Repentance and the Kingdom
Christ is among us!
Beloved, today Christ begins his earthly ministry by continuing the message he had given St John the Forerunner: “Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”
God has come in the flesh. God has come and restored peace between himself and the creation. He has come to grant freedom to the captive, joy to the mourner, nourishment to the hungry, health to the sick, peace to those who are at enmity. God has come to reveal himself to us in person, to walk among us, to touch us, teach us, heal us, laugh with us, cry with us, and even die with us. God is come to share with us his blessed Kingdom which is to come.
Before, John was the herald announcing the coming of Emmanuel. Now, the herald is imprisoned, and it is God himself who comes to us and says, My Kingdom draws near. Turn and live. You who have sat in darkness, light has come that you may see me, my Kingdom, the earth, and your brothers and sisters properly.
We have only to look around us to know that we are indeed those who sit in the region and shadow of death. On all sides we are surrounded by the kingdom of death and shadow, and though it is not given to us from the beginning, it is not our birthright, or natural portion, we have given ourselves over to it time and again. And it is because we have given ourselves over to this darkness, we have become blind.
In the darkness we cry out in impotent rage and vitriol. We lash out, our fists and feet flying, and tongues wagging, heedless of the incredible damage we cause. Our blindness has prevented us from accepting the creation as gift as we greedily use it to fuel our own false sense of security and luxury. As subjects of the prince of this world and his kingdom of death, we use and abuse others in a futile attempt at self-preservation. Rather than being able to see properly to lift them up, we press down our brothers and sisters, our family, our friends, and our enemies, and walk on top of them, our feet never touching the ground.
Rather than the Light of God himself, we presume to have light, life, and knowledge within ourselves. But how dark is that light? Because we have been without true light, it has been our reason, our logic, our philosophy, our criteria by which we approach God, the world, and our neighbor. We judge the words of the Incarnate God-man by our ideological rhetoric. Is what Jesus saying capitalist? Socialist? Communist? Monarchist? Anarchist? Does Jesus condemn violence? Is Jesus a revolutionary? Is he a pacifist? Is he against guns? Did he give us rights? Is he a teacher? Is he God? The answer to all of these questions, we have determined in our own darkened mind and we call ourselves a “little Christs”. And in our lack of sight, we condemn to hell those who would oppose our dim views.
It is truly upon us that Light has dawned today. As we look at the turmoil of the kingdom death surrounding us, let us hear the words of God himself, spoken to us in the flesh: “Repent! Turn around! Turn toward the Light! Have Life opened to you once again! Receive your sight! Walk upright! Be restored!”
Oh great and glorious Day of the Lord! Great and wonderful is our God who has not forgotten us, who has not abandoned us, nor betrayed us. Great and merciful is our God who does not hold our blindness and ignorance against us. Rather, he comes low to us, to lift us up, and he makes us no longer citizens of the kingdom of death, but heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Even in our vile hatred of our brother, and our rejection of his many gifts, He comes to us. Even in our delusions of self-reliance and self-righteousness, he grants us light. Even in our blind groping around in the darkness, our gracious Lord Jesus establishes for us a way back. He gives us the most precious and holy gift of repentance. And this repentance is not some onerous task but is the very acceptance in the Kingdom of Light and Life. This turning around, this change of mind and direction, is not a morose fascination with our blindness, but the gift of opened eyes.
Light has dawned. The world may prefer darkness, the world may exult in blindness—and perhaps we have done so as well. But today, today, loved ones, God has come. Today, the Light of day shines. The waters of our lakes and rivers dance in their reflection of the light and glory of our Lord. Today we can see. Today, because God has come, I can see you and I can recognize you as the image and presence of my Lord. Today, I am not blindly enslaved by my ambition and self-love. Today, now, as I look around this nave, and as my eyes fall upon the altar and table of oblation, and the icons both living and at rest, I see and know the Kingdom to which I belong.
Today, as Christ begins his ministry, as he shines the light of his face upon us, may we stand up and open our eyes to view our neighbors and the whole of creation in the light of his glorious Kingdom. Amen.