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| Open Theism Discussion Board > Public Forums > Tearing down walls > Repentance and God's love | Forum Quick Jump
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PotOnWheel
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 9890
| Posted 7/6/2002 8:18 PM (GMT -6) |   | On another site some folks were, in a rather wooden fashion, saying that grace precluded repentance: that repentance was a work of the old covenant... Not so. Repentance is very much a part of our psychology; and a necessary part of our lives this side of heaven.
So: Here is an example of repentance where our necessary repentance does not interfere with God's grace.
From very, very early on it has been part of the Communion service to exchange the "peace of Christ." I remember seeing one particular form of this during high school while visiting an Episcopal Church. Other expressions included a "kiss of peace." Sometimes a church service will include the declaration of "let us love one another, that we may confess with one voice..." which might be followed by "I believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, and in his Son Jesus Christ, our Lord, who was conceived..."
As those who are redeemed, who are born again, who have died with Christ and participate in newness of life, we are commanded to love one another. The point has been made how often that has meant that the those "in" the Church merely loved each other -- those they liked, were related to, or were familiar with. But God so loved "the world..." Christ's command is to love all. That includes even those who we don't know, or don't like; but who might be right across the aisle, or a few pews back.
That takes repentance.
We can't do that on our own. As Greg Boyd says in a book of his, "...to be transformed by the fruit of the Spirit instead of producing surrogate fruit of our own..." That kind of love that Christ commands is a product of the Holy Spirit. New life. And the love that is received does not merely originate with the other person, the stranger, the friend, or the opponent. That love comes from God.
I remember vividly how it felt to receive a direct "I.V" of that energizing love when friends and church came to comfort my family after my mother died. I mention that just because the experience of that love was so direct and pronounced; not because any of those that participated were normally distant. (Actually, maybe some had been. God's love spanned those divides.)
In the tradition of the church service the assembly is called to "love one another", and they are then called, not to a verbal answer, but to AN ACTION.
Schmemann writes:
quote:
For we know that we cannot of ourselves attain this live, just as we cannot acquire the peace of Christ--which "surpasses all understanding"--forgiveness of sins, eternal life and union with God. All this is given, granted to us in the sacred mystery of the Church; and the entire Church is one great sacrament, the sacred rite of Christ. Christ is at work in all our gestures, actions and ceremonies, and everything visible becomes "the visibility of the invisible," each symbol is fulfilled in the sacrament. Thus in the "holy kiss" we express not our own live -- rather, we embrace each other through the new live of Christ. And is this not the joy of communion, that I receive this live of Christ from the "stranger" standing across from me, and he from me? And that in it we are both "revealed" to each other as participants in Christ's live, and this means as brothers in Christ?
That is ALL by God's grace. We cannot do it.
But it also takes our step.
quote:
In antiquity those who had had fallings our had to be reconciled and forgive each other...
Isn't that the same way today?
quote:
...before taking part in the church assembly. Everything human had to be fulfilled, so thqt God could reign in the heart. And to prepare ourselves means to ask ourselves: do we go to the liturgy for this love of Christ, do we go as [people who hunger and thirst not only for help and consolation but for the fire that burns away all our weaknesses, all our limitations, and illumines us through the new love of Christ? Or are we afrid that this live will weaken our hatred for out ememies, all our "principled" condemnations, our discrepencies and divisions?
Even:
quote:
The giving of the peace and the kiss of love. . .not only began the eucharist, but in a certain sense made it possible, for it is the sacrament of the New Testament, the kingdom of the love of God.
Make love your aim. (1 Cor 14:1)
And whether we call is "repentance" or "confession of sins with repentance", lets be 'all over that job!'
Amen! | | Back to Top | | |
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pouringagape
Registered Member
Date Joined May 2002
Total Posts : 28
| Posted 7/7/2002 3:42 AM (GMT -6) | | PoW,
I found this very interesting. Lately, I have been thinking a lot about how repentance applies to where the church (us) is at today... Ongoing repentance is vital, I believe.
John the Baptist talked a lot about repentance when he was "preparing the way of the Lord." How much different is it today as we prepare the way for the second coming?
Also, "We must decrease so that He may increase." Amen!?!
Anyway, I thought I'd say that :)
Maranatha,
pouring
John 17:11 And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me , so that they may be one, as we are one. | | Back to Top | | |
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