willingness to change life-styles.

Jesus was talking with religious people— chief priests, elders— people who knew every passage of scripture, and who took their religion seriously. But their faith never was just in their heads, and never reached their heart and hands and feet. They were mental believers, and not concerned with caring about others, not worried about bearing one another's burdens.

Jesus told these religious people a parable about two sons: A father asked them both to do something; one said "I will obey you" and then promptly forgot and went about his own way. The other said, "I will NOT obey you" but then REPENTED and out of love for the father went and did as he was asked. He changed the kind of person he was, by grace.

Then Jesus said directly to these religious people, and I quote: "Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John (the Baptist) came to you preaching righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not CHANGE YOUR MINDS and believe him."

The word repent is a key here. We think of repentance as "a godly sorrow for sin." But actually it is a willingness to change course and follow Jesus at every stage of our lives. It is the humility to be led, to follow.

That is what this Philippians passage is challenging me to do— to quit living selfishly and begin thinking about you. But " I want to think about ME— and I want YOU to think about me— I want to be loved— that is just human nature, isn't it?? I want to avoid discomfort as much as possible. "

So— Jesus is a real challenge. He had it all. He needed absolutely nothing. But then Jesus left it all in order to come looking for... me. He left heaven to give me a chance to come into his inner circle of love, and be like him. But once I got into that circle and began to see what Jesus' great joy was all about, I found this challenge: I really want to be in his inner circle— but it is there I have to seek to be like Him. And HE lived for others!

ABRUPT ENTRY INTO NARRATIVE

Just a week ago yesterday (9/20/96)I lost a friend. This man may have been your good friend as well, although I don't really know anyone who ever talked with him in person. That friend was Henri J. M. Nouwen, who wrote over thirty books, many of which are on my bookshelves, and many of which I have given away to others. His writings have meant a great deal to many Christians. Henri Nouwen died a week ago yesterday, apparently of a heart attack, while visiting his family in the Netherlands. he was 64.

Let me tell you just a little about this friend, this good man. Henri was evidently very gifted, and gifted in several wonderful ways. he was spiritually very sensitive, and answered God's call to ministry the best way he knew; in very liberal Holland Henri became a priest and took vows of poverty, celibacy, and obedience. But Henri was exceptionally gifted intellectually as well. His resume is too lengthy to recite here, but he was a highly desired faculty member, teacher, at Notre Dame University in Indiana, then at Yale University, and also was tenured at Harvard University. But more than these two gifts, Henri was especially gifted in articulating his faith; he not only was bright, he could make common people like me understand great truth. As a result his greatest influence, perhaps, came through his writing. He had a way of making truth winsome and gripping. I put him alongside such men I have heard as Bob Benson and Reuben Welch and E. Stanley Jones; perhaps we could speak of Paul Tornier, even C.S. Lewis, perhaps Max Lucado.

One day this passage— at least the essence of the truth which this passage expresses— began to deal with Professor Henri Nouwen of Harvard University, right here in Boston. He was popular, he had it all going for him; he was teaching the movers and shakers-to-be of the nation at the nation's most prestigious school. God spoke to Henri Nouwen about kenosis— about becoming a smitten rock— about emptying himself and BEING instead of just SAYING. (It isn't that Henri hadn't been "doing" the right things before. But this was a challenge to a new turning, a new repentance—.)

Let me use Nouwen's own words:

"After twenty years in the academic world as a teacher of pastoral psychology, pastoral theology, and Christian spirituality, I began to experience a deep inner threat. As I entered into my fifties and was able to realize the unlikelihood of doubling my years, I came face to face with the simple question, "Did becoming older bring me closer to Jesus?" After twenty-five years of priesthood, I found myself praying poorly, living somewhat isolated from other people, and very much preoccupied with burning issues.

Everyone was saying that I was doing really well, but something inside was telling me that my success was putting my own soul in danger. I began to ask myself whether my lack of contemplative prayer, my loneliness, and my constantly changing involvement in what seemed most urgent were signs that the Spirit was gradually being suppressed. It was very hard for me to see clearly, and though I never spoke about hell or only jokingly so, I woke up one day with the realization that I was living in a very dark place and that the term "burnout" was a convenient psychological translation for a spiritual death.

In the midst of this I kept praying, "Lord, show me where you want me to go and I will follow you..." God said, "Go and live among the poor in spirit and they will heal you" ... So I moved from Harvard to L'Arche, from the best and the brightest, wanting to rule the world, to men and women who had few or now words and were considered, at best, marginal to the needs of our society. It was a very hard and painful move ... " In the Name of Jesus, 9-11

So— Henri Nouwen went to Toronto, Canada, and became pastor at an interdenominational home for severely mentally retarded people, a place called "L'Arche" — you know, "The Ark" like Noah and saving a few people from the rising flood. A place for severely retarded people. A place where no one cared that Henri Nouwen had written all those books. A place where he was just "Henri." That was Henri Nouwen's employment until he died last week.

Henri Nouwen did not stop writing or speaking after he went to L'Arche. But now it was different. He had to ask if he should go or not. He usually took a retarded person with him on his trips. One such engagement was at Washington, D.C., where Nouwen was asked to talk about Christian Leadership. The remarks Henri made there became the nucleus of a book called "In the Name of Jesus." In that book he said something of what it means to not only THINK holy thoughts, but to let the holy thoughts become incarnate in BECOMING like Christ— the mind of Christ incarnate. These are some of the things he said about Christian leaders:

The leader of the future will be one who dares to claim his irrelevance in the contemporary world as a divine vocation that allows him or her to enter into a deep solidarity with the anguish underlying all the glitter of success and to bring the light of Jesus there. (ibid, 22)

The question is not: How man people take you seriously? How much are you going to accomplish? Can you show some results? But: Are you in love with Jesus? Perhaps another way of putting the question would be: Do you know the incarnate God? In our world of loneliness and despair, there is an enormous need for men and women who know the heart of God, a heart that forgives, that cares, that reaches out and wants to heal,. (ibid, 24)

The task of future Christian leaders is not to make a little contribution to the solution of the pains and tribulations of their time, but to identify and announce the ways in which Jesus is leading God's people out of slavery, through the desert to a new land of freedom. (ibid, 67)

When Nouwen delivered this challenge to the Center for Human Development at Washington, D.C. Nouwen traveled from L'Arche in Canada with a mentally retarded man named Bill Van Buren. Together these two, brilliant professor and scholar Henri Nouwen and severely handicapped Bill Van Buren teamed up to carry the message. And carry it they did [If there is time tell how; see book for details to refresh memory later]

Can we find grace to change direction? Of course we can: here it is in this challenge: Be of one mind, of one heart, of one spirit! Let this mind be in US that was in Christ Jesus!!

The church is made up of all kinds of people who, left to their own unchallenged interests, will never be heard outside the walls. But if we can be of one mind, of one heart, and care for each other— if we can have this mind in us which was also in Christ Jesus— we can be a mighty army for God to tell the world about his love. The serious can learn to care for the flighty. The impulsive can actually have patience with the retarded. The sex-crazed can be made pure in heart! We can repent, again, by grace, by the mind of Christ.

PRAYER

 Seek ye the Lord while he may be found; call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the evil man his thoughts, let him turn to the Lord and he will have mercy upon him— to our God for he will abundantly pardon..(Isaiah 55:6.7)

OR

Willimon: seminar decided that the most important thing about preaching is to help people think about truth in a new way. Willimon reflected— "No, it is to help people LIVE in a new way!" Are WE willing? -am I willing to "repent" and turn in any direction that the Spirit of Jesus in me will lead?

526 Let the Beauty of Jesus be Seen in Me