"The Gift and Practice of Repentance"

Second Sunday of Advent 12-7-2025 Matthew 3:1-12 and Isaiah 11:1-10 (Sermon by the Reverend Michelle Manicke)

Pastor Michelle Manicke

Some of you may have noticed I'm smiling a lot today, and there may also be a few tears running down my cheeks... So, I want you to know two things: first and foremost, I've learned that tears are a gift from God, so I'm not going to apologize or be embarrassed about crying, and I hope that when you cry, you won't, either. Secondly, I want you to know that the tears running down my cheeks today are tears of gratitude and hope and joy. I guess you could say my heart is so full that my cup literally "runneth over!" And I want to share with you some of the reasons why my heart is full.

One thing that fills my heart with gratitude and hope and joy is celebrating the Sacrament of Holy Baptism for Truitt! Last week when I met with Emma and Jordan and Truitt, I realized this is our eighth baptism at Zoar this year, and that's the highest number of baptisms I've done in any of the eight years since I began serving here! Surely, God is at work in our midst, friends, stirring up hope and new life....

I also have to say that celebrating Truitt's baptism makes me smile because it takes me back to the day our younger son, David, was baptized. Just like today, it was the second Sunday of Advent in 1996 - December 8th, to be precise. (The date is firmly etched in my mind because it's also the date of Robert's and my wedding anniversary) Ah, how time flies! These days when I gaze up at David's 6'2" frame, it's hard to believe he was ever small enough for me to hold in my arms, as I just did with Truitt!.  Remembering our son's baptism fills me with gratitude and hope and joy, and so does thinking about Truitt and the gift of new life he's received...  When I look at precious little ones like Truitt, I find myself pondering the same question the astonished bystanders ask in chapter 1 of Luke's gospel when the infant John the Baptizer is born: "What then will this child become?..." It also occurs to me that somewhere along the way - perhaps a long time ago -- someone may have wondered the same thing about you and me: "What then will this child become?"

My friends, like Truitt and David, when you and I were named and claimed by God in the waters of Holy Baptism, we embarked on a lifelong journey of following Jesus. No matter how young or old we were on the day of our baptism, we were invited into a loving, living relationship with the God revealed in Jesus Christ. On that day, the Holy Spirit was poured out on us, and each of us was entrusted with unique gifts to share in God's mission of loving and blessing the world  I think we probably all know this, but I'm going to remind us, anyway: Following Jesus and growing in faith and love is by no means a linear journey! There are a lot of ups and downs, there are stumbling blocks, there are detours, and there are setbacks all along the way.... But the good news for you and me is this: Our God provides many gifts to sustain us in our life of faith. We've been given the gift of our church community to encourage us and to hold us accountable. We've also been given the gift of encountering the Divine mystery around us and within us. And of course, we have the gifts of Word and Sacrament, which assure us of God's steadfast, never-ending love for us...  This week, as I studied the Scriptures in preparation for today's

worship, I couldn't help noticing that the words of Isaiah are echoed in our baptismal blessing. As I prayed for Truitt a few minutes ago, I said, "Sustain Truitt with the gift of your Holy Spirit: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, the spirit of

joy in your presence, both now and forever...."¹ Friends, living as a person of faith in this world isn't always easy, and so, I'm grateful that God has given us the gift of the Holy Spirit to sustain us.... And there's more good news: Even when you and I wander away from the way of Jesus, our God remains faithful. Always! Like the waiting Father in Jesus' story of the prodigal son, God is always ready to embrace us and welcome us home whenever we return in repentance and faith....

Speaking of repentance, let's turn our attention to today's story from Matthew's gospel. Here we meet Jesus' precursor and kinsman, the wild and wooly, Elijah-styled prophet, John the Baptizer, who shows up in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near!" Matthew tells us that when John sees many of the temple leaders coming to be baptized in the River Jordan, he gives them a good tongue lashing, admonishing them to set their egos aside and commanding them to "bear fruit worthy of repentance...."

