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<DIV><FONT size=4>Perhaps the best and simplest definition of "repentance" I've
read comes from Richard Jensen in <I>Touched by the Spirit</I>. He also relates
it to baptism. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><>In repenting, therefore, we ask the God who has turned
towards us, buried us in baptism and raised us to new life, to continue his work
of putting us to death. Repentance is an "I can't" experience. To repent is to
volunteer for death. Repentance asks that the "death of self" which God began to
work in us in baptism continue to this day. The repentant person comes before
God saying, "<I>I can't</I> do it myself, God. Kill me and give me new life. You
buried me in baptism. Bury me again today. Raise me to a new life." That is the
language of repentance. Repentance is a daily experience that renews our
baptism. [p. 49]</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.crossmarks.com/brian/matt3x1.htm"><FONT
size=4>http://www.crossmarks.com/brian/matt3x1.htm</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Brian Stoffregen<BR>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>But the world today is still in need of voices, who will dare
cry out in the wilderness – in the socio-economic-political wilderness, calling
for sincere and sustained efforts to address such massive problems as
starvation, AIDS, genocide, educational failure, the criminal justice system,
and war; and also in the ecclesiastical/religious wilderness, where too much
shallowness, hypocrisy, insincerity, pretension, apathy and dishonesty still
abide. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.theafricanamericanlectionary.org/PopupLectionaryReading.asp?LRID=118"><FONT
size=4>http://www.theafricanamericanlectionary.org/PopupLectionaryReading.asp?LRID=118</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Aaron L. Parker</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>It is an important theme in Matthew that Jesus will be the
judge, but something else must happen first which puts it all in a different
perspective. In his life and his deeds Jesus models and explains the criteria
for the judgement, demonstrating what really matters. The result is a
transformation.</FONT>
<P><FONT size=4>We see its beginnings already in John. Put negatively, there are
no favourites: everyone must be immersed in the waters; everyone must join the
transformation. Turned into positive terms, this also means: no one is to be
written off as inferior or worthless. Every person matters to God. We are into
the logic of love which flows out from the ministry of Jesus, embracing the
unloved, including the outcasts, lifting up the fallen, inviting those beyond
the pale, finding a place for the sinners. It does not contradict John, but it
throws him off balance. The notion is so powerful that compassion will come to
be seen as God’s very heart and being, a totally new way of seeing God’s reign
and expounding hope. </FONT></P>
<P><A href="http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/MtAdvent2.htm"><FONT
size=4>http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/MtAdvent2.htm</FONT></A></P></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>William Loader</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Matthew has told us of Jesus’ descent from King David, his
birth and infancy, and the coming of the wise men. Now he leaps forward to about
26 AD. John appears in the “wilderness”, the arid region south and east of
Jerusalem, an area where only hermits lived. His call to repentance, to turning
back to the way of life to which Israel committed herself in its covenant with
God, is like that of Old Testament prophets. His message about the nearness of
God’s kingdom, of the time of complete fulfillment of God’s promises for humans,
is a central message of Jesus. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.montreal.anglican.org/comments/archive/aadv2m.shtml"><FONT
size=4>http://www.montreal.anglican.org/comments/archive/aadv2m.shtml</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Chris Haslam </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Repentance and judgment are serious business, but one does not
force fruit. Fruit springs forth out of a new orientation, out of knowing one's
place as a child of God's promise. In baptism's call to such response as God's
children, we experience the transforming power that links "being" (children of
God) and "doing" (bearing fruit), between "faith" and "action." Matthew will
hold this wholeness before us throughout the gospel. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?lect_date=12/9/2007&tab=4"><FONT
size=4>http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?lect_date=12/9/2007&tab=4</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>James Boyce, 2007</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
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