Worship for March 29, 2020

FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT

March 29, 2020

ST. PAUL’S LUTHERAN CHURCH, FALLS CHURCH, VA

DIVINE SERVICE THREE, WITHOUT HOLY COMMUNION

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THE ENTRANCE RITE

PRELUDE Prelude on “Rhosymedre” Setting: Ralph Vaughn Williams

WELCOME

ENTRANCE HYMN #731 O God, Forsake Me Not

1 O God, forsake me not! Your gracious presence lend me;
Lord, lead Your helpless child; Your Holy Spirit send me
That I my course may run. O be my light, my lot,
My staff, my rock, my shield— O God, forsake me not!

2 O God, forsake me not! Take not Your Spirit from me;
Do not permit the might of sin to overcome me.
Increase my feeble faith, Which You alone have wrought.
O be my strength and pow’r— O God, forsake me not!

3 O God, forsake me not! Lord, hear my supplication!
In ev’ry evil hour Help me resist temptation;
And when the prince of hell My conscience seeks to blot,
Be then not far from me— O God, forsake me not!

4 O God, forsake me not! Lord, I am Yours forever.
O keep me strong in faith That I may leave You never.
Grant me a blessèd end When my good fight is fought;
Help me in life and death—O God, forsake me not!

(Public Domain)

CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Beloved in the Lord! Let us draw near with a true heart and confess our sins unto God our Father, beseeching Him in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to grant us forgiveness.

Our help is in the name of the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.

I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord,
and You forgave the iniquity of my sin.

Almighty God, our maker and redeemer, we poor sinners confess unto You that we are by nature sinful and unclean and that we have sinned against You by thought, word and deed. Wherefore we flee for refuge to Your infinite mercy, seeking and imploring Your grace for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ.

O most merciful God, who has given your only-begotten Son to die for us, have mercy upon us and for His sake grant us remission of all our sins; and by Your Holy Spirit increase in us true knowledge of You and of Your will and true obedience to Your Word, to the end that by Your grace we may come to everlasting life; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Almighty God, our heavenly Father has had mercy upon us and has given His only Son to die for us and for His sake forgives us all our sins. To those who believe on His name He gives power to become the children of God and has promised them His Holy Spirit. He that believes and is baptized shall be saved. Grant this, Lord, unto us all. Amen.

INTROIT AND GLORIA PATRI from Psalm 116

GLORIA PATRI

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

KYRIE

Lord, have mercy upon us.
Christ, have mercy upon us.
Lord, have mercy upon us.

HYMN OF PRAISE (omitted during Lent)

THE PRAYER OF THE DAY

The Lord be with you.
And also with you.

Let us pray. Almighty God,
by Your great goodness mercifully look upon Your people that we may be governed and preserved evermore in body and soul; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen

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THE LITURGY OF THE WORD

FIRST LESSON Ezekiel 37:1–14

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon 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 the Lord.” So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.

Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.” (ESV)

This is the Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

SECOND LESSON Romans 8:1–11

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact 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, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life 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 also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. (ESV)

This is the Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

GOSPEL VERSE “On My Heart Imprint Your Image”

On my heart imprint Your image,
    Blessèd Jesus, King of grace,
That life’s riches, cares, and pleasures
    Never may Your work erase;
Let the clear inscription be:
Jesus, crucified for me,
    Is my life, my hope’s foundation,
    And my glory and salvation!

Text (st. 1): Public domain

GOSPEL John 11:17–27, 38-46

The Holy Gospel according to St. John, the 11^th chapter
Glory to You, O Lord.

Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” 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. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for 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 lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with 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 he did, believed in him. (ESV)

This is the Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to You, O Christ.

SERMON

Given the fear and gnawing unknowns of our battle with the Corona Virus, a miracle is even harder to imagine these days. Martha imagined a miracle, a healing, for her grievously ill brother, if only Jesus would come!! But then Lazarus died and Bethany gave up on miracles. Yet this very human scene, including Jesus weeping for Lazarus, is a miracle story carved out of the pain of illness, fear of dying and the awfulness of death. The story is a treasure of Church devotion & piety, providing us with Gospel words for our almost all of our funeral services: “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet he shall live.” The Bethany drama took place just before the Palm Sunday procession in John’s Gospel, so it chronologically fits this point in our Lenten journey. And no miracle faces our human mortality as directly as this one, because Lazarus was very dead before Jesus arrived, already in the tomb 4 days. Martha’s grief underscores this very sad situation by first complaining to Jesus for not coming when Lazarus was just sick, and then by hesitating to order the stone door to be rolled away from the tomb: “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.”

