03/19/2026
THE BLAST
MARCH 19, 2026 MINISTER MUSINGS
The Fifth Sunday of Lent marks the transition toward Holy Week, focusing on themes of resurrection, life, and divine mercy. As the final Sunday before Passion Sunday, it calls us to move beyond past failures, trust in God’s power to bring life out of dead places (like Lazarus) and prepare our hearts for the joy of Easter.
Lent itself is a kind of liminal space — a time between what was and what will be. It stands between the incarnation of Christ and the promise of resurrection, between suffering and new life. In our reading from Psalm 130, the psalmist seems to inhabit that same uncomfortable space. He wonders: When will help come? When will God release him from the pain? He waits in distress, yet remains confident in faith, trusting that God will respond.
The Gospel reading focuses on resurrection and new life, centered on Jesus raising Lazarus, which calls believers from tombs of despair and lethargy to hope. It is a time to trust in God's power to restore, encouraging a final shift towards Holy Week.
This is a transition Sunday. While not technically the end of the season of Lent, it has that feel. Next Sunday is Palm/Passion Sunday, which is followed by Holy Week and then Easter. All of that has its own momentum. And so this Sunday we pause to consider how God answers our need and invites us to move faithfully into the journey of Holy Week.
Rev. Barbara Purinton
Lumos
Sunday’s Scripture: John 11: 1 - 45
New Revised Standard Version
The Death of Lazarus
11 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent a message to Jesus,[a]
“Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 4 But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather, it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be
glorified through it.” 5 Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and
Lazarus, 6 after having heard that Lazarus[b] was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.
7 Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going
there again?” 9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble because they see the light of this world. 10 But those who walk at night stumble because the light is not in them.” 11 After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to
awaken him.” 12 The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.”[c] 13 Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. 14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is
dead. 15 For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16 Thomas, who was called the Twin,[d] said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus[e] had already been in the tomb four
days. 18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother
would not have died. 22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you
ask of him.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him,
“I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.[f] Those who believe in me, even though
they die, will live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah,[g] the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”
28 When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29 And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come to the village but
was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 The Jews who were with her in the house consoling her saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her
because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32 When Mary
came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if
you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
Scripture Continued...
33 When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. 34 He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus began to weep. 36 So the
Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
38 Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of
the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. 42 I knew that you
always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so
that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet
bound with strips of cloth and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them,
“Unbind him, and let him go.”
45 Many of the Jews, therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did believed in him.
Prayer List
Eddie O’Shea: extra prayers for health
Jeff Fontaine: emotional and physical healing for family members involved in a plane accident
Joel Long: health concerns
Lois Fontaine: health concerns
Lois Johnson (Lois’s mom): health concerns
Linda Carey: healing & recovery
Paul Tagliamonte: health concerns
Sharon Robbins: for her upcoming eye surgeries
Tom Chadwick: health concerns and death of his father
Tricia (Sharon’s daughter): healing
Rev. Marjorie: healing
Rev. Dr. Lynn Bujnak: health concerns
Don Ballas: health concerns
Malletts Bay UCC
P.O. Box 157
1672 W Lakeshore Drive
Colchester, VT 05446 mallettsbayucc.org
[email protected]
802.658.9155
Introduction to the Christian church, Malletts Bay UCC, and contact information.
