Sermon Sunday 16 March 2025 – Lent 2 – Luke 13:31-end, Philippians 3:17-4:1

A couple of weeks ago I was in Edinburgh and ended up attending a service at the Free Presbyterian Church. I must confess I had my prejudices, and wasn’t looking forward to a long sermon and singing metrical psalms without instruments. But, while you don’t need to worry that I will defect to the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, or that my sermons will become forty minutes long – not yet anyway, there was a lot that I took from that experience.

The vicar spoke about Psalm 100 and especially the words that the Lord is good, his love lasts forever, and his faithfulness through all generations.

But it was not just what he said. It’s that he spoke with a visible joy about the goodness of God. He looked like he believed and did what he preached.

And looking back on my own journey of faith, I know it’s the example of people who did exactly that which have inspired me on my journey. People who talked and lived the Christian faith in a holy and joyful way, people who gave me a glimpse of what Jesus Christ looked like and what it may look like to live as a citizen of heaven. Who was that for you? Maybe share that with someone else at coffee and tea after the service, it is a great conversation starter.

But very few of us would dare to say what Paul says in his letter to the Philippians. Join in imitating me. Imitate me, as I imitate Christ. Paul is using himself as an example for a Christian life well-lived. As one commentator notes, most preachers have to say do as I say, don’t do as I do, but Paul can say do as I do as well as do as I say. It is a big challenge for me as a priest and preacher. Do I reflect that, whatever happens, I believe that the Lord is good, his love lasts forever, his faithfulness throughout all generations?

And it is a question for each of us. It is daunting for all of us to realise that before people come to know the Lord Jesus and come to know the goodness of God, they usually first meet us. With a few exceptions, people will meet Christians before they meet Jesus Christ.

So the challenge for us is to focus on Jesus Christ, and reflect something of his love, joy, goodness, in our own life. To live a life here on earth that is marked by being a citizen of heaven. To reflect the kind of joy that can only be found in God.

In this season of Lent, we are all encouraged to go back to Jesus Christ, to look at our relationship with Him, and to acknowledge afresh that the Lord is good, his love lasts forever and his faithfulness throughout all generations.

It means that Lent is a joyful season, especially if we fast. We remember our Lord Jesus’ instructions on fasting: ‘When you fast, do not look sombre […] when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father’ (Matthew 6:16-18). 

Jesus says, when you fast, make sure you look joyful.

Certainly, Lent is a time for testing, a time for giving up, but giving up so that we may the more rely on the love of God for us, and so we may the more strive to imitate Jesus, and live in his love and joy, and share that with each other and with all those outside the walls of this church.

We find an example of this in Paul, who, in our first reading, is writing from prison to the Christian church in the Greek city Philippi. He is struggling. Yet his whole letter is filled with joy, and encouraging the church to rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say, rejoice (Philippians 4:4). His imprisonment on earth cannot stop him from accessing the joy of heaven, which shapes this letter.

And if we look at Jesus in our Gospel reading we understand why Paul can be joyful while he is suffering in prison. Jesus is both Paul’s example but more importantly, the source for his joy. 

Because, in our Gospel reading, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, to suffer and die. Yet, he is not deterred from his journey by the prospect of danger and suffering. He goes on doing God’s work of casting out demons and curing people. He continues to bring healing and joy.

This whole passage, has Jesus’ passion and death in view, but is also filled with allusions to the final victory. And on the whole road to Jerusalem, it is clear that suffering is mixed with the purpose of it all, and with the fact that Jesus is the one in charge, the King. Jesus speaks of a third day, here not in a literal sense, but of course talking about the third day does immediately bring to mind the third day as the day of resurrection. Similarly, Jesus saying he will complete, finish, perfect his work looks ahead to the completion of his mission here on earth. It is the same word Jesus says on the cross: It is finished (John 19:30).

And especially interesting is the reference at the end of our reading. ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord’. It is an allusion to Palm Sunday, when all Jesus’ followers shout this phrase as he enters Jerusalem on a donkey as King. But Jesus is now pointing even further ahead, to his second coming, when all of Jerusalem will not reject and crucify him, but they will say to him ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord’.

And from early times, it has been part of the liturgy of Holy Communion. We say or sing it every time we celebrate Communion, and it emphasises that we expect our King to come to us, as he has promised, through the bread and wine.

Every Sunday, even in Lent or maybe especially in Lent, we celebrate that Christ has already risen. That the victory is already won. That the work is already completed. And that our King is already coming to be with us as we meet together as His Body, as we listen to his Word, and as we receive the sacrament.

And it is the other reason that the colours in church are purple, a royal colour, a colour worthy of the King who comes to be with us. And we can rejoice in knowing that this King is good, his love lasts forever, and his faithfulness throughout all generations. And knowing that He is the one who holds our lives and the whole world in his hands.

May we live in that confidence and that joy, and may we reflect to all those who we meet that we truly believe that the Lord is good, his love lasts forever and his faithfulness throughout all generations.

Amen.