None of us have personal experience with resurrection. What we know about are graves, graves whose very numbers underscore the relentless march of death. That is the thing we fear most about this pandemic, the graves that may be carved out of our lives. We know what Martha means by the smell of death, even if we have never smelled a decaying body. We have all carried loved ones to the graveyard; we have stood beside those gaping holes, and wept as the somber words were repeated over loved ones: “Earth to earth, dust to dust, ashes to ashes.” We know the awfulness of what Bach has the choir sing, “In the midst of life we are in death.” But this Gospel is not mostly about the relentless march of death. It is about Jesus’ victory over death; it is a foretaste of Jesus’ coming resurrection, and it offers the promise we cling to even as the jaws of death clamp shut around us, “We sow in sorrow; we shall reap in joy.”

With this Gospel lesson the Church reaches the heart of Lent as a season to teach the big things of our faith. Here each new disciple meets the words which declare how different our faith is from all the others. We acknowledge, as Hymn 716 has us sing: “And death pursues me all the way, Nowhere I rest securely; He comes by night, he comes by day, He takes his prey most surely.” With Martha we confess that the One we adore, by His own death and resurrection, offers life without ending to all who believe in Him. “I am the resurrection and the life,” is the very center of our faith and the shape of our hope. In fact, In John that hope is so big and so real that his Gospel says all who put their trust in Jesus are already in eternal life. Here is the beginning of St. Paul’s powerful affirmation of our hope: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

Ezekiel’s vision takes us to a valley upon which lay the unburied, dried up bones of a defeated Israeli army. So dead that the stink of death is only part of their history. And with the army’s defeat the prophet alludes to the destruction of the nation, since the defeat of the nation’s army costs a nation its future. I have just finished watching again a documentary on World War I. It portrayed so many thousands of dead soldiers on so many battlefields in so many lands I had forgotten were even part of the great war. Hope is hard to find in lost battles. The stench of bloated corpses can’t enter our nostrils through the medium of film, but you imagine it nonetheless; every lost battle a wound in the heart of the nation, and a horrific wound for the soldier’s families. Ezekiel portrays for us a time in history when Israel’s kings ignored the Lord and His commands, a time when once again they trusted in their own plans and power, and this battlefield is a memorial to the results of their willful disobedience. The dry bones lay scattered across the valley.

But this prophet is called by God as the agent for what God will do next, not to dedicate a monument to this awful defeat visualized in the dry bones. “Prophesy to the bones,” God commands him. Israel had given up on God. His promises were, for them, as dead and dry as those bones. But God wasn’t done with His people. The first part of Ezekiel’s miracle is the voice of God on Ezekiel’s lips: “Hear, O dead bones, the word of the Lord!” God’s voice is the beginning of resurrection: bones came together, then sinews formed and then came flesh on the bones, in obedience to the voice of God. But as in the Genesis creation story where God’s breath gave life to Adam, so also here. Resurrection had not quite happened. The Army was not yet alive. “Prophesy to the breath, to the wind of God!” So Ezekiel prophesied to the breath and that dead army came alive, stood on its feet, and Israel was born to life again by the power and grace of God.

God’s miracle stood alive in Bethany. John tells us that after receiving Lazarus back from the dead, many of the Jewish people who came to mourn with Mary and Martha, believed in Jesus. But he also says that others went back to Jerusalem and reported it all to the Council – not to awaken faith in Israel’s leaders, but to urge action to stop the Rabbi from Nazareth. There, on the days before Palm Sunday, the plot to execute the Lord of life gathered steam. What you and I do with the miracle of God in our life is the real shape of our pilgrim life. Paul calls it the battle between our flesh, that is our sinful heart, the heart that always knows best, and whose stubborn selfishness becomes valleys and valleys of dead bones. It is seen around us in empty shelves in our supermarkets, and in our insistence of doing it my way, that battle between my sinful self and the Spirit that gives new life. To be no longer a valley of dry bones, but to be resurrection and life alive with the Lord Who comes to us by the waters of Baptism, Who hears our prayers and answers them.

This struggle is in us all; there is no magic way to snap your fingers, invoke a Bible verse and then be done with your part of the battle. My very human heart still loves me most, still urges me to get my pleasure ahead of yours, still tempts me to fill my life with stuff that doesn’t last. Your nature does that same. Paul calls this the battle between death and life and urges us to claim the baptismal graces that come to us by God’s holy bath. The One Who called Lazarus from the tomb gives us His life and grace on this battlefield. By prayer, fasting, meditation on God’s claiming grace, I drown my evil will with all its selfish desires, and I rise with Christ Himself, with the power of His resurrection in my life. You are a risen people; the Resurrected One lives in you. Let Him shine in all that you say and do.

HYMN OF THE DAY # 430 sts. 1, 3, 5, 7 My Song Is Love Unknown

1 My song is love unknown, My Savior’s love to me,
Love to the loveless shown That they might lovely be.
Oh, who am I That for my sake
My Lord should take Frail flesh and die

3 Sometimes they strew His way And His sweet praises sing;
Resounding all the day Hosannas to their King.
Then “Crucify!” Is all their breath,
And for His death They thirst and cry

5 They rise and needs will have My dear Lord made away;
A murderer they save, The Prince of Life they slay.
Yet cheerful He To suff’ring goes
That He His foes From thence might free.

