Saying You're Sorry, Sort Of ...

Saying You're Sorry, Sort Of... Isaiah 58:1-12 We all make mistakes. But there are mistakes and there are mistakes. If a barber makes a mistake, he calls it a new hairstyle. If your boss makes a mistake, it's not his mistake - it's yours. If a driver makes a mistake, it's an accident. If a doctor makes a mistake - it could cost a life. Mistakes happen, and if a mistake happened to you, what would you expect to hear from the offender? (A) No explanation or comment whatsoever? (B) Statements of defense and denial? or (C) Full disclosure of the error and a complete apology? Probably option C - disclosure and apology - is the last thing we expect. Apologies, however, can disarm a significant number of potential suits or public chastisement. But what did the apologizer really do? Was the expression of regret calculated to make the injured party feel better and less contentious? To ask it another way, does repentance count if there is a big payoff, or merciful absolution in the public square? In any field of endeavor, mistakes will be made, things will be said, offenses with be committed, political correctness will be offended but if apologizing gets you off the hook for some of the consequences or penalty or embarrassment, can the contrition, can the confession, can the "I'm sorry" be considered sincere? Are you really remorseful, or is the apology just a tactic to ward off unpleasant consequences? If it is not a genuine apology, does it count? Our Isaiah passage is a case in point. God expresses his displeasure at the ritual acts of repentance performed by his chosen people because the acts are empty and do not result in holy living. The act in question is fasting, a valid religious practice, but the fasting undertaken by the prophet's people is the sort that has one eye open to detect whether the Lord is noticing how contrite the fasting appears. God actually quotes the people's complaint they have with him; they say, "Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?" The people are saying, "See God, see me, see how repentant and sorry I am, I really am. See me God, see me? Then God answers: "Yes, I see you, I see how well you serve your own interests on your fast day." Along with their fasting, the people are oppressing others. God says that the kind of fasting that is acceptable to him is with true repentance, the kind in which the penitent not only asks for forgiveness but also moves to correct his or her sins and wrongdoing. What I admire about AA is their twelve steps, especially steps 8 and 9: (8) Make a list of all persons we have harmed, and become willing to make amends to them all, and then; (9) make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. Make a list and then make amends... Apologizing to avoid a lawsuit or the loss of your job or political or popular capital counts for little on God's contrition scale. But if that apology also results in changed behaviors and seeks to protect other people from similar errors, then it has merit, whether it sidetracks the immediate consequence or not. Our concern tonight is our relationship to God, and those times when we have sinned against him or others. Thankfully, God offers forgiveness and fresh beginnings, and repentance is the place to start. But as Isaiah says, repentance is neither feeling bad nor performing pious rituals; repentance depends upon a full measure of our intention and a faithful follow-through to do not only better, but our best. Right intentions - without results - is empty. Results - without right intentions - are conniving. But right intentions with appropriate results are what repentance is all about. It is the way to live a holy life. Our culture does not know what to do with Ash Wednesday. We do a pretty good job with the feasting right before Ash Wednesday, Fat Tuesday as it is called. Any excuse for a feast is welcome! But what do we do with the depressingly titled Ash Wednesday? The paradox of Ash Wednesday, and of Lent, is that we take on particular disciplines - fasting, prayer, and service - in order to repent and conform ourselves more closely to the life and death of Christ. But Christ has already come to us before we sought him. This is the paradox of the baptized life. We have been joined to Christ once, but we spend the rest of our lives trying to live in that Holy Communion. Turning to Christ means turning also to all our neighbors who suffer. According to Isaiah, fasting and praying that leads to service, that brings us to act on behalf of these neighbors, is the fast that is acceptable to God. Bennett Cerf tells a story that illustrates what penance can be. One cold day at the police court they brought a trembling old man before the magistrate, charged with stealing a loaf of bread. His family, he said, was starving. "I've got to punish you," declared the magistrate. "The law makes no exception. I can do nothing but sentence you to a fine of $10 dollars." But just then, the justice reached into his pocket as he added, "And here's the $10 dollars to pay your fine. And now I remit the fine." With the striking of his gavel, he tossed a $10 dollar bill into the old man's hat. "Furthermore," he declared, "I'm going to fine everybody in this courtroom 50 cents for living in a town where a man has to steal bread in order to eat. Mr. Bailiff, collect the fines and give them to this defendant!" The hat was passed, and a shocked old man left the courtroom with $47.50. How might we translate that kind of penance and service into our own lives? Speaking of being changed by our confession and seeking forgiveness; according to legend, Frederick the Great, King of Prussia in the mid 1700's, was conducting an inspection of a prison in Berlin. Most prisoners pleaded to the king for mercy, professing their innocence from behind their bars. But one man stayed silent. Frederick asked the man what crime he had been accused of, and whether he was guilty of it. "Yes, your Majesty," the man replied humbly. "I'm guilty and I deserve my punishment." King Frederick reportedly summoned the warden of the prison and ordered him to release the guilty man at once. "I will not have him kept in this prison, where he will corrupt all of its innocent occupants." We are only out of prison when we confess and acknowledge that we are not innocent. Perhaps, repentance was best defined by a small girl who said, "It's to be sorry enough to quit." 3