Today's Worship Service - Third Sunday in Lent - Sunday, March 12, 2023

 You can listen to today's service at 11:15am on Facebook Live.

Worship Service for March 12, 2023

Prelude

Announcements:  

Call to Worship

L:      O come, let us sing to God and make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.

P:      We lift our hearts and voices in joy and thanksgiving for being here together in the presence of our beloved God.

L:      Come, let us worship as one family for we belong to God.

P:      We will listen for God’s word and live in the hope it inspires.

 

Opening Hymn –  My Faith Looks Up to Thee       Hymn #383 Blue

Prayer of Confession

Patient and ever-faithful God, we come to You this morning confessing that we can be a grumpy and unsatisfied people.  When things are not perfect in our eyes, we murmur and complain, and grumble and doubt.  We lose hope in the people around us and, even worse, we lose hope in You.  We challenge instead of accept.  We put You to the test rather than trust Your caring love.  Forgive our doubts and complaining.  Forgive our loss of hope.  Let Your healing life-giving waters pour over us.  Restore our souls.  (Silent prayers are offered)  AMEN.

Assurance of Pardon

L:      Our hope and assurance rest in God’s unfailing love and forgiveness.  Open your hearts, minds, and souls that the healing waters of God’s love and forgiveness may flow into and over you.  Know that in this love and forgiveness you have encountered the living God.

P:      Through God’s grace in Jesus Christ, we are forgiven.

 

Gloria Patri

Affirmation of Faith/Apostles’ Creed

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth; And in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy catholic Church; the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting.  AMEN

 

Pastoral Prayer and Lord’s Prayer

O God, who moves in ways that we can scarcely imagine, come into our worship today.  Hear the prayer of our hearts.  We want to be your people, yet we are often afraid to do those things that might move us closer to you.  Remind us that we each have a part to play in the faith community.  Whether or not we see ourselves as leaders, we DO often discount our own gifts because we don’t think we are smart enough, or strong enough, or articulate enough to serve you.  Yet, as we look to the scriptures and read stories of the faithful, we must admit that you never seem to choose those who might be the most obvious.  Rather, you chose those who were too old, or slow of speech or too young, who those who had a checkered past.  These unlikely candidates carry the banner of your truth into the world.  Remind us that each of us has an important role to play in your kingdom.  Provide us with the spiritual strength to do what we need to do to be kingdom people.

          Lord, in your son Jesus Christ, you have shown us compassion, accepted us unconditionally, and given us a new set of values to embrace.  Help us to live in accordance with your will and aspire to be Christ-like in our relationships.  Guide us in paths that lead to life, to the eternal spring of living water and the peace that only you can give.

          Hear our prayers this morning for a world in need…

For our loved ones and family…

For our church and its needs…

For our community….

For the lost and the helpless…

For the lonely and those who are afraid…

For those who grieve the loss of a loved one….

For conflict in the world….

For our silent prayers….

 

We are united in prayer Lord as we say together…...Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name.  Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread.  Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.  For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.  AMEN.

 

Hymn –  O Master, Let Me Walk With Thee            Hymn #357 Blue

Scripture Reading(s): 

First Scripture Reading – Exodus 17:1-7

Second Scripture Reading – John 4:5-42

Sermon –  The Woman at the Well

Much of today’s background sermon material comes from work done by Sarah Renfro, a clergy woman in Kentucky.

The writer of John is often referred to as the Evangelist.  If you are new to Christianity and reading the Bible is often the first book suggested to read because he writes his gospel in such a way as to share the Christian message so that his readers would become both believers and doers of the Word.  John was a gifted storyteller, and he knew what he was doing when he put today’s passage right after the story of Nicodemus.  This situation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman couldn’t be more different.

If you remember past readings of the story of Nicodemus; he was a well-respected member of society.  He was a religious scholar, a Pharisee.  He could walk around town with his head held high.  It was Nicodemus who came to Jesus with a request.  And he had a name.

