The Congregation at Prayer

For the Week of Lent 5 (March 23-28, 2026)

Invocation: In the Name of the Father and of the (+) Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Speak the Apostles’ Creed. 

Verse: Psalm 118:22-23 – “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.”

Hymn of the Week:  Lutheran Service Book #438 “A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth”

Hymns for Sunday: 442, 422, 438, 454 (vs. 1-4 ONLY), 619, 421, 444, 441, 440

Readings for the Week: [The readings for Thursday-Saturday are the Scriptures for this coming Sunday.]

Monday: Hebrews 9:11-15

How did Jesus fulfill the old covenant and usher in the new?

Tuesday: Psalm 118:19–29

List all the ways Jesus fulfills this psalm! How is He the gate, the cornerstone, the sacrifice, and the steadfast love of the Lord?

Wednesday: John 12:12-19

What does “hosanna” mean? Why did the people yell that? What did they expect Jesus to do? Did He? How yes and no both?

Thursday: Isaiah 50:4–9a

How does Isaiah describe what happened to Jesus in His passion? How was He helped, vindicated, and not put to shame?

Friday: Philippians 2:5-11

How can we have the mind of Christ? Is this even possible? Can you make yourself nothing? How? What confidence do you have to be like Christ? 

Saturday: Matthew 26:1 - 27:66

Caiaphas, Peter, Judas, Barabbas, Pilate, the twelve – as you through this account, put yourself in their places. What did they do? Why did they do it? Have you ever done the same? Why?

The Catechism - The Ten Commandments: The Eighth Commandment: You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that do not tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way.

Collect for the Week: Almighty and everlasting God, You sent Your Son, Jesus, to take upon Himself our flesh and to suffer death upon the cross. Mercifully grant that we may follow the example of His great humility and patience and be made partakers of His resurrection; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

The Prayers:  Please pray for . . .

+ yourself and for all in need (remembering especially those on our prayer list).

+ God’s blessing, wisdom, and guidance for our congregational treasurer, Logan Hansen.

+ the Lutheran Church in Korea, for God’s wisdom, blessing, guidance, and provision.

+ God’s blessing, guidance, wisdom, and provision for Concordia Ev. Theo. Seminary, St. Catherines, ON.

Conclude with the Lord’s Prayer and Luther’s Morning or Evening Prayer from the Catechism.

Now joyfully go about your day (or to bed) in good cheer, child of God!

Collect for the Week © 2018 Concordia Publishing House.

Lutheran Service Book Hymn License: 110019268

Sermon for the Fifth Sunday in Lent

LISTEN

Jesu Juva

“Life Is Now the End of Death”

Text: John 11:1-53; Romans 8:1-11; Ezekiel 37:1-14

 

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Dying is just a part of life. You hear that little phrase bandied about a lot these days. From people trying to cope with death.

What an insidious lie of the devil. For nothing could be farther from the truth.

Death is not a part of life. Death is the very contradiction of life. It is the absence of life, the end of life, the destruction of life. 

Death is just a part of life comes from an evolutionary mindset, that death enables life to progress, to get better, to get stronger, to adapt, to weed out the weak, to overcome. And it is a lie.

Death is not a part of life, it is the result of sin; it is the wages of sin. In the beginning, in the Garden, there was no death, only life. Things had not evolved to that point; it is the way God created them to be. Death came only when our first parents decided they needed to evolve, to improve themselves, to progress, to get better than God created them to be. As if they could. And so separating themselves from God and His Word of life, they died. And we died. 

And with that, death was still not a part of life. We will not accept death! But it did become our reality.

And so it was in Bethany. Surely they had seen death before, this family, these siblings, Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. Maybe a parent, grandparent, or child had died. Surely they knew the grief of death. 

But this time was different. This time they had hope - Jesus! He was their friend, and He wasn’t far away! He healed so many people of so many diseases, surely, He would come and help. So they sent for Him. And Jesus had said, This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it. Surely the messenger sent to Jesus had taken this word back to the family. And how relieved they must have been to hear it. 

But something happened. Jesus didn’t come and Lazarus did, in fact, die. And Jesus knew it. After a two day delay, He finally decides to go and tells His disciples plainly: Lazarus has died. But Jesus, I thought . . . I thought you said this illness would not lead to death. Why? In fact, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Both sisters say that.

