Over and over again we find ourselves echoing the good news about the kind of full life God wants us to have. He has loved us o much that He joined His creation and came to us in the person of Jesus Christ. The Christmas/Epiphany season message is that in and through the Incarnation, we are shown what the City of God looks like. Yet, the gift is available at a cost. No, you can’t “buy” it from God or bribe God receive it. By “cost” I mean that there are certain things we need to do byway of preparation to receive the gift.
First of all, it is not enough to know about Jesus. It is not enough to say the Creed and say: “I belong to the Church family and not offer support.” The gift is not ours because we say we are God’s people. It must show in what we do.
There is an old Biblical word that describes the cost. It implies we are not as perfect as we think we are! Yet, until we come to terms with what commitment means at its deepest level, we are not ready to receive God’s gift.
The word I mean is repent. The Bible is full of that word. It is found in Old Testament prophecy: “Repent, O Israel, come back to God.” The story of John the Baptiser is one of repentance. Many times Jesus Himself told people that the promise of God’s great gift would not be theirs until they repented. The Acts of the Apostles reminds us that this is the appropriate response to the Resurrection.
But what does that really mean? The literal translation from the Greek is “changing” or “turning around.” It means, then, ” change of mind;” “a change of heart” that leads to a “change of life.” The problem is that it makes us look at ourselves and perhaps see that something just isn’t right! That can be painful, frightening, and downright difficult.
Children often provide us with the greatest insights. Their openness and honesty is refreshing. Take, for instance, a 5th grader was given a check as a birthday gift. She eagerly took it to the bank for cashing. The teller carefully examined the check and asked: “Do you have identification?” The child thought for a moment, took a mirror from her purse, studied her reflection and announced brightly: “Yep, it’s me all right.”
For all of us, the beginning of knowing ourselves is identification. We need to look at ourselves in the mirror and then be honest about what we see. Maybe our conclusion is: “Yep, it’s me all right and it’s not all that bad!” Or maybe we conclude: “Yep, it’s me all right, but there are things that need to be different!” The truth is that no one is so close to God that they cant get even closer.
But, you say, here I am in Church, I’m here every Sunday and I’m here by choice and I make an annual pledge of support. But, consider this, Jesus was hardest on “Church people.” He was critical of the Pharisees and called them “hypocrites.” And they were the model of righteousness in their time!
We’ve been around long enough to know that the Church is less than perfect. We also know that “Church people” aren’t perfect and that “Church people” can hurt one another. People make wrong decisions. People gossip and spread rumors. All of that is cause or regret.
Yet, out of all that can come something positive – repentance. With repentance goes the reaching out of God and a longing to be accepted. Repentance goes far beyond acceptance to the burden of guilt and sorrow. It implies an active turning around in the sure and certain hope that God’s wonderous gift of grace is ours.
I remember the work of Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross in the area of accepting the loss of a loved one, whether by death or other means. She reminds us that acceptance only comes after going through the feelings of loss, anger, and bargaining. So, too, with repentance. In the end, it is feeling the touch of the Master’s Hand that brings acceptance and peace.
In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus is teaching the “Church people” in a synagogue in His hometown of Nazareth. At first, He is well-accepted and praised for His wisdom. Then He gets down to His message! He tells them that they aren’t as good as they think they are and they aren’t superior to other people. He tells them they have to change and their response was rejection and to try to throw Him off a cliff!
Jesus was hardest on the people who believe they have it all. Yet, who among us could not get closer to God? Who among us couldn’t be better?
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a clergyman killed by the Nazis, wrote about “costly discipleship.” “Costly grace,” he wrote, “is the Gospel which must be sought after again and again; the gift that must be asked for . . . such grace is costly because it costs a person his or her life . . . It is costly because it justifies us . . . Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.”
Source: © The Rev. Peter Groschner, February 3, 2019. Luke 4:21-30. Reprinted with permission from the author.