SEASONS OF THE CHURCH YEAR
LENT:
THE FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT
The Church Year is divided into Festivals beginning with Christmas, which includes 4 Sundays in Advent and Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
This is followed by Epiphany Season which begins with the Epiphany of Our Lord and ends 9 Sundays later with the Transfiguration of Our Lord.
The Time of Easter follows beginning with LENT, followed by Holy Week starting with Palm Sunday and concludes with Good Friday. Easter Season begins with the Resurrection of Our Lord and includes the Ascension of Our Lord and ends with Pentecost.
The first Pentecost took place on the 50th day after Easter Sunday when the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, enabling them to testify boldly to spread the Good News of the Gospel.
The Time of the Church is the Season after Pentecost, beginning with The Holy Trinity, the First Sunday after Pentecost through the Twenty-seventh Sunday after Pentecost ending with the Sunday of Fulfillment, the Last Sunday after Pentecost.
This Sunday we observe THE FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT.
THE SERMON TEXT: 2025 Mar 30
Luke 15: 1-3, 11-27 NIV
1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus.
2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
3 Then Jesus told them this parable:
11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons.
12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.
14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need.
15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!
18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’
20 So he got up and went to his father.
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.
23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate.
24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing.
26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on.
27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
SERMON THEME for The Fourth Sunday in Lent:
The Discovery of a Face
Pastor Paul Pollex
Reflection:
lutheranchurchcanada.ca\written sermons
A man had two sons. Both were sinners. One was lawless without the law; the other was lawless within the law. One rebelled openly; the other rebelled secretly. Both break their father’s heart. Both wind up in a far away country – one physically, the other in his heart. Both receive the same fatherly kindness, acceptance, love. Both were forgiven by their father, received as sons, members of the family. Both were in need of repentance – a change of heart and mind; and needed to confess their sin against their father, to receive his mercy and love. One son repented. He confessed his sin against God and his father, and received his father’s undeserved kindness. And the other? Well, Jesus deliberately leaves the parable open-ended. Will the older son repent? Will he enter the party? Will he rejoice in the repentance of his brother? Will we?
SERMON HYMN:
Beautiful Saviour
Translator: Joseph Augustus Seiss (1873)
Hear the Sermon on YouTube
(posted shortly after the Service but not live streamed)
youtube.com/@oslcchatham6321
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