Fifth Sunday of Lent

Ezekiel 37:12-14 (Year A) (JB)

A reading from the prophet Ezekiel

I shall put my spirit in you, and you will live.

The Lord says this: I am going to open your graves; I mean to raise you from your graves, my people, and lead you back to the soil of Israel. And you will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, my people. And I shall put my spirit in you, and you will live, and I shall resettle you on your own soil; and you will know that I, the Lord, have said and done this – it is the Lord who speaks.

The word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Isaiah 43:16-21 (Year C) (JB)

A reading from the prophet Isaiah

I am doing a new thing and I will give drink to my people.

Thus says the Lord,

who made a way through the sea,

a path in the great waters;

who put chariots and horse in the field

and a powerful army,

which lay there never to rise again,

snuffed out, put out like a wick:

No need to recall the past,

no need to think about what was done before.

See, I am doing a new deed,

even now it comes to light; can you not see it?

Yes, I am making a road in the wilderness,

paths in the wilds.

The wild beasts will honour me,

jackals and ostriches,

because I am putting water in the wilderness

(rivers in the wild)

to give my chosen people drink.

The people I have formed for myself

will sing my praises.

The word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Ezekiel 37:12-14 (Year A) (NRSV)

A reading from the book of the prophet Ezekiel

Thus says the Lord God:

“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 Lord,

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 Lord, have spoken and will act,” says the Lord.

The word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Isaiah 43:16-21 (Year C) (NRSV)

A reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah

Thus says the Lord,

who makes a way in the sea,

a path in the mighty waters,

who brings out chariot and horse, army and warrior;

they lie down, they cannot rise,

they are extinguished, quenched like a wick:

Do not remember the former things,

or consider the things of old.

I am about to do a new thing;

now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

I will make a way in the wilderness

and rivers in the desert.

The wild animals will honour me,

the jackals and the ostriches;

for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert,

to give drink to my chosen people,

the people whom I formed for myself

so that they might declare my praise.

The word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Ps 125 (Year C) (JB)

R. The Lord has done great things for us;

 we are filled with joy.

When the Lord delivered Zion from bondage,

it seemed like a dream.

Then was our mouth filled with laughter,

on our lips there were songs. R.

The heathens themselves said: ‘What marvels

the Lord worked for them!’

What marvels the Lord worked for us!

Indeed we were glad. R.

Deliver us, O Lord, from our bondage

as streams in dry land.

Those who are sowing in tears

will sing when they reap. R.

They go out, they go out, full of tears,

carrying seed for the sowing:

they come back, they come back, full of song,

carrying their sheaves. R.

Ps 129 (Year A) (JB)

R. With the Lord there is mercy

and fullness of redemption.

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord,

Lord, hear my voice!

O let your ear be attentive

to the voice of my pleading. R.

If you, O Lord, should mark our guilt,

Lord, who would survive?

But with you is found forgiveness:

for this we revere you. R.

My soul is waiting for the Lord,

I count on his word.

My soul is longing for the Lord

more than watchman for daybreak.

(Let the watchman count on daybreak

and Israel on the Lord.) R.

Because with the Lord there is mercy

and fullness of redemption,

Israel indeed he will redeem

from all its iniquity. R.

Philippians 3:8-14 (Year C) (JB)

A reading from the letter of St Paul to the Philippians

Because of Christ I look upon everything else as useless in order to gain him.

I believe nothing can happen that will outweigh the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For him I have accepted the loss of everything, and I look on everything as so much rubbish if only I can have Christ and be given a place in him. I am no longer trying for perfection by my own efforts, the perfection that comes from the Law, but I want only the perfection that comes through faith in Christ, and is from God and based on faith. All I want is to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and to share his sufferings by reproducing the pattern of his death. That is the way I can hope to take my place in the resurrection of the dead. Not that I have become perfect yet: I have not yet won, but I am still running, trying to capture the prize for which Christ Jesus captured me. I can assure you my brothers, I am far from thinking that I have already won. All I can say is that I forget the past and I strain ahead for what is still to come; I am racing for the finish, for the prize to which God calls us upwards to receive in Christ Jesus.

The word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Romans 8:8-11 (Year A) (JB)

A reading from the letter of St Paul to the Romans

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, then he will give life to your own mortal bodies.

People who are interested only in unspiritual things can never be pleasing to God. Your interests, however, are not in the unspiritual, but in the spiritual, since the Spirit of God has made his home in you. In fact, unless you possessed the Spirit of Christ you would not belong to him. Though your body may be dead it is because of sin, but if Christ is in you then your spirit is life itself because you have been justified; and if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, then he who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your own mortal bodies through his Spirit living in you.

The word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Philippians 3:8-14 (Year C) (NRSV)

A reading from the letter of Paul to the Philippians

I regard everything as loss

because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things,

and I regard them as rubbish,

in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him,

not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law,

but one that comes through faith in Christ,

the righteousness from God based on faith.

I want to know Christ

and the power of his resurrection

and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death,

if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained this

or have already reached the goal;

but I press on to make it my own,

because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own;

but this one thing I do:

forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,

I press on toward the goal

for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

The word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Romans 8:8-11 (Year A) (NRSV)

A reading from the letter of Paul to the Romans

Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit,

since the Spirit of God dwells in you.

Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ

does not belong to him.

But if Christ is in you,

though the body is dead because of sin,

the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

If the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead

dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead

will give life to your mortal bodies also

through his Spirit that dwells in you.

The word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Joel 2:12-13 (Year C) (JB)

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ, king of endless glory!

With all your heart turn to me,

for I am tender and  compassionate.

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ, king of endless glory!

John 11:25, 26 (Year A) (JB)

Glory and praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ!

I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord;

whoever believes in me will not die for ever.

Glory and praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ!

Joel 2:12-13 (Year C) (NRSV)

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ, king of endless glory!

With all your heart turn to me, says the Lord,

for I am tender and compassionate.

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ, king of endless glory!

John 11:25, 26 (Year A) (NRSV)

Glory and praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ!

I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord;

whoever believes in me will not die for ever.

Glory and praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ!

John 11:3-7, 17, 20-27, 33-45 (Year A) (JB)

A Reading from the holy Gospel according to John

I am the resurrection and the life.

The sisters Martha and Mary sent this message to Jesus, ‘Lord, the man you love is ill.’ On receiving the message, Jesus said, ‘This sickness will end not in death but in God’s glory, and through it the Son of God will be glorified.’

Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, yet when he heard that Lazarus was ill he stayed where he was for two more days before saying to the disciples, ‘Let us go to Judaea.’

On arriving, Jesus found that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days already. When Martha heard that Jesus had come she went to meet him. Mary remained sitting in the house. Martha said to Jesus, ‘If you had been here, my brother would not have died, but I know that, even now, whatever you ask of God, he will grant you.’ ‘Your brother’ said Jesus to her ‘will rise again.’ Martha said, ‘I know he will rise again at the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said:

‘I am the resurrection and the life,

If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live,

and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.

Do you believe this?’

‘Yes Lord,’ she said ‘I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world.’ Jesus said in great distress, with a sigh that came straight from the heart, ‘Where have you put him?’ They said ‘See how much he loved him!’ But there were some who remarked, ‘He opened the eyes of the blind man, could he not have prevented this man’s death?’ Still sighing, Jesus reached the tomb: it was a cave with a stone to close the opening. Jesus said, ‘Take the stone away.’ Martha said to him ‘Lord by now he will smell; this is the fourth day.’ Jesus replied ‘Have I not told you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?’ So they took away the stone. Then Jesus lifted up his eyes and said:

‘Father, I thank you for hearing my prayer.

I knew indeed that you always hear me.

But I speak

for the sake of all these who stand round me,

so that they may believe it was you who sent me.’

When he had said this, he cried in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, here! Come out!’ The dead man came out, his feet and hands bound with bands of stuff and a cloth round his face. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, let him go free.’

Many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary and had seen what he did believed in him.

The Gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

John 8:1-11 (Year C) (JB)

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John

Let the person without sin be the first to throw a stone.

Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At daybreak he appeared in the Temple again; and as all the people came to him, he sat down and began to teach them.

The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman along who had been caught committing adultery; and making her stand there in full view of everybody, they said to Jesus, ‘Master, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery, and Moses has ordered us in the Law to condemn women like this to death by stoning. What have you to say?’ They asked him this as a test, looking for something to use against him. But Jesus bent down and started writing on the ground with his finger. As they persisted with their question, he looked up and said, ‘If there is one of you who has not sinned, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.’ Then he bent down and wrote on the ground again. When they heard this they went away one by one, beginning with the eldest, until Jesus was left alone with the woman, who remained standing there. He looked up and said, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ ‘No one, sir,’ she replied. ‘Neither do I condemn you,’ said Jesus ‘go away, and don’t sin any more.’

The Gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

John 11:3-7, 17, 20-27, 33-45 (Year A) (NRSV)

Short form

John 11:3-7. 17. 20-27. 33-45

A reading from the holy gospel according to John

The sisters of Lazarus sent a message to Jesus,

“Lord, he whom you love is ill.”

But when Jesus heard this, 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 Jesus said to the disciples,

“Let us go to Judea again.”

When Jesus arrived,

he found that Lazarus had already been

in the tomb four days.

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.”

Jesus 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.”

Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary

and had seen what Jesus did believed in him.

The Gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

John 8:1-11 (Year C) (NRSV)

A reading from the holy gospel according to John

Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

Early in the morning he came again to the temple.

All the people came to him

and he sat down and began to teach them.

The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman

who had been caught in adultery;

and making her stand before the people,

they said to Jesus,

“Teacher; this woman was caught

in the very act of committing adultery.

In the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.

Now what do you say?”

They said this to test Jesus,

so that they might have some charge to bring against him.

Jesus bent down

and wrote with his finger on the ground.

When the scribes and Pharisees kept on questioning him,

Jesus straightened up and said to them,

“Let anyone among you who is without sin

be the first to throw a stone at her.”

And once again Jesus bent down and wrote on the ground.

When the scribes and Pharisees heard what Jesus had said,

they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders;

and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.

Jesus straightened up and said to her;

“Woman, where are they?

Has no one condemned you?”

She said, “No one, sir.”

And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you.

Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.