Scripture: Malachi 2: 17 – 3:6
Sermon: Whatever Happened to Repentance?
Topics: repentance, defiance, blame, gospel
Preached: February 9, 2020
Rev. Mike Abma
PREAMBLE
We will be reading from the last book of the Old Testament – the prophet Malachi.
Before reading this passage, let me simply give the context.
Judah has returned from exile.
They have rebuilt the Temple.
They have repaired Jerusalem.
But things were still not very good.
Poverty was high.
Security was low.
Oppression by foreign powers was constant.
All the grand promises of Isaiah and Jeremiah of God restoring his people seemed far-fetched. People’s faith life became listless, half-hearted, routine.
The prophet Malachi enters the scene.
He announces: God still loves you.
People: Bah, humbug.
If God loves us so much, why are we so miserable?
Malachi: Well, God expects you to obey him, not cheat him.
People: Bah, humbug. Mind your own business.
Malachi: This is my business.
God want you back and not running after pagan gods.
People: Bah, humbug.
The pagans are doing better than we are.
Malachi: Listen, God expects faithfulness and justice.
People: Bah, humbug.
Where is God’s justice?
This is where we will pick up the reading at 2:17
God is a little tired of this dialogue.
17 You have wearied the Lord with your words. Yet you say, ‘How have we wearied him?’ By saying, ‘All who do evil are good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.’ Or by asking, ‘Where is the God of justice?’
3See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me,
(John the Baptist) and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. 2But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?
For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; 3he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. 4Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.
5 Then I will draw near to you for judgement; I will be swift to bear witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired workers in their wages, the widow, and the orphan, against those who thrust aside the alien, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.
6 For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, have not perished. 7Ever since the days of your ancestors you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’
This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
INTRODUCTION
Malachi ends the Old Testament.
Malachi the prophet
ends with a clear call to Return to the Lord.
He ends with a clear indictment
against the sorcerers who do not honor God;
against the adulterers who do not honor marriage;
against those who lie and do not honor the truth;
against those who oppress and do not honor their neighbors,
especially their neediest neighbors;
And against those who turn aside the foreigner,
the immigrant, the refugee, the asylum-seeker.
The sins were clear.
The need for repentance was clear.
The need to be refined by the fires of God’s righteousness was clear.
“Return to the Lord,” Malachi cries.
Over 400 years later,
that refrain is picked up by John the Baptist.
John the Baptist proclaimed that he baptized with water,
but one was coming who would baptize with fire —
a clear nod to the refiner’s fire of Malachi.
When the one greater than John the Baptist came,
he preached the same thing, but with a new addition:
Repent…..and believe in the good news (Mark 1:15).
REPENTANCE
Understanding the importance of repentance
was in the very DNA of the Reformation.
When Martin Luther posted those 95 theses 500 years ago,
he aimed his attack at those people who thought
you could pay to have your sins forgiven.
That is not how it works, Luther thundered.
That is why thesis #1 of the 95 said explicitly:
When our Lord Jesus said “Repent”
he willed that the whole life of believers
should be repentance.”
The whole life of believers.
Theologically and liturgically,
we have taken this to heart.
Theologically,
when the Heidelberg Catechism asks
what we must know
to live and die in the joy of God’s comfort,
the number one thing we must know is how great our sin and misery are.
Almost 90 questions and answers later
when the Catechism begins describing what a life of
gratitude looks like,
again it starts with repentance:
the rhythm of dying to our old self
and rising to our new self in Christ.
Liturgically
one of the first rhythms of our morning service
is the prayer of confession – repenting of our sins.
In our theology,
in our liturgies
and in our whole lives
we want to show that we
are listening to the Old Testament prophets like Malachi.
We are listening to John the Baptist.
And most importantly, we are listening to Jesus.
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO REPENTANCE
Granted, repentance has never been easy.
We would rather hear about repentance
while listening to the beginning of Handel’s Messiah.
We would rather listen to the Aria
For he is like a Refiner’s Fire
then actually practice repentance
by entering that fire to be purified, and cleansed, and made new.
But lately, it seems like repentance is being avoided altogether.
Throughout history
repentance has always been a hard-sell.
People have often seen repentance
as a sign of weakness.
and as the action of losers.
Repentance is being replaced by defiance.
Defiance is being portrayed
as the action of the noble and the courageous.
Defiance is popular. Repentance ….unpopular.
It is seeping in ….everywhere,
even into Bible translations.
The Wednesday morning Bible Study group
studied the book of Job this fall.
All translations
have Job ending on a clear note of repentance.
Job says,
“Now my eyes have seen you, O God,
therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust in ashes.”
In the newest translation by Edward Greenstein.
Job is not repentant but defiant.
“Now my eyes see you, O God.
That’s why I am fed up.
I take pity on “dust and ashes!”[1]
Defiance has become the posture of the day.
Do not repent.
Do not admit wrong-doing.
Do not humble oneself.
Stand proud, defiant, unrepentant.
I am not alone in noticing this.
Not long ago, the magazine Christianity Today had a lead article
entitled “Whatever Became of Repentance?”[2]
Clearly, they have also noticed that repentance
is, unfortunately, disappearing.
Blame, on the other hand, is everywhere, they point out.
Everyone seems very quick to blame someone else.
But repentance?
People are slow to admit their own sins,
and to repent of them.
They are slow to feel sorry or feel remorse for their wrongdoing,
and even slower to actively change,
to actively try to live a better life.
REPENTANCE and THE GOOD NEWS
We Christians insist on the importance of repentance
because we firmly believe
that repentance is the door that opens the way to forgiveness;
repentance is the dying of the old,
and only then can there be a rising of the new.
Repentance may seem like bad news
but it really is simply the prelude to the good news.
I can go on and on telling you the theology of this.
But I would rather tell you the story of this.
How repentance works in a real person’s life
and what a difference it can make.
This is the story of
a stranger who had been slipping into the back of church.
He arrived after the first hymn.
He left before the final hymn.
This happened for weeks.
One Sunday, the pastor preached on John the Baptist.
The sermon was a call to Repent,
to die to the old
and to rise in Christ to the new.
That day, the man stayed till the very end of the service.
He shook the pastor’s hand while leaving the church.
He asked the pastor if they could talk.
The pastor said, “Sure, I will meet you in the narthex in a few minutes.”
The pastor met this man.
And this man began to talk.
He told the pastor he had cheated on his wife.
He told him he had walked out of his marriage.
He told him he left not only his wife, but also his two daughters.
He told him that he had ruined everything….everything.
He then said that his oldest daughter was getting married.
She had reached out to him.
She said she wanted him at her wedding.
She said she still wanted him in her life.
He told the pastor he did not know what to do.
He had ruined so many things,
he did not want to ruin anything more.
The pastor asked him,
“Are you ready for a new start?
Are you ready to die, really die to the old?”
“Yes,” this man replied.
Then let’s pray, right here, right now.
You are going to tell God your sins.
You are going to list them.
And between listing each of them
you are going to pray, Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.
So that is what they did.
The man prayed a long, heartfelt prayer.
When he was done,
The pastor asked,
“Do you believe you can be forgiven?
Do you believe that Christ’s own death
has atoned for your sin,
has washed you clean.?”
The man replied, “I do.”
The pastor said, “Then hear these words
“The Lord is merciful and gracious.
He does not deal with us according to our sin.
We see his love in Christ
and in his name
we die to our sin
and are made alive in his love.
In the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, your sins are forgiven.”
After a long silence, the man asked, “What should I do now?”
The pastor said, “Why not give your daughter an answer.
Why not let her know how truly sorry you are.
Why not tell her how humbled
yet honored you would be to attend her wedding.”
After that, one thing led to another.
The man reconnected with his daughter
That led to him even talking with his wife again.
In one of those conversations, his wife said,
“Why don’t you just come home. Just come home.”
So he did.
He came home.
He attended his daughter’s wedding.
He even walked her down the aisle.
And when she slipped her hand into his,
he cried….like a baby.[3]
Amen
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