Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea Diocese of Port Moresby

In Melanesian Pidgin we say "Bel isi bilong God i stap wantaim yupela." I suppose a rough literal translation of that would be something like: "May God make your stomach settle down and your whole body be relaxed and at peace." The Hebrew bible says it simply as "Shalom". That is the message of this week's sharings. It is what happens when we are reconciled. When we live as brothers and sisters together in Christ. All of us here in the Diocese of Port Mroesby pray that this wonderful gift of Divine Shalom be with all those following us through the programme.

+ Michael

AN INTERESTING NOTE FROM NUMBERS

It seems clear from Numbers 15:27-31 that the sacrifice and offerings in the Temple could only be used for sins that were made by mistake or through some carelessness or accident. Deliberate sins, those committed out of hatred, anger, greed or some other human passion, cannot be so easily removed. God will forgive those sins, and indeed all sins, but it is not because of some sacrifice offered. He seeks more than that (Is 43:25; Ps 103:37, 8-18). What he wants is a repentant spirit.

WHAT ABOUT CONVERSION?

There is very little support in the New Testament for putting the idea of conversion ( a single important date in a person's life when they were "converted" to Christ and gave their life to God) at the centre of our Christian living. It is very rare in the NT with the disciples and writers preferring the idea of repentance and turning again.

Of course repenting is much harder. It is not something that a person can do on their own. All we can do is to bring to God a broken and sorrowful heart (Ps 51:17; Isa 64:6). It is God who will create a clean and new heart within us (Ps 51:10; Jer 31:31-34) and God who must turn us around and point us in the right way (Jer 31:18). The prophet Micah sets out clearly what it is that God requires of the faithful person:

To act justly.
To love mercy.
And to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:8

The Church believes that this repentance had been freely given by God as a gift to everyone (Acts 5:31; 11:18) It is God's goodness that leads people to repentance (Rom 2:4) not someone's own skills. What a person must first of all do is come to the painful acceptance that they are in need of a Saviour. Only in their need can they then begin to listen to and cooperate with God.

MAKING THE TOUGH CHOICES

Without repentance there can be no Christian life. One cannot be a Christian unless there is an ongoing work of repentance in all that they do. Christian life begins with a call to repentance and this "turning" has two sides. The person is called to:

Turn from: the world, the flesh and the devil
Turn to: truth, righteousness and Christ.

That is the life into which the believer is baptized. The expectation is that in each and every moment, in each and every decision made, in each and every activity taken up, they will actively "turn from.. and turn to..". Baptism is a commitment to repenting. Repentance cannot be something that only takes place in the hearts and minds of believers. It has to flow over into the day to day life of the person living in a family and in a community. They have to show the fruits of repentance, life has to be changing, a change that comes about from being lived in dependence on God. The believer has to be acting in a just way, be loving with mercy and daily walking with God. It has to be more than just a good idea.

JOHN AND NEW BIRTH

When we get to St John's Gospel we do not find the word repent used at all. He naturally has the same message but comes to it from a different direction. John talks abut the need for a "new birth" (Jn 3:3-8; 1:12ff). He sees the coming of Jesus as an act of starting a whole new creation. This new creation has come about through the actions of God just as the first creation was a free act of God. But this new creation can only be seen with the eyes of faith. It will be clearly visible to all peoples when Jesus returns at the end of time. This new creation begins with the birth of Jesus. Just as God breathed his spirit into the dust of the earth and made the first man alive, so God breathes his breath into the New Creation. This time his breath is the Holy Spirit and it is this Spirit of God, or Breath of God, that gives the new creation its powerful life.

In his teaching Jesus puts it this way: Unless you become like little children you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Mark 10:15; Matt 18:3). To be a child again means to be made new again and entering the new creation means first of all becoming a new person, a little child all over again.

This little story from the Gospel of Luke reminds us that the call to repent is not something that we can keep putting off. St Augustine was supposed to have prayed: "Lord change me....but not just yet"! He still had some wild times he wanted to enjoy first. But God has us here to do a task. To proclaim the Gospel. To build the Kingdom in love and to make the Gospel alive by the way we live in our communities. That is the fruit we must bear. That is the crop he wants us to produce and that is how he will be judging us. Not on what we have said we would do, or what we might have wished we would do. The time to change is now. "The time has come" said Jesus (Mk 1:15). No more excuses. No more half hearted responses. We are called to be hot or cold and not just warm or God will just vomit us out of his mouth (Rev 3:15,16). Tough words that give us a good idea of just how serious this call to repentance really

OUR PRAYER FOR THE WEEK

Creator God, Father and life giver,
we thank you for the wonderful gifts
of creation and the life we have in it.
We praise you for sending us your Son
Jesus as our gift of new and everlasting life.
Through the blessings of this season of Easter,
help us to give up the ways of our old lives,
to put away the activities of the darkness
and to come alive again your Kingdom.
Show us what we need to do to turn from our sins and turn towards you.
Strengthen us that we may have the courage to do the things we have to do
and to walk the path you want us to follow.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

1. Share together on what it means to repent. See if you can come up with some examples of what it may mean inour lives. Then try and work out just how we can go about being successful in our work of repentance.
   
   
2. Why does Jesus use the exmaple of a small child in explaining to the disciples what it means to be a follower of his.
   
   
3. How do we "act justly; love with mercy and walk daily with God"?
   
   
4. What is the starting point for repentance? How do we get to that point and keep on going?
   
   

SOME PRAYERS FOR USE THROUGHOUT THE STUDY PROGRAMME

These prayers are provided so that as a Diocese we are sharing together common prayers and praying for the same kinds of things. There are special prayers built into the weekly discussions and these can be said through each of the weeks. These further prayers can be said by individuals, built into family prayers and used for all sorts of occasions. They do not all have to be said together but choices can be made. Some of them could well be learned off by heart and made a part of our own personal and family prayers.