“I’m right!”, Part 2

Subtitle: An observation of these contentious times

The need to be right is rooted in fear. Knowing this can make space for grace.

Enter John the Baptist. Once we get past his opening salutation, “You brood of vipers”[1] – a sure conversation ender! – we hear his proclamation of the coming of the Messiah and offering a baptism in water as a sign of repentance.

Repentance, from the Greek, metanoia, literally meaning, “to turn one’s mind around.” John called all who would listen…

To turn away from their preconceived, long practiced notions of rightness; even their reliance on their inescapable heritage as the basis for their personal and eternal security…

To embrace something, someone new – the one who, with the fire of God’s Spirit, purifies, makes one holy, makes one other (for that is the meaning of holy) than one was before…

To let go of their fear and, thus, their need to justify themselves…

To repent of the right to be right.[2]

© 2022 PRA

#selfrighteousness #fear #repentance

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[1] Luke 3.7

[2] From my sermon, The Right to Be Right, and here revised, preached with the people of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, on the 3rd Sunday of Advent, December 14, 2003