So what’s going on here? Was Jesus just wrong? Well, THIS illness does not lead to death. Because it is sin that brings death. Real death. Spiritual and everlasting death. As horrible as cancer, ALS, Alzheimers, AIDS, or any other disease can be, the disease of sin is worse. Sin ravages life like nothing else. Maiming life, embittering life. Killing babies in the womb, killing in the name of so-called mercy, killing for amusement, causing people to even kill themselves. 

And that is the disease Jesus has come to do something about. All His other healings - of fevers, or leprosy, of dropsy, of deafness, blindness, and lameness - all were just signs and pointers to this greater work. Lazarus’ illness, whatever it was . . . did it kill him? According to our sight, our knowledge, yes. But what did Jesus say? Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.

Jesus had said something similar before, with a little girl, and they laughed at Him (Matthew 9:24). Turns out it was true. Jesus woke her up. The eyes of the Creator see differently than we do. We think we know so much, and more and more all the time. Science, technology, AI. Maybe we don’t know as much as we think. Maybe we should listen to Jesus. He was right with the little girl . . .

And He is right with Lazarus. So He says, Your brother will rise again. Martha assumes He means on the Last Day. She believes that. Which is good. But Jesus has something else in mind . . .

Martha then calls her sister Mary. And did you notice what she said? The Teacher is here. Not Jesus, not Master, not Lord - the Teacher. At the end of this story, Caiaphas didn’t know the truth of what he said. Maybe Martha didn’t either. But she is spot on. Jesus is about to teach them something about life and death. And it is this: While both sisters say, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died, the truth is that their brother will not die precisely because Jesus is there! It is why He was there in human flesh and blood. This is why Jesus came - not just for Lazarus, but for all people. To do battle against sin, death, and the devil, and win. To win the battle of life and death.

Where have you laid him? Not buried him or entombed him, laid him. Like a baby in a crib. He might as well have said, where is his bed? It’s time to get up. 

So Jesus tells them to open the door to his bedroom. Take away the stone. And He calls to Lazarus, and just as in the beginning, His Word does what it says. Let there be light, and there was light (Genesis 1). Lazarus, come out! And Lazarus comes out. And there is life, and joy, and faith.

But this is not the main act. That is coming very soon, as is our remembrance of it. When it would be Jesus Himself sealed in a tomb, and Jesus Himself breaking open that tomb. Jesus dying the death that is the wages of sin, the wages of all of our sin. And then vanquishing it! So that St. Paul could so confidently say, There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation, no spiritual and everlasting death. There is only life for those who are in Christ Jesus. 

Which doesn’t mean that you and I aren’t going to die. We will. The wages of sin is still death, and you and me, we’re sinners through and through. Born with sin, committing sins by thoughts, words, deeds, and desires, committing sins by what we do and fail to do. But in Christ Jesus, baptized into Him and His life and His victory over death and the grave, our death and been transformed into sleep. And though we die, yet shall we live, and awaken at His call in Paradise again. The Paradise thrown away by our first parents, now restored by Jesus. 

But we’re not there yet. Though Jesus has won the victory, which we will celebrate in two weeks now, for now, we’re like Ezekiel - we look around and all we see are dry, dead bones. Lots of ‘em! In all different stages of death and decay. And we wonder: Can these bones live?

We do. We struggle with this, just as Martha and Mary did. Lord, if you had been here . . . We wonder that, too. Lord, why weren’t you here - why aren’t you here, when I need you! Why are you dragging your feet? Why aren’t you helping? Why are you too late? And not just with death, but lots of things in life. Things that are ravaging us, killing us. 

Well, whose to say He’s not here? Maybe He is, just not how we think or expect. Or maybe if He delays, it is on purpose, like He did with Lazarus - in order to show us, teach us, something more, something greater. But it’s been four days, four weeks, four months, four years. It’s too late! . . . Is it? Maybe things are not as they seem to us. Maybe there’s more going on than we know. But this we know: Jesus will not leave you or forsake you (Hebrews 13:5). He’s not going to leave you to sin, death, or the devil. He came to rescue you from them. And He does. And He is. And He won’t stop. And a few days or a few years are nothing to Him for whom a thousand years are like a day, and a day as a thousand years (2 Peter 3:8). It’s still tough for us, and so by faith we say with Martha and all the faithful: Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world. Who has come into the world, for us and for our salvation. And is coming again. All to rescue and to save. Lord, I believe; help my unbelief (Mark 9:24).

