LENT 5 YEAR C

FIRST READING Isaiah 43.16-21

A reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah.
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 honour 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 Psalm 126

RR The Lord has done great things for us [and we are glad indeed].

1 When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, then were we like those who dream.
2 Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy. RR
3 Then they said among the nations, 'The Lord has done great things for them.'
4 The Lord has done great things for us, and we are glad indeed. RR
5 Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the watercourses of the Negev.
6 Those who sowed with tears will reap with songs of joy.
7 Those who go out weeping, carrying the seed, will come again with joy, shouldering their sheaves. RR


SECOND READING Philippians 3.4b-14

A reading from the letter of Paul to the Philippians.
4 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 and be found in him,
9 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 towards the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.


GOSPEL John 12.1-8

Hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John.
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.'

Reuben Condie Reuben Condie