REPENT OR REPAINT? by Rev. Neil Urquhart

Sunday’s sermon was ‘Repent or Repaint?’ Across our United Irvine worship centres, were in Luke Chapter 13:1-9, prejudiced people pointing fingers at some northern neighbours (these Galileans!) killed in a political tragedy. But for every pointing finger Jesus shows 3 fingers pointing back at themselves. He highlights that ‘these northerners’ were no more, or less, sinners than they are. IE. We humans, you & I, are in the same boat when it comes to the need for ‘repentance’, turning 180 degrees from going our own selfish route to a perishing ‘forever without God’.

Repentance (metanoia in the original Greek) literally means an ‘about turn’ in thought, changing your mind completely on something / someone. I don’t see Jesus’ sobering words as a ‘Turn or Burn!’ ultimatum, rather an urgent kind call to turn from determined self-destruction to the life-giving generosity of God, to say a big “YES!” to God’s amazing grace & forgiveness in Jesus Christ. Then it’s daily repentance, tuning in to God’s Loving Spirit and saying “No” to sin & selfishness & “Yes” to Jesus’ lead & inspiration.

Alas, as in Jesus’ day, we humans can be prone to denial, pretense, & self-justification, preferring to re-paint & cover-up rather than be moved to change. It’s like ‘dog & cat repentance’: You enter your kitchen, where your resting Sunday roast meat is being polished off by your cat & dog! With tail wagging & melting eyes, your dog approaches with that, ‘love me, love me, love me’ look, while your cat licks their paws and looks at you as if to say, ‘do we have a problem here?’

Neither is repentance but many are the ways that we humans palm such attitudes off as repentance. If part of the consequence of sin is bad feelings (guilt / conviction) our desire for forgiveness can simply be an attempt to feel better without addressing our selfishness & sin. It is much easier to talk of immediate and momentary change rather than the profound transformation of life that can result from turning to God, who longs to hold us dear like chicks under a mother hen’s wings.

I was 10 years old when I first said a big “YES!” to Jesus. Since then, I’ve said “No” & chose the comfortable selfish route many times & still do. Often my ‘No’ is unconscious & unintentional due to my preoccupation with ‘doing my own thing’. I was not always so positive about the readjustment our Irvine churches are presently undergoing, until my mentor helped me see that I was thinking only of my own comfort & agenda, rather than Jesus’ way of service & sacrifice. Then a stranger, who didn’t know my situation, handed me a verse from the hymn ‘God works in mysterious ways’ –

“Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take; The clouds ye so much dreadAre big with mercy, and shall break In blessings on your head.”

Despite moments when early retirement looks very attractive, I choose to say ‘YES’ to Jesus. I’m learning to lament & repent, rather than cement & repaint, helping to grow community where people are safe, but not comfortable. Saying ‘YES’ to Jesus, who comforts the disturbed & disturbs the comfortable.

Here’s how Paul puts it in Romans 12:1-2 / MSG: So, here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognise what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Repent, not Repaint!