By Jon Burnham
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March 21, 2026
St. John's Presbyterian Church in Houston Invitation to Worship Fifth Sunday in Lent March 22, 2026 This Sunday we are sitting with one of the strangest images in all of Scripture. A valley full of dry bones. Not just a few bones scattered here and there. The prophet Ezekiel describes very many bones, and they were very dry. That detail matters. Whatever hope there had been, it had been gone a long time. God asks Ezekiel a question that sounds almost cruel: "Can these bones live?" Ezekiel, to his credit, does not pretend to know. He says, "O Lord God, you know." That is one of the most honest things anyone ever says in the Bible. And I think it's the right answer for most of us on most days. Some of you are carrying something dry right now. A relationship that went quiet. A faith that used to feel alive but lately feels like going through the motions. A dream you buried so carefully you stopped looking at the spot where you put it. Lent is a good season for that kind of honesty. And then we will turn to John 11, where Jesus stands outside a tomb, four days too late by any reasonable measure. Martha says what we would all say. "Lord, if you had been here..." She means well. We all mean well when we say something like that to God. What she does not yet know is that being four days late is not a problem for the one who called himself the resurrection and the life. Jesus wept. I never want to rush past that. Two of the shortest words in the New Testament, and they carry more weight than whole sermons. Then he said, "Lazarus, come out." That is what we are gathering around this Sunday. The God who breathes into dry bones. The God who calls the dead by name. The Spirit that blows through the wilderness and stirs things that have gone still. Our organist Alina Klimaszewska will open worship, and we will sing the old hymn dating back to the Year of Our Lord: 1707, "Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove." That hymn, composed by Isaac Watts, has been honest about cold hearts and dying devotion for about three hundred years. We will be in good company. Worship begins at 11:00 AM. Our Sunday morning Bible Study meets at 9:30 AM if you want to come early and dig in before the service. We are at 5020 West Bellfort Avenue in Houston, zip 77035. If you have questions, call us at (713) 723-6262. Come as you are. Dry bones welcome. Peace of Christ be with you, Pastor Jon Burnham St. John's Presbyterian Church, Houston 5020 West Bellfort Avenue Houston, TX 77035 (713) 723-6262 P.S. The service will be live-streamed on our church website and on our St. John's Facebook page . St. John's Presbyterian Bulletin March 22, 2026, Fifth Sunday in Lent Gathering Prelude, Alina Klimaszewska, organ *Call To Worship, The Rev. Dr. Jon Burnham Leader: Can these bones live? People: Only you know, O Lord. Leader: Can what is dead rise again? People: Only you can breathe life into dust. Leader: Come, people of God, breathe deep, People: The Spirit moves over the valley of the dead. Opening Prayer *Hymn 279 Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove 1 Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove, with all thy quickening powers; kindle a flame of sacred love in these cold hearts of ours. 2 In vain we tune our formal songs; in vain we strive to rise; hosannas languish on our tongues, and our devotion dies. 3 Dear Lord, and shall we ever live at this poor dying rate? Our love so faint, so cold to thee, and thine to us so great! 4 Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove, with all thy quickening powers; come, shed abroad a Savior's love, a nd that shall kindle ours. Prayer of Confession, Ann Hardy, Liturgist God of the living, we confess that we have made peace with death. We see bones and assume the story is over. We see tombs and forget you roll away stones. We have given up on relationships, on dreams, on the possibility that what is dead in us might live again. Forgive our settled despair. Forgive the ways we've stopped hoping, stopped trying, stopped believing in your power to resurrect what we've buried. Breathe on these dry bones. Raise us to life. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. (Silent Confession) Assurance of Pardon *Glory Be to the Father, Hymn 581 *Passing the Peace The Word Prayer for Illumination First Scripture Reading, Ezekiel 37:1-14 The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.” So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude. Then he said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act,” says the Lord.’ Anthem Sermon Scripture, John 11:1-45 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 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.” Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” 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. But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.” After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.” Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.” 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.” And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 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. 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.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 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.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. 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.” When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 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.” Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. The Word of the Lord for us today. Thanks be to God. Sermon, Breath in Dry Bones The Rev. Dr. Jon Burnham *Hymn 286 Breathe on Me, Breath of God 1 Breathe on me, Breath of God; fill me with life anew, that I may love what thou dost love, and do what thou wouldst do. 2 Breathe on me, Breath of God, until my heart is pure, until with thee I will one will, to do and to endure. 3 Breathe on me, Breath of God, till I am wholly thine, until this earthly part of me glows with thy fire divine. 4 Breathe on me, Breath of God, so shall I never die, but live with thee the perfect life of thine eternity. The Apostles’ Creed, Prayers of the People Lord’s Prayer Welcome and Announcements Offering *Doxology, Hymn 609 *Prayer after the Offering Sending *Hymn 291 Spirit, Spirit of Gentleness (verses 1, 2, and 4) Refrain: Spirit, spirit of gentleness, blow through the wilderness, calling and free. Spirit, spirit of restlessness, stir me from placidness, wind, wind on the sea. 1 You moved on the waters; you called to the deep; then you coaxed up the mountains from the valleys of sleep; and over the eons you called to each thing, "Awake from your slumbers and rise on your wings." (Refrain) 2 You swept through the desert; you stung with the sand; and you goaded your people with a law and a land. When they were confounded with idols and lies, then you spoke through your prophets to open their eyes. (Refrain) 4 You call from tomorrow; you break ancient schemes; from the bondage of sorrow the captives dream dreams. Our women see visions; our men clear their eyes. With bold new decisions your people arise. (Refrain) *Benediction Postlude Announcements Food Train for Scenacia Jones’ Family Scenacia Jones’ son Nyjel is having increased health problems. We are organizing a “food train” of meals for the family. If you would like to help, please sign up at the link below or contact Mindi Stanley at mstanley@bcm.edu or 832-247-4086. [ Link to sign up for Food Train for Scenacia Jone's family. ] Quarterly Bible Study: Salvation Perhaps the most important question we can ask ourselves is whether we are saved. Paul tells us: “5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are living in the faith. Test yourselves.” (2 Corinthians 13:5). And Peter tells us: “. . . be even more diligent to make your call and election sure . . .” (2 Peter 1:10). But saved from what? What does it mean to be saved? The Christian Education Committee is offering a time for us to explore what is meant by biblical salvation. We will cover the following topics: What is salvation? How are we saved? Can we have assurance of our salvation? Can we lose our salvation? How should salvation manifest itself in our lives? The class will be on Saturday, 28 Mar from 8:30am to 2:00pm. Lunch will be provided. A sign up roster is in the narthex. Please sign up so we know how many people for materials and lunch. Hope to see you there! Lenten Arts Series, March 29. 3 pm, NEW TIME! (Not 4 pm) Trio Oriens will once again present a program of exceptional beauty and artistry. Remember the NEW TIME, and don’t miss this final concert of our Lenten Arts Series. One Hope Preschool Easter Baskets. One Hope is collecting pre-filled, age-appropriate Easter eggs for their Ester Egg Hunt on March 28. All are invited. Our donations will bring joy to little egg hunters. Donations accepted until March 26. Join Us for Our One Hope Schools Eggstravaganza! Mark your calendars for March 28th — it’s going to be an egg-citing day filled with fun, smiles, and plenty of Easter surprises for the children of all ages and families of our Westbury community! This is a FREE community event, and we’d love your support. If you or your business would like to sponsor, please reach out. Your sponsorship helps us create a magical experience for our families and keeps this special event possible Let’s make this Easter unforgettable together. PCHAS Luncheon - Register Now - Details Below. "Hope Outlives Hardship" is the theme for the