For as John told us, what Caiaphas said was true: It is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish. But actually, he’s not quite right. It is better that one man die for the world, than that the world perish. So Jesus did. Caiaphas thought he was saving the nation by putting Jesus to death. He was really just helping Jesus save it. And the world. For what men intend for evil, God uses for good. Over and over we see the truth of that in Scripture, and still it is true today, for you and me. We may not know how or why, but we believe.

And believing, we repent. Repent for thinking we know better than God, more than God. Repent for doubting the love of our Father. Repent for thinking that our way is better than His way, and so doing what we want rather than what He wants. Repent for trying to save ourselves. 

We repent so that we can hear what He wants to say to us more than anything else: I forgive you. Words that still today do what they say. Just as the words I baptize you and this is My Body, this is My Blood. Like Jesus’ words spoken to Lazarus, these are words that give us life. We who reek of sin. We who are bound by our sins and trapped in death. But when Jesus says I forgive you, that is Jesus saying to you, come out! Come out of your sin, come out of your fear, come out of the life that you are living that leads to death. Come out of that tomb, and walk in the way that leads to life. Come, follow Me.

This Lenten season, and this Passiontide now upon us, we follow Him to the cross. And we see Him there in all His glory, in all His love. For He is there for you. They wanted to put Him to death, and they did. But they couldn’t keep Him there. He rose to life, for life. For the life of the world. 

Because death is not a part of life. It is the enemy. The last enemy to be destroyed, St. Paul said (1 Corinthians 15:26). And since Jesus has, has destroyed it, there is nothing left. Nothing left to keep you from life. Life in Jesus. So no more if onlys. If only you had been here. Jesus is here, and there is life. 

You see, for the Christian, death is not a part of life, and death is not the end of life. Because of Jesus, life is now the end of death.

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sermon for Lent 4 Midweek Vespers

LISTEN

Jesu Juva

“Icons of Repentance: The Sinful Forgiven Woman - The Fruit of Repentance”

Text: Hosea 6:1-6; 1 John 4:7-12, 17-19; Luke 7:36-50

 

In the Name of (+) Jesus. Amen.

The story we heard in the Holy Gospel today is often misinterpreted and misunderstood. 

When Jesus says: Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much, some interpret and understand that to mean that her sins are forgiven because she loved much. That her love was the cause of her forgiveness. First love, then forgiveness. And if you just read that verse by itself, out of context, it could mean that.

But within the context of the whole story, no. The parable Jesus told makes that perfectly clear. The one who has the larger debt cancelled, the one who is forgiven much, loves much. According to Jesus: Forgiveness first, then love. And Jesus told that parable because Simon the Pharisee was judging her. And Him. Simon the Pharisee knew her past. Simon the Pharisee knew her as a sinful woman. But Jesus knew her quite differently. To Him, she was not a sinful woman, but a forgiven woman. A woman who had been forgiven much and so now, as a result, was shedding tears of joy upon the feet of the one who had come to provide and accomplish that very forgiveness. Cast out by the world but welcomed by Jesus changed her. Her faith had saved her. And her love showed that salvation.

Her love was the fruit of her repentance and forgiveness. The fruit God desires. Forgiveness isn’t the end or goal of the Christian life, but its cause. It’s not what we’re working toward, it’s what we have received and are living from. Which makes this forgiven woman our fourth Icon of Repentance, as she shows us and teaches us the fruit of repentance.

Now, we aren’t told exactly what this woman had done that made her a known sinner, or as she is called, a woman of the city. But I can guess. And it is what makes the reading from the prophet Hosea tonight perfect - because really, it is the same story. 

Here’s how it goes: God told the prophet Hosea to marry a wife of whoredom (Hosea 1:2), a prostitute, as a living example of God’s relationship with Israel. For Israel was being an unfaithful wife to Him and committing spiritual adultery by worshiping false gods. And there are consequences for that. So God sent prophet after prophet to call Israel back, to call Israel to repentance, to faithfulness - Hosea was just the latest one. But they would not. Therefore, there would be a time of punishment and discipline for His people. But then God promised restoration. Though Israel was unfaithful to Him, the Lord remained faithful to her. And that is where our reading from Hosea for tonight picks up. With Hosea pleading with them . . . 

Come, let us return to the Lord;
for he has torn us, that he may heal us;
he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.

There is the punishment and discipline, the tearing and striking down, which were to heal Israel, and to lead to their binding up; a promised restoration. Which Hosea then reveals further in this nugget: 

After two days he will revive us;
on the third day he will raise us up,
that we may live before him.

