The Joy of Repentance

Given at 8am Service
Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Proper 19C
September 12, 2010 (Rally Day)
Luke 15:1-10
Fr. Rob Travis

How many of you have ever lost a sheep?

I know I haven't, so it's kind of hard
for me to appreciate the joy
that a shepherd would have,
if he went in search of a lost sheep
and found it.

But the losing money thing,
and finding it,
that makes sense to me,
as long as I realize that a silver coin,
back then, was worth a lot more
than a simple quarter today.
The most common silver coin
was the denarius,
which was what was typically
paid for a day's wage.

So let's say you lost a $100 bill.
I would certainly spend a while
searching for that,
and be pretty thrilled if I found it.

Or let’s take a more recent example,
say you lost a whole lot of money
in the stock market
your retirement savings,

wouldn’t you go about
doing everything you could,
to try to get that money back?
You might even neglect some things
that need your attention
in order to get back what you lost.

That’s the way God sees us,
or at least the way God sees sinners.
I don’t know what your feelings are on this,
but if I’m honest with myself,
I often think I’m more like one of the Pharisees or scribes.
I tend to think I’m doing pretty good.
And it usually ticks me off when people
point out how I’m not as good as I think I am.

Take a trivial example;
yesterday I was making
a tuna salad sandwich,
and I offered to make
some tuna for Jackie too.
When I sliced the few tomatoes I had,
I figured I should leave some for her sandwich as well,
even though there was so little
I could easily have
eaten the whole thing.
So I left her some pieces,
and probably subconsciously
put the middle pieces
on my sandwich.
When she came to make hers,
she said why did you leave
just the end pieces for me?
That made me angry, because I figured I was doing a good thing by even sharing the tomato I could have eaten entirely myself.
But she was right, I wasn’t thinking of her,
or what she would prefer.
And for me, ends are just as good as middles.
So I got all upset, because
I thought I was righteous.
That’s sort of how I see the Pharisees
who are complaining
that Jesus is welcoming
tax collectors and sinners.

And I hear sarcasm in Jesus’ voice,
when he says,
“there is more joy in heaven
over one sinner who repents
than over ninety-nine who need no repentance.”

There really aren’t any
who need no repentance.
But we already knew that.
Because we have the benefit of hindsight,
but if we were there
when it was first said,
we might have felt complimented
by the thought
that maybe we are included
among the ninety-nine
who need no repentance,
because we’re doing
all the religious things right.

And we get hung up on the idea,
that repentance is only for “bad” people,
or for people who are notorious.
That leads to our tying repentance with feelings of guilt,
and shame,
so repentance doesn’t look like a good thing
and who would want to do that?
Certainly, in today’s world, it’s better to
just feel good about yourself,
and not be a downer or even
be near others we think of as downers.

But as usual,
if we look at what Jesus is saying,
we will see that he is turning the tables,
on that sort of thinking.
Repentance is not about guilt and shame,
It is about being found by God,
prized by him,
and it is characterized by joy, and rejoicing!

(talk about Bishop Stanton’s essay on the Cross
from "The Living Church" volume 241 number 11
September 12, 2010)
(Holy Cross Day is Tuesday.)


While repentance has come to have
a negative connotation in today’s world,
what Jesus is telling us today,
is that it’s really all about joy.
It’s joyful for God,
and all the angels,
whenever we repent,
and it’s joyful for us,
to be picked up in the arms of our savior,
and carried back into the fold,
to where we are supposed to be.
So look for opportunities to repent,
rather than running from them.
You’ll be glad you did.