Who Could Stand

Learning to Live Inside Out

Fifth Sunday in Lent, Year A

Here at the end of the Lenten observance (well, almost the end anyway), we have hints of Resurrection. We have “a foretaste of glory divine,” as the hymnist Fanny Crosby says. As if the Spirit and the lectionary preparers knew that we would need something to help us through the next couple of weeks. As if they knew that without this reminder, we would find it a very hard road as we made our way stumbling behind the Christ who suffers and dies for us.

Almighty and restoring God, we have been living through some difficult days, as churches and as individuals. We experience days when we rise, wondering if we will make it through one more day, whether the church will survive for another generation; and we feel like those dry bones in the valley. As we offer our tithes and offerings, help us to hear the word of hope the prophet shares, not just with our ears but with our hearts. May it call us back to life and service, out of the graves of despair in which we have buried ourselves. In Christ’s holy name. Amen. (John 11:1-45)