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Sometime back I came across this little article about what it would be like to live in a perfect world.

"Peace, Here in our Less Than Perfect World"                  Advent 2                      12/5/10

Cicero United Methodist Church                Text:  Matthew 3:1-12                      Jack Keating

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Sometime back I came across this little article about what it would be like to live in a perfect world. Here are a few of the thoughts from the author of that article       .

In a perfect world a person would feel as good at 90 as they did at 17, and we would
actually be as smart at 50 as we thought we were at 17.

In a perfect world you could give away a baby bed without getting pregnant.

In a perfect world NFL players would complain about teachers being paid contracts worth millions of dollars.

In a perfect world the mail would always be early, the check would always be in the mail,
and it would be written for more than we expected.

In a perfect world potato chips might have calories, but if you ate them with dip, the
calories would be neutralized.

In a perfect world every once in a while at least, a kid who always closed the door softly
would be told, "You go back and slam that door."

I think we all long for a perfect world - or for a world that is at least a little better than
this one.

Why, just this week I read the following headlines in our Syracuse newspaper .....

HUNDREDS GATHER TO MOURN JENNI-LYN WATSON
SERVICES FOR 20 MONTH OLD GANG VICTIM WILL BE FRIDAY
AS HOLIDAYS ARRIVE, 2 MILLION LOSE JOBLESS BENEFITS

No our world is not perfect yet but the good news of our faith is that there is a better
world coming - a perfect world- a world located right here - a world made up of things that
we can see and touch.

The prophet Isaiah announced the coming of that world as a part of the Messianic vision:

"A shoot shall come up from the stump of Jesse," he writes, "from his roots a Branch shall bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord."

And Isaiah goes on the describe how this child of David - this child of God - will judge or
rule the world - and that is found in verses 3 through 5 of the reading from Isaiah. And then he adds, as we just heard:

"The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the kid, the calf and
the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them......"

There is more - but all in all what Isaiah describes is a perfect world, a world of peace. A
world of justice. A world of harmony.

It is the testimony of both the Old and New Testaments that one day that perfect world
will come to pass.

But in the meantime - both testaments are clear that the time of universal peace - the time when God rules overall that exists here - is not yet. That the gift that some seek to build for themselves with science and technology - with commerce and finance - is yet to come - that it is the final gift that God will bestow - a gift that God will bestow when (and only when) we are ready to receive it.

So how do we get ready for this world? How do we prepare to receive God's gift? How do we hurry up the process of receiving what God wants to give us?

Well, the Biblical answer is clear: we bring closer the kingdom of God, in fact we begin to sense it, to partake of it, to participate in it and to spread it around to others before it arrives in it's fullness, when we accept another gift of God - the gift of repentance - the gift of turning about and acknowledging our need for God's help, of confessing our sinfulness and then being able to start afresh - waiting in the path that God shows us.

In an old Calvin and Hobbes comic strip, Calvin says to Hobbes, "I feel really bad that I
called Susie names and hurt her feelings. I'm sorry I did it."

"Maybe you should apologize to her," Hobbes suggests.

Calvin ponders this for a minute and then replies, "I was hoping there's a less obvious
solution."

One of the interesting realities of life is that God has given us an obvious solution to
one of our greatest problems - our lack of peace - that peace that should be within, us - and that peace that should exist outside us.

God has, indeed given us an obvious solution - but often we are tempted to avoid that
solution and seek something a little more obscure.

And then John the Baptist comes on the biblical scene as something of a throwback.

He's a figure out of an earlier age. You probably wouldn't want him at one of your Christmas parties. He's a walking-disaster zone, with his camel hair clothes and his matted hair. But, almost without humor, Matthew tells us that all Jerusalem and Judea went out to hear him.

I wonder why? I wonder if you and I would have gone. And I think it's just possible we
might have.

I think we might have because John had a profound gift. The same sort of gift that Jesus had. A gift of cutting through the advertising jargon and the new age nonsense and the politically correct babble and telling people the truth. And something in us ultimately prefers the truth over the comfortable lies.

John's message can be reduced to just one word: "Repent".

Jesus' message, in large measure, can be reduced to three words, "repent and believe."
Both of them used the word repent, but neither of them explained what they meant by it. So I guess I have to conclude that their audiences knew what they meant. When Jesus or John said "repent" their listeners got the picture. But I wonder, do we?

Now most of us have a fairly high resistance to any of those words. Either they seem to
create bad images of the worst of our church experiences or else we've heard them so often that they lack any energy; they just seem to fall off our tongues and lay there at the end of a row of chairs, feebly waving their arms but unable to engage us. Too many people hear those words and think of a formula, a religious routine, perhaps on bended knee. We tell God we're sorry for what we've done and God dispenses forgiveness and then we continue on with our lives as we did before.

If we're convinced that's what repentance means.... there is no way that John or Jesus
or the living word of Almighty God will ever get through to us.

