2 Advent/December 10, 2023
Sermon by Chip Camden
Readings: Isaiah 40:1-11; Psalm 85; 2 Peter 3:8-15a; Mark 1:1-8
Today is the second Sunday of Advent, on which we light the second candle of Advent: the candle of peace. This candle is purple, like the first and fourth candles of the Advent wreath. In Christian symbolism, the color purple represents penance. When we think of penance, we picture being tough on ourselves: fasting and praying, taking a hard look at our shortcomings, confessing them and vowing to do better. I doubt that any of these things come to mind when we think of the word "peace". The closest similarity between peace and penance seems to be in their spelling: peace is penance without the two n's. Let’s see if we can take the two n’s out of penance and arrive at peace.
Penance and repentance are related terms. Penance refers to the actions we take in response to repentance. Repentance means feeling sorry for what we have done, or what we have left undone. The Greek word for repentance found everywhere in the New Testament is μετανοια metanoia -- meta means "after" or "beyond" and noia means thought, so metanoia means "think again" or "think differently". It implies a recognition that we have made a poor choice, and that we ought to change course.
This view of repentance is considerably less terrifying than the oft-caricatured altar call under the threat of God's wrath -- a repentance born of the fear of hellfire. Not that that's completely wrong, but sometimes that hellfire can be found in our own life here and now. The consequences of a few bad decisions that we never rectified can combine to form a conflagration that consumes our spirit in this life. We can become so entangled in those consequences that we see no way out. We need God's help to turn things around. We often need God's help even to see that we need God's help.
Fortunately for us, God always wants to help us to grow beyond our shortcomings, as good parents do for their children. I think this is the way in which Jesus teaches that God is our Father. Unfortunately for that metaphor, human parents are not always so perfect. Too many of us have experienced the wrath of a parent that was not motivated by love but rather by fear of the loss of status or power. God, being infinitely powerful, has nothing to fear.
What is called God's wrath in the Bible is therefore not God lashing out in anger, but rather the necessary consequence of our poor decisions that God is always ready to work with us to heal. That is how the Psalmist can say to God "heal me, for I have sinned against you" (Psalm 41:4). As our epistle reading from 2 Peter says, God "is patient..., not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance." Repentance -- realizing and acknowledging our shortcomings -- is the first step to healing. Then we must recognize our inability to fix things on our own, and ask God for help. That is true humility. Next, we must follow the way out that God provides to make things right. That is true penance.
In our gospel lesson (in all four of the gospels, for that matter), John the Baptist's ministry is connected explicitly to our first lesson from Isaiah: "the voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord.'" In John's case, this preparation seems to be composed almost entirely of "baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins." A perusal of the reading from Isaiah that you have in your bulletin will not discover the word "repentance" anywhere. The author does not explicitly state how God's path in the wilderness is to be prepared. There is mention of forgiveness, but this is framed as satisfaction with the penalty that has already been exacted: "Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins." Where does John get the need for repentance?
We should remember that John and his earliest interpreters had more of a Semitic vocabulary than a Greek one. Aramaic, which is closely related to Hebrew, was probably their first language. In these languages there are at least two words that mean "repent." The first is the Hebrew שוב shubh (תוב thubh in Aramaic), which means "to turn back" -- thus taking a more active stance on repentance than the Greek metanoia does. The other word is נחם nacham. This word is often found in passages where God is said to have "repented" of an intended action, but it is also used of humans in the same way. It is related to the word for "to rest" and thus carries the meaning of "to desist" or "to be sorry for." It can also mean "to console" or "to comfort" -- and it is apparently used that way in the first two words of our reading from Isaiah: "nachamu nachamu ami" ("comfort, comfort my people"). Perhaps this word for "comfort" could be translated better here as “calm down” and includes the cessation of doing what is harmful -- in other words, repentance. Put all your rash actions to rest, and rest in God. I think this is why John sees repentance as the first step in fulfilling Isaiah's prophecy. It's about surrendering to God's lovingkindness.
If we could learn to lay aside all of our selfish and hurtful goals and rest in God, then peace would be ours — peace within, peace with each other, and peace for the world.
So we finally draw a connection between penance and peace. I don't know what the two n's represent, though -- if I were clever I would think of two words that start with 'n' that mean "striving" and "pride" -- because those are two things that will surely take the peace out of penance. An online thesaurus suggests "nisus" and "narcissism" -- but I'm starting to think that’s stretching it too far. In fact, it makes me guilty of both. I should do penance. Amen.
*image: Inspirivity facebook page