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Long Green Valley Church of the Brethren
Fifth Sunday of Lent
Beginning with Praise
(9:50 am)
“Awake, arise, O sing a new song”
56 *Hymn
“O bless the Lord, my soul”
80
*Response
(vs.1,4) “When I survey
the wondrous cross”
259 Sharing
a joy, a concern, a word of testimony or praise *Hymn
“I heard the voice of Jesus say”
493 *Postlude “Lord, Let Us Now Depart in Peace” Whelpton *Rise in body or in spirit #'s are from Hymnal: A Worship Book Worship leaders - see basic guidelines |
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One: O Lord, out of the depths I call
to you. Two: O Lord, hear my voice. One: Let your ears be open to my pleas
for mercy. Two: If you kept track of sins, Lord, who
would stand a chance? One: But with you there is forgiveness Two: and so we will worship you. All: My hope is in you, Lord. My whole being is full of
hope, and I wait for your promise, One: O people of God, wait for the
Lord! Two: Because faithful love is with the
Lord; One: because great redemption is with
our God! Two: The Lord will redeem Israel from all
its sin.
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God of life, present and promised, by
John Indermark |
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A man named Lazarus became dangerously ill. He and his two
sisters, Mary and Martha, lived in the town of Bethany and were
good friends of Jesus. Mary was the one who is remembered for
having massaged the Lord’s feet with perfumed oils and dried them
with her hair. When her brother Lazarus got sick, she and her
sister sent a message to Jesus, saying, “Lord, your good mate
Lazarus is gravely ill.”
When Jesus got the message, he said, “This illness is not going to
result in death, but in great credit being given to God and to the
Son of God.”
Despite his great love for Martha and her sister, and for Lazarus,
Jesus did not drop everything the minute he got the message and
head off to be with them. It was another two days before he
finished up what he was doing and got ready to go. When he was
ready he said to his disciples, “Let’s make tracks back to Judea.”
But the disciples said, “Rabbi, you’ve only just fled Judea
because they were trying to kill you there. Why on earth would you
be wanting to go back?”
Jesus replied, “There is a time for working and a time for
sleeping. If you go about your business during the daylight, you
won’t stumble, because your world will be full of light. But if
you wait until its dark, you will fall flat on your face because
you will have no light to guide you. Our good mate Lazarus has
gone to sleep, and I am going down there to wake him up.”
The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he is getting plenty of sleep
then he will be back on his feet in no time.”
Jesus had really been saying that Lazarus had died, but the
disciples had taken him too literally, so he spelt it out for
them: “Lazarus is dead. I’m glad, for your sakes, that I wasn’t
there, because this will toughen up your faith. So let’s go and
join him.”
Thomas the Twin turned to the other disciples and said, “Come on.
If he is going to get himself killed, we might as well be killed
with him.” from the Laughing Bird version ©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net |
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Returning our Tithes and Offerings
In what was possibly an offhand, under-his-breath comment,
Thomas spoke more truth than he realized. From this moment on,
Jesus was aimed back into trouble. What happened in the rest of
this morning’s gospel story, which we’ll hear in two more
segments, galvanized the religious leaders to plot Jesus’ death. “It is better that one man die for the people,” they reasoned, “than
to have the whole nation destroyed.” Again, more truth spoken
than realized. From Bethany, where Mary, Martha, and their
brother, Lazarus, lived, the next stop for Jesus was Jerusalem. In
seven days we will remember him entering the city of God’s peace
on the back of a donkey, amid palm branches and “hosannas.” Today, however, Thomas’ side-ways remark brings us back to our own preparation for Easter. A bit later in John’s gospel, Jesus says this,
Are we listening carefully on this fifth Sunday of Lent? … As you
return your offering just now, ponder the gospel call to “take
up your cross and follow.”
(cf
Mark 8:34-35, Matthew 16:24-25, Luke
9:23-24) Ushers?
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The words behind the
musical number we just heard by Simon Victorovich Panchenko
(1867-1937) are based on the
beatitudes of Jesus. They come in the form of a prayer. Let us
dedicate our offerings with these
words:
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When Jesus arrived in Bethany, he discovered that Lazarus had been
buried four days earlier. Many people from nearby Jerusalem had
come to town to comfort Martha and Mary and pay their last
respects to Lazarus. Martha heard that Jesus had arrived and ran
down the street to meet him, leaving Mary at home. Martha said to
Jesus, “Lord, if only you’d been here. I know my brother wouldn’t
have died if you had been here. But I know that, even now, God
will do anything you ask.”
Jesus said to her, “Your brother will be raised to life again.”
Martha replied, “I know that he and all the dead will be raised to
life at the end of time.”
