BULLETIN FOR SUNDAY, MARCH 23RD, 2025
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THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT
SUNDAY, MARCH 23RD, 2025
INTRODUCTION
The warnings are plentiful and blunt on the third Sunday in Lent. Cut it out or get
cut down! The warnings are accompanied by God’s invitation to attentiveness:
“Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live.” The landowner’s
ultimatum is forestalled by the gardener’s readiness to till the ground one more
year. That is good news for all of us. Thanks be to God!
PRAYER OF THE DAY
Eternal God, your kingdom has broken into our troubled world through the life,
death, and resurrection of your Son. Help us to hear your word and obey it, and
bring your saving love to fruition in our lives, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and
Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
FIRST READING
ISAIAH 55:1-9
To those who have experienced long years in exile, the return to their homeland
is a celebration of abundant life. God calls them into an everlasting covenant of
love. Those who return to God will enjoy new life and forgiveness, because God’s
ways are not our ways.
1 Hear, everyone who thirsts;
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread
and your earnings for that which does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
3 Incline your ear, and come to me;
listen, so that you may live.
I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
my steadfast, sure love for David.
4 See, I made him a witness to the peoples,
a leader and commander for the peoples.
5 Now you shall call nations that you do not know,
and nations that do not know you shall run to you,
because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel,
for he has glorified you.
6 Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
7 let the wicked forsake their way
and the unrighteous their thoughts;
let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
PSALM
PSALM 63:1-8
(Response) O God, eagerly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you. (Ps. 63:1)
1 O God, you are my God; eagerly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.
2 Therefore I have gazed upon you in your holy place,
that I might behold your power and your glory.
3 For your steadfast love is better than life itself;
my lips shall give you praise.
4 So will I bless you as long as I live
and lift up my hands in your name.
(Response) O God, eagerly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you. (Ps. 63:1)
5 My spirit is content, as with the richest of foods,
and my mouth praises you with joyful lips,
6 when I remember you upon my bed,
and meditate on you in the night watches.
7 For you have been my helper,
and under the shadow of your wings I will rejoice.
8 My whole being clings to you;
your right hand holds me fast.
(Response) O God, eagerly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you. (Ps. 63:1)
SECOND READING
1ST CORINTHIANS 10:1-13
Paul uses images from Hebrew Scriptures and prophecy to speak the truth of
Jesus Christ: He is our rock, our water, our food, and our drink. Christ is the living
sign of God’s faithfulness.
1 I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were
all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into
Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all
drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed
them, and the rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of
them, and they were struck down in the wilderness.
6 Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil
as they did. 7 Do not become idolaters as some of them did, as it is written, “The
people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play.” 8 We must not
engage in sexual immorality, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell
in a single day. 9 We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and
were destroyed by serpents. 10 And do not complain, as some of them did, and
were destroyed by the destroyer. 11 These things happened to them to serve as
an example, and they were written down to instruct us, on whom the ends of the
ages have come. 12 So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not
fall. 13 No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is
faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing
he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION
Jesus began to proclaim, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near. (Matt. 4:17)
GOSPEL READING
LUKE 13:1-9
Asked about current tragic events, Jesus turns a lesson about whether suffering
is deserved into a hard call to obedience. He then tells a parable that holds out
hope that the timeline for ultimate judgment will be tempered by patience.
1 At that very time there were some present who told Jesus about the Galileans
whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.2 [Jesus] asked them, “Do
you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse
sinners than all other Galileans? 3 No, I tell you, but unless you repent you will all
perish as they did. 4 Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam
fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the other
people living in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you, but unless you repent you will all
perish just as they did.”
6 Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he
came looking for fruit on it and found none. 7 So he said to the man working the
vineyard, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree,
and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ 8 He replied,
‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. 9 If it
bears fruit next year, well and good, but if not, you can cut it down.’ ”
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SERMONS
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TAKING FAITH HOME