March 16, 2025
Lent 2
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
Friends, please be seated.
I want to take a look at our Gospel and to tease out a few thoughts from there.
The text begins with a word from some Pharisees to Jesus. They want to warn Jesus that Herod is looking for him. Now this is Herod Antipas who was by and large not a very nice man – a clever negotiator – but not nearly as awful as his father, Herod the Great, who was truly despicable.
Jesus responds to them “Go tell that fox…” Fox. Jesus points to cunning but not to viciousness or tyranny. He offers a few words to the Pharisees for Herod, and then he gets a bit wistful … or pensive, is it? And he foreshadows his entry into Jerusalem.
“You will not see me again until the time comes when you say,
‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
“Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!” is an expression used in connection with Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem in all four Gospels. The four Gospels all have very different takes on the life and ministry of Jesus, but they all contain this quotation.
When we think of Palm Sunday, we recall the word “Hosanna”, a word that had long been part of the worship life of Jesus. After Jesus, we adopted that word into our liturgy as a term of praise, more often than not, although it was originally a plea for deliverance and salvation. But the word “Hosanna”, shouted as Jesus entered Jerusalem in the prelude to his execution, is not mentioned in the Gospel of Luke. What is mentioned is the “Blessed is” expression of all four Gospels.
So Jesus is saying to the Pharisees, who’ve brought him news of Herod’s searching, that the next time they see him will be when Jerusalem welcomes his return to the city one last time. When he next departs the great city, it will be for the place of his execution outside the city near the garbage dump.
Some have held that Jesus is rebuking the Pharisees in Luke’s account of the run-up to Jerusalem, but I don’t take it that way. Jesus is not disputative or rancorous.
“Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.”
I want to say a bit about that sentence. In the Hebrew psyche, the word blessing functions in two directions. But not principally in the way we think of things today. We think of God blessing us and of our blessing one-another. Roman Catholics say we are to be sacraments to one another. Lutherans say that we are to be Christs to one another. God blesses us; we bless others.
Formally, we bless one another when we share the peace or when our pastor offers a word of benediction. When I share the peace with someone across the room, I will sometimes raise my hands in blessing and mouth the word “peace”.
Now, in the Hebrew consciousness, while blessing was also something that God did, the second dimension was not primarily of our blessing one another, but of our blessing God. The most familiar form was incorporated into the Jewish Berakah, a form of prayer, which is echoed in our Eucharistic liturgy. “Blessed are you, Sovereign of Creation; and blessed are you for the fruit of the earth, the wheat which sustains and the grape which gives life.” Blessing can be directed at God. We frequently hear that form of blessing used by our contemporary Muslim neighbours. “I was not hurt, bless God.” In that sense, blessing conveys thanksgiving but it’s more than that.
So when Jesus uses the expression “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord,” we understand that someone to be blessed by God but also someone who is given to blessing God in return.
Last week, I fastened on a couple of things Preston offered in his sermon. Early on, he mentioned our …
“resistance to dehumanizing trends in the world
and of promoting the interests of the common good
as opposed to one’s own self-interest.”
I like the idea of the common good — the good in which all are invited to share. I think that is a very Jesus sort of thing. And I think it is also a very Christian and eucharistic sort of thing. The meal that we share is, first and foremost, the meal of the common good, offered to all, including me, but never to me alone. The Great Thanksgiving is always corporate thanksgiving. It’s about us!
The second thing I fastened on was Preston’s closing thought.
”And so we find solace in this story …
and the devil and his ways are overcome, not by us alone,
but in the Son of God who offers himself for us …
and all for the sake of a world under siege.”
A world under siege. Jesus’ world was a world under siege. Herod Antipas, the Herod mentioned in the Gospel, and Pilate would have words over who was to execute “justice”. “He’s yours.” “No, he’s yours. If you want to dispose of him, that’s up to you.” The Jerusalem of today’s Gospel was a world under siege by powers religious and secular.
Today, our world is a world under siege. The leaders of Russia, China, and now the United States, each offer a vision of how they would carve up the pie, carve up the world, were they left to their own devices and if it were entirely up to them. Contemporary realities see many close to home feeling under siege, for even as our new prime minister was sworn in, the talk was of his selecting a leaner war-time sort of cabinet than we are used to. Wartime.
Right now, people are stressed. Some of us are feeling stressed. For ourselves; for our country; for our kids and grandkids. Stressed in a world and on a planet whose environment was already under siege.
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. “And blessed is the one who takes no offence at me.” Jesus also said that in the Gospel of Luke.
The Church is to be, to my mind, first, and foremost, a locus for blessing. God blesses us. We bless one another. And we bless God.
And blessing for me includes resistance to the powers and principalities which would lay siege to God’s world. Siege by war; by economic coercion; by actions which dehumanize; by disregard for the bounty and beauty of creation.
In today’s context, as followers of Jesus, we are the ones who are venturing into the world “in the name of the Lord”.
We ought to be seen as “coming in the name of the Lord” — in a Godly manner — and worthy of blessing – whether God’s or that of our human siblings. That is the demand of the church in a world under siege. That is the ethos of the greater good in the face of the ethos of the private good.
And that ethos is one which the church ought to be able to commend to the world precisely because it is our ethos. The ethos to which we aspire. The ethos we live by. The ethos we sometimes betray. But the ethos we commend to one another, and to God’s world, nonetheless.
Blessing for the common good in a world under siege.
And blessed is the one who comes in God’s name.
Silence.
May the words of my lips and the song of our hearts be witness to our God. And may the church say “Amen”. Amen.
André Lavergne CWA (Pastor)
Honourary Assistant,
Church of St. John the Evangelist, Kitchener.
Angus Sinclair was appointed Director of Music of St. John the Evangelist on February 1, 2023. Having graduated in 1981 (Honours B.Mus.) in organ performance from Wilfrid Laurier University, he went on to distinguish himself as a church musician, recitalist and accompanist touring in both Canada and the UK. For over 40 years Angus has served parishes and congregations throughout Southwestern Ontario as director of music. He experiences his present appointment to St. John’s as a welcome homecoming, both spiritually and musically.
As our parish musician, he provides both support and leadership so that a variety of parish programs can find musical expression and attract participation. When our handbell choir is in season, he is one of our ringers. At parish dinners, he provides popular piano music for the guests to dine by. For both worship services and concerts, he will rehearse and accompany vocal and instrumental soloists from our congregation on piano, organ, or even accordion.
Angus Sinclair was appointed Director of Music of St. John the Evangelist on February 1, 2023. Having graduated in 1981 (Honours B.Mus.) in organ performance from Wilfrid Laurier University, he went on to distinguish himself as a church musician, recitalist and accompanist touring in both Canada and the UK. For over 40 years Angus has served parishes and congregations throughout Southwestern Ontario as director of music. He experiences his present appointment to St. John’s as a welcome homecoming, both spiritually and musically.