Advent 2 (A): Repent and Live Accordingly
Matthew 3:1-12, Romans 15:4-13, Isaiah 11:1-10, Psalms 72:1-7, 18-20
SERMON OUTLINE – 5 December 2010 (St. John’s New Town)
“REPENT!”
“Repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” (Mt 3:2)
- Metanoia – change mind, change direction, turn around and return to the Lord
How were they to Repent?
- By humbling themselves and confessing their sins
John is baptizing Jewish People in the Jordan River to symbolize their repentance.
- Jewish people normally baptized Gentiles converting to Judaism to wash away the impurities of their Gentile state.
- For Jewish people to submit to baptism in the same way as Gentiles required humbling themselves.
“Confessing their sins” (Matthew 3:6)
- “I’m sorry. I was wrong. Will you please forgive me?”
- These are the hardest words in the world to say.
Advent is a time of preparation:
- Put things right!
- Put relationships right – with God and with one another.
Liturgical colour is purple: same as for Lent
- Judgment/ Sin/ Confession
JUDGMENT
God will judge us all. Who can stand? None of us!
Repent!
- John challenges the Pharisees and Sadducees: “Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” (Mt 3:7)
He compared his hearers to:
- Trees: “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Mt 3:10)
- Wheat and Chaff: God will separate/judge like a farm worker with a winnowing fork throwing the wheat into the air and letting the light chaff blow away
BUT NOT EVERYONE REMAINS WICKED: SOME REPENT
Some trees bear good fruit
- Wheat is found among the chaff
- “Bear fruit worthy of repentance” (Matthew 3:8)
Novel and musical “Les Miserables”
An important story for many people because its themes are the themes of our own lives. I first read the novel when I was 14 years old having borrowed the book from our local library bus.
THE CONTEXT: The released convict Jean Valjean having received the bishop’s hospitality, robbed him of silver cutlery, is captured by the police and forgiven by the bishop who astonishingly gives him two silver candlesticks and challenges Valjean with these words:
“You promised me to become a good man. I am buying your soul. I am rescuing you from a spirit of perversity and giving it to God” (Victor Hugo, Les Miserables, Original 1862, Penguin Books 1982, p. 116)
True repentance will grow the fruit of repentance.
But it takes time for repentance to work its way into a new lifestyle.
In the story of Jean Valjean we see the struggle following his receiving forgiveness to actually live out the consequences of forgiveness.
We see this struggle epitomised in Valjean’s meeting with a 10 year old vagrant boy, Petit-Gervais.
- Jean Valjean & Petit-Gervais
Relate the story, (Les Miserables, pp.112-118):
*Follows directly from Valjean’s forgiveness and the graced gift of candlesticks – he is dazed by this astonishing forgiveness and spends the day in turmoil. *Valjean sits by a country hedge still in turmoil. *Petit-Gervais: 10 year old vagrant boy tossing coins and catching them on the back of his hand as he idles along a country track. *Petit-Gervais tosses but miss catches a coin which falls to the ground. *Valjean puts his foot over the coin and refuses to move it. *The boy protests and finally struggles briefly with Valjean but then flees in fright and despair. *Valjean seems to suddenly come to himself and rushes after the boy calling “Petit-Gervais!”, but to no avail. *Valjean cannot find the boy. He cannot return the coin. He is now stricken with guilt and in despair.“Jean Valjean’s(His) legs suddenly buckled under him as though some unseen power had struck him down with all the weight of his guilty conscience. He sank exhausted on to a piece of rock with his hands clutching his hair and his head between his knees, and he exclaimed, “Vile wretch that I am!” His heart overflowed and he wept for the first time in nineteen years.” (Victor Hugo, Les Miserables, Original 1862, Penguin Books 1982, p. 115).
“Did any voice whisper to him that he was at a turning point in his life, that henceforth there could be no middle way for him, that he must become either the best of men or the worst, rise even higher than the bishop himself or sink lower that the felon, reach supreme heights of goodness or become a monster of depravity?” (p. 116)
“What was certain, although he did not realize it, was that he was no longer the same man. Everything in him was changed.” (p.116)
“Jean Valjean wept for a long time, sobbing convulsively with more than a woman’s abandon, more than the anguish of a child. And as he wept a new day dawned in his spirit, a day both wonderful and terrible. He saw all things with a clarity that he has never known before – his past life, his first offence and long expiation, his outward coarsening and inward hardening, his release enriched with so many plans for revenge, the incident at the bishop’s house, and this last abominable act, the robbing of a child, rendered the more shameful fact that it followed the bishop’s forgiveness. He saw all this, the picture of his life, which was horrible, and of his own soul, hideous in its ugliness. Yet a new day had now dawned for that life and soul; and he seemed to see Satan bathed in the light of Paradise.” (p. 118)
Jean Valjean struggled following his receiving forgiveness to actually live out the consequences of forgiveness. But he did and so grows a wonderful story of redemption, hope, sacrifice and love.
AND FOR OURSELVES:
- HAVE WE TRULY REPENTED AND TURNED TO CHRIST?
- ARE OUR LIVES BEARING FRUIT WORTHY OF REPENTANCE?
THE ONE WHO IS COMING: ON BOTH THE FIRST AND THE SECOND ADVENT, IS GOD!
- Repent!
- Bear fruit worthy of repentance!
Let us pray:
Merciful Father, who sent your messenger John the Baptist to preach repentance and prepare the way for the first coming of your Son: may your Holy Spirit act with power to convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment that men and women, boys and girls everywhere repent and turn to Christ. In the strength of your Holy Spirit may we bear fruit worthy of repentance. In this way prepare us for your second coming. In the name of our returning Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Amen.