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Repentance: The Message of John the BaptistLast week we spoke about the opportunity that the season of Advent presents to us: we recognise the coming of Christ as Christmastide and we prepare ourselves to receive him in the best way that we can. I focussed upon the theme of devotion and love for Christ. But this week’s readings remind us that there is a fundamental work that must go alongside such devotion and indeed must precede it in many ways. And that fundamental work is repentance.John the Baptist proclaimed a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Luke the writer of the Gospel reminds us of the words of Isaiah, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight.’” How might we prepare the way of the Lord? The first thing we must do is repent.This might sound unappealing and negative at first hearing, but today I want to extol the glories of repentance. Repentance is the key to the spiritual life, the precious jewel that we carry on our journey, the doorway through which we enter more deeply into our relationship with God. Without repentance we cannot grow as Christians. But, with it, we can not only grow but we can continue to do so and to be made more and more into the image of Christ.What is repentance? It is quite simple and is captured in the image given to us by the Greek New Testament word: Metanoia. Metanoia literally means to have another mind. To change one’s mind from one way of thinking and behaving to another one. In the case of the Gospel, it means changing from our way of doing things and thinking about them to the way that God wants things to be which he has shown us through the teaching and example of Jesus Christ. This involves saying “sorry”, of course, but it is a much greater work than that: a fundamental shift of worldview.And repentance is not just something that marks the beginning of the Christian life – the way in, as it were – but it is the way on. We sin, we fail, we fall, and God brings us back time and time again through the precious gift of repentance and forgiveness. It doesn’t matter if you have been a Christian for five minutes or for fifty years: repentance remains the lifeline back to God when we have lost sight of him, as we so frequently do.The Purifying Power of RepentanceBut repentance is not for the faint-hearted and this is because it involves honesty about ourselves. And being honest about ourselves – our own failures, our downfalls, the pain we have caused and are causing – can be extremely painful. Indeed, many people never even begin. Again, if you believe you are a Christian and have not repented and do not practice repentance, think again. There is no true Christianity without repentance.In our Old Testament reading from the Book of Malachi, we hear more about the ministry of John the Baptist:“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord.”Think about those images for a moment: a refiner’s fire, fullers’ soap, like one who refines and purifies gold and silver. These images perfectly capture the dilemma of repentance: we want holiness and joy in Christ but, in order to get there, we have to be purified first. And purification involves fire. And fire burns.Let’s bring this into the realm of our lives and put it plainly: repentance hurts. Fundamentally, it hurts our pride. And this is because, when we repent, we must admit before God and before other people that we get things wrong and that we have made mistakes. And that is painfu