As the fiery comet zoomed toward earth, the wild-eyed street corner preacher’s sign said it all, "Repent the end of the world is near!" Reading from the prophet Isaiah reminds us of God’s concern for how the Israelites governed themselves and conducted their communal business. The prophetic literature contains multitudes of exclamation marks because the prophets could say, "God told me to tell you (fill in the blank)!" We do not live in the age of prophets and the exclamation point messages cannot be made in the same way, but the call for cultural, political, economic, and religious repentance is a message that courses through Scripture and across time.

The Hebrew word for repentance means ‘to turn around,’ literally, to go in the opposite direction and return to God. The prophets announced the urgent need for repentance because the future of covenant society was greatly endangered. The crisis of the moment, however, was the need to repent, to change the behavior that dominated the present so that the future would be secure.

In the Christian Scripture, repentance is a true and deep change of heart that ends profound alienation from God, self, and others. Repentance awakens our deepest consciousness, inspiring soulful insights that fill us with the mind of Christ and lead us into a new way of living and being in the world.

Two weeks ago my teaching focused on personal repentance and today we explore the corporate aspect. Biblical repentance applies equally to personal life, and to the collective circumstances of social, economic, political, and religious life. North American Christianity and Judaism largely focus on individual repentance while often ignoring the rich biblical tradition that demands corporate repentance of sin.

There are four important elements of social, political, economic, and religious repentance that are held in tandem: first, at some point social, political, economic, and religious actions done in our names or in the name of the nation can awaken in us a sense of offense and feelings of shame as we realize the violation of our moral and spiritual values.

Second, in such circumstances Scripture challenges us to deep, prayerful discernment of the mind of Christ. As more primitive responses try to take over (cynicism, rage, revenge, justification) we consciously move in the opposite direction, counter-culturally, to align ourselves with the will and purpose of God,

Third, repentance requires spiritual, emotional, and physical strength because we naturally try to resist the difficult demands of repentance. We will likely feel alienated from God, self, and others. Our emotions will be thrown off center by the struggle between the commanding primitive inner voices and the work of repentance. And, we will respond physically to the stress that our souls and psyches produce.

Fourth, we must actively remember that repentance is always a consequence of the grace and love that have come to us. Our acts of repentance mirror our experience of God’s turning toward and embracing us into wholeness and new life.

Let us examine two issues in society, politics, and religion that you may (or may not) discern as a call to repentance; two issues among many that might cause our hearts to be troubled and disquieted.

• First, how did you deal with the pictures and stories of prisoner humiliation, torture, murder, and accusations of rape all done by U.S. soldiers and members of military intelligence in Iraq? Remember the range of feelings you experienced when you saw the pictures or heard the news.

EXERCISE

How does your soul hold these things that were done in your name, in our names?

In whatever stillness you can find in your heart, what does it mean to you,

personally, to have the mind of Christ for those Iraqi prisoners of war?

What response does the mind of Christ call forth from your soul?

• In the second situation, think about the treatment of committed, loving gay and lesbian persons by the church and in American society. We have heard the polar perspectives, one of which argues that the institution of marriage is diminished and compromised by same-gender marriage, and the other view that heterosexual unions and society are nourished and uplifted by the marriage of committed same gender persons.

EXERCISE

How does your soul hold the sacred love, faith, and commitments of persons whose sexual orientation is different than your own?

In whatever stillness you can find in your heart, what does it mean to you, personally, to have the mind of Christ for gay and lesbian Christians?

What response does the mind of Christ call forth from your soul?

When people ignore or justify wrongs done in their names there is a void in the conscience that God seeks to fill with love and grace, with empathy and understanding, with honor and dignity.

Personal repentance and repentance for the offenses of culture, society, politics, economics, and religion have the power to save humanity from itself. What then is the mind of Christ that God seeks to instill in us through personal and corporate repentance? Let us quiet ourselves, settle our hearts and open them to the mind of Christ as Scripture again shows us who we are in the eyes of God and the heart of Christ:

"You have stripped off your old behavior with your old self, and you have put on a new self which will progress towards true knowledge the more it is renewed in the image of its creator; and in that image there is no room for distinction between Greek and Scythian, slave and free. There is only Christ: he is everything and he is in everything.

"You are God’s chosen people, God’s saints; God loves you, and you should be clothed in sincere compassion, in kindness and humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with one another; forgive each other…. The Lord has forgiven you; now you must do the same. Over all these clothes, to keep them together and complete them, put on love. And may the peace of Christ reign in your hearts, because it is for this that you were called together as parts of one body. Always be thankful. Let the message of Christ, in all its richness, find a home in you."

In order to experience personal repentance and collective or corporate (social, political, economic, cultural, religious) repentance, individual Christians are challenged to have the mind of Christ and to allow the message of Christ, "In all its richness, find a home in yourself."

Text: Colossians 3:8b-16
 

You have stripped off your old behavior with your old self, and

you have put on a new self

which will progress towards true knowledge

the more it is renewed in the image of its creator;

and in that image there is no room for distinction between Greek and Scythian, slave and free.

There is only Christ: he is everything and he is in everything.

You are God’s chosen people, God’s saints; God loves you, and

you should be clothed in sincere compassion,

in kindness and humility,

gentleness and patience.

Over all these clothes, to keep them together and complete them,

put on love.

And may the peace of Christ reign in your hearts,

because it is for this that you were called together as parts of one body.

Always be thankful.

Let the message of Christ, in all its richness, find a home

in you.

For this meditation you are seeking to develop a conscious mind of Christ that serves your life and thinking, your response to the brokenness and hurts of the world, and your need for personal and collective/corporate repentance.

Spend time each day with a succession of lines from the Colossians reading printed on the other side. First read the passage through several times. Then sit with each phrase and sense how your spirit and body respond to each of them. Sit with each word that comes to your attention. What is that word to you, how does it stir your heart and speak to your mind and address your way of life and your decisions.

At the end of the week, go back to the text and re-read it several times. Then ask God for the qualities enumerated in the passage to become a central part of your daily life, thinking, actions, relationships, and decisions.

Ask God for the mind of Christ to be central in your own mind so that in all ways and in all things the "peace of Christ reigns in your heart."