THEOLOGICAL CLUE

As the church enters the last week of Sundays in the church year, the theological framework - eschatology - is renewed by the readings, particularly by the Gospel for the Day with its emphasis upon divine authority and repentance. The Gospel-context for this week's worship and preaching is the events that occurred after Jesus entered the Holy City to the day now called the Sunday of the Passion, or Palm Sunday. But the theme of today's worship takes the church all the way back to the beginning of Jesus' public ministry, to his baptism and the voice from heaven that declared, "You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," and to the subsequent message which he preached, "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Matthew 4:17) The church year is drawing to a clos…