Fourth Sunday of Lent – 10th March 2024
We come to the midpoint of Lent and have this Sunday a celebration with a theme of joy and of trust in the Lord. During the whole of Lent, our hearts are set on the joy of Easter, but our feet must be firmly planted in the repentance of Lent. This Sunday, the midpoint, invites us to look at the joy just a bit more so that we can be encouraged to embrace for the rest of Lent the repentance which is so necessary in our lives.
Lent is so much about our struggle with sin! We must give our attention to the reality of sin in our lives and not ignore it. It is not as though we are terrible people – instead, most of us are fairly good people. But sin is still in our lives. We try to do the best we can, but often our struggle with sin is on the sidelines of our lives rather than a strong focus. Probably that is the way that it should be most of the time. But Lent calls us to put it in the centre for a short season of our life each year, to identity the sins that are our own and to struggle with them.