From Now On
Come January many people will be striving to maintain personal resolutions for the new year. These always involve some value which the person promises to manifest more completely in life. New Year’s resolutions commonly involve an adjustment to behavior, often in an area where attempts at diligence have been tried over and over again. There is a cloak of humor that comes with resolutions because of how hard they are to keep, but it is more sad than funny because these are efforts that actually mean something to the people attempting them.
What makes the personal resolve so difficult? I think it is because our patterns of behavior are very deeply grooved and to try to tweak our habits affecting a change in action is tough. It is the kind of thing one has to stay with by an act of the will over and over again. Often the change is something we feel we ought to do based on an external standard of expectation. If the standard is aligned with a true, deep inner expectation, there is a greater chance for the resolution to get adopted long-term.
That brings us to a spiritual concept from the Bible. The human experience of conversion is more than a resolution. The conversion represents a deep inner conviction, but one feels divinely called to follow. Conversion is a turning made by an act of the will and supported by one’s thoughts, viewpoint, and sometimes one’s feelings. In the Bible, we are speaking about the relationship with God, so let’s include another factor. Conversion involves cooperating with help from the Holy Spirit through grace, a kind of God directed energy.
If the calendar New Year of Jan 1st brings up the occasion for resolution, the month-long Season of Advent presents the important reality of conversion of life. We are not candidates for a single conversion toward God, but for nearly perpetual conversion. When we encounter conversion, we are making a turn. We make a spiritual turn away from that which separates us from God and onto a path that brings us close to God. I know sometimes Christians can point to a major occasion of conversion to follow Christ. I know just as strongly, there are other important turnings to God that happen with profound and healing effect.
The Feast of St. Andrew, Nov 30 reminds us of how he was a man who went through a couple of powerful conversions. This fisherman first reordered his life to follow John the Baptist in an amazing ministry of the prophetic word, renunciation of the world, and repentance away from sin. When his teacher, John pointed to Jesus and declared “There, right there is the Lamb of God. He had already singled him out to them once before as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Andrew and one other disciple left John, a good and holy teacher, and began to follow Jesus as their new rabbi with utter diligence. We will say more tomorrow about John the Baptist, a key figure in Sunday’s reading.
I was reminded in an article by Steven Lawson of Ligonier Ministries, the teaching Fellowship of R. C. Sproul, that “genuine conversion occurs much deeply within the soul of a person, and is a decisive break with old patterns of sin and the world and the embracing of new life in Christ by faith.” We can use these days of waiting and watching in Advent as a time to clarify our own life of conversion. This is a reality begun within our own baptisms, where we renounce evil and turn to Christ. We discover this turnover and over in the stages of our Christian Life. Martin Luther reminded us our Baptism is the once and for all sacrament that takes our whole lives to complete. That is certainly our experience.
Form your resolutions for 2021 if you wish. There may be much good that comes from them, but this Sunday, or even the very moment you read this, do not fail to see the opportunity, the life-changing invitation to turn from all distraction, all that is caustic or harmful to you. Look for the passages below from Psalm 85 this Sunday, see how they undergird the theme of conversion. Look also for the prayer this Sunday. Let us all joyfully turn toward Jesus, the one who takes away the sin of the world, and ushers us into abundant life.
You have forgiven the iniquity of your people
and blotted out all their sins.
I will listen to what the Lord God is saying,
for he is speaking peace to his faithful people
and to those who turn their hearts to him.
Truth shall spring up from the earth,
and righteousness shall look down from heaven.—Psalm 85:2, 8, 11
Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.