R & B

Repent and Believe.

Repent. Well that word has got a lot of baggage. It has virtually been manifested into a literally club used to beat people over the head. We’ve been conditioned (brainwashed?) like Pavlov’s dog to hear that word and begin to cringe in guilt and shame; or bow up and resist the humiliation of admitting we are somehow wrong, or somehow offended somebody (or some god).

But this is mostly because we have a misunderstanding of God, ourselves and what repentance is.

First off, God. As I talked a little bit about in “Dancing King”, Jesus is the eternal dancing God that dances with the Father and the Son. For eternity they have been revolving gracefully, graciously and lovingly around each other forever. When Jesus came to us he essentially invited us to join The Three in the divine dance.

But what about us? We were scooped up off the dance floor and given legs to dance with the King. But we keep going back to our old dance partners, giving them our adoration, love and rhythm.

Repent and BelieveSo repentance is the continual wooing of God that melts our hearts to see that we are cheating on our True Dance Partner. Repentance is literally to “Change Your Thinking.” Repentance is seeing and admitting that we are believing in a different gospel (Gospel is “the good news that a king has come and won”). “Sin” means that I am believing (followed by my “doing”) in something besides Jesus. I’m not dancing with the one that brung me. To repent is to re-callibrate my beliefs. To admit that I am believing wrong, and then to begin to believe the Truth.

That’s why Jesus begins his sermon here with “Repent and Believe.” They go hand in hand. You can’t have one without the other. Repentance is not “say you are sorry for doing something bad” but agreeing with God that you have believed a false gospel, and then believe the Truth that God is your hope; that he has scooped you up off the floor and now says “This is my son, whom I love and in him I am well pleased.”

Dancing King

kids dancingMark 1:9-11
In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

This has been one of my favorite passages in Scripture for a long time. In it we see so much power, beauty and intimacy in the Trinity. In this passage we see all three persons of the Trinity in one place at one time for the first time since Creation in Genesis 1. This passage shows not only the intimacy between the Trinity, but also that he was re-creating creation in that moment. But this time the “new Adam” would not fail in the temptations and be sufficient to live the life we were required to live and die the death our sin requires of us. And it starts right here. At the scene of the Dancing King.

So look at that moment. Jesus the Son coming up out of the baptism waters; the Father speaking words of Hope over him; the Spirit like a dove coming not just over but INTO Jesus. This is how God works. Exists. Dancing in and around one another. And, for all who are in Christ, dancing over and in us. Inviting us to Dance with Him.

Here’s how C.S. Lewis puts it in Mere Christianity: “[Christians] believe that the living, dynamic activity of love has been going on in God forever and has created everything else. And that, by the way, is perhaps the most important difference between Christianity and all other religions: that in Christianity God is not an impersonal thing nor a static thing — not even just one person — but a dynamic pulsating activity, a life, a kind of drama, almost, if you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance”.

So what is that to me? Why would I care? Here is how C.S. Lewis speaks to that:

“And now, what does it all matter? It matters more than anything else in the world. The whole dance, or drama, or pattern of this three-Personal life is to be played out in each one of us: or (putting it the other way round) each one of us has got to enter that pattern, take his place in that dance. There is no other way to the happiness for which we were made.”

We are invited to live a life of Spiritual Dance. Christianity isn’t about rule following or “just” being saved. It is about organic, rhythmic, relational, intimate, exciting (and sometimes dangerous) dance. Does that describe your relationship with Jesus? To be honest, it rarely describes mine…which beckons me to “repent” or dancing with the the wrong partner (but more on that in the next blog).

ANXIETY

Anxiety - Moulin RougeJust seeing that word…’anxiety’…it makes my heart beat just a tad bit faster. She (“anxiety”…and yes, it’s a she in my head) has been my nemesis, my arch-enemy, my Lex Luthor. One of my “gifts” is being able to vision and see down the road a good little ways. The shadow side of that is when I don’t see God on that potential horizon. Or, worse yet, I see God but He’s either too weak to help, or has a not-so-pleasant destination in store for me. And that ticks me off. And it makes me anxious.

So what is this so called “anxiety”? Here’s the main text I always gravitate toward:

Philippians 4:6-7

…do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

I’ve “used” this passage over and over, trying to somehow achieve this elusive “peace” that I want so bad. But what IS anxiety?

As I dug down deep, I learned that anxiety isn’t that angst in my gut, but it (she) literally means “to be divided”. The actual problem is that I see down the road and I have a divided faith. On the one hand I believe that God is: 1) Present and there to help, 2) Wise, knowing how to help, 3) Loving, wanting to help, and 4) Powerful, able to help. But I ALSO don’t believe that. I do. And I don’t.

So what do we do about it? Paul tells the Philippians, who were facing real persecution and danger, to look up at Jesus rather than forward and “around” Jesus. To be “thankful” as we look back and see that throughout all of history God has always, always and always been faithful to bring his people through the desert. Not always how they might want to come through. But always through.

And this only comes in relationship. We can’t just USE God to have him make us feel better. It needs to be the organic back and forth of relationship as we learn that we can truly trust him.

Don’t take away my “man card”, but you can see this hopeful love in one of my favorite songs “Come What May” in Moulin Rouge.

Suddenly the world seems such a perfect place
Suddenly it moves with such a perfect grace
Suddenly my life doesn´t seem such a waste
It all revolves around you
And there´s no mountain too high
No river too wide
Sing out this song I´ll be there by your side
Storm clouds may gather
And stars may collide
But I love you until the end of time

 

The inconceivable hope that we have is in this word “Thanksgiving” — that word is literally “Good Grace”– the word Eucharist, which is what we call the Lord’s Supper. Communion. The solution to anxiety is the sacrifice of Jesus. Seeing Him and what he has done rather than the potential “what if’s” down the road. To realize that, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32).

So come along with me my friends. Battle this demon of anxiety with the satisfied and completed Hope that is Jesus.

Here is a link to the sermon I preached on this ridiculous hope.