Johnny Moses, a Nootka Indian from the remote Pacific shores of British Columbia tells a story about an English missionary priest who came to his tribe in the 1800s. It took the priest years to learn the language, Moses said. "And when he did, he began to preach. The people were sorry," said Johnny Moses, "they taught him our language.
"He spoke in an English dialect. He told our people about hell. No one knew what hell was.
"They asked the priest where hell was, and he told them it was the place where bad people went.
"Well, our elders told the priest that our ancestors had never given us directions to hell, so none of us had ever been there.
"Then the priest told us that he would baptize us & that we would have to go to confession once a week & eat fish on Friday.
"There was a very old man in our village. The priest baptized him & named him Anthony. The priest told Anthony that he would have to go to confession once a week & eat fish on Friday.
"Anthony asked the priest what was Friday?
"Some time later, the people of the village said Anthony was not going to confession. So the priest went to see him. It was a Friday.
"When he found Anthony, the old man was cooking deer meat.
"The priest asked him why he was eating deer meat, & Anthony told the priest that he was a very old man, & that he had shot the deer with his bow & arrow.
"He told the priest that although he was very weak, he drug the deer to the river. There, he baptized the deer. And named him Fish in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit."
It takes more than a little bit of water & a new name to bring someone into the Kingdom of God, doesn't it? Only real repentance can do that. Only an earthshaking change--like unto being born all over again--can provide entrance to that kingdom.
"To repent," says Frederick Buechner, "is to come to your senses. It is not so much something you do as something that happens. True repentance spends less time looking at the past & saying `I'm sorry,' than to the future & saying `Wow!'"
The Old Testament tells us that even God repented once. It was in the time of Jonah the prophet. Jonah was sent to the wicked city of Nineveh. He was instructed to tell the people God was going to destroy their city because of their great sins. So Jonah preached & the people repented--from the king down to the lowliest person in the city. It was amazing--the most successful revival crusade ever conducted.
Then the Bible says something even more amazing. When God saw that the people of Nineveh repented, He repented. God repented of His anger & decided to spare the city. This, you'll remember, was exactly what Jonah feared would happen. That is why when God called him to Nineveh, he headed in the opposite direction & was swallowed by the giant fish. But that's another story.
How can God repent? God cannot sin. How could a perfect God ever feel sorry for His actions? It is because repentance is much more than feeling sorry for our sins. Repentance is a change of direction.
There are a lot of people who feel sorry for their sins. Their lives are filled with guilt & regret--but they never change.
OF COURSE, FEELING SORRY IS AT LEAST A BEGINNING.
If there is one thing Rudolph Hess should be remembered for, it should be this: He never repented. Guilty of the most atrocious sins a man could commit, he never once felt any remorse. Until the day he died he thought of himself as the deputy fuhrer of the Nazi party. Listen to Hess' last public statement at the Nuremberg trials:
"I was allowed for many years of my life to work under the greatest son that my people produced in their 1,000 year history. Even if I could I would not want to erase this. I am happy to know that I have done my duty to my people...as a loyal follower of my fuhrer. I regret nothing.
"If I were to begin again I would act just as I have acted, even if I knew that in the end I should meet a fiery death at the stake. No matter what men may do to me, some day I shall stand before the judgement seat of the eternal. I shall answer to Him & I know that He will judge me innocent."
Hess saw no need to repent. His stubborn pride would not allow him to admit that he had been guilty of barbarous crimes. My friends there is a tiny part of each of us that also clings to our pride and self-righteousness, that screams out, "Don't repent, You have no need to!" In a monster like Hess perhaps we can see a dim reflection the dark side of our own nature. Repentance unaccomplished, whether it festers in an ancient prison or in a quiet suburban backyard, is ugly and offensive. Yes, cringe at Rudolph Hess. But cringe even more at the part of him that lives within each of us. Feeling sorry is at least a beginning,
BUT REPENTANCE REFERS TO A REAL CHANGE!
There was a tragic news story sometime back about a man named Georgi Markov. Markov, 49, thought he was safe. He was an author, a Bulgarian author to be precise, who had written a book that wasn't favorable in its description of the Bulgarian government. Markov had fled his home country & tried to find peace and a new life in Britain. He had forgotten one thing, however: the enemy doesn't give up on you just because you've changed sides.
That lesson came home swiftly one night on London's Waterloo Bridge. Markov was walking across the bridge, coming home to his family after a day of work. Suddenly he felt a sting on the back of his thigh. He turned around, and saw a man bending to retrieve an umbrella. "Sorry," the man muttered through a thick foreign accent.
The next day Markov was dead. Scotland Yard announced that doctors found in his thigh a pellet containing ricin, a rare poison extensively studied in Eastern Europe. There is no known antidote. The pellet was the size of a pinhead, & had 4 openings to hold the deadly poison. Once inside the body, it could not be rejected.
Markov was seeking to change kingdoms, allegiances, ultimate loyalties. He did not make it, but we can. Part of the struggle is understanding that repentance involves that kind of shift--from the kingdom of self to the kingdom of God--from the kingdom of purposelessness to one of Divine passion. No longer are we our own. We have a new Guide for our lives, a new Standard, a new King.
FOR SOME OF US THAT WILL MEAN A NEW LIFE-STYLE.
Repentance might mean getting rid of some bad habits. Certainly it would be in our best interest to do so. It is interesting that John Mahaffey, who won the Bob Hope Desert Classic in January, 1984, decided 3 years earlier to get rid of some of his bad habits in order to be a better golfer. He says that he quit drinking, smoking, & carousing & at 35 years of age began to feel better than he did at 25.
It is always in our best interest to get rid of unhealthy habits. But most of us are more like the old lady who said she "ain't been doin' nothin'" and was "goin' to quit that, too!" A change of life-style may mean that we quit doin' nothin' & get involved in Christian service to the aged or the less fortunate. It may mean greater loyalty to our church, a willingness to talk to others about the things of faith, a commitment to make life count for those things that are lasting & really matter.
IN SHORT, REPENTANCE MEANS BECOMING GOD'S MAN OR GOD'S WOMAN IN THE WORLD TODAY.
A man lost his job in the great depression of the 30's. His savings were quickly gone. He & his wife lost their home.
His grief was multiplied when she died quite suddenly. The only thing he had left was his faith, & it was weakening.
One day when he was out looking for work, he stopped to watch some men who were doing the stonework on a church building. One of those men was skillfully chiseling a triangular piece of rock. Not seeing the spot where it would fit, he asked, "Where are you going to put that?" The man pointed toward the top of the building & said, "See that little opening up there near the spire? That's where it goes. I'm shaping it down here so it will fit up there."
Suddenly God was speaking to him through these words: "Shaping it down here so it will fit up there." He discovered what he must do with his remaining days--shape his life to fit up there.
Many of us need to make that same discovery. We need to change directions. Even God repented once. He was going to destroy a city because of its wickedness. They repented. He changed his plan. Are you open to a change of plans? You've been walking in your own way. Are you willing to walk in His way? Being baptized with water will not of itself make you a new person any more than deer meat can become fish because it has been baptized. Only a willingness to change directions & an invitation to Christ to come into your life can do that.
