The Way of Love: Turn

The scriptures referred to are Joel 2:1-2, 12-17.

This Lent we will be discussing the Way of Love which came out of a meeting in Atlanta years ago with Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, Scott Gunn and others. It developed into 7 basic spiritual practices that help us walk with Jesus, the God who is love incarnate. They are Turn, Learn, Pray, Worship, Bless, Go and Rest. We will be discussing one each Sunday in Lent and on Maundy Thursday. If you go to the Episcopal Church website and click on the The Way of Love, you will find a wealth of materials to help you enrich your spiritual life and assist you in creating a Rule of Life, a set of spiritual practices. I highly recommend you go there.

C.S. Lewis' book Mere Christianity began as a series of radio talks on the BBC during the Second World War. To explain the 3 categories of ethical behavior, Lewis used the metaphor of a naval convoy. Personal ethics are like maintaining and properly operating one of the boats. If you aren't conscientious about taking care of your boat, you could find yourself dead in the water or even sinking. The moral equivalent is treating your body, mind, and spirit in a way that you are physically, mentally and spiritually healthy.

Social ethics are like the tactics the crews on the boats take in order to stay in formation, not run into or cut off each other and not get lost. The moral equivalent is observing the commandments not to steal, not to kill, not to lie, not to commit adultery, etc, These actions can wreck the lives of not only ourselves but others.

Theological ethics are like making sure the whole convoy is heading to the right destination. It's no good making it safely to New York if you were supposed to go to Sydney, Australia. The moral equivalent is keeping the direction of our life going towards God and not veering off after some other goal. This last category is essential. A Nazi could be a clean living individual who treats other Nazis well but since his purpose would be to further the goals of Hitler, which includes killing others and taking over their countries, you could not ultimately call him moral. To go back to the picture of the convoy, if they found out they were going in the wrong direction, the right thing to do is to turn.

The Bible often talks about turning away from sin and turning to God. In fact, one of the Hebrew words translated “repent” means “turn back” or “return.” It's used in today's passage from Joel. The prophet urges us to return to the Lord. We've gotten off course. We have drifted from our true destination and we need to get back on track.

And indeed Mark tells us that Jesus began his ministry by proclaiming, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the gospel!” (Mark 1:15) In other words, It's time; the kingdom of God is within sight. But things are heading in the wrong direction; turn your lives around and put your trust in the good news.

And when we think of repentance we often think of the really big turn we make when we initially turn to God. That's an essential first step. But as Scott Gunn says in his book The Way of Love, the Christian life is made up of not only big turns but medium and even small ones. An example of a big turn would be what happened to Moses. He's out tending sheep when he sees a lone bush on fire but not burning up. We are told, “So Moses thought, 'I will turn aside to see this amazing sight. Why does the bush not burn up?'” (Exodus 3:3) Moses put on hold whatever plans for that day—take the sheep to a watering hole, find some fresh pasture, etc—so he could turn and investigate this weird phenomenon. As it turns out Moses will be making a bigger turn after this. God will tell him that he has heard the cries of the Hebrews who were slaves in Egypt. And God has chosen Moses to return to Egypt and tell Pharaoh to let his people go. Moses had fled from Egypt, married and settled into the life of a shepherd. This was going to be a big U-turn for him. But he had to for things to turn around for the Hebrews.

Big turns for us could take the form of choosing to marry, deciding to have kids, changing your career, and, of course, deciding to follow Jesus. We usually sense that these things are major turning points in life. But even medium-sized or small decisions on our part can end up being a big thing to someone else. Let's say that someone at work appears to be in distress. You've noticed this before but you were busy and didn't feel you had time to talk. This time you decide to stop on the way to the breakroom and ask them how they are. And they open up to you about a problem they are dealing with. You listen, you empathize with them, you offer to help. They might say, “No, you've done enough just by letting me vent.” Turning aside to hear them may not be a big thing for you but it was for them. They needed to unburden themselves. They needed to talk about it and, in explaining things to you, they may have realized something they hadn't considered before.

Or perhaps you were walking down Duval and you encounter someone who's obviously homeless asking for change. You ask them if they've had anything to eat. They say “No” and you change direction and take them into the Wendy's and have them order whatever they want. You pay for it, and you two talk while they eat. They thank you profusely and you both go your way. It was a small detour in your day but it may be huge to them. Gunn says something similar happened to him and his wife. And afterwards he realized he fed Jesus. In Matthew Jesus says whatever you do to the hungry, the thirsty, the sick, the imprisoned, etc, you do to him. (Matthew 25:34-40) It wasn't really a detour; it was an important part of the journey.