That’s the restoration God promises - and not just for Israel of old, but for the new Israel, the true Israel, the Church. For that restoration will happen on the third day - the day of Jesus’ death and His resurrection. After He - faithfully! - takes all of our sin and unfaithfulness upon Himself on the cross and atones for it. 

For notice the plurals . . . He will raise US up. Jesus’ resurrection wasn’t just for life for Himself, but for all people. And for this: that we may live before Him in righteousness and purity forever. A life that starts for us with our own death and resurrection in Baptism. When by water and the Word we are joined to Christ and die and rise with Him to live a new life. Which again means that forgiveness isn’t the end or goal of the Christian life - that once we’re forgiven we can relax and do nothing. No! Forgiveness is the cause, the source, of our Christian life. Which Hosea goes on to speak say . . .

He will come to us as the showers,
as the spring rains that water the earth.

For what happens after rains come and water the earth? Growth! That’s God’s intention and why He sends the rains that water the earth. And why the water that comes down on us in Baptism. That we grow. That we live in Him and like Him more and more. Israel’s problem was that - as Hosea says - their love wasn’t growing from the rain, but disappearing like a morning cloud, like the morning mist, and drying up like the morning dew. And maybe that happens for us sometimes, too.

That’s why God sent the prophets like Hosea, to slay them with the words of their mouth. To call them to repentance, to turn from the way they were living to live the new life God gave to them. Producing the fruit of repentance, the good fruit of a new life. As Hosea then goes on to say:

For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

That is, God doesn’t just want people going through the motions of sacrifice and burnt offerings - or today, perhaps we could say, just showing up in church. His desire for us is that we live in and from His steadfast love and in and from the knowledge of Him.

Now that word there, steadfast love, is an important word. In Hebrew, it is the word hesed. It’s kind of the Hebrew equivalent for the Greek word for love you may have heard of before: agape. Greek has a few different words for love, but agape love is God’s love; God’s selfless, self-sacrificing, all in, love. The “for God so loved the world” love. Jesus on the cross love. 

That’s the love God’s desires from us. But how in the world are we supposed to do that? Well, we can’t. Not on our own. No matter how you try, you can’t do that kind of love yourself. But you can if you first receive it from God. Then you can live it and give it to others. So we do. We first receive that love when we are baptized and are raised in forgiveness to a new life. But then continue to receive it in Absolution and the Gospel and the Supper. We begin to live a new life of love. Love toward God and love toward our neighbor. Love that is the fruit of repentance.

Which is what John also wrote of in the Epistle we heard tonight. Notice how he captures all of this so simply! Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God - that’s baptism! Our new birth by water and the Word. 

And what is that love? That steadfast love, agape love? John goes on to say: In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. That’s the “for God so loved the world” love. Jesus on the cross love. Given to give us new life in Him.

And then John caps it off: We love because he first loved us. So, Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

That is exactly what we heard in the Gospel. The once-sinful-but-now-forgiven woman did that, lived that love. What she received, she gave. Simon the Pharisee did not. He could not give what he had not received. She knew how great her debt, so she knew how great her forgiveness. And great forgiveness begets great love. Love that is the fruit of repentance. The fruit of the new resurrected life we have in Jesus. 

Now, we know how God manifested that love for us: in sending His Son to be the sacrifice for our sins. So how is that steadfast love of the Lord to be manifested in your life? In the same way. In you laying down your life for others. As Paul says in Romans, as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1). Laying down your life for your spouse and children, your friends and neighbors, your co-workers and classmates. They need that steadfast love just as you do. 

But if you find that you’re not doing that, that your love for others has failed, you’re not alone. You’re not the only one. A quick look around and that’s pretty obvious! But don’t be like Israel of old! Heed the call of God’s apostles, prophets, and pastors - repent of that, and receive the love and forgiveness you need. Fill your tank with His steadfast love, be renewed by Jesus, raised up and lifted up again by Jesus, and then you will have what you need for others. To live the life that God desires for you. 

Did you hear that? I’m going to repeat it just to make sure: the life God desire for you. Not just from you! But the life God desires for you. For the life of love and forgiveness you live isn’t just good for others, it’s good for you. It is the good life He has always desired and planned for you - a life of peace and joy. 

And so our fourth Icon of Repentance: the forgiven woman and the fruit of repentance. This woman who shows us how to live. Who shows us there is no debt too great for Jesus’ forgiveness. And that the greater the forgiveness, the greater the love.

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.