0313_05
March 13, 2005 – 5th Sunday in Lent
Revised Common Lectionary Readings
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Psalm 130
Romans 8:6-11
John 11:1-45
Illness Does Not Lead to Death
*Call to Worship
God whose life holds all life,
God for whom death is not the end,
God of all time and every place,
we gather here before you in faith.
Christ with human feet,
treading along every road in every rocky place,
forming the way as you go
so that we may see you ahead of us,
we gather here before you in faith.
Spirit, marked with all the signs of heaven,
healing, comforting, enduring, and liberating,
we gather here before you in faith.
Let us worship our God.
*Prayer of Invocation
Break through our barriers of unbelief, O God.
Visit us within our hopes and fears today.
Come to us in clear life as we gather here,
that our lives may be renewed
through your healing life.
*Prayer of Confession
Holy Jesus, renewer of life,
we know there are times
when we do not believe that you can save us.
We lie down and die to life
before we have held open to your healing
or any other gifts that you may bring
for giving us fresh hope and courage.
Silent reflection.
Forgive our lack of trust, loving Jesus.
Forgive our acceptance
of the things of death.
Sometimes we commit others to death
because we cannot imagine what could change
and bring them into new life.
Sometimes we are impatient for solutions
when you are gently leading us
down the hard path
toward a different way forward.
Silent reflection.
Forgive our lack of trust, loving Jesus.
Forgive our acceptance
of the things of death.
Forgive us when we doubt that,
in life or death,
you will never leave us alone,
that you hold all in your loving hands
for us and for those whom we love.
Forgive us if we think that you do not care
when those we love leave us in death,
or that death is some sort of punishment
and an end of life and love.
Be with us, Jesus Christ, in life
and in death. Amen.
*Words of Assurance
Death bows before the sacred life of God,
all death and every death.
The refusal to lay down guilt
is to hold to ourselves
the death of separating ourselves
from God’s love.
Choose life.
Forgiveness waits for us if we will receive it.
Thanks be to God.
*Prayer of Thanksgiving
We thank you, O God,
that there are no boundaries to your love.
We thank you that, even in death,
you travel with us and save us.
We thank you that you join our grieving,
weeping with us for the loss of those we love,
and joining us at the tombs of life.
We thank you for the signs all around us –
of life that springs forth
after deathly experiences,
for the power of renewal in all creation.
Amen.
*Stewardship Thought
The story of Lazarus – his life and death – has a certain mystery around it as, although whatever Jesus did gave his friends an experience of the renewed life of Lazarus, he was never mentioned again in Scripture. It is also puzzling that the disciples were so surprised by the rising of Jesus if they had witnessed a literal bringing back to life of Lazarus. Whatever the reality, it is interesting to reflect on the theme that “illness does not lead to death.” There is a sense in which that is often profoundly true – not just in the fact that many people get better, are healed in one way or another, but in another way. It could be that part of the promise of God is that there are many ways to die. Some of us can choose to die from illness in ways which are full of vivid life – when the life of God is made very clear around our death.
*Offertory Sentence
Your offering will now be received.
Bring it to God in faith and love.
*Offertory Prayer
The faith and love that lies in our offering
is added to these, our gifts, O God.
Receive all that is there, we pray. Amen.
*Prayer of Intercession
Come to us, healing God.
Come to us as one who holds us in your arms
when our bodies, minds, hearts, or souls
are weak with pain,
or ill with the afflictions of humankind.
Come to us like a loving mother,
searching for that which troubles us
and assure us that you are near.
Come to us like a loving father,
tenderly embracing us with your kindness.
In the silence, we bring all that troubles us.
A silence is kept.
Hear our prayers, O God,
and stay with us if we fear the deaths before us.
As we look at our world,
we see there so many people and situations
that seem destined for dying.
Silent reflection.
As we look upon these troubled parts of life,
give to us the wisdom and inspiration
that comes from seeing them with your eyes, Jesus Christ.
Show us the life that could rise
from within them, O God.
Grant us new life within so that we never
give others over to death
when there are your ways
through to freedom and hope.
Be with us, we pray. Amen.
*Commissioning
Let us leave this place as those
who have been freed from the bonds of death.
*Benediction
Go in peace, go in grace.
Go with the life-renewing power of Jesus Christ
and the everlasting love of God. Amen.