Repentance

The Third Sunday After the Epiphany

A Sermon based on Matthew 4:12-23

In the name of Jesus; amen.

John preached repentance and that is why he is arrested. King Herod had married his murdered brother’s wife, Herodias, and John had bee telling him that it was not lawful for him to have her. John wanted him to repent, but Herod wanted to keep his new wife.

Jesus hears of John’s arrest and takes over the message that John had been preaching, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

Repentance was the message Jesus chose to begin his preaching ministry.

Repentance comes first. It is the first step in following Jesus. It is the first step in living a life with God.

But do you really think you need to repent? And if so, for what and to whom?

There are some people out there who think they don’t need to repent just as there are probably some out there who believe there is something in your past that you don’t think you can be forgiven for. I’ve met both, people who don’t think they are all that bad and people who believe in their hearts that they are destined for hell. Perhaps there are even some right here in this room.

There are dangers in both ways of thinking.

To believe that God cannot forgive you is to believe that God is not all powerful; it makes your sins bigger than God and nothing is bigger than God.

We are supposed to trust in God and God’s promises and we have been promised forgiveness, so if there is something in your heart that is weighing you down it’s time to give it to God, to repent and trust that God forgives you and begin a new life as a forgiven person.

And if you are pretty sure that you have nothing to repent for it’s time to search your hearts as well because only God is perfect. Each one of us falls short each and every day and we rely on God’s grace to make us holy and forgiven.

Before we worship God we begin with confession and forgiveness (yes, sometimes we give thanks for our baptisms, but the point of that is not to skip over repentance, but to remember the promises of forgiveness in baptism.) Confession and forgiveness prepare us for singing the hymns, and saying the prayers, and hearing the word, and eating the meal.

Repentance prepares us to worship and forgiveness makes us worthy to come before God in worship.

But we don’t just repent in order to participate in this hour of so of our weeks. Repentance signals our need for God in our lives in each and every second of them. Repentance clears our hearts and allows light to glow in us and emanate from us. It is the light that we are given in baptism along with these words:

“Let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

We don’t just repent for our own sakes, but for the sake of God being glorified.

God is glorified when we are forgiven and then live in that forgiveness. While God makes promises to us in our baptism, we are also called to make promises to God that we will live lives of mission and purpose.

This past Tuesday I attended something called a listening day with other clergy from the New England Synod. The first part of the day was spent listening to the Bishop as she reflected on the writings of an Old Testament theologian named Walter Brueggemann.

In the discussion that followed she talked about how the rituals of other religions were meant to daily remind the people that they were specifically Jewish or Muslim or whatever they were. The question was asked: What do we do daily, as Christians, to remember that we are Christians?

Each morning Martin Luther would wake up and wash his face and remember his baptism, in doing so I think he probably also remembered that he was a sinner who was forgiven.

What do you do each day that reminds you of your need for God? And does that need translate into the rest of your day?

The fishermen who followed Jesus gave up their regular lives of casting nets into the sea and in the process they lived lives which reminded them daily that they belonged to God. Their light became the light that shone throughout the centuries and witnessed to us.

We are Christians because they daily remembered their call to fish for people. We too have been called to be light, to remember daily that we are sinners in need of forgiveness that God grants us through our baptism into Christ Jesus.

May that light shine in all of us each and every day, not just for our own sake, but for the sake of others. Amen.