But Jesus said to her, “I am the one who raises the dead and gives
life. Those who put their trust in me will have life, even if they
die. Those who live trusting in me, will never succumb to death.
Will you take my word for this, Martha?”
“Yes, Lord,” she replied,
“I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God; the one whose
arrival the world has been waiting for.”
Having said this, Martha went back to the house and spoke in
private to her sister Mary, saying, “The teacher is here and he
wants to see you.”
When she heard this, Mary wasted no time in getting up and
hurrying out to meet Jesus. She found him where Martha had left
him, just outside the fringe of the town. When all the visitors
from Jerusalem who had been with her in the house saw her hurrying
out, they assumed that she was going to the graveyard to mourn and
leave flowers, so they followed her. When Mary saw Jesus, she
embraced him and sobbed, “Lord, if only you’d been here. I know my
brother wouldn’t have died if you had been here.”
Jesus was stirred up, deep in his guts, by her tears and by the
crying of the people who were with her. “Where did you bury him?”
he asked.
“Come and we’ll show you, Lord,” they said. As they went, Jesus
too began weeping. This prompted some of the people to say, “He
must have really loved Lazarus,” but others were more cynical,
saying, “If he loved him so much, how come he didn’t do something
to keep him from dying? After all, he had no trouble giving sight
to a blind man.”
from the Laughing Bird version |
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“Jesus wept.” We memorize that scripture verse, O Lord,
not just because it is short and easy to remember, but also
because it opens us to the depth of your love. Whether he cried
out of a shared anguish over the loss of one so dear, or due to
frustration over the thick-headed-ness of people who still didn’t
catch a glimpse of the life he came to freely give, doesn’t really
matter. That Jesus wept reveals his human side, your
identification with us. For we weep, outwardly or inwardly, for so
many different reasons, many of which we scarcely comprehend.
Grief, anger, despair, frustration, sadness – a thousand things
can bring a tear, whether it flows down our cheek or is swallowed
in saving face.
Like Martha, we may note your seeming absence in the middle of a
troubling situation, but also believe that you will make things
right. Like Mary, we may simply wonder where you have been when
things go wrong, partially lost in our doubts and fears. The truth
is, O Lord, that we are like both Mary and Martha in this. And
still you come to us, and weep with us, and speak to us. We may
not always understand. Perhaps only some of the time do we grasp a
bit of your glory, enough to nudge us to do what needs to be done,
even if it involves caring for the dead. We marvel, God, at the
faithfulness of those first witnesses of the empty tomb of your
Son long ago, how they had it within themselves to go – as women
have done for millennia – and care for his dead body…
Surprise us, Lord, with what comes after our sharing of joys and
concerns ends. By speaking these things from the heart, we trust
that there is more in every situation we have identified. We
believe, though our faith may be as tiny as a mustard seed, that
you are not done with anyone we have named. Move beyond our words,
Creator and Sustainer of all things. Take even our doubts and
fears, and rattle the foundations of what we know, that what we
can’t explain might become real on earth, even as it is in heaven. This we pray, in the name of the One who
said, “I am the resurrection
and the life.” Amen
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Jesus arrived at the tomb, and by now he was quite worked up. The
tomb was a cave with a big rock sealing the entrance. Jesus gave
orders for it to be reopened. Martha, the other sister of the dead
man, protested saying, “Lord, it will stink to high heaven. He’s
already been dead for four days.”
But Jesus said, “I told you, didn’t I, that if you believed, you
would see things so amazing that they could only be credited to
God?”
So they went ahead and removed the rock from the entrance of the
tomb. Jesus paused to pray, saying, “Father, thank you for hearing
my prayer. I know you always do, but I want this crowd to hear me
giving the credit to you, because then they might believe that it
was you who sent me.”
Having said that, he raised his voice and bellowed, “Lazarus, get
out here!”
And sure enough, the dead man came out, still wrapped up like a
mummy from head to toe. Jesus gave the order to unwrap him and set
him free.
This was the turning point for many of the people who had
accompanied Mary. When they saw what Jesus did, they put their
trust him.
from the Laughing Bird version |
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May we be a community of people who pay attention to God’s commas,
waiting on the Lord, trusting in the promises of scripture, ready
to step forward when we hear the voice of Jesus call. And
remember, brothers and sisters, “…if
Christ is in you, although your bodies are dead because of sin,
your spirits are alive because of righteousness. If the Spirit of
him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised
Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies
also through his Spirit which dwells in you.”
(Romans 8:10-11, RSV)
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Interested in Sunday School? |
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While one of our adult classes follows the International
lesson above (see
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For children and youth, we use the new |
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©2014 Peter
L. Haynes
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