464. Lent 5 (Series C)

Be not afraid. I didn't forget Lent 4. But when I was saw that the Gospel lesson was the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:1-3, 11-32) I realized that I'd already written a hymn on that, one of the first things I wrote for this book. So, that hymn moves into the Lent 4 slot, and on we go. That's the last good news of this sort I expect to receive during this project, for although Hebrews 11 comes up later in this series, it's split between Proper 14 and 15 (two successive Sundays after Pentecost) and I don't feature carving up the hymn I wrote on that chapter into two.

Anyway, the lessons for Lent 5 are Isaiah 43:16-21, Philippians 3:8-14 (optional 4b-7) and Luke 20:9-20. The tune is ARFON, adapted from a Welsh traditional melody in E. Jones's Welsh Bards (1794), which the Australian Lutheran Hymnal used with two hymns: "Chief of sinners though I be" and "What our Father does is well."

Lord, who made the sea a road
And the horse and chariot drowned,
Lead us forth through mighty flood;
Plant our foot on solid ground.
Freed from hateful servitude,
May we in Your praise abound.

Former things are done and past;
Lo, a new thing is begun.
Desert fountains flow at last;
Feral beasts before You run,
And the Stone by men outcast
Is become the Cornerstone.

All things we might idolize,
Let us gladly count as loss,
Rather fixing hearts and eyes
On the treasure of the cross:
Pressing forward to the prize
Of our upward call and course.