Music for the Fifth Sunday in Lent

Bittersweet and melancholy describes much of the music for Sunday, to reflect the gospel text of the death and raising of Lazarus. The prelude will be J.S. Bach’s classic Lenten lament on the chorale tune O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde gross, with the postlude an arrangement of the hymn When Jesus Wept. The choral offertory is Stephen Paulus’ poignant The Road Home, with lyrics by Michael Dennis Browne. Its final verse expresses hope and harkens poetically to the gospel text: “Rise up, follow me, come away is the call/ With love in your heart as the only song.”

One of Sunday’s hymns is from the supplement Voices Found, which is a collection of hymns and spiritual songs by, for, and about women. As we close out Women’s History Month, we will sing “In deepest night, in darkest days,” with words by the hymn writer and poet Susan Palo Cherwein and music by Lutheran organist Emily Maxson Porter.

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