Oak Chapel United Methodist Church

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One of John Wesley's most devoted preachers was a Welshman, Thomas Olivers. Before he was "rescued by the Methodists" (as he liked to say) Olivers had been a rogue and a scoundrel. He was, by trade, an itinerant cobbler who traveled around Wales fixing shoes. But, it was more than that, apparently: he traveled around Wales carousing and piling up debts. He would laugh and brag to his friends about how he knew exactly when to get out of a town before his creditors caught up with him. He was such an evil man, and so proud in his badness, that when he told his uncle he had been converted, the old man said, "You must have seen the devil."

Conversion and Making Amends

But converted he was. At about the time of his conversion, Olivers received a small inheritance, and he vowed not to take it himself but to use it to repay all the debts he had so artfully escaped. So he bought a horse, and rode around to the very towns where before he had partied and cheated people. But this time he came preaching Christ and repaying his rightful debts, with interest. By the end, Thomas Olivers had repaid seventy debts, and had been forced to sell his horse, his saddle and his bridle, to do so. But he did it. And he went on from there to become one of Wesley's most valuable lieutenants.

Repentence Requires Action

The story of Thomas Olivers illustrates an important aspect of repentance, and repentance (of course) is always the Ash Wednesday theme. Repentance for Christians is far more than feeling bad about ones sins (although that is part of it). True repentance requires action, not just feelings. It requires us to right whatever wrongs we can, and to turn our lives around. As one writer said, "Repentance begins in the humiliation of the heart and ends in the reformation of life." Yet there is something in the modern mind that recoils at the notion of repentance, something that conjures up pictures of monks whipping themselves, or Hester Prinn wearing her scarlet "A."

To See Oneself True

Since we are so disinclined to think or talk about repentance (or about the elementary sin that makes repentance necessary) let us try saying what repentance is not. It is not self-hate, not beating up on oneself. Therefore it does not lead, as enemies of the faith have often charged, to depression and discouragement. To repent means to see oneself true. To take an honest look and to shed the pretenses -- to turn one's life around, based on an honest assessment of our spiritual state. It is a place of beginning.

Repentence Brings a Wonderful Release

Although we expect it to be painful (and it is, at first), we find that it soon brings a wonderful release: I need not feign perfection for one more minute. I can relax and join the human race. I don't hate myself, but I do recognize that I'm a very long way from perfect. That there is much in me I don't like to think about or talk about, and which I will not be able to change under my own steam. And, there, I need washing.

Repentence: An Escape from Self

A friend in college said to me that we all do everything we do for selfish reasons. I argued with him, but now I know he was right. But it no longer worries me. For God has provided an escape from the trap of self. And that escape begins with repentance.

Repentence Washes us Clean

Also, repentance is not hopelessness. The wonderful old prayer we said together a few minutes ago, from the Book of Common Prayer, has it just right. "…blot out our transgressions. Wash us thoroughly from our iniquities, and cleanse us from our sins. For we acknowledge our transgressions, and our sin is ever before us" (Repentance) And, then, immediately, a word of hope: "Create in us clean hearts, O God, and renew a right spirit within us." That is not the prayer of one who is hopeless. That implies clearly that, if we look honestly at ourselves -- our iniquities and transgressions -- and repent, God will forgive, will cleanse us and make us new. Repentance is not hopelessness, repentance is where hope begins.

The Stain of Sin

God made the world perfect, our faith tells us, but something bad occurred which tainted all human history. The Bible calls that something "sin," and tells about what happened in the story of the fall, which happened in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. Mary and I know a woman, a bank teller, who was robbed one day. She gave the robber the famous dye pack, a package of money with a spring mechanism inside that explodes after a minute or two and sends indelible dye everywhere. The robber got in on his hands, and then on his clothing, and on the sidewalk where he ran to escape. He got it on the car he drove away, and all over his house when he tried to wash it off. Needless to say, the police found him and arrested him in a matter of minutes. He couldn't rid himself of the stain of his crime.

Something went wrong in God's plan for his creation, and we became tainted with sin. No matter how diligently we try to wash it off (with the forms of religion), no matter how ingeniously we try to cover it up (with boasting and bragging), no matter how far we run, the stain remains. We hoped not to get it on our children, but as we raised them we tainted them without meaning to, and they did the same to their children. That is why we need repentance. Not because we are any worse than the next guy, but because we (and the next guy) are unable to cleanse ourselves. Only God can wash away this particular stain.

God Always Offers His Mercy

Joel is just one of several Old Testament prophets who walk the people of Israel through an endless cycle of God's love, followed by God's disappointment, followed by his anger and his punishment. Like a frustrated Father, God threatens to punish his people on the one hand ("Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near -- a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness.) But, also like a frustrated Father, God hopes that his people will not make the punishment necessary, that they will mend their ways, and repent of the evil. (…return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning….Return to the Lord your God….Who knows whether he will not turn and relent…?) Our hope is not in our perfection, but in our willingness to confess our sins and seek God's mercy.

Turn to God this Day

Repentance, at its heart, is the recognition that God is the only solution to our deepest problems. It says, "God, I've tried to clean the dye off myself. I've tried eliminating this or that from my life, and have failed. I've tried being good on my own. Failing that, I've tried giving the appearance of goodness. Nothing works. I am spiritually desperate.

Now, as Lent begins, I turn to you, O God, with absolutely no pretense, and submit my lost self to your love and care. I know you can cleanse me and make me whole, and can lead me into a new life -- a life in which I can make amends for my sins and truly come to love those I have hated. (I can't love that way on my own.) Therefore, I, like Job, repent in dust and ashes.

Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world, hear our prayer.