O come, O come, Emmanuel. Amen.
A fascinating and captivating scene of faith was the event that led to John Boehner’s resignation as Speaker of the House. I do want to be crystal clear – this is a story of faith, not politics. The fact that Boehner happens to be Republican makes no difference; the story would work just as well had it been the Democrat Nancy Pelosi at the center of the story. It was at a joint session of Congress that Pope Francis was speaking, and Boehner was sitting where the Speaker of the House does, right behind the podium, so we were able to see Boehner’s reaction throughout the speech. He sat there with tears rolling down his face as the Pope spoke. Within a day, he had resigned from his position as Speaker of the House, one of the most powerful positions in the world.
As he left his post, he didn’t tell us why he did so, but he didn’t need to. Something happened to him when he encountered the Pope. In Francis, he saw the holiness of God and it seems as if a switch flipped for him. He had an encounter with God and he could never be the same. Now, as he resigned, he didn’t bash conservatives for what those on the left would describe as “unchristian” positions, nor did he condemn liberals for the wrongs that he very likely believed that they had done. He simply walked away from the darkness of the bitter division of politics and the constant blaming of the other side. Perhaps he didn’t want to have to one day explain why he remained complicit in the evil of partisan politics for so long. He had seen the light and resolved to go in a different direction.
In all fairness, I haven’t spoken with John Boehner about this incident and he hasn’t publically discussed the details of it. So it could be that I’m assigning motivations to him that he never had, but that does not change the fact that the story of his meeting with the Pope precipitated a radical change in his life. And that is exactly what faith in Jesus Christ is intended to do – to remake, reshape, and reform our actions, thoughts, and priorities.
Last Sunday, I introduced the concept of the Four Last Things of death, judgment, heaven, and hell as being traditional and helpful themes to consider in Advent. As we considered Jesus’ Second Coming and the end of things last Sunday, the sermon focused on death. And so today we turn to judgment.
Judgment, I acknowledge, is not a popular topic. For many people, the fear of being judged is their greatest fear. We worry what others will think about us, we judge ourselves too harshly, and we fear that the mistakes of our past will come back to haunt us. When people have negative things to say about the Church, no one says things like “their buildings are so ugly” or “their philosophical approach to life is lacking.” No, the complaint is often “Christians are so judgmental.” And so many Christian denominations have overcorrected. Many Christians, myself included, pride ourselves on saying things like “All are welcome. No judgment.” Often, we speak of God’s salvation, but we ignore God’s judgment. Rarely is judgment discussed, but there are some real problems with ignoring this central aspect of our faith.
Every single Sunday in the Creed, we affirm “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.” There are three unhelpful responses to this belief. The first is a detrimental focus on judgment. Our faith proclaims that Jesus Christ is our judge, but our faith says nothing about any of us being his prosecuting attorneys or law clerks. Christ is our judge and he doesn’t need any help with that. So often though we judge others so that they might be guiltier than we are. Our task is not to judge each other, but to serve each other, to love each other, to forgive each other.
The second response to judgement is to ignore it. But this is a dangerous position to take. We need there to be judgment. One of the central attributes of God found throughout the Bible is that God is just. But justice is impossible without judgment. There are some horrendous evils that have happened in this world and they need to be decisively and ultimately declared to be wrong. When Christ judges the world, if God’s justice matters, the Holocaust, human trafficking, and child abuse will unequivocally be judged as evil. If there is no judgment on these things, there can be no justice. And this is also true not only for horrendous sins such as those, but also for the smaller evils which we are complicit in and commit daily – things like environmental degradation of the gift of God’s earth, things like lying and cheating, things like systemic racism, things like losing our temper and hurting others. In many of Jesus’ parables, it is clear that we are responsible for our actions.
I do want to be clear that though these sins will be judged, I have no idea what that will look like. I have no idea, and neither does anyone else if they are being true to Scripture, what will happen as a result of God’s judgment or what the formula for judgment is. Again, judgment is God’s business, not ours. But throughout Scripture, we encounter that fact that God is just and that God will be the judge between good and evil in service of divine justice.
And the third response to judgment is the irrational fear of being judged. The judgment of God is good news, not bad news. If we’re scared of being judged, then perhaps that says more about our actions than God’s justice. The thing to remember about judgment is that throughout Scripture, it is clear that God’s justice is always done in and through God’s mercy. God’s primary attitude towards us in Scripture is not anger or resentment, but steadfast and merciful love.
