REPENTANCE

As The law stands a prisoner who is eligible for parole needs to admit his crime and express regret for it before being granted it.

This rule has two effects, it encourages insincere regret by habitual criminals in order to get out of prison to continue their life of crime, and it causes difficulties for those who know they are innocent and have been the victim of a miscarriage of justice, or who are convinced that their crime even if against the law of the land is morally right being an act of compassion. An example being those who assist a terminally ill sufferer to die.

This is of course the dilemma of repentance, whether it is sincere or merely to escape the consequences. .

The word repent comes from the Latin the prefix meaning back or again and the suffix from poena punishmenrt., This suggests it repentance is merely a device to obtain remission and forgiveness, but it is more than that , one must not only be sorry but do something to make up for the injury or loss sustained by the victim. The title of this weeks readings is the Returning Sinner, which emphasises that we should turn from our sins and live. Repentance entails a 108 degree turn from evil to good from the negative of sin to the positive of righteousness.

This is a key point made in the story of Zacchaeus, the rich tax collector who climbed a tree to see Jesus As a tax collector Zacchaeus was seen as disloyal to his nation and religion, collaborating with the occupying Romans, and making his living at the expense of his fellow Jews, who hated the taxation, so when Jesus

called him down and asked to visit his home the crowd complained that the man was a sinner. Immediately Little Zacchaeus expressed his repentance by saying I will giver half my belongings to the poor and if I have cheated anyone I will pay back four times as much.

To which Jesus exclaimed “Salvation has come to this house today”

For a first century Jew, repentance was expressed by offering a sacrifice. Sins were then as it were collected up, and once a year on the day of atonement sent out into the desert in the form of the scapegoat, there to be consigned to oblivion. The hope was that at the end at the Day of the Lord all would be put right, the righteous would be rewarded and the sinners punished. The Prophets had for generations pointed out that sincerity was more important than ritual, that God could not be bought of with sacrifices or prayers, only by sincere repentance expressed in making up for ones errors.

Amos insists that the Day of the Lord would be Darkness not Light, the insincere repentant would be punished along with those who never repented, the person who tried to do the right thing in Gods eyes, and treated his fellows with care and compassion, would be himself treated in the same way by God. “Let justice flow like a stream and righteousness like a river Amos declares.

John the Baptist heralded the Kingdom with a new attitude to repentance when he invited sinners to have their sins washed away. He could have quoted Amos saying wash you sins away not only in the waters of Jordan, but in the stream of God’s justice and the river of righteousness.

Zechariah too condemns insincere fasting as a sign of repentance. In modern terms many of the ceremonies and rituals designed to express regret for ones sins are nothing more that an insurance premium, , pay up and do as you like and you will be all right.

As the author of Proverbs puts it God abhors evil and loves good. For the sinner there is no hiding place, for God sees all and knows all, he sees through insincerity and pretence. You cannot hide your sins or your intentions, nor cover up your mistakes by gifts, words or ritual.

We have of course seen the same degeneration in the church, in the middle ages when indulgences were bought and sold, and masses for the dead were paid for to belatedly make up for past errors.

In another Parable, which repeats the same message as that in the story of the Talents, the heir to the throne went off to claim his kingdom, and before doing so entrusted his wealth to his servants. As with the talents some used them and gained a profit, whilst another neglected his duty and merely handed back the investment as received.

The point here however is to do something positive . We have all been entrusted with a body, abilities, friends and duties. We should look to use them, not just keep them safe until they are required of us at the end of our life. The choice is ours we can do something with our life, or do nothing frittering away our time selfishly.

The final verses of this passage say That those who have made something, to them even more will be given, those who have made nothing, even what they have will be taken away.

Hard words, which many would hail as being unfair, but nevertheless Gods requirement. We all make mistakes but should not only regret them, but positively make up for them. We all make something of ourselves for ourselves, but should strive to make something for others and above all for God.

The final lesson of this weeks readings is much the same as that in the story of Belshazzar’s feast. He had the fate of his father to warn him of the consequences of his lifestyle. The prophets had the example of the Captivity, and the destruction of Jerusalem as warnings of what happens when people schemes and cheat to get their own way, rather than obeying Gods commands. Jude reiterates this message saying remember to learn from past mistakes.

To err his human, to forgive is divine. Wrote Alexander Pope,

To make a mistake is an opportunity to learn from it, making a mistake can be forgiven, but to make the same mistake over and over again suggests that regret, and repentance is insincere, and the sin becomes unforgivable.