Converting To Christianity
Sermon
Sermons On The First Readings
Series II, Cycle A
"Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven."
I can't speak for any of you, but I can tell you that in my twenty-plus years of ministry, I have seldom heard a preacher or a layperson stand up and call the people to repentance and baptism in the name of Jesus Christ. Oh, yes, I have heard it at a few tent meetings over the years, but in the mainline church where I have lived my life I don't think I have ever heard a pastor call upon his or her people to repent and be baptized so that they can receive the forgiveness of God. As I stand before you this morning I want to tell you that I've come to the conclusion that this is not a good thing.
My memory is dim, but it seems to me that we -- in my white liberal church background -- gave up such things as repentance because we felt it was too judgmental. Who among us, after all, has a monopoly on goodness? Who are we to point a finger? We have pretty much abandoned the idea that we are all sinful as well, and in its place we tried to plant the pop-psychological notion that we're all in good shape. No judgment, no real boundaries, and finally, no real clarity about belief. When conservative folk in the church charge liberals with shallow theology, friends, they have a point.
Now, before the mob attacks, let me say that there is good reason to withhold judgment concerning others. I think it was Jesus who told us to take the log out of our own eye before we remove the speck from our neighbor's eye (Matthew 7:3). Didn't he also address the idea of judgment directly when he said, "Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned" (Luke 6:37)? Moreover, Jesus kind of took the idea of sin itself and turned it on its head, didn't he? In fact, there are innumerable times in the gospels when Jesus says that his very purpose in coming among us was to forgive sins. Who are we to point them out in others or keep track of them in some record book? Isn't it our job, with Jesus, to forgive?
Ah. The age-old conflict between the so-called liberals and the so-called conservatives. It rages on even as I write this piece. For my own part, I reject the labels of liberal and conservative. It seems to me that these polarizing tags are the work of a demonic culture that has stuck them on us in order to divide and disempower the church. It has worked so well that we even have a hard time talking about one of the most basic elements of our faith: Making disciples for Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:19).
But this scripture rests before us today and, liberal or conservative, left or right, up or down, it begs our authentic engagement.
The call to repentance is broad and deep in our tradition. We envision scenes of John the Baptist shouting to the people to repent, and we hear the words of Jesus calling the people to repentance as well, but what does that mean? Repent? For most of us, the meaning goes something like this. "I'm doing something bad. Maybe even I myself am bad and I need to stop doing what I'm doing and admit that I'm terrible ... or at least admit that what I've been doing is pretty bad...." Does that ring true for you? To repent is to admit you've messed up and messed up royally, and that it's time to come clean and admit it. Right?
Wrong.
The word here in the book of Acts has little to do with guilt, confession, and shame. It is a very different concept than this. The Greek word that has been translated as "repent" in this instance is metaneo, which means "to have another mind." This is a view, not of shame, guilt, and confession, but rather the utterance of a call to transformation. It is the same call that is echoed by the apostle Paul when he writes, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God -- what is good and acceptable and perfect" (Romans 12:2).
The call to conversion that we hear in this passage from Acts is not about confessing how messed up we are and then moving to the next new religion thing. It's about "having a new mind," or "transforming our minds" so that we see things in a totally new and different light. It's not changing our opinions or adopting a new ideology. It's not about moving left or moving right. The call to conversion that comes to us in this incredible passage has to do with having a new mind. It has to do with transforming our minds out of the modes of culture and ego. We become, in this process, something completely new, almost as if we were re-created. At least, this is Paul's take on the subject. "So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!" (2 Corinthians 5:17).
It's not about judgment, it's about change. It's not about pointing a finger or trying to get someone to adopt my point of view of things, it's about inviting people into a transformation so complete that they will feel as though they are "born from above" (John 3:3). I have to be honest here -- this feels more scary to me than the idea of pointing a finger at someone and telling them they need to "repent," in the sense that they're all messed up. How do you invite people to change from the "inside out"? (Mark 1:8, The Message).
Probably the best way to invite someone to such a life transformation is to demonstrate that change in your own life. A drunk, though perhaps a good object lesson, is not really capable of extolling the virtues of sobriety. A boxer is not likely to be a convincing proponent of nonviolence. Neither can a nontransformed Christian invite others into lives of thorough change.
Indeed, could Peter have issued the call so powerfully if he himself were unchanged? Could Paul, after pursuing the new church to persecute it, have become the apostle without having a new mind? If we hope to bring others to Christ, it must be through our own authentic faith journey of repentance and conversion. It's really that simple -- not easy, it's true, but it is simple.
Can we step into this kind of repentance together? This move toward transformation and change? Can we envision what our lives would be like if we laid everything down and allowed Christ to come inside and change us? What a call! What a challenge! It moves us beyond our petty drive to convince others that we have the best religion. It shoves us outside the habitual box of judgment and condemnation, and it calls us today, this moment, to radically surrender all that we are to God's love in Jesus Christ so that we might be reconciled, transformed, and born from above.
