The Fourth Sunday in Lent, March 21, 2004
Josh. (4:19-24); 5:9-12; Psalm 34 or 34:1-8; 2 Cor. 5:17-21; Luke 15:11-32
In some parishes, rose-colored vestments are used in place of purple on this “Laetare Sunday,” marking the midpoint of Lent. On this day, the faithful may be influenced to approach worship in a spirit of joyful anticipation of the end of the sorrowful season in which we have been “lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness” (BCP, p. 264). We gather to receive “the true bread which gives life to the world,” as we pray in the collect, and, as we recite in verse 8 of the psalm, to “Taste and see that the Lord is good,” being “happy” that we “are they who trust in him!”
The passage from Joshua recounts occasions in which the goodness of the Lord in which we rejoice was displayed toward his people. As a memorial of the crossing of the Jordan into the Promised Land was being erected, that event along with the earlier miraculous passing over of the Red Sea was recalled. Then the great feast of the Passover was kept in celebration of God’s deliverance of his people.
In the epistle, St. Paul focuses on reconciliation with God. What a joyful thought it is that we who trust in the Lord may be, “in Christ … a new creation.” We may rejoice in the hope that the sins of which our seasonal observance has invited us to repent are forgiven. We are they who receive the good news that God in Christ, our Passover, initiated reconciliation, “not counting their trespasses against them.”
The joy of forgiveness, of deliverance and reconciliation, is wonderfully illustrated in the familiar gospel story of the prodigal son that is read today. The recognition of our need for deliverance from and forgiveness of our sins that this season of penitence stirs within us may be much like that moment in which the wasteful young man “came to himself” and became ready to acknowledge: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.” The response to his confession, to his repentance, his returning to the right way, was forgiveness, reconciliation, and rejoicing. In our eucharistic feast, we receive from our Father this same merciful response, and so we give thanks and “make merry.”
Look It Up
Read over the text of the Exsultet, BCP, p. 286-7, in preparation for our celebration of the paschal feast.
Think About It
For the prodigal son, repentance was a return to his father’s home. To what disciplines or devotional practices from an earlier period of life might you return as a sign of Lenten repentance?
Next Sunday
The Fifth Sunday of Lent, March 28, 2004
Isaiah 43:16-21; Psalm 126; Phil. 3:8-14; Luke: 20:9-19
