Reading Notes:
Mothering Sunday may be celebrated in preference to the provision for the Fourth Sunday of Lent.
Collect
Merciful Lord,
absolve your people from their offences,
that through your bountiful goodness
we may all be delivered from the chains of those sins
which by our frailty we have committed;
grant this, heavenly Father,
for Jesus Christ’s sake, our blessed Lord and Saviour,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
or
Merciful Lord,
you know our struggle to serve you:
when sin spoils our lives
and overshadows our hearts,
come to our aid
and turn us back to you again;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Readings
Numbers 21.4-9
4 From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. 5The people spoke against God and against Moses, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.’ 6Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. 7The people came to Moses and said, ‘We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people. 8And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.’ 9So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.
This is the word of the Lord.
AllThanks be to God.
Psalm 107.1-3, 17-22
1 O give thanks to the Lord, for he is gracious, •
for his steadfast love endures for ever.
2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say this, •
those he redeemed from the hand of the enemy,
3 And gathered out of the lands
from the east and from the west, •
from the north and from the south.
17 Some were foolish and took a rebellious way, •
and were plagued because of their wrongdoing.
18 Their soul abhorred all manner of food •
and drew near to the gates of death.
19 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, •
and he delivered them from their distress.
20 He sent forth his word and healed them, •
and saved them from destruction.
21 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his goodness •
and the wonders he does for his children.
22 Let them offer him sacrifices of thanksgiving •
and tell of his acts with shouts of joy.
or Psalm [ 107.1-9]
[
1 O give thanks to the Lord, for he is gracious, •
for his steadfast love endures for ever.
2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say this, •
those he redeemed from the hand of the enemy,
3 And gathered out of the lands
from the east and from the west, •
from the north and from the south.
4 Some went astray in desert wastes •
and found no path to a city to dwell in.
5 Hungry and thirsty, •
their soul was fainting within them.
6 So they cried to the Lord in their trouble •
and he delivered them from their distress.
7 He set their feet on the right way •
till they came to a city to dwell in.
8 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his goodness •
and the wonders he does for his children.
9 For he satisfies the longing soul •
and fills the hungry soul with good.
]
Ephesians 2.1-10
2
You were dead through the trespasses and sins 2in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. 3All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. 4But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us 5even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. 8For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— 9not the result of works, so that no one may boast. 10For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.
This is the word of the Lord.
AllThanks be to God.
Gospel Reading
Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John.
AllGlory to you, O Lord.
John 3.14-21
14And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
16 ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
17 ‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19And this is the judgement, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. 20For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. 21But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.’
This is the Gospel of the Lord.
AllPraise to you, O Christ.
Post Communion
Lord God,
whose blessed Son our Saviour
gave his back to the smiters
and did not hide his face from shame:
give us grace to endure the sufferings of this present time
with sure confidence in the glory that shall be revealed;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.