Joel 2:12-14
The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Langworthy, preaching
February 18, 2026 – Ash Wednesday
If someone tells us, “You’ve got to believe!”, we almost always take it positively. It strikes us as sweet, optimistic, encouraging. But if someone tells us, “You’ve got to repent!”, we almost always take it negatively. It strikes us as judgmental and, maybe, insulting.
Yet, the season of Lent, which starts today, focuses on repenting. And here Joel, a faithful prophet of God, urges a confused and uncertain people to “return” – using a Hebrew verb that can be translated equally well as “repent” – “return (or repent) to the Lord, your God”. Moreover, as some of you may remember from last Advent’s sermon series in Matthew, for both John the Baptist, who was preparing the way for the Lord, and Jesus, who was the Lord for whom he was preparing, the first word they spoke in public ministry was a call to repent.
But they both immediately followed up on that command with the command to “believe!”
Could it be then that repenting and believing are two sides of the same one coin of faith, that they are Siamese twins connected at the hip in God’s grace?
When the Bible talks of repenting of a specific sin – say, telling a lie or disrespecting someone – it involves admitting with remorse we’ve acted badly, repudiating our bad behavior, and resolving never to do it again.
Yet, the core activity to repentance is reversing our fundamental orientation in life. It is turning away from self-centeredness to God-centeredness — putting His concerns before our own, pursuing His will above our own, and prioritizing His honor and pleasure over our own.
Repentance is then not initially a change in conduct – though if it doesn’t eventually result in that, its genuineness is in question. It is an about-face in attitude, a U-turn in outlook. It is making it our main thing to make God our main thing, and to keep Him our main thing.
Repenting and believing then work together to set right the quality of our relationship with God. They both give God first place in our heart and mind, so that knowing Him better becomes our highest ambition; walking with Him more closely, our prime preoccupation; interacting with Him more fully, our most fervent aspiration. The two collaborate to teach us to trust God and to rely on His assets rather than our own.
In a book he wrote with Lee Strobel, Pastor Gary Poole tells of an eight-year-old girl who’d been caught shoplifting from the church bookstore and whose parents brought her in to Gary that she, in repentance, might confess and make amends.
Gary initiated the conversation by gently asking the girl to say what happened. “Well,” she said immediately starting to sniffle, “I saw a book I really wanted, but I didn’t have any money…” She paused as tears began to run down her cheeks. Gary handed her a tissue. “So I put the book under my coat and took it. I knew it was wrong. I knew I shouldn’t do it, but I did. I’m really sorry. I’ll never do it again. Honest!” Gary replied, “Thank you for telling the truth and saying you’re sorry. That’s very brave, and the right thing to do. So what do you think should be your punishment?” She shrugged. Gary asked that since the book cost ten bucks, wouldn’t it be fair if she paid the store $10, plus $20 more, to make it $30? She nodded sadly and murmured, “Yes.”
Then Gary noticed fear and despair arise in her eyes. Thirty dollars was a mountain of money for someone her age! How could she come up with that much money?
Gary decided to introduce her to the most beautiful part of repentance: the experience of grace. He took out his wallet and handed her $30. Her mouth dropped open. Gary told her, “I’m paying the penalty you can’t pay, and now don’t need to. Do you know why I’m doing this?” She shook her head in bewilderment. “Because you matter to me, and I care about you. And, you know what, that’s how God feels about you too. Only even more.” The girl beamed with relief, joy and gratitude, and later skipped out of Gary’s office.
Repentance builds relationship with God as by it we give up on making things right ourselves and give ourselves over to trusting that God is, as Joel said, “gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love”. Repentance is the lifelong process to possess high hope, not in ourselves, but in God’s grace.
Lent facilitates that process. Let us then walk through these 40 days in the company of the twins of our faith, repenting and believing!
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