annual luncheon for PCHAS at the Lakeside Country Club (100 Wilcrest Dr., 77042). The April 16th one-hour noon-time program provides an update on the many services PCHAS provides in Texas, Louisiana and Missouri through heartwarming examples of how lives are changed. St. John’s ties to PCHAS go back many years, but especially since partnering with their Single Parent Program beginning in 2012. Do you feel a sense of pride when someone in the community comments or asks about these duplexes? We hope to fill (at least) two tables (of 10-11 guests) for this annual major fundraising event here in Houston for PCHAS. Special diets are available on request. Yes, you will have an opportunity to donate toward this amazing ministry should you so choose, but it is not required! Many who have attended in the past have already received email or snail-mail notifications. More information will be in the Epistles and announcements during worship services through mid-April. Those interested in attending are asked to register either directly to Marla Endieveri at the PCHS Office here in N.W. Houston(832-241-5921), or on-line (marla.endieveri@pchas.org); by calling or texting Shirley at 713-598-0818; by calling or texting Ann Hardy at 713-240-2690; or by leaving a message at the church office (713-723-6262) no later than April 11. Please consider attending this special time of fellowship and hope! Elder Shepherding Circles update (March 21). Earlier this year our Session spent time together on retreat reflecting on what kind of church St. John’s is called to be in this season of our life together. One conviction kept rising to the surface. We want to be a congregation where people are truly known and cared for, not just greeted at the door on Sunday morning. In a busy world where it is easy to drift apart without meaning to, we believe the church can be one of the places where people stay connected in real and personal ways. Out of that conversation the Session began what we are calling Elder Shepherding Circles. Each elder has been given a small group of households in the congregation with one simple purpose: to stay in touch. About once a month an elder may send a text, make a phone call, write an email, or even drop a note in the mail. The message is not complicated. We are thinking about you. We are praying for you. We are glad you are part of St. John’s. Healing Hearts for March. Monday, March 30, 11:00 am. St. John’s is proud to support this healing ministry. One Great Hour of Sharing Special Offering. Around the world, millions of people lack access to sustainable food sources, clean water, sanitation, education, and opportunity. The work done in support of the causes supported by One Great Hour of Sharing (OGHS) — disaster, hunger, poverty, climate change, and immigration/migration and refugees — serves individuals and communities in need. This work provides people with safety, sustenance, and hope. This offering helps to improve the lives of people in these challenging situations. Envelopes are at the back of the sanctuary. Happy Birthday Layla Pennycuff (March 1) Laith Assad (March 3) Offiong Glover (March 5) Kyra Noons-Adams (March 6) Mark Swindler (March 14) Gloria Glover (March 17) Madeline Graeter (March 29) Olive Mfobujong (March 30) Happy Anniversary Jim and Lynne Austin (March 10) Kerry and Mary Gaber (March 22) Tad and Andra Mulder (March 25) Prayer Concerns Nyjel Bennett-LaGrone and his family, health concerns Gerry Jump Family of Sue Benn Tom Edmondson, recovering from spinal surgery Holly Darr, health concerns Karen Alsbrook, health Kelsey Wiltz, health concerns Glen Risley, health concerns Madalyn Rodgers, Kathleen Captain's sister Joe Sanford, Scott Moore and Alice Rubio Those looking for a job St. Johns College Students Raina Bailey and the families in our PCHAS homes One Hope Preschool families and staff Calendar Sunday, March 22, 5th Sunday in Lent 9:30 am Sunday School for Adults, Systematic Theology, Session Room 11:00 am Worship Service, live in sanctuary and on Facebook 1:30 pm Book Study, Zoom 4:30 Pack 8 Meeting, Exercise Room Tuesday, March 24 5:00 pm Exercise Group, Building 2 Thursday, March 26 5:00 pm Exercise Class in Building 2 Saturday, March 28 8:30 am Quarterly Bible Study, Session Room 10:00 am One Hope Preschool Easter Party, Courtyard Sunday, March 29, Palm Sunday 9:30 am Sunday School for Adults, Systematic Theology, Session Room 11:00 am Worship Service, live in sanctuary and on Facebook 1:30 pm Book Study on Zoom 3:00 pm Lenten Arts Series, Sanctuary Coming Events Mon, March 30, Healing Hearts, 11 am Wed, April 1, Men’s Group, 6:30 pm Thurs, April 2, Maundy Thursday Service, 7 pm, Sanctuary April 5, Easter Sunday Sun, May 31, CE Brunch: Senior Sunday and Teacher Appreciation Sat, June 20, Quarterly Bible Study (new format for all ages)