In the spirit of our church's namesake, Martin Luther, some of us may be wondering, "What does this mean?..." So, here I want to briefly point out that repentance has a somewhat different meaning for John than it does for us. Where John seems to think human beings can initiate repentance, we Christians of the "Lutheran flavor" would be more inclined to see repentance as our response to God's free gift of grace through Jesus Christ. I'll have more to say about this in a moment, but first bear with me while I circle back to the beginning-that is, to our baptism.... In Holy Baptism, God says to Truitt and to you and me, "You are my beloved child. You belong to me forever, and nothing can ever separate you from my love." Or, as I often tell the kids during Children's Time, God will never, never, never, never, ever stop loving you! And by the way, THAT'S the unbreakable covenant our confirmands will be talking about today.... So, in Lutheran theology, God is always the one who extends the invitation to enter into right relationship. Similarly, God is also the one who reaches out to offer reconciliation when we sin by breaking that relationship. As the great 20^th-century theologian Paul Tillich wrote, the only thing we humans can do in response to God's generous grace is "accept that we are accepted." In other words, all you and I can do is surrender and entrust our whole selves into God's care and keeping. Easier said than done, as I think we all know!

Now, given what I've just said about how God is the one who invites relationship and facilitates reconciliation, how does repentance factor into our relationship with God? And what does it mean to "bear fruit worthy of repentance?..." Because some Christian traditions offer a different take on repentance that's well known in our culture, I feel a need to first say what repentance is NOT. In Voices of Advent, the book we're using for our Thursday morning Bible study, Dr. Matthew Skinner of Luther Seminary writes, "...[R]repentance doesn't refer to contrition or feeling self-blaming regret about one's behavior. It is not primarily about immorality, impurity, or a defective will. It's not a call to "Shape up!..."'² In contrast to the popular notion that human beings repent in order to be saved, Lutheran Christians would say instead, "We're already saved by God's grace. We were saved 2000 years ago; therefore, we repent!..." So, here's a working definition of how contemporary Lutheran Christians understand repentance: In the original Greek of the New Testament, the word "metanoia," which we translate as "repentance," literally means "a change of mind." Dr. Skinner explains that the main meaning of repentance is "taking on a new perspective.... It is a call to notice something you previously didn't or to adopt an altogether different point of view. It doesn't mean, 'Come to your senses!' as much as it means, 'See what's happening here, see what this really is. View it in a new way, and let that change things for you!.. "³

To sum up then, you and I can think of repentance as being a change of mind - or maybe better: a change of heart - something that helps us to see things in a new way. When you and I practice setting our egos aside, so that we can open our hearts and minds to perceive the new thing God is doing, we're practicing repentance. And the more we practice repentance, the more we come to see as God sees: that is, with the eyes of our heart enlightened.... As we learn to see with the eyes of our heart enlightened, we come to recognize the gaping chasm between the injustice of the way things are and the way of justice that is God's desire for this beautiful, but oh-so-broken world. The writer of Ephesians reminds us that when we learn to see in this new way, we'll be better able to perceive "the hope to which [God] has called us" through Jesus Christ.⁴ And when you and I come to see the world as God sees - with eyes of compassion and hope - we can be sure that the Spirit will call and equip us to fulfill our baptismal vocation of bearing "fruit worthy of repentance." This bearing of good fruit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control -- happens organically whenever we align the gifts entrusted to us in serving God's ongoing mission to heal and reconcile this world God loves - one person, one creature, one neighborhood, one ecosystem at a time....

My friends, if you don't remember anything else about this sermon, I hope you remember these three things:

1. Sometimes we're jolted into repentance by experiences or events in our lives that compel us to take a long, hard look and reexamine everything.

2. Repentance takes courage.

3. Repentance is a practice, and it takes practice because changing one's mind and heart isn't easy and it generally doesn't happen overnight!

So, bearing these things in mind, I invite you to join me in some "homework:" For the remainder of this Advent season and perhaps beyond, let's commit to pondering and practicing the gift of repentance that renews our faith. Here are some questions that can help guide us:

1. Over the course of your life, what are the experiences that have led you to have a change of mind and heart?

2. Where do you perceive God at work doing a new. thing in this time and place?

3. How might the Spirit be stirring you at present to join in God's mission of loving and blessing the world?

¹ Cf. Isaiah

² Matthew Skinner, Voices of Advent: The Bible's Insights for a Season of Hope (Abingdon Press, 2025) p. 37.

³ Ibid 

⁴ See Ephesians 1:18.