“Repentance Preaching”

Rev. William G. Lamont, Pastor

“John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the River Jordan, confessing their sins.”  (Mark 1:4-5)

If you were going to write a book about your life where would you begin?  Would you begin with the story of your birth and proceed chronologically?  Would you begin with the greatest achievement in your life and rewind to tell the story of all the people and events that led you to that moment?  Would any of you begin with the story of your baptism?  Well, strangely enough, this is where the gospel writer Mark chooses to begin the story of Jesus life and ministry...with his baptism.  Mark has nothing at all to say about the birth of Jesus... he leaves that to Matthew and Luke to share.  He skips over all that material and begins his gospel with the story of Jesus being baptized by John in the River Jordan.  Why there?  Because good news begins with baptism.

So, strange as it may seem, the Gospel of Jesus Christ doesn’t begin with Jesus Christ.  The first person to appear in Mark’s gospel is John the Baptist.  The scene opens in the wilderness and there stands John and the way he’s described makes him sound like a bit of a peculiar character.  Instead of the fine flowing garments of a priest or rabbi, he’s wearing clothing made of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist.  Instead of the kosher foods of the Israelites he’s eating locusts and wild honey.  Instead of preaching in amidst the grandeur of the Jerusalem temple he’s preaching out in the stark wilderness.  Even his message is peculiar: instead of the cautious, predictable words of the rabbis, he proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins and inviting people to be baptized in the river Jordan.

Everything about John challenged the religious norms of his time – his dress, his diet, but especially his message!  In those days, you see, it was popular to ostracize sinners - to cut them down and leave them ashamed and forsaken.  And sadly, some preachers still like to preach that way... to use the Bible as a sword to carve people up like a Thanksgiving turkey and leave them wallowing in their sin.  As a rule we don’t like that kind of preaching, do we?  We don’t like it when the preacher preaches hellfire and brimstone, gets loud and passionate and starts beating the pulpit and pointing at people.  And so when we hear the name John the Baptist as we do in today’s passage, we politely turn away and turn off.  He’s one of those types. 

But wait a minute!  We’re giving John a bad rap!  We’ve cast him as a hellfire and brimstone preacher and he’s not one of those types at all!  Sure, he’s a repentance preacher, but that’s different from the hellfire and brimstone preachers.  John preached repentance for the forgiveness of sins, not for the condemnation of sins!  John’s is a good news message! 

If John were just another fire and brimstone preacher like all the rest then why was he so popular?  Why is it that people from the whole Judean countryside went out to hear John?  Why would all the people of Jerusalem go out to hear him and be baptized in the Jordan confessing their sins?  If all John was doing was heaping aspersion on the people then why did they flock to him in such droves?  He would never have attracted the crowds if all he was doing was condemning people to hell for their sins!  

No, John’s message was different:  “Repent because God wants to forgive you.  The Messiah is coming and the time has come to prepare for his arrival!  Repent and be baptized.”  That’s the message of John the Baptist!  His was a good news message in a time when good news was a rare thing indeed.  And he dramatized that forgiveness by baptizing people in the Jordan confessing their sins.  So people lined up to be baptized by John. 

John made it clear that his baptism was not an end in itself.  “I baptize you with water,” he said, “but the Messiah will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”  In other words, getting wet in the River Jordan is just an outward sign of cleansing, but true cleansing will be the work of the Spirit.  In fact, John is careful to point out that he is not the Messiah and shouldn’t be mistaken for him.  He does this by making these distinctions:

He makes distinction in sequence: “He who comes after me...”

He makes distinction in power: “He is more powerful than I”

He makes distinction in worthiness: “I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals”.

He makes distinction in their work: “I have baptized you with water but he will baptize you with the Spirit.”

What is unique about John’s ministry is that he calls the people to repentance.  The Greek word for repentance is “metanoia”...which literally means “to turn around,” to make a 180 degree turn, and go in the opposite direction.  Repentance then is to understand you have been going the wrong way and need to make a U –turn.  It is to realize that your life is taking you further away from God and in order to get back to God again, you need to turn around.  And repentance is not just to realize this; it is to actually do this.  Repentance is the act of turning around.

Take smoking for example:  I have never yet met a smoker who thinks that smoking is good for them.  There might be some out there, but most smokers will readily admit that smoking is a dirty habit and they really should quit.  That admission is not in itself is not repentance.  The act of repentance only comes when the smoker finally throws out their remaining cigarettes, goes cold turkey and stops smoking altogether.  Repentance is the actual moment of stopping and of making that change of direction in their life.

And not to pick on smokers because repentance can take all forms and there are all sorts of ways a person can and should change direction in life.  We need to repent daily because we are still discovering ways we need to repent and sometimes we slip back into our old ways when we take our minds off of the task of repentance.

In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis  says this in his discussion about progress: “We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.”  This is really a clever way of discussing repentance without calling it by name.  In CS Lewis’ mind it would seem that repentance and progressiveness are really much the same.

John’s ministry was unique in that he preached repentance in a way that rekindled people’s hope for the long awaited Messiah.  He pointed them in the right direction and this made possible a new beginning. 

My question is where do we hear the voice of John today?  Who is calling the nations and the people to repentance?  Surely it is our job as Christians to be the voice of John in this day and age.  We need to call for repentance so that God can come in to a person’s life and do something new.

When I was a youngster my parents owned a cottage on the shores of Lake Huron.  We used to go up there each summer and we’d stay there as long as two months.  It was a great place to spend summers as a child.  Our neighbors on one side were a native family with four children.  They lived there all year round and got really excited when we would arrive because it was pretty lonely up there during the fall, winter, and spring.  We children all hung around together, swimming and playing during the day and having campfires on the beach at night. 

One morning we were awakened by the shouts and banging on the door by the two oldest children from next door.  They were near hysterics. “My dad is drunk and he’s fighting with my mother and we don’t know what to do!”  My dad went next door, followed shortly by my mother, leaving all of us to wait on the porch where we watched from a distance.  Dad knocked on the door - he knocked hard to be heard over the yelling and screaming.  He walked in and soon the altercation had quieted down.  My dad stepped outside with the husband and mom stayed inside with his wife.  Dad talked to him for a long time, I don’t know what all was said but I did hear him say one thing:  He said, “One day I want to come talk to you about your drinking, Andy.  It’s a problem and you need to get your life back together again for the sake of your family.”

That’s all that was said.  Mom and dad came back home and the kids eventually got their nerve up to go back home again and our day went on and we didn’t talk much about that anymore.  I don’t know if he ever had that talk with Andy but I think so, because Andy went on to join AA and became a reformed alcoholic who never drank again.  It was a new beginning for him.

My dad played the part of John the Baptist that day.  He was a repentance preacher.  He preached repentance, not for the condemnation of sins, but for the forgiveness of sins...and there was a new beginning for Andy and that family.

Repentance preaching has got a bad rap.  It’s not about making a person feel ugly or miserable or unworthy.  It’s about creating hope in a person’s life where something new and life-giving can grow.  Repentance preaching turns people around and allows the light of God to shine upon them.  And when we see the light of God we are drawn to it like moths to a flame.

So go out and don’t be afraid to do a little preaching.  Don’t be afraid to speak the truth - just speak it in love...and let it do its work...because the truth will set us free. Amen.