Third Day of Easter: Tuesday in Easter Week

A U-Turn

Image Source = Smurrayinchester

Metanoia, or Repentance

April 11, 2023

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Acts 2:36-42 (New Revised Standard Version):

[Peter concluded,]

Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.

Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles,

Brothers, what should we do?

Peter said to them,

Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.

And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying,

Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.

So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added.  They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Psalm 33:18-22 (New Revised Standard Version):

Truly the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him,

on those who hope in his steadfast love,

to deliver their soul from death,

and to keep them alive in famine.

Our soul waits for the LORD;

he is our help and shield.

Our heart is glad in him,

because we trust in his holy name.

Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us,

even as we hope in you.

John 20:11-18 (New Revised Standard Version):

Mary Magdalene stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her,

Woman, why are you weeping?

She said to them,

They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.

When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her,

Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?

Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him,

Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.

Jesus said to her,

Mary!

She turned and said to him in Hebrew,

Rabbouni!

(which means Teacher). Jesus said to her,

Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, `I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’

Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples,

I have seen the Lord;

and she told them that he had said these things to her.

The Collect:

O God, who by the glorious resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light: Grant that we, who have been raised with him, may abide in his presence and rejoice in the hope of eternal glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be dominion and praise for ever and ever. Amen.

+++++++++++++

This day’s theme is repentance.  Often people use the word “repent” carelessly, as if it means little or nothing more than feeling and expressing remorse.  Actually, as Frank E. Wilson, Episcopal Bishop of Eau Claire (Wisconsin, U.S.A.), wrote in Faith and Practice (1941), the merger of remorse with repentance (literally, turning around or changing one’s mind) leads to

preventing causes for future remorse.

Thus, following the examples of characters from this day’s readings, may we follow Jesus, not cling to him, and maintain communal sacramental life.  May we see the Lord, and may others see Jesus through us, both individually and collectively.  May our orthodoxy not consist solely of intellectual assents to certain theological propositions, but be indistinguishable from proper orthopraxy.  May we follow the advice of St. Francis of Assisi:  May we preach the Gospel always, using words when necessary.

KRT

Published originally at SUNDRY THOUGHTS OF KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR on April 3, 2010

http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2012/03/26/metanoia-or-repentance/

Advertisement