Sunday 24 March: “Good, old-fashioned repentance”

Preacher: Lisbet Duerinck Van Gysegem

Readings: 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 & Luke 13:1-9 (NIV)

“Repentance” is not a particularly popular topic nowadays, is it? It's like it went out of fashion with black and white TVs! When you say the word “repentance”, people tend to dismiss it as belonging to the distant realm of some isolated, old-fashioned “hellfire and brimstone” churches.

What does the word evoke in you, Dear Reader? In the Bible, repentance is described in terms that include “missing your aim”, “turning away from old ways” or “mourning our mistakes”. There is an important undercurrent here: the really important thing is how we react *after* we have sinned.

Do we persist in being a ‘barren fig tree’, like in the Reading taken from the Gospel according to Luke? Or do we change our ways, turn to Christ, and begin bearing fruit?

You may then ask, should it matter how *big* the sin was? It may surprise some to learn that determining how “big” a sin is is largely *irrelevant*. A sin is a sin! It is the persistent presence of sin that prevents us from entering into God's presence.

Jesus bore the consequences of our sins, and offers us the possibility to be washed clean of them, so that we can enter into God's presence. Consequently, we must not make the mistake of losing sight of Christ when we repent.

God will judge us, but in His grace, He provides us with the means to forgiveness, through Jesus. Amen, and thanks be to God!