Sermon for The Third Sunday after Trinity, 2025

Jesus says, “There is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.” Which, then, leads to the question of what true repentance is. Are you repentant? Are you truly sorry? Can one even measure such a thing? If so, how do you know? Better yet, how does the Lord know if you’re sorry enough? Is it when you turn your life around? Is it when you make some conscious effort to refrain from sinning? Is it when you decide to “get right with God,” as the saying goes? No. For Jesus says a shepherd finds his lost sheep, and likewise the angels rejoice over a repenting sinner; He says a woman finds her coin, and likewise heaven rejoices over a repenting sinner. Consider then: what did the sheep do other than wander off? And what did the coin do other than roll out of sight? 

The repentance of the sheep and the coin is not that they went back to the flock or rolled back into view; it’s that they were found by the shepherd and the woman. True repentance is not that you do something; it’s that you are found and rescued and saved by Jesus. True repentance is laver and washing of Holy Baptism, in which you are daily drowned and die and likewise daily emerge and arise to new life in Christ. True repentance is the confession of your sins and the proclamation of Holy Absolution, by which you are reminded that you have been found. True repentance is the blessed Sacrament of the Altar, where Jesus, who gave His Body and Blood for you, now gives them to you to eat and drink for forgiveness, life, and salvation. Or, to put it another way, true repentance is the Spirit’s work in you through the Word. 

Readings:

• Old Testament: Micah 7:18-20

• Epistle: 1 Peter 5:6-11

• Holy Gospel: Luke 15:1-10

Sermon: