Repent
A Sermon for the Second Sunday of Advent
December 4, 2022
The Rev. Robin Teasley
In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’”
Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
“I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Matthew 3:1-12
It’s that time of year when we are planning for Christmas while at the same time trying to observe Advent, and this is no easy feat. We are thinking about nativity scenes, snow, and lovely bright lights, as we try to figure out what to give everyone for Christmas. We come to church to immerse ourselves in the beauty of Advent, an oasis of peace in the wilderness of our over scheduled week, and what do we get? John the Baptist! (spoiler alert – he’ll be back next week!)
Clearly he is an important figure, as all four Gospel writers include him. John the Baptist shows up in Advent, Epiphany, and Lent. Perhaps this is to remind us that we need to repent in every season; we need to repent over and over. John just keeps showing up, interrupting our peaceful worship, and maybe we wince a little and try to ignore him, but it’s not easy.
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John the Baptizer, Serbo-Byzantine fresco from Gračanica Monastery, Kosovo, c. 1235
John is abrasive, shocking, and almost comical. How are we supposed to take him seriously, dressed in scratchy camel hair, and crunching on locusts dripping with sticky honey? Calling people a brood of vipers is not going to win friends and influence people! But perhaps it’s his total non-conformity that grabs our attention and keeps us awake.
In the Gospel according to Matthew the first word out of the Baptizer’s mouth is “repent”. John was all about repentance but most of us do not find that to be a very comfortable topic. John’s mission seemed to be exactly that, though – to make everyone uncomfortable with the status quo and to tell them to repent – to turn in a new direction – to change. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that John the Baptist does his best work in the wilderness. Because don’t we all know something about being in the wilderness? Let's take a moment to think about a wilderness in our life. When might we have made a mess of a relationship? Where have we struggled with our faith? What has separated us from God? Have you ever found yourself needing to repent? John was giving everyone an opportunity for repentance.
Saint John the Baptist Preaching in the Wilderness, Michelangelo Cerquozzi
The people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to John, being baptized, and confessing their sins. We do that too, right? We attend church faithfully, most of us are baptized, and we say the confession every Sunday, right? But John saw the fine, upstanding temple goers of his day and he called them a brood of vipers. Then, when he had their attention, he told them to “bear fruit worthy of repentance.” Could we imagine ourselves being called a brood of vipers? Told to bear fruit worthy of repentance? What would that mean, exactly?
Something else he told them was to stop being judgmental - to stop assuming things about the people who do not look like them, who do not do things the way they have always done them, who do not eat the same foods, wear the same clothes, or live life the way they do. In short, John was saying, “do not assume that those people who are different than you, who are not card carrying descendants of Abraham, are not also beloved children of God as you are.” Being judgmental almost always gets us into trouble, and sometimes can be the root of our sin.
So John tells us we must repent, and his idea of repentance has more to do with turning toward something rather than just turning away from sin. Repentance isn’t only about feeling remorseful or apologetic. It’s also about a re-orientation, a change of perspective and direction, a commitment to turn and live differently. John wanted the people to turn around and go back into town, back to their community to live differently. He also wanted them to turn away from a harmful way of being, and toward the new life God would provide for them.
John knew they were all in need of repentance, and that is no different today for each one of us. Some days we are more than capable of behaving like vipers, striking out at others in anger or impatience. We all stand in need of repentance, not just once in our lives, but each day of our lives.
What might repentance look like for us? That depends on what blocks our way to God. Perhaps things like greed, selfishness, hostility, or resentment are making the straight paths to God crooked. Maybe it’s judgment of others, refusal to forgive, or unwillingness to believe that a new shoot could emerge from the stumps in our past. Any of that can separate us from God. To prepare the way of the Lord and make his paths straight is to be about the work of repentance.
Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness, Vik Muniz
It's never easy, this listening to other people, people we might not even like, telling us things we don’t want to hear. The prophets are called by God to do this work and like all the prophets, John speaks the hard truth we need to hear. What or whom have we neglected? What has distracted us from our mission to proclaim God’s love? When have we listened to the crowd rather than to God’s still small voice?
When we make time to ponder these questions, we may hear the voice of a prophet saying things that sound scary to us, speaking of winnowing forks and unquenchable fire. How can this be good news when it sounds an awful lot like judgment? I wonder if we are uncomfortable because we have misunderstood the meaning of judgment. Perhaps we have equated judgment with condemnation, when in fact, to judge something is to see it clearly and to know it as it truly is. Synonyms for judgment include discernment, acuity, sharpness, and perception.
Saint John the Baptist, Geertgen tot Sint Jans
Author and biblical commentator Debie Thomas asks, “What if John is saying that the Messiah who is coming really sees us? That he knows us at our very core? Maybe the winnowing fork is an instrument of deep love, patiently wielded by the One who discerns in us rich harvests still hidden by chaff. Maybe it's in offering God every particular of our lives that we give Him permission to "clear" us — to separate all that's destructive from all that is good, beautiful, and worthy.”
The wilderness can be real and dangerous and threatening. Yet, when we can be still and listen for that voice calling us to repent, to turn in a new direction, the wilderness will be transformed into the place of peace where, as Isaiah has prophesied, “the wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.”
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