This is the second week of our Advent series we are calling Grace and Truth. Advent is our time of preparation for Christmas. The word Advent means “arrival.” The arrival of Jesus is the arrival of grace and truth in our world in an utterly new way.

Christmas is about God coming to us full of grace and truth. Last week we described both of them. Grace is God’s unmerited favor. It is God’s help. Truth is reality. It is what is real. Jesus brought both his grace, as well as an unwavering dedication to reality. Just as 2,000 years ago Jesus brought grace and truth into the world at Christmas, we are taking this Advent to reflect on how we might do the same.

In Jesus, there was perfect harmony of grace and truth. The problem most of us face is turning the “and” into an “or.” 

If you are a person of grace over truth, you are great at being a forgiving, kind person, but you can let important things go or not be honest about reality. You ignore or find a way out of what we might call the hard teachings. 

On the other hand, there are some of you who live for the “hard teachings.” It’s a test of strength, of orthodoxy. It separates the strong and faithful from the wishy-washy. But when it comes to forgiving or comforting the hurt person, you look for a way around. 

It’s not God’s plan for grace and truth to be apart. So to bring grace and truth to the world, we must first start with ourselves. There’s an important bridge that we are going to look at in today’s Gospel that connects truth and grace. So today, the message is meant to be a little more personal, that is, meant to help us look inside of ourselves.

Instead of focusing on Jesus, the Gospel today focuses on his cousin, John the Baptist. John the Baptist was amazingly popular. Crowds would come out to see him even though he was out in the middle of nowhere, out in the desert. The desert wilderness in Scripture is often seen as a deeply spiritual place, where God works profoundly in people’s lives.

So what was John the Baptist’s message? He says, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt 3:2). 

When we hear the word repent, we don’t naturally think of grace. The word can sound harsh to us. It is a shame that the message has been corrupted in that way because to repent simply means to recognize that something in your life isn’t working and that it needs to change. It is walking away from self-defeating and relationship killing behaviors and turning towards something better. 

This is why John the Baptist says, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Acknowledge your sin, turn away from it, so that you can spot the kingdom of heaven. When we get outside God’s will and God’s ways that’s when things go wrong. God in his grace is sending his kingdom in the person of Jesus Christ. This is the message John the Baptist announces.

The message of John the Baptist continues, “It was of him that the prophet Isaiah had spoken when he said: A voice of one crying out in the desert, Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths” (Matt 3:3).

The acknowledgement of sin and its reality in our lives, allows us to receive the person of Jesus Christ, to receive a Savior. 

The Gospel continues, “At that time Jerusalem, all Judea and the whole region around the Jordan were going out to him and being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins” (Matt 3:5-6). There must have been a spiritual hunger because crowds of people were going out to him in the desert where they acknowledge their sins and their need to change. In being baptized, they were reliving the freedom of their ancestors who crossed over the Jordan River to get to the Promised Land. They did not see the acknowledgement of sin as a negative thing or a downer but an opportunity for hope and to turn their lives in a better direction.

Not everyone bought into a need to change or repent. The religious leaders came to be baptism, but they were not baptized. They didn’t think they needed to acknowledge their sins. So John the Baptist has some words for them that are pretty harsh. “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones” (Matt 3:7-9). The religious leaders thought they didn’t need to repent or do good because they inherited leadership.

Then John says, “I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I am. I am not worthy to carry his sandals” (Matt 3:11). John challenges the religious leaders to be baptized as a sign of their repentance because it will help them to recognize the Messiah, who is so great John can’t even carry his shoes. 

So repentance is not meant to be a threatening word. But it is a challenge to the spiritual status quo. We have to admit some brutal facts about ourselves, some truths that are difficult to admit. It means acknowledging our sins. It is hard for us to face our sin.

When we face our sins and failures and faults that we have allowed to become part of us, there is always a temptation towards shame, dodging, moral equivocating or making excuses for our failures not to mention all kinds of self-condemnation and regret. Repentance sounds harsh and we will avoid acknowledging our sins if we only focus on the truth part of it.

This is why grace is so important. Without grace, we get stuck in our shame, our dodging, our moral equivocating and excuses and self-condemnation. If you are connected to Jesus Christ, you are under grace and all is forgiven – ALL OF IT.

Knowing we are under grace allows us to be convicted of our sin without feeling condemnation for our sin. Conviction is when you know internally you did wrong and that you have to change, you have to make amendment. Condemnation is when you just feel guilty. Condemnation feels hopeless. Conviction feels hopeful.

Repentance is the bridge between the truth of sin and the gift of grace. We acknowledge the darkness, and bring it to light. So what do you need to repent of? What is keeping you from entering the kingdom of God where Jesus rules over hearts? The Christian life is a life of continual repentance over and over again. As we repent over and over, we eventually will drive those sins out of our lives.

So how do I repent? What does that even look like? First, repent quickly. As soon as you know that you chose sin, acknowledge the sin and ask forgiveness. Say, “Father forgive me” and name the sin.

Second, renounce it. Tell God you renounce it, you reject it. The true you, the best version of you doesn’t want the sin, so reject it. Tell God that you reject the sin. Say in your heart, “Father, I reject this in Jesus’ name. I am dead to sin, but alive to God.” 

Third, get to confession periodically. While we can and should repent in the moment, Confession brings a special kind of cleansing to our souls that we need. Our cohort Penance Service will be this Wednesday at 7 PM at Corpus Christi Parish.

As we repent and turn to God, receiving more of his grace and truth, we bring more of Christ into the world. Repentance is truly life-changing.