Fifth Sunday in Lent
8 a.m. Said Eucharist
President and Preacher: The Revd Canon Howard Gilbert
9 a.m. St Barnabas, Box: Eucharist with hymns
President and Preacher: The Revd Ann Morris
10.00 a.m. Sung Eucharist
President: The Revd Canon Howard Gilbert
Preacher: The Revd Sandy Emery
5.30 p.m. Soul Space
Click here for the Church of England's daily prayer: Morning Prayer, Prayer during the Day, Evening Prayer and Night Prayer
As well as the Sunday collect and readings (see below), you may want to use the following in your prayers during the week:
In the Anglican cycle of prayer, for the Anglican Church of Korea and Bishop Onesimus Dongsin Park
In our diocese's prayer intentions we are asked to pray for initiatives that combat injustice, protect creation, and overcome exclusion and isolation; for the use of sport, music, and art to build relationships and share the Christian faith; for creative ways of connecting with new housing developments, building communities of faith and friendship; for people and programmes that inspire young people to explore and grow in faith.
In our deanery cycle of prayer, for the deanery sub-warden for Readers, Linda Jarvis
In our parish cycle of prayer, for all who live or work in Summerfield Road and Dr Brown's Close
For those in need: Giles Boon, Jonathan Brough, Jason Kennedy, Ann Gaylor, Tony Evans, the Shearman family
For those who have died recently: T revor Picken, Beryl Storey and Isaac Stringer
For those whose anniversary of death falls at this time: : Jeremy Wood, Roy Ayling, John Englan, Barry Richard, Philip
Callaghan-Wright, Dennis Portlock, Caroline Moore
COLLECT
Gracious Father,
you gave up your Son
out of love for the world:
lead us to ponder the mysteries of his passion,
that we may know eternal peace
through the shedding of our Saviour’s blood,
Jesus Christ our Lord.
FIRST READING: Ezekiel 37.1–14
The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of
the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me all
round them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. He
said to me, ‘Mortal, can these bones live?’ I answered, ‘O Lord God, you know.’ Then
he said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the
word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God 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 the Lord.’
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 he said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath,
prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the
four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.’ I prophesied
as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on
their feet, a vast multitude.
Then he 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 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.’
PSALM 130
All My soul waits for the Lord.
Out of the depths have I cried to you, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice;
let your ears consider well the voice of my supplication.
If you, Lord, were to mark what is done amiss,
O Lord, who could stand?
All My soul waits for the Lord.
But there is forgiveness with you,
so that you shall be feared.
I wait for the Lord; my soul waits for him;
in his word is my hope.
All My soul waits for the Lord.
My soul waits for the Lord,
more than the night watch for the morning,
O Israel, wait for the Lord,
for with the Lord there is mercy;
With him is plenteous redemption
and he shall redeem Israel from all their sins.
All My soul waits for the Lord
SECOND READING: Romans 8.6–11
To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and
peace. For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not
submit to God’s law—indeed it cannot, and 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 him 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.
GOSPEL READING: John 11.1–45
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 for 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 for 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 upwards 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.
POST COMMUNION
Lord Jesus Christ,
you have taught us
that what we do for the least of our brothers and sisters
we do also for you:
give us the will to be the servant of others
as you were the servant of all,
and gave up your life and died for us,
but are alive and reign, now and for ever.