Through Jesus Christ, we are given God’s grace of being reconciled to God. And that grace is never taken away because it isn’t something we earned. So as God judges us, we always stand on a foundation of grace. There is a wonderful prayer that we use on Good Friday which prays that “We pray you, Lord Jesus Christ, to set your passion, cross, and death between your judgment and our souls, now and in the hour of our death.” Always remember that the love of God on the Cross is the lens through which we will be judged. The good news of judgment is that our judge is not ourselves, not the world, not those we’ve disappointed, but a loving, merciful, and just God.
Now that doesn’t make grace a “get out of jail free card.” Judgment will still happen. As the Collect for Purity that we often use at the beginning our liturgy states, “to God all hearts are open, all desires known, and from God no secrets are hid.” That is a terrifying proposition, that in our judgment these things that we have kept hidden in the darkness will come to light. Even if at the end God is merciful to us, the process of these hidden things being brought forward can be painful. Coming face to face with sin is not an easy process, but it is a purifying process. As Jesus said, “the truth shall set you free.” The process of judgment is the process of freeing us from sin. And so judgment is not something to be afraid of, but rather something that brings us into the fullness of God’s light, even if that purgatorial process is less than pleasant. Judgment is the means by which God redeems Creation, and so judgment is always good news as judgment is about God setting right what has been made wrong.
And so at the very beginning of Mark, before we are introduced to this light of the world, we encounter John the Baptizer. Mark tells us that he was proclaiming a baptism for the repentance of sins. To repent is to participate in God’s judgment, to acknowledge where we have gone astray, and change course. When John called people to repent, he was speaking in terms of Hebrew vocabulary and understanding, and in Hebrew to repent is a physical action, not a mental one. The word in Hebrew for repent means “to turn.” We do not need to wait for a final judgment to turn towards God’s light. The light of Christ can shine in our lives today, and this is the invitation to repent.
In the Greek that Mark writes in, repentance means to “change your mind.” This is so central to our faith and what it means to be Christian. To be a follower of Jesus is to be different, it is to see things differently. Following Jesus means that the words of the prophet Isaiah are possible, that “Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.” Things can be transformed by God. Following Jesus means being different in that the meek are blessed, in that it is greater to give than receive, in that the simple things like bread and wine can become the holiest things in Creation, in that the least will become the greatest.
The Bible is what you might call an “open book test.” It’s not as if we’re in the dark on what things are important to God and on what sort of things judgment will come. The Bible is clear – love God, love your neighbor as yourself, feed the hungry, seek reconciliation, struggle for peace, respect the dignity of all people, be faithful stewards of the time, money, and opportunities that we have been given, care for Creation, resist sin. Repentance means turning towards God, towards the light, even if that light exposes things that we'd prefer to remain hidden.
We repent not to avoid hell or judgment. We don’t call others to repent in order that they might think more like us. We don’t repent under the illusion of thinking that we’ll ever become perfect or live without sin. We repent in order to embrace a life of joy as we grow in holiness. Repenting isn’t about following rules, but growing in faithfulness. But to repent means to change: to change our minds, to change our actions, to change our lives. Change may well be the hardest thing that we are ever asked to do. It is only through the grace of God that we can repent. Repenting isn’t about having the willpower, but rather aligning ourselves with God’s way, which is a different way of being. So rooting ourselves in worship and Christian community is essential to finding the grace to repent.
Judgment is integral to God’s salvation, which is what Advent is preparing us to see coming into the world on Christmas. Judgment is good news because it means that our flaws will not remain forever, our shortcomings will not hinder us forever, but rather will be absorbed into the love of God so that all things will be reconciled in Christ. Judgment is always done in service of redemption and reconciliation. Only by judging what is lacking can we be ushered into God’s Kingdom of abundant life, and so God’s judgment as one of the Last Things is very good news.
When I think about what this judgment and repentance looks like in real life, I always go back to that image of John Boehner, crying as he encountered the holiness of God in Pope Francis. In Advent, as we are reminded of the darkness of the world and the coming light of Christ, we are also reminded of the need for us to repent, to change course, to change our ways. This Advent, may the light of Christ show you some inconvenient truths, may the light beckon you towards holiness, may the light be a purging flame, may the light be a lantern to your feet as you walk the road of repentance. Amen.