Come, let us pray together that we might step onto this path of repentance and conversion in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
I can't speak for any of you, but I can tell you that in my twenty-plus years of ministry, I have seldom heard a preacher or a layperson stand up and call the people to repentance and baptism in the name of Jesus Christ. Oh, yes, I have heard it at a few tent meetings over the years, but in the mainline church where I have lived my life I don't think I have ever heard a pastor call upon his or her people to repent and be baptized so that they can receive the forgiveness of God. As I stand before you this morning I want to tell you that I've come to the conclusion that this is not a good thing.
My memory is dim, but it seems to me that we -- in my white liberal church background -- gave up such things as repentance because we felt it was too judgmental. Who among us, after all, has a monopoly on goodness? Who are we to point a finger? We have pretty much abandoned the idea that we are all sinful as well, and in its place we tried to plant the pop-psychological notion that we're all in good shape. No judgment, no real boundaries, and finally, no real clarity about belief. When conservative folk in the church charge liberals with shallow theology, friends, they have a point.
Now, before the mob attacks, let me say that there is good reason to withhold judgment concerning others. I think it was Jesus who told us to take the log out of our own eye before we remove the speck from our neighbor's eye (Matthew 7:3). Didn't he also address the idea of judgment directly when he said, "Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned" (Luke 6:37)? Moreover, Jesus kind of took the idea of sin itself and turned it on its head, didn't he? In fact, there are innumerable times in the gospels when Jesus says that his very purpose in coming among us was to forgive sins. Who are we to point them out in others or keep track of them in some record book? Isn't it our job, with Jesus, to forgive?
Ah. The age-old conflict between the so-called liberals and the so-called conservatives. It rages on even as I write this piece. For my own part, I reject the labels of liberal and conservative. It seems to me that these polarizing tags are the work of a demonic culture that has stuck them on us in order to divide and disempower the church. It has worked so well that we even have a hard time talking about one of the most basic elements of our faith: Making disciples for Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:19).
But this scripture rests before us today and, liberal or conservative, left or right, up or down, it begs our authentic engagement.
The call to repentance is broad and deep in our tradition. We envision scenes of John the Baptist shouting to the people to repent, and we hear the words of Jesus calling the people to repentance as well, but what does that mean? Repent? For most of us, the meaning goes something like this. "I'm doing something bad. Maybe even I myself am bad and I need to stop doing what I'm doing and admit that I'm terrible ... or at least admit that what I've been doing is pretty bad...." Does that ring true for you? To repent is to admit you've messed up and messed up royally, and that it's time to come clean and admit it. Right?
Wrong.
The word here in the book of Acts has little to do with guilt, confession, and shame. It is a very different concept than this. The Greek word that has been translated as "repent" in this instance is metaneo, which means "to have another mind." This is a view, not of shame, guilt, and confession, but rather the utterance of a call to transformation. It is the same call that is echoed by the apostle Paul when he writes, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God -- what is good and acceptable and perfect" (Romans 12:2).
The call to conversion that we hear in this passage from Acts is not about confessing how messed up we are and then moving to the next new religion thing. It's about "having a new mind," or "transforming our minds" so that we see things in a totally new and different light. It's not changing our opinions or adopting a new ideology. It's not about moving left or moving right. The call to conversion that comes to us in this incredible passage has to do with having a new mind. It has to do with transforming our minds out of the modes of culture and ego. We become, in this process, something completely new, almost as if we were re-created. At least, this is Paul's take on the subject. "So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!" (2 Corinthians 5:17).
It's not about judgment, it's about change. It's not about pointing a finger or trying to get someone to adopt my point of view of things, it's about inviting people into a transformation so complete that they will feel as though they are "born from above" (John 3:3). I have to be honest here -- this feels more scary to me than the idea of pointing a finger at someone and telling them they need to "repent," in the sense that they're all messed up. How do you invite people to change from the "inside out"? (Mark 1:8, The Message).
Probably the best way to invite someone to such a life transformation is to demonstrate that change in your own life. A drunk, though perhaps a good object lesson, is not really capable of extolling the virtues of sobriety. A boxer is not likely to be a convincing proponent of nonviolence. Neither can a nontransformed Christian invite others into lives of thorough change.
Indeed, could Peter have issued the call so powerfully if he himself were unchanged? Could Paul, after pursuing the new church to persecute it, have become the apostle without having a new mind? If we hope to bring others to Christ, it must be through our own authentic faith journey of repentance and conversion. It's really that simple -- not easy, it's true, but it is simple.
Can we step into this kind of repentance together? This move toward transformation and change? Can we envision what our lives would be like if we laid everything down and allowed Christ to come inside and change us? What a call! What a challenge! It moves us beyond our petty drive to convince others that we have the best religion. It shoves us outside the habitual box of judgment and condemnation, and it calls us today, this moment, to radically surrender all that we are to God's love in Jesus Christ so that we might be reconciled, transformed, and born from above.
Come, let us pray together that we might step onto this path of repentance and conversion in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
