Which Came First? Repentance or Forgiveness?
Texts: Malachi 3:1-7b; Philippians 1:2-11; Luke 3:1-20

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Grace and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

This/yesterday afternoon, I was studying my sermon when it hit me. We Lutherans get off easy with repenting before God and one another of our sins. None of us has to stand up and admit specific sins we’ve committed this week. No, we repent of our sins “corporately,” meaning, we do it together at the start of our worship service using very non-specific language.

Take our your bulletin and turn to page 3/5. Look at the words we use. We confessed before God and one another that each of us “have turned aside from God’s statutes and have not kept them.” We read, “We confess that though we know God’s grace, our love does not always abound.” And we admitted, “We conceal our sin privately. We resist confession those sins that are seemingly too painful to bear.”

Generic words that apparently encapsulate all our sins we committed this week.

Have you ever tried private confession? That is where you come to visit me, we sit in the office or here in church; or I can come to your house and we can talk. During this time, you specifically repent of the sins that you know of, laying everything on the line without holding anything back. No matter the deed or word, you spill your guts before God, and when you’re done, you receive the forgiveness of God.

Private confession is truly liberating. When you are forgiven corporately, you know in your heart that you’ve been forgiven, but privately, it is like a weight is lifted off your shoulder. You can literally stand up and dance because the words of forgiveness were directed specifically at you.

This is not to say that when you repent during our corporate confession, that you aren’t forgiven. No, when God says you’re forgiven of your sins, you’re really forgiven. In this corporate repentance, even though we’re not very specific, we do repent of sins that we know and those we don’t know. The fun begins if we truly ponder those words of repentance we mouth and repeat in our Divine Service and really take a moment to consider what we are really repenting; this can be eye opening. When we do this, we learn something about ourselves — our lives of repentance are filled with excuses. And it is not just each of you sitting here today that can come up with an excuse or two when it comes to heartfelt repentance, everyone in our fellowship who is either home or shopping or you name it tonight/today.

More often or not, our corporate confession has an asterisk attached to it. Yes, we say we’re sorry, but…

“Well, God, you know, that person who lives next door is really not nice. They never say hello when I see them in the streets. So what I didn’t bring their garbage pails in after the garbage was collected this week. Yeah, I know it was windy and I should have scooped up their can before it was pushed down the street. But they’re rotten people. They should get their own bins.”

“God, you know I drive a little fast, and I’m sorry about that, but that person who wanted to get onto Route 4 that I didn’t let in. I had been sitting in miles of traffic and finally when the cars were moving, this person wants to squeeze in, slowing me down. I figured that they could wait.”

“God, I know you exist. I believe in you. So what that I don’t come to church very often? I believe. I was confirmed. I know, I know, my church has worship services everyday, but I go to work; I have friends and family to spend time with; and some of those people at church, you know God, they ain’t very nice. And Sunday morning, that’s the only day in the week I get some sleep. Or get some shopping done. Or do the wash. I go to church once in a while, Christmas Eve, if I get out of my office Christmas party early, or Easter Sunday, if I don’t drink too much the night before.”

Excuses. Excuses. Excuses. Our corporate repentance lives are filled with asterisks.

If John the Baptist were here right now, then I think he’d tell us what we could do with weak-kneed repentance. In our Gospel reading today, Saint John the Baptist points a finger at every one of us when it comes to our lives as Christians. Repentance doesn’t have an asterisk. Repentance doesn’t have an excuse.

At its very heart, repentance has Jesus Christ. When we repent, we’re not only saying that we’re sorry for our sins, but we are also recognizing that in our weakened state as sinners, we cannot do enough to attain God’s forgiveness. We cannot come before God as sinners and leave anything back.

For at the root of our lives is Jesus Christ, the child of Mary, the one our hearts are preparing to celebrate His coming in a few short days. When we repent, we pray that our hearts spill all our sins before God. Whether we say the words of not, we pray that God sees all of those sins we’ve committed, even those we don’t know or don’t care about or think aren’t sins. Whether our confession is private or corporate, we should pour our hearts into it, reminding ourselves that without God, without our Lord Jesus Christ and His crucifixion on our behalf, our lives would be empty because our sins would not be forgiven.

We thank God here and always that our sins are truly forgiven. To explain it a bit, the forgiveness you receive corporately is the same forgiveness you’d receive privately. With private confession and the forgiveness of your sins spoken directly to you, as I mentioned before, the weight of the world should be lifted off of your shoulders.

But also here in corporate confession, as well!! The weight of sin is lifted from you by the very words that God, through me as pastor, has forgiven your sins because our Lord Jesus Christ died for you and me. Deserving nothing but God’s wrath for our sins, our Lord Jesus received that punishment in our place. That is why, whether privately or corporately, when those words of forgiveness are heard, you really should shout out great thanks to God! From the moment those words reach your ears that is the greatest moment in your week, bare none.

So, that means you can leave church and sin like there is no tomorrow, right?

Wrong. John the Baptist would look at you funny if you said that. Instead, think about the soldier and tax collector and the average everyday citizen that John addresses in our Gospel:

“Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to likewise….Collect no more than you are authorized to do…Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be content with your wages.”

John is reminding all of us what our lives, as forgiven Christians, are really all about — faith in God and love of neighbor. If we say we’re forgiven our sins, then that means we have some kind of understanding about the meaning of the cross of Christ. But forgiveness means more than just understanding — it means living as one who has been forgiven. It doesn’t mean going out and sinning all the more. It means living your lives in faith and trust of God as one who has been forgiven by Him and through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Repentance and forgiveness go hand-in-hand. As we repent and let it all hang out –whether privately or corporately – God forgives us.

We shouldn’t take God for granted or come up with excuses for our Christian lives. Receiving the forgiveness of sins is liberating, it really is.

Go, dear friends in Chris, and return to the Lord. Go as one who has been forgiven of your sins.

Amen.