The Greek word for repent means “change your mind.” It means to rethink things in your life and change the direction of your thoughts and consequently your actions. The National Weather Service is trying to make people rethink driving into flooded areas. Sometimes people don't realize how deep the water covering a road actually is or they don't consider that there may be a strong current. They go, “Ehh, I can make it!” and they try to just plow through. But as little as 6 inches of water can cause you to lose control of your vehicle and as little as 2 feet of water can carry your car away. 58% of flood fatalities involve people in vehicles. And while we have all seen videos of people being rescued from cars stuck in floods by brave first responders in helicopters, we have also seen footage of a truck or SUV being swept away only to learn that the person or family inside were found dead later on. So the National Weather Service has been telling people to “Turn around; don't drown!”

That goes for the spiritual life, too. Sometimes we decide to plunge into some kind of behavior or situation that on second thought is going to get us in over our heads. It's better to turn around when we see danger up ahead than to find yourself swept up in something over which you have no control. God can and has rescued people from such situations. But as Jesus told the devil when tempted to throw himself off the top of the temple so the angels could catch him, “You are not to put the Lord your God to the test.” (Luke 4:12) Don't ask God to enable your sinful or foolish behavior. We are to be fishers of people; we are not to plunge into whirlpools of stupidity and expect God to fish us out.

And yet if we turn from our folly and sins and turn to God we will find him there for us. And it doesn't stop when we make that big decision to come to Jesus. When you follow Jesus, you can't simply “set it and forget it.” There is no cruise control in the Christian life. Returning to that image of the convoy, along the way we will encounter changing winds and strong currents. Even when things seem calm, we can drift off course. So everyone has to regularly check their position and make sure they haven't gone off course. And if they have, they need to do a course correction. Daily we need to check in with Jesus and make sure we are following his lead. If we aren't, we need to repent—turn away from what has changed our direction and turn back to him.

In aviation they have a 1 in 60 rule. It's a rule of thumb that if you are one degree off, after 60 miles you will miss your destination by one mile. And the longer you go without correction, the farther off course you will be. So you need to check and do course correction periodically.

In the same way you must set aside time each day to evaluate where you are in your journey with Jesus. If you are doing things that Jesus would not want you to do, stop. Rethink what you are doing and why. Is it a habit that you need to change? Is it motivated by some fear you have? Is it a desire for something you know or have learned isn't good for you? Do you need help changing it? Will it work if the help comes from a good and trustworthy friend or would it be better to contact a professional? There is no shame in getting help. Sometimes a band-aid from a friend will do and sometimes you need a doctor. Be realistic about how much and what kind of help you need.

Or perhaps the problem is you are not doing what Jesus wants you to do. They've found that sitting around all day is just as bad for your body as smoking. So the change you need to make may not be to stop a negative action but to start a positive one. A lot of Christians are more concerned with not doing the wrong things than they are about doing the right things. For instance, if you see someone drowning, don't ignore them and go full speed ahead to church. Stop, turn and help them. The journey with Jesus is not a race. The experience you get along the way helps shape you into a more Christlike person.

And that is our destination: to be like Jesus. The God who is love created us in his own image. If you don't see a lot of people who remind you of God, it's because we have marred and distorted that image through our sins, our knockoff inferior versions of goodness. Christ became one of us to show us what the image of God in human form looks, sounds and acts like. And then on the cross Jesus did what only he could do to make it possible for that image of God to be restored in us. But for the possible to become actual we need to work with God's Spirit. It's like how after the doctor gives you a new knee, if you want to walk again you must follow the doctor's orders and work with the physical therapist. Jesus saves us and the Spirit applies that and puts it to work in our lives. He wants you to walk straight, not crooked. If you wander off, you need to turn and go back.

Repentance has been confused with remorse. Of course, that can motivate you to turn your life around. But so can sober reflection on where you are heading and where and who you really want to be. The emotion isn't as important as the motion: to turn.

Of course turning is not the only practice we need to follow the Way of Love. We need to learn as well. We'll talk about that Sunday.