So forget for a few minutes that you've ever heard the words confession and sin and
repentance or ever participated in those acts. Listen again, as if for the first time, to one crying in the wilderness this advent season .... to make straight the royal road.

Let me ask you, then, this simple question, "What is Christianity, at its most basic, all
about?"

I would answer that it is about relationships - with God and with my neighbor. And the
two are inseparably tied together. We prove the reality of one by the quality of the other.

So how we answer that question "what's Christianity about?" is really important because
that gives us the clue to the next question, "what is sin?"

Again, I think it's a simple answer. Sin is the straining or breaking of the relationship.

So, when I confess what I'm doing is admitting or acknowledging that my relationship with God, my relationship with my neighbor, is not all it can be.

That shouldn't strike you as being all that revolutionary a thought! It's simply acknowledging what I know to be true. I don't always live up to my own standards. Forget any talk about what I "should do" or what I "ought to do".

I don't always manage what I know I can do! I'm not always the Christian I can be.  Heaven knows, I'm not always the husband, the father, the son, the brother, the friend I can be. I'm not always the pastor I can be. That shouldn't be particularly surprising - about you or about me.

Those relationships are keys to understanding who I am. When I am less than I can be
I strain and break them. The Bible calls that sin (singular).

What we call sins (plural) are all the many different ways that we strain and break
relationships.

The doctrine of Sin is not simply some old-fashioned prudery that wants to deny us any
fun. It's a very profound insight into our human condition. And, ultimately, it's a hopeful
statement--- because God is not prepared to leave us in our mess. God wants us to have his peace and spread his peace.

--- That is why God sent the prophets to Israel,

--- And that is why God sent John to prepare the way for Jesus in our lives,

--- And that is why God pours out the Holy Spirit upon us.

God wants us to have and to live new lives - as citizens of God's kingdom of peace.
So then, what is "repentance"?

Repentance is a gift from God, a gift that can go into every part of our life. It is the
announcement that we don't have to go on forever repeating the same tired mistakes, crying the same bitter tears, falling into the same worn traps. That's what repentance means.

First of all, I think repentance means a break with the past, a change in direction. It's
active, not passive. In other words if you're driving east out of Syracuse on the NY state Thruway, but your goal is to get to California, we have to repent of our direction, we have to change, or we won't get to our destination.

Thinking about it, discussing it, creating a committee to study it, feeling sorry about it,
won't change anything.

Feeling sorry or regretfully sitting in church is only a very preliminary first step. It's the step of looking in the right direction - of knowing what way to turn - but it needs more - it needs another step - which leads us to the second thing concerning what repentance is.

Repentance is something to live out - each day. Not by being sour, dour, mournful - but
by seeking to do what God tells us to do through the scriptures - by trying to do what God urges us to do in the quiet depths of our heart.

Notice what John tells people to do. He doesn't say, get a camel and leather wardrobe
like mine. He doesn't say; switch your diet for mine. He doesn't say, grow a beard like mine. He says, please God in the work you do each and every day.

Repentant people are real people, not plaster saints or sticky, holier-than-thou caricatures of humanity. They are real people, taking responsibility for their lives because they know that God has promised to help us make the changes that we know need to be made.

But we have to make the choice to take the gift.
The Christmas season is a time of giving gifts.

Imagine that sometime is the next week a friend comes to your home or office and knocks on the door. You open the door and they're standing there with a package in their hands.

What's the first thing you say? "For me?" No, it's not for you, I always wander a round
your neighborhood with gift-wrapped packages - of course it's for you!

So you take it and put it on the table and try to carry on a conversation. Finally we ask,
.. Should I open it?" Of course not, friend. I always give you presents so you can admire the wrapping paper!"

But that's the key. Because until we open the gift ... it remains nothing but potential.

Until we open it, it retains an unlimited infinity of promise, but only promise. John came to prepare the way for Jesus - the Prince of Peace. He came and offered a gift of God - a gift that enables us to meet God more fully. And that gift is the gift of repentance.

Wabash, a town in a remote portion of Labrador, Canada, was completely isolated for
some time. But recently a road was cut through the wilderness to reach it. Wabash now has one road leading into it, and thus, only one road leading out. If someone would travel the unpaved road for six to eight hours to get into Wabash, there is only one way he or she could leave - by turning around.

And I think each of us, by birth, arrives in a town called Sin. As in Wabash, there is only one way out --- a road built by God himself. But in order to take that road out of town, one needs to turn around. That complete about face is what the Bible calls repentance, and without it, there's simply no other way out of town.

To confess, to repent, is often very difficult. Admitting our need for help - and believing that help is available - even for us can be a hard thing to do - but it's the key to unlocking the future of inner and outer peace- the peace promised long ago - and the peace that Jesus brings even now to those who accept God's gift. And the peace which he promises to bring fully to the whole world on the day of his return ..

Blessed be God - day by day. AMEN.