Turning

Bread and Wine Reading: "Turning", by Henry Drummond
Scripture Reading: Luke 22: 58-62
A little later someone else, on seeing him, said, ‘You also are one of them.’ But Peter said, ‘Man, I am not!’ Then about an hour later yet another kept insisting, ‘Surely this man also was with him; for he is a Galilean.’ But Peter said, ‘Man, I do not know what you are talking about!’ At that moment, while he was still speaking, the cock crowed. The Lord turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, ‘Before the cock crows today, you will deny me three times.’ And he went out and wept bitterly.

In his essay, Henry Drummond uses this Scripture to point to Peter’s repentance. We think of repentance as a “turning around”, but, as Drummond reminds us, it was not Peter who turned here, but God. At the time that Peter would rather have turned away and looked anywhere but at God, God was there, with him, drawing him closer. Drummond says that “the scarce-noticed fact is the only sermon needed to anyone who sins—that the Lord turns first.”

Drummond distinguishes between “divine sorrow” and “human sorrow” and claims that true contrition, true repentance happens only when God turns and looks upon us. Genuine repentance happens for us when we finally know how God comes to us when we are completely broken, when we need God the most.

Repentance is more than just admitting one’s wrongs and, in fact, it is more than our somehow feeling compelled to change one’s life. Repentance is even more than turning toward God. Repentance is knowing that God turns toward you, that God is beckoning you forward, away from the hustle and bustle of life, away from old habits and new temptations, and toward that oneness with God. It is finally knowing once and for all that the Lord has turned and looked at you. This season of Lent reminds us that all things are made new in Christ. It is a season when we realize how badly we need to turn toward God, the God who has already turned toward us.

Discussion Questions:
1.) What does this idea of God turning toward us say to you about repentance?
2.) What reasons, then, do we often have of wanting to look away from the God, even as God is turned toward us?
3.) What does this act of turning—God’s and yours—mean for you?

So go forth and turn that you might see the God who has turned toward you!

Grace and Peace,

Shelli