7 Here might I stay and sing, No story so divine!
Never was love, dear King, Never was grief like Thine.
This is my friend, In whose sweet praise
I all my days Could gladly spend!

(Public Domain)

APOSTLES’ CREED

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.

And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen

OFFERING Trio no. 1 in G minor By: Josef Rheinberger

PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH

We come, O Lord, with the dry bones of our broken hopes and disappointed dreams. Bind us up in Christ, that we may learn to pray with confidence, trusting in Your mercy to supply us with all things needful to us and to our salvation. Brief silence

Almighty God, everlasting Father, You saw Israel in their despair and raised them up to hope by placing Your Spirit upon them. Join us together with the communion of saints in Christ, even though we must for a time stand apart. Raise us up from our weariness and grant us Your Spirit, that we may be strong in faith, bold in witness, holy in life and steadfast in hope. Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.

O eternal Lord, Your Son has given us the new birth of water and the Word and planted faith in us, that we might be Your own children. Bless Your Church. Supply her with able, fearless and caring pastors to nurture us in Your Word. Raise up faithful fathers and those who will teach and pray in Your name in every Christian household. Keep Your Church in Your mercy, that she may believe without fear and love without limit even now. Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.

O God of power and might, You hold in Your hand all the might of man. Give to us good government and faithful leaders who will heed Your Word and pursue righteousness and justice. Bless and defend us against all destruction, especially from this deadly pandemic, and teach us to be patient and faithful citizens of this land, using ourselves and our resources wisely for the good of all. Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.

O merciful Lord, Your Son shed tears for Lazarus, whom He loved. Grant Your compassion, patience and endurance to all who suffer illness, who are troubled in mind or whose time on earth is short. Spare us from death now, but give us courage and comfort far stronger by Your power over death. Give comfort to the grieving and peace to the dying, and give that same comfort and peace to us who live in the shadow and fear of death, that we would neither live nor grieve as people without hope but trust in You at every hour. Hear all our prayers, especially on behalf of __________ and for all those we name in our hearts. Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.

O gracious God, You daily and richly grant us all things we need for this body and life. Bless our labors, and grant us wisdom to use the fruits of those labors wisely and well, for the care of our families, for the poor in their needs, and for the support of Your work in this congregation. Preserve us from fear and greed as we live and work alone, and turn us instead in love toward our neighbors however distant. Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.

O blessed Lord, Your Word continues to go forth and bear good fruit. Bless the missionaries planting churches near and far, bless those churches with whom we partner in the worldwide work of the Gospel, and bless the congregations now struggling to fulfill Your bidding and do what You have called them to do in Your name. Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.

O Lord, God Almighty, through Your Son You have kept the promise of the ages and rescued us from sin. You have raised up the dry bones of a people captive to death and made us alive in Christ forever. Sustain us in this hope, that we may endure the tests, trials and troubles of this life and be ready when our Savior comes again in His glory; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

LORD’S PRAYER

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 and ever. Amen.

BENEDICTION

SENDING HYMN #420 sts. 1-4, 7 Christ, the Life of All the Living

1 Christ, the Life of all the living, Christ, the death of death, our foe,
Who, Thyself for me once giving To the darkest depths of woe:
Through thy suff’rings, death, and merit I eternal life inherit.
Thousand, thousand thanks shall be, Dearest Jesus, unto Thee.

2 Thou, ah! Thou, hast taken on Thee Bonds and stripes, a cruel rod;
Pain and scorn were heaped upon Thee, O Thou sinless Son of God!
Thus didst Thou my soul deliver From the bonds of sin forever.
Thousand, thousand thanks shall be, Dearest Jesus, unto Thee.

3 Thou hast borne the smiting only That my wounds might all be whole;
Thou hast suffered, sad and lonely, Rest to give my weary soul;
Yea, the curse of God enduring, Blessing unto me securing.
Thousand, thousand thanks shall be, Dearest Jesus, unto Thee.

4 Heartless scoffers did surround Thee, Treating Thee with shameful scorn
And with piercing thorns they crowned Thee. All disgrace Thou, Lord, hast borne,
That as Thine Thou mightest own me And with heav’nly glory crown me.
Thousand, thousand thanks shall be, Dearest Jesus, unto Thee.

7 Then, for all that wrought my pardon, For Thy sorrows deep and sore,
For Thine anguish in the Garden, I will thank Thee evermore,
Thank Thee for Thy groaning, sighing, For Thy bleeding and Thy dying,
For that last triumphant cry, And shall praise Thee, Lord, on high.

(Public Domain)

ANNOUNCEMENTS

DISMISSAL

Go in peace. Serve the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

POSTLUDE Fugue in D minor (chromatic) By: Johann Pachelbel

Acknowledgments

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Used by permission: LSB Hymn License .NET, number 100012246.

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