The Celebration of the Gospel
March 29, 2020 – The Fifth Sunday in Lent
Prelude: – It Is Well with My Soul
Call to worship
God of life, as a deer longs for flowing water
our spirits long for you.
Our hearts are cast down, yet our hope is in you.
We remember when we used to gather with the throng,
when our hearts were full of song.
Now we are a valley of dry bones,
separated from each other, dead and still.
In the voice of the risen Christ, who has passed from death to life,
Call to us. Bring us out into the light of your love.
Revive us, O God. Bring our deadened hearts to life again.
We open our hearts to receive your life-giving breath.
We worship you with gratitude and hope. Amen.
Prayer
Song – Softly and Tenderly
Children’s time
Prayer
Loving, life-giving God, like a deer panting for flowing water
our hearts are thirsty for your Word.
Speak to us like Jesus calling to Lazarus.
With the voice of love, call us to life.
Amen.
Hebrew Bible – Ezekiel 37: 1-14
The hand of God came upon me, and the Holy One brought me out by the spirit and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. God led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. The Spirit said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Mystery, O God, you know.” Then God said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of God. Thus says God Almighty to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am God.”
So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then God said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says God, the Holy One: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” I prophesied as God commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.
Then God said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, “Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says God, the Holy One: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Holy One, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Holy One, have spoken and will act, says God, the Holy One.”
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Psalter – The Psalm today is Out of the Deepest Depths, Psalm 130, written by Pastor Steve, and performed by James and Jenny.
Out of the deepest depths I cry to you, O Love.
O, listen with your heart and hear my pleading voice.
If you counted sins then no one cold stand with you,
but Love, you forgive.
I wait for you, my Love, for in your word I hope.
I wait for you, Love, more than those who wait for dawn,
yes more than those who wait for the morning light
I wait for you.
O, hope, then, Israel, O hope in the Lord.
For with the Lord is love, God’s steadfast, faithful love,
and power to redeem, for God is the one
who will redeem us from sin.
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New Testament – Romans 8.6-11
To set the mind on the isolated self is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
For this reason the mind that is set on the individual self is hostile to God;
it does not submit to God’s will—indeed it cannot;
and those who are absorbed in self cannot get in harmony with God.
But you are not an isolated individual; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you.
If Christ is in you, though your isolated body is dead, being disconnected from God,
the Spirit gives you life in the gift of God’s presence.
If the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead
dwells in you,
then the One who raised Christ from the dead
will give life to your mortal bodies also
through God’s Spirit that dwells in you.
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Gospel – John 11.1-44
Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.
Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.” After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.” Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”
When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
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Sermon – Lazarus heart
Song – I Want Jesus to Walk with Me.
Spiritual practice: Breath Prayer
The Word in Song – Julie Spring, Harp
The Prayers
God of mercy, we pray for your grace in these troubled times. Give comfort and strength to those who are sick. Be present in love with those who are dying, and their loved ones. Sustain health care workers with your spirit and your grace. In hospitals where there is stress and grief, may your Spirit grant peace. May your love bless us all.
May your wisdom guide our leaders, that they may cooperate in bringing all our gifts to bear to bring healing. May your mercy lead us. T
Gentle God, calm our worried spirits. Lay your healing hands on our hearts. In your loving presence may we find peace and courage. May your grace guard our hearts.
We pray for those on our prayer calendar this week:
Cielito Sadornas, Xynone Cabal, Aiko McCarthy
Diane Schaumburg
Jackie Scheibel
Our Shepherds
May your will be done in their lives.
As a trusting child turns to her mother, we turn to you
and pray as Jesus taught us to pray,
asking you always to teach us to pray:
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
The Peace
Song: Becoming Whole
We are a broken people becoming whole again.
We are a worried people receiving hope again.
We are a
Blessing and Sending
Blessing Song