Sermon for February 24th

Lent is a time for repentance—for saying that you are sorry. But how do you show God that you are sorry? How do you tell your family or your loved ones that you are sorry? Sometimes I am really horrible at saying, “I’m sorry”. It’s not that I don’t know how say the words, it’s just that I often say them too much. So much that there are times when the words themselves can lose meaning altogether. In ancient times there were many ways that you could show how sorry you were, especially how repentant before God you were. You could tear your clothes, throw ashes on your head, walk around almost naked in loose dirty clothes (called sackcloth) or you could even stop eating! But, in the book of Joel, God says that all these outward signs aren’t good enough. They’re not bad, of course, but they are not enough! God wants more! God wants real change! He wants an inner change to go with that outward repentance. He doesn’t just want you to SAY that you are sorry, but to be made new!

The prophet Joel announces, “Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing.” God wants His people to not just tear their clothes, but to tear their hearts? But how do we do that? How can you tear open your heart rather than just your clothes? How can you say you are sorry and make it mean more than just empty words? How can you change? God says, “Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.”

Actions speak louder than words. When you hurt someone, sometimes saying, “I’m sorry” just doesn’t cut it anymore. You must return to them and stay even when it can be painful. Maybe that means that you sit with them and say nothing at all and withstand their barrage of hurt feelings while you simply listen as they scream at you. And sometimes there is just no way of making something better, what’s done is done. What are you going to do then? What happens when saying, “I’m sorry” doesn’t seem to do much good? God isn’t interested in hearing you simply say that you are sorry. He wants you to return to Him and sustain a good relationship with Him once and for all.

In the arena of politics, there are often questions about retribution. How do we say that we are sorry? For example, how does our country say that it is sorry to the African-American community in response to the decades of injustice they withstood because of slavery? Should there be any retribution? There have often been calls for money to be awarded to the ancestors of slaves because of all the money and years and respect that were taken away in that time. And, perhaps, there is a place for all that, I don’t know. Someone with a little more political know-how should probably answer that. However, whether or not this kind of retribution ever occurs, I don’t believe that it would be enough to truly say, “I’m sorry.” It might help lift the burden enacted by institutionalized racism over the centuries, but those who were most affected by slavery are dead now and extra money or property seldom ever truly heals a wound.

Instead, I believe that the true measure of repentance will come from a lifetime of living together. When each person tears open their hearts and asks forgiveness, not simply for past misdeeds, but for our own prejudices. THAT will do more to heal a relationship than simply handing over some extra money. In the same way, God doesn’t simply want our money, or a little confession here or there, or a fast, or a sacrifice . . . he wants a new life—a new relationship.

That is why he sent Jesus Christ. Jesus was not simply the Lamb of God who could repay the debt of sin. While the Bible does say that he was a ransom, Jesus is so much more than that. His death was about more than retribution. He doesn’t simply atone for our sins, but he is Emmanuel, God with us. He comes to suffer with us. There is nothing we go through that he doesn’t go. He became sin who knew no sin. He came to create a new creation. To make a good tree out of a bad tree. To make a sheep out of you, a goat. So that you might live a new life in a new relationship with God. Producing good fruit. To be led by the good shepherd into a new and wondrous future created for you by a God who abounds in steadfast love.

Repentance is about so much more than retribution. God doesn’t want to see you suffer, he wants to suffer with you. He doesn’t just want a pound of flesh, or to see you walking around in torn clothes, He wants all that you have—He wants all of you. It is never too late to repent, to tear open your heart and confess your sins before God, because God has sent his Son to give you a new heart, a new spirit and a new relationship with Him. The goal of repentance, of tearing open your heart before God, is forgiveness. When God gives you a new heart to take place of the old one. When God makes a new you. When you no longer only have a relationship of repentance with God, but a relationship with Him in eternal life. Amen.