The 2nd Sunday of Advent traditionally is the day we highlight the role of John the Baptist as the herald and forerunner of Christ, and whose function it is to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord by proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

But what kind of repentance is John preaching? The kind of repentance John urges has a permanent and decisive quality to it unlike the repeated vows we make to ourselves to do better at some time in the future, you know, mañana. Nor is the kind of repentance John requires anything like the forced “I’m sorry” a child is made to say when he/she has done something wrong, with no actual change of heart, nor probably of behavior either. No, the repentance John proclaims is a radical change of direction, a completely new set of values, a renewed faith, a new hope, a new love, an entirely different way of looking at ourselves and the meaning of our lives, and a new way of estimating, planning and living one’s life. John’s repentance, in other words, represents a permanent and radical change in the relationship between us and our inmost selves, between us and our fellow human beings, and most important and fundamentally, between us and God. The sort of repentance John calls for is not something in the background that has to be renewed and updated from time to time; it is rather a gift of the Holy Spirit that controls and characterizes the whole of our lives from beginning to end, whereby we don’t just stop and start over, but continually move on and forward to ever new and greater acts of righteousness, to an ever deeper and more mature faith, and to a more profound hope in him who is our life, our future, and our salvation.

The consequence of this radical, permanent and game-changing repentance is a total change of heart, mind, and soul: from being those who continually wanted and whined and demanded, to those who now patiently wait and watch and hope.

This time of year we are constantly warned against the evils of “consumerism.” Whatever consumerism might be (with the ism attached, the word really does not make a whole lot of sense), it should not, I believe, be our main concern. The things of this world are gifts of God that support, sustain, and enhance life, gifts to be sure that we should share so that everyone has enough; but the material gifts themselves are not the problem. Clearly we are the problem. Never really having enough, we think we must achieve the happiness, wholeness, comfort, and satisfaction for ourselves that every human being also longs for and seeks. Each of us knows deep down that no amount of material blessing can give us what we want, or need. The real blessings are illusive because they are beyond our grasp, can come only as a gift, and thus are blessings we can only hope and pray for. No matter how hard we try, how lucky we are, how rich we become, how healthy we feel, or how well adjusted we think we are when usually a bit self-righteously we lower our expectations and think we can get by and be satisfied with less, real and lasting satisfaction is always something more and always beyond us. It comes from one who alone can give it, because the gift is none other than the gift of himself.

The writer of 2 Peter today puts his finger on the real problem when he speaks of patience. We usually take that familiar verse from today’s second reading out of context: “with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day.” We assume it describes the difference between God’s perception of time that he created, and our experience of time that always too quickly is running out. But the original context is not quite that. The original context is given in the next lines that follow: “The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief…”

Note well the issue: Our impatience with what we have to endure and put up with in this life, whether we are rich or poor, healthy or ill, as well as our impatience with God and our fears that God has forgotten or abandoned us, must be judged over against God’s unlimited patience toward us, the point and goal of which is our ultimate salvation. The God who in Jesus Christ gives himself up for the lost, the forsaken, and the damned is, by definition, supremely patient. Our impatience that stems from a shaky faith is thus contrasted with God’s longsuffering that is rooted in his unwavering love and in his abiding faithfulness.

Our impatience is revealed in our sin, in our lack of faith, in our despair that abandons hope and thinks all is lost, in our repudiation of the need for repentance and change of heart. Our impatience is shown when we are sick and demand immediate recovery, when we blame the sad state of our affairs on God whom we think no longer cares, when we pray and do not get the answer we want and think we deserve, when we rationalize bad behavior, when we assume we are the masters of our own destiny, and when out of the depths of our despair we think this is all there is.

God’s patience, on the other hand, is displayed in his word of life: his promise of forgiveness, his victory over death, his vow of undying fidelity, and his love for us in Jesus, the Word made flesh. God’s living Word, the risen Christ, is the pledge and guarantee of God’s patience. His word in Christ weathers our inconstancy, our repeated moral failings, and the weakness of our faith. God’s patience is described well at the beginning of the book of Judges in a summary of God dealings with Israel prior to the monarchy. One commentator [Barth] has summarized that description in Judges, chapter 2: “According to this survey there is a repeated cycle of Israel’s apostasy, God’s wrath and Israel’s deliverance to its enemies, followed by a new invitation to Israel to return to God, a new manifestation of God’s help and deliverance, and then again a fresh apostasy, a fresh outburst of divine wrath and a fresh deliverance to the surrounding nations.”

Our reading today from 2 Peter gives a hopeful interpretation to that pattern: the reason God appears to be slow is that he does not want any to perish, but all to come to repentance. God’s word to us is not fiat but invitation, it is never an “I give up,” but always a “return to me.” Isaiah thus summarizes God’s relationship to his people well: “All people are grass….The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.” The “standing forever” of God’s word is Christ, who is the incarnation of God’s patience that according to the writer of 2 Peter is our salvation.

So then, how are the faithful to live in this time between the times of creation and new creation? The author of 2 Peter, again, says it well: “What sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God…? [I]n accordance with his promise, we wait for the new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home. Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish; and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation.”

-Amen-