Lent 5C – U2/21/10

Salem Lutheran Church, Naugatuck, CT

Isaiah 43:16-21

[16] Thus says the Lord,

      who makes a way in the sea,

      a path in the mighty waters,

[17] who brings out chariot and horse,

      army and warrior;

they lie down, they cannot rise,

      they are extinguished, quenched like a wick:

[18] Do not remember the former things,

      or consider the things of old.

[19] 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.

[20] The wild animals will honor me,

      the jackals and the ostriches;

for I give water in the wilderness,

      rivers in the desert,

to give drink to my chosen people,

      [21] the people whom I formed for myself

so that they might declare my praise.

Psalm 126

A Song of Ascents.

[126.1] When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,

      we were like those who dream.

[2] Then our mouth was filled with laughter,

      and our tongue with shouts of joy;

then it was said among the nations,

      "The Lord has done great things for them."

[3] The Lord has done great things for us,

      and we rejoiced.

[4] Restore our fortunes, O Lord,

      like the watercourses in the Negeb.

[5] May those who sow in tears

      reap with shouts of joy.

[6] Those who go out weeping,

      bearing the seed for sowing,

shall come home with shouts of joy,

      carrying their sheaves.

Philippians 3:4b-14

[4] even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh.

If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: [5] circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; [6] as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

[7] Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. [8] More than that, 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 [9] 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. [10] I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, [11] if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

[12] 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. [13] 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, [14] I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

John 12:1-8

[12.1] Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. [2] There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. [3] Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus' feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. [4] But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, [5] "Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?" [6] (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) [7] Jesus said, "Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. [8] You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me."

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