Fifth Sunday in Lent • Year C

Historical Collect

Almighty God, look favorably upon your family. Graciously rule our bodies lest we are enticed to love the world, and guard our spirits lest we fail to recognize your love. Grant this, we pray, through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. (Gelasian Sacramentary, 7th Century)

Thematic Collect

God of new life, you have drawn us through the waters of baptism and into your everlasting reign. Through Christ’s life within us, guide us daily through death to sin and brokenness and into new life in grace and love; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

First Reading • Isaiah 43:16-21

God is doing something so wonderful that all the things of old, valuable as they are, will be excelled. Things that did not work too well in former times, will be made anew so that they work without fail. A road will be made through trackless wastes. Rivers will flow in the desert. If you are looking through the “Springsteenian” lens of “Glory Days,” you will not perceive the wonder of the new thing God is doing. God is doing this for the benefit of his people and so that his name and glory will spread throughout the world. 

"Let Go" is a reflection on Isaiah 43:16–21 that includes a reading from Luther's Table Talk and has an additional Scripture graphic for you to use.

Psalm • Psalm 126

The Lord has restored the fortunes of those who had been captives. God’s people will be elated by the great thing he has done for them. Shouts of joy will replace tears of sorrow, for the Lord has redeemed his people from captivity. All of this will happen suddenly, like a thunderstorm in the desert makes a refreshing stream. 

Here is a reflection on Psalm 126 that includes a reading from Calvin's Commentary on Psalms, and has an additional Scripture graphic for your use.

Second Reading • Philippians 3:4b-7, 8-14

We are proud of our accomplishments and heritage. In some cases, these give us confidence. But when it comes to righteousness before God, if we are honest with ourselves, we find our confidence waning if we trust in self. For “we confess that we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves” (Brief Order for Confession and Forgiveness). Everything we have ever trusted for righteousness before God is worthless waste. Knowing Christ as Lord and trusting in his righteousness as our own is superior to all we have ever relied upon before. He alone is the one who gives perfect confidence before God. So, imperfect as we know we are, we are enabled to press on, to keep the faith in him who has overcome sin as we struggle against our sin until we apprehend the crowning prize of heaven.

Read or listen to this Lesson in the Lutheran Confessions that includes a reading from The Smalcald Articles and another Scripture graphic for you to use.

Gospel • Luke 20:9-20

What do we have to offer the owner of the vineyard? Our labors come up pretty fruitless. When the time comes for us to settle up with God, the owner of the vineyard, what will our options be but to either treat him and his servants shamefully or to fall upon his mercy? That mercy is extended through the last of his messengers. “In many and various ways God spoke to his people of old by the prophets. But now in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.” Those who reject the Son, will be crushed by judgment. Those who receive him, will be built upon him, the cornerstone of eternity.