Truth

This is a print from https://radicistudios.com

From Matthew 3: In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.

In his book, Speaking Christian, Marcus Borg may help us understand the deeper meaning of repentance. “In what is believed to be the first words of Jesus in any Gospel, the Gospel of Mark, Jesus proclaims, ‘The Kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’ To repent means to turn, return to God and to go beyond the mind that we have and see things in a new way’. He goes further: ‘repentance - turning and returning to God, going beyond the mind that we have - is the path that leads to transformation.’

We are in a transformational time in our country once again. Transformation may feel like a great storm, it may feel like God has left us in the eye of the storm to battle for ourselves. It may feel like God has left us now to contend with our own sins, unable to return to God, unable to see and honor the Divine in others stuck in the cycle of violence. We have been here before but our faith tells us, God has been with us all along during the storms as well as the joy of the sunshine that lurks behind every cloud. 

Through Jesus Christ God is calling us to repent and return our gaze upon God so that we may be transformed into a people that respects and loves one another instead of tearing each other down for our own gain and continued grip on power. 

We cannot ask anyone else to turn unless we ourselves are willing to transform our own hearts and minds. We must look deep into the mirror of our souls and realize that it isn’t the other one. It is us and only us who can transform the world by transforming our hearts first. We are called to individual as well as collective repentance. 

This turn begins with the truth of our sins. But, can we? Can we imagine a transformed America where the river of true freedom and justice rolls down to nourish all of us? Is that our ideal any longer? Could we ever see the day when America repents? Can we even see the continuing sin of racism within our country? It is all too easy to respond to someone else’s hate with hate in our own heart. I fear it is all too easy to remain blind to the speck in our own eye.

If we listen to the words of John and Jesus, we may hear the yearning of God calling us towards repentance, pulling us towards healing, prodding us to open our hearts so as to be transformed, so that our country may live into the higher ideal of what America could be, what we can become. 

All large-scale transformations begin one transformed heart at a time. Jesus knew this and set out to bring people into the essence, king/kindom, place of God, the heart of the Divine, the beloved community, person by person, town by town, group by group, and soul by soul. 

May we all hear the call to repent and be healed. May we all keep our eye on what we can become and maybe we can then see what God is calling us all towards.

Prayer: God of mercy and justice help us cling to your Presence so that we may be healed. Help us to return to you thankful in our joy, repentant in our honesty, and open to transformation. May your Presence in our lives help us to become your Presence in others lives.