I’m always wishing for some pre-holiday silence this time of year – or at least quiet – but John the Baptist is loud. It’s hard to get a sense of just what kind of loud he is from the first six verses of Luke, chapter 3, when, in many of our heads, the prophet Isaiah’s words are accompanied by music from Handel’s Messiah. But in verse seven, which we will hear next week, John the Baptist shouts to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him – mind you, to receive the very baptism of repentance that he was calling for – “you brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance. If you don’t you are like a tree that is cut down and thrown into the fire.” John the Baptist is loud and he’s in a very bad mood. He’s wild-eyed and hopping mad.

Luke’s audience would have immediately recognized John the Baptist as a prophet using words from Isaiah. And Luke’s audience would have immediately recognized John the Baptist as a prophet just like Jeremiah. They were both consecrated before birth. They both predicted judgment at the end of the age, proclaimed God’s saving grace, and announced that God’s new covenant was available to everyone who repented.

And so this prophet, John the Baptizer, speaks to a crowd who claimed to “delight in the Lord,” challenging them to actually start living as if they really meant it. And the crowds asked him, “What then should we do?” And he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” And that’s just for starters. That’s some of what repentance looks like in the Gospel of Luke. Repentance is a prominent theme in the Gospel of Luke – much more so than in the other Gospels. Repentance means to change one’s mind (or change one’s heart) – but repentance is not a feeling of sorrow or regret. Repentance is not a feeling. Repentance is a change of direction with actual movement – and specifically, it is a change of direction with actual movement toward the Divine – who is at the same time, moving toward us. Change your direction so that you are moving– not just trying to move -- toward the Holy One. And what John the Baptist is shouting and what a long line of Hebrew Bible prophets before him shouted, is that the Holy One is found most clearly in those who are most vulnerable. And, in fact, the Holy One is moving toward us through those very people. Repentance, however, never stands alone. Repentance, in the Biblical sense, cannot be separated from forgiveness and compassion.

A while back there was a story on the NPR program “Here and Now” about Kevin Johnson, the 23-year-old Philadelphia man who was paralyzed from the neck down, three years before, after being shot by a 15-year-old for refusing to hand over an Allen Iverson basketball jersey that he was wearing. Maybe some of you remember that story. The anchor, of “Here and Now,” Robin Young, was interviewing Kevin’s mother, Janice Jackson-Burke, a few days after Kevin died as a result of a ventilator failure. His mother said that, not only had Kevin forgiven his assailants, he even befriended one of them, which was extremely difficult for her. She said that after the shooting she had wanted scrape together the money to bail out just one – any one -- of the five assailants, to get him out of jail so that she could kill him herself.

Janice Jackson-Burke was angry. Her mother had died from a drug overdose. Her father had died from AIDS. Her son had been paralyzed by a senseless shooting over a dumb basketball jersey. It was Kevin who argued and argued from his hospital bed – and finally persuaded his mom that the only way for the whole family to heal was to forgive. She said that she came to believe that God’s purpose for Kevin – his reason for being -- was to be an agent of healing. She said, “Kevin couldn’t get up and move on but his mind got up and moved on – and healed – and healed the rest of us too.”
Toward the end of the interview, Robin Young asked Janice Jackson-Burke if she knew about the little girl in Boston named Kai Leigh Harriott who was paralyzed as a result of a gunshot wound. The little girl had also forgiven her shooter. Ms. Jackson-Burke’s immediate response was, “No!” and then without skipping a beat she asked, “Does she have a van? Because I could give her our van. Someone who had lost a son gave it to me. Maybe you could find out if she needs a van.” Ms. Jackson-Burke had already donated her son’s organs. She said that her very first thought when she came home from the hospital after her son had died was, “we have to find someone who needs that van.” It turned out that the family in Boston had been using public transportation for the past three years, trying to save enough money to buy a wheelchair-equipped vehicle. Janice Jackson-Burke gave little Kai Leigh Harriott’s mother the van.

What Kevin Johnson knew and what he taught his mother and everyone around him is that if we change our direction, and move toward God, our life will change and the lives of those around us will change too. For example, when we change from the heaviness of debt and obligation (of others, of our own) to the lightness of forgiveness and gratitude, our lives take on a quality of joy that is absent without forgiveness and gratitude. The generosity that flows from that lightness of forgiveness and gratitude is the beauty of the glory from God.

I have another, less dramatic example of repentance for you. In his book, Living Faith, former President Jimmy Carter shares how forgiveness is fundamental to his life. He says that without the knowledge that he can be forgiven, it would be impossible for him to face his own shortcomings. This even includes forgiveness of himself. He relates that both he and his wife, Rosalynn, are "strong-willed" persons who find it difficult to admit being at fault.
One day, after a particularly disturbing argument, Carter decided that he would never let another day end with each of them angry with the other. So he went out to his wood shop and cut a thin piece of walnut, a little smaller than a bank check. On it, he carved the words, "Each evening forever this is good for an apology or forgiveness, as you desire." That evening, he gave the piece of wood to Rosalynn. He reports that, so far, he has been able to honor it each time Rosalynn has presented it to him. With his small piece of carved wood, Carter created a climate of forgiveness between the two of them.

“Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction and put on the beauty of the glory from God” the writer of Baruch says. Taking off the garment of sorrow and affliction is, in my view, what the General Convention of the Episcopal Church did this past summer. General Convention, the largest legislative assembly in the world, voted to affirm that God calls non-celibate lesbian and gay people to all orders of ministry in the Episcopal Church. And the Diocese of Los Angeles, with its election of the Rev. Mary Glasspool yesterday to be Bishop Suffragan will make it possible for even more people to take off the heavy garment of sorrow and affliction or regret and shame, and model the lightness of forgiveness and gratitude, that is, the glory of God. In a statement issued by Mary Glasspool yesterday after the election, she acknowledged the many complicated dynamics of the suffragan bishop election saying, “Any group of people who have been oppressed because of any one, isolated aspect of their person yearns for justice and equal rights.” She promised to continue to be an advocate for all who are oppressed. She promised to continue to help remove garments of sorrow and affliction wherever she goes.

“Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction and put on the beauty of the glory from God” Get up and move out of exile and back toward the loving arms of God. Take off the garment of sorrow and affliction – it doesn’t suit you. It’s not that sorrow and affliction have ended – it’s just that wearing them as a cloak, wearing sorrow and affliction about our heads and shoulders keeps us bound, keeps us weighed down. Shed the clothing of distress and misfortune. Let the beauty of the Holy One shine through you. Change your outfit for Advent this year and put on the lightness and the loveliness of the splendor of God. In fact, don’t leave home without it!