Can We Really Change?
Luke 3:1-6
John the Baptist leaps on to the stage in today’s Gospel “proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah—” Sometimes we think of repentance in a very limited way. We refer to it as a turning from sin. However when you read the passage of Isaiah that is quoted here you get a much expanded meaning of the word. Isaiah says of the coming of the kingdom of God as a time when “every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough ways made smooth–“. The images that are presented here indicate an awesome and overpowering transformation and a drastic and overwhelming change in our lives.
The Greek word for repentance is “metanoia” which is akin to our word “metamorphosis” which comes from the Greek word “meta” meaning to change and “morphe” meaning “form”. John the Baptist’s message was for complete inner change. A new understanding and experience of a full and meaningful life is at hand and it requires of us a complete and utter change. But, the question that persists in us and has plagued humankind as a whole is “Can we really change?”
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When I was working with people with addictions to alcohol and other drugs, there was a man on my caseload, an alcoholic, who had been a frequent visitor to the clinic for many years. We will call him Jim. (Not his real name). Jim had been through many treatment programs on both an in-patient and out-patient basis. His file was at least an inch thick. He had seen many counselors and physicians. He had frequently attended AA meetings. However, the only change in his life was that things kept getting worse. At the point that I saw him, his job was almost gone, his marriage had gone, his health was going. In fact, the first time he came into my office, he sat down, and I thought that he was going to die right there. He wanted to go to yet another in-patient treatment program and he needed my referral to be able to go. I could not honestly refer him to the facility. When he left he was quite angry and he found a bar that was close by and he began drinking non-stop until he ended up in the emergency of a local hospital. He was at this time a death’s door. The social worker from the hospital phoned me and asked whether I would refer him to an in-patient facility. I still refused. Then, an astonishing thing happened – he gave up drinking. He went to AA regularly. He came in to see me on an out-patient basis. Eventually he got another job. He got back with his wife. His health improved. He even bought a car. The last time I saw him, he had been sober for three years.
Although this man wanted treatment, and had sought treatment for years, underneath he really believed that he could never change. I think that his greatest fear was that he could not change. No counselor, no treatment program, no other person, however caring and concerned, could keep him sober over the years. He could only complain about the inadequacies of them and go on drinking. Somehow, when those props were taken away, and in his desperation, he found the power to change – the power greater than himself, which he probably could not name, through which he was transformed. After that he was able to use all the help that was available to him.
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All of us seem to face certain compulsions in our lives. We experience a number of dependencies that affect us throughout our lives. One of the jokes that was popular among health care workers for awhile was that you knew that you were co-dependent when having a near death experiences, someone else’s life flashed before your eyes. We even have addictions of various kinds. The fear that all of us have when faced with these compulsions, dependencies, and addictions is wound up in the questions: “Am I really free?” And “Can I really change? I believe that is what Jim faced. I believe those are the questions that all of us face from time to time.
There is certainly doubt as to whether we are free to change. Just think of the things we say, “The more things change the more they stay the same”. “Things don’t really change do they?” “People don’t really change do they?” “Attitudes don’t change?” “The old tapes of our lives just keep playing over and over again” No wonder those questions are on our minds: “Am I really free? Can I really change?”
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I believe there is deep within us all, if we can reach in far enough, a spirit which is able to connect with God’s Spirit. Sometimes it is hidden under layers of self doubt, a history of abuse, disappointments, regrets, and cynicism. Nevertheless there is a flame that still flickers within us and when it is able to connect with the Spirit of God we rediscover fire, the power to change, and be transformed. It is this spirit that I am sure Jim discovered even though Jim might not have called it “The Spirit of God”. He probably referred to it as believing in a “power greater than ourselves that can restore us to sanity”, which is the wording from the second step of the Alcoholic Anonymous program. No matter what we call it, it is a power that you and I and all people can discover. It is what we discover in a true encounter with the Christ.
It is Thomas Merton that said,
“A true encounter with Christ liberates something in us, a power we did not know we had, a hope, a capacity for life, a resilience, an ability to bounce back when we thought we were completely defeated, a capacity to grow and change, a power of creative transformation.”
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Our search for such an encounter begins with the recognition of the need to change and the desire to change. Some people think that an encounter with God’s Spirit depends on being somewhat “holy”, but that would defy the message of the Gospel when Jesus says in effect, “I have not come for the respectful, perfect and holy, but the outcasts, searchers, questioners, fearful, and cynical.
This is for anyone who’s ever had a problem with anger or resentment.
People who have ever had any trouble controlling their sexual thoughts and desires.
The sick, the lame, the delusional, the depressed and despairing,
The underweight and the overweight,
The people who think too much of their bodies and the people who don’t think enough of them,
People with problems,
People who create problems,
People whose problems are unlike anybody else’s problems .
People who think they’re smarter or stronger or better than everybody else,
People who think they’re dumber or weaker or worse than everybody else,
People who hate other people,
People who hate themselves,
People who worry too much,
People who don’t worry enough,
People who put down on other people,
People who don’t stand up for themselvesAdd to that the ungrateful, the impatient, the greedy, the gossipy, people who take pleasure in other peoples’ misfortunes and people who waste time feeling sorry for themselves.
If I’ve left anybody out, it’s for you too.
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I am not saying that when you discover the Spirit of God connecting with your life, the power to change, that your problems, questions, and fears are answered once and for all. But in your problems, in your questions, in your fears, you are aware that there is deep within us the power to heal and bring new life to us, and to enliven our spirits.
Frederick Buechner in one of his books talks of this spirit and calls every person a mystic because everyone at one time or another experiences in the thick of their joy or their pain the power out of the depths of their life to bless them
I do not believe that it matter greatly what name you call this power – the Spirit of God is only one of it’s names – but what I think matters, vastly, is that we open ourselves to receive it; that we address it and let ourselves be addressed by it; that we move in the direction that it seeks to move us, the direction of fuller communion with itself, and one another. Indeed I believe that for our sakes this Spirit beneath our spirits will make Christ’s of us before we are done—-” (The Magnificent Defeat, Seabury, N.Y., 1968 p. 115)
That is what it means to realize that the Kingdom of God is at hand– New life is possible for us.
Are we free? Can we change? Yes! In God’s Spirit, we can.
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