I’m going to say a word.  It’s not a new word.  It’s a word you’ve heard lots of times before, hopefully several times in these weeks of Advent.  It’s an important word, and I want you to pay attention to the first person that comes to mind when you hear the word.  Whose is the first face you see?  Whose is the first name you name?  Pay attention to what pops in your head.

Ready? The word is “repent”.

Who came to mind?  Was it John the Baptist?  That would make a lot of sense, because we’ve been talking about him a lot these last three weeks.  The scriptures record that he used the word “repent’ the way we might say, “Hey!”, or if you’re a Rocky fan, “Yo!”.  John preached a message of repentance to get people’s attention.

But I’m wondering who else besides John the Baptist came to mind.  Whose face did you see in your minds’ eye?  Whose name would you have blurted out except for the fact that we’re in church?  My guess is, it wasn’t your own!

We seem to be wired to take note of how others are in the wrong, how other people need to change, how others are on the wrong track.  But repentance is not something we can do for others.  We can only do it for ourselves!

And the truth is, we all need to repent.  The Bible word most often translate as “repent” is metanoia, which means to change one’s mind.  It is a call to turn toward God.  And it’s a call that applies to all of us.  Not because we have intentionally turned away from God.  But because the world is so wildernessy!  The world is so loud.  The world is so seductive.  There are so many influences, many we cannot even see or name, that pull can take us off course.  John Wesley, one of the founders of Methodism, liked the expression, “going on to perfection”.  We are not perfect yet!  We are all works in progress!  We don’t yet have the whole picture.  God is working to try to help us see, know, love, and obey more fully and faithfully.  We call this the work of discipleship.

And none of us is beyond doing that work.  Today would have been Charles’ Wesley’s 200th birthday.  He was one of John Wesley’s younger brothers and had a huge part in the Methodist movement.  Both Charles and John became Anglican priests, like their father before them.  They were raised in the church and never strayed.  They even started “holiness clubs” in college, where they regularly visited those in prison, gave away food and clothing to the needy, and were mocked by their peers for having constructed “methods” for practicing their faith.  Hence the name Methodist.  Did you know it was originally a term of derision?  A way to mock people for taking discipleship seriously?

John and Charles felt called by God to sail from England to America in the 1735, and bring the good news to the native people here as well as minister among the English settlers.  These were men of courage!  These were men of devotion!  But their mission was considered a failure.  Instead of winning people over to Christ, it seems mostly they made everyone angry with them.  John Wesley even got hauled into court for defaming a young woman in his congregation!  It was a mess.  They sailed home in 1738, feeling we can only image, like they were in a very wilderness time.

But remember, God is always at work, helping us change and grow!  Shortly after arriving home, on Whitsunday (which we call Pentecost), Charles Wesley was in church, and had a supernatural experience.  He wrote that night in his journal that the Spirit of God “chased away the darkness of my unbelief.”  For the first time, he felt himself justified by faith—which is a fancy way of saying, he knew he was beloved, just as he is, and God’s grace became real to him.  He wrote a hymn that night in gratitude for God’s saving grace, and he would go on to write six thousand more hymns in his lifetime!

Repent.  I doubt any of us had Charles Wesley come to mind when we heard that word a few minutes ago.  But that is exactly what Charles Wesley did.  He changed his mind!  Or more accurately, he allowed God to change his mind.  He kept himself open to the changes God wanted to see in him.  On paper, it wouldn’t seem like Charles Wesley was a person who needed to repent.  He was an Anglican priest.  He was committed to justice and generosity and evangelism.  He visited the sick and those in prison.  He went on mission trips.  He was a courageous and creative disciple!  And yet, he was off track just a bit.  He had missed the soul of the message.  He was preaching a gospel that wasn’t a gospel of grace but of works.  And although many people benefitted from his good works, what he most needed, and what the world most needed, was grace.

A year later, Charles Wesley wrote, “Hark! the Herald the Herald Angels Sing.” I love that he used the word, “Hark!” in the title. This man had heard God speaking to him.  He paid attention.  When God said, “Hey Charles!”, Charles listened!  So fitting that he would write a song encouraging us to listen, too.

On this fourth Sunday of Advent, we feel the calendar pressing down on us.  One week from today is Christmas!  There is much to do.  But let’s not get caught up in the same treadmill that had Charles Wesley trapped.  Our good works are important, yes.  But more important is a heart open to the Spirit of God.  Ears willing to listen. Eyes willing to see.  Souls willing to receive.  Because we do not want to miss the soul of the message:  God became a person, just like us, so that we would know how deeply and completely we are loved.

That is why we made this fourth Sunday of Advent a music Sunday, because often we can hear truth through music that we might not be able to hear otherwise.  So pay attention.  Hey!  Yo!  Hark!  What message does God have for you today?  May we be people of repentance, willing to change our minds—or more accurately, willing to allow the Holy Spirit to change our minds—so we can have life, and have it more abundantly.  Amen.