The Samaritan woman, like so many other female figures in the Bible, is unnamed.  She is only identified by her gender, her ethnicity, and her place in society.  As a woman during this period in history, and in the culture she lives, she is already less-than.  Then, as a Samaritan, they were known to be in opposition to Jews.  There are several reasons for this, and some of it may have to do with what happened during the exile.  They intermarried and were no longer a pure race, so to speak.  They also worshipped in different ways than the Jews, as we hear in this passage.  The other thing we know right off about this Samaritan woman is that she is an outcast even from the other women in the area.  You see, gathering water at the well was women’s work.  And it still is in many parts of the world.  While men had “more important” things to do, like discussing politics in the city square, women traveled together with their jars to gather water for cooking, cleaning, and the family.  They would go when the weather was kindest, most likely in the early evening, when the heat was not so great.  However, this woman, is traveling by herself, at noon, during the hottest part of the day.  Something in her life has prevented her from being part of the in-crowd of other women.  During the storytelling, Jesus gives us a clue to why this woman walks alone.

Oh, and she doesn’t come seeking Jesus like Nicodemus did.  Jesus actually requests something from her.  Did you know, that this is the longest recorded conversation Jesus has with anybody?  And it’s with someone who is of the wrong gender, from the wrong place, and has lived the wrong kind of life.

I don’t think we ever fully grasp the significance of this.  And I don’t think we’ve ever grasped how topsy-turvy Jesus did everything.  How he always broke the rules and yet, you couldn’t really find fault in him.  They tried, like all the time.  Yet, his breaking of all the rules somehow made him the only one that was actually right.  We read this over and over again in the scriptures.

And I especially love Jesus when he exposes his humanity.  He was out in the hot sun, traveling by foot, and had no provisions.  He was physically thirsty.  He needed a drink, but he didn’t even have a cup to draw water from a well.  So, this woman walks up, with a jar, and he asks for a drink.  He didn’t care that she was woman, alone at the well, who didn’t have any girlfriends with her.  Even after she acknowledged that she was a Samaritan, Jesus didn’t care and he continued on with the conversation.

This encounter not only shows Jesus’ true humanity, but his full divinity, as well.  Just try to picture how the woman reacted when Jesus asked her for a drink.  She probably had a rather hard exterior, probably used to people, either making fun of her, guys yelling catcalls as she walked the road alone, or she was ignored.  So, she had her defenses up.  She wasn’t going to let this guy at the well get to her.  But she wasn’t stupid either, she talked back to Jesus.

But he had mercy.   And as soon as he offered her living water, she softened.  There was a spring nearby?!  (That’s one possible definition of what Jesus called living water.)  If there was an actually spring nearby, she wouldn’t have to come to the well anymore.  That would be great!

But no, Jesus was using a play on words, which was pretty common for Jesus, particularly in John’s gospel.  He meant a different kind of water, a different kind of spring.

Then Jesus gets personal.  He starts in on the woman’s love life.  She had really come to trust that this guy had the stuff that would quench her thirst, and now he was asking about her husbands.  Great.  Yup, he’s just like any other man, probably ready to suggest something unsavory.   But surprisingly (to her), he isn’t judgmental.  He just knows that she has had several husbands and now lives with someone who isn’t her husband.  We don’t know why.  She could have buried her first husband and having no son, had to marry his brother which was the law.  She could have been like the late great Liz Taylor and married and divorced over and over.  If the queen of Hollywood was the butt of many late-night jokes, then surely this lady of Samaria would have been the subject of much gossip.

The woman could have loved and lost so many times that her heart was continuously broken.  Or there could be another reason entirely.

The thing is, it doesn’t really matter.  It didn’t matter to John or else he would have included it, and most importantly, it didn’t matter to Jesus.  He was simply telling a fact; he just knew.  He knew her history, he knew whatever it was that had brought her to this place, in her situation, at this time.  He knew her soul, and he had mercy.

She wasn’t expecting that and she was taken aback again.  Jesus was not just a random thirsty guy.  He was a prophet.  So she engaged him in a theological discussion.  Jesus couldn’t just say things about her past and get away with it.  She needed to talk about worship styles and such.

Sarah Renfro says that this story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well reminds her of times in her younger, single, seminary days, when she “might” have visited a restaurant that served adult beverages.  She’d go up to a bar-type thing wanting to order a drink.  But there she’d find herself, alone at the bar.  It was not uncommon for some dude to be like, “Hey, how’s it going?”  She said that she’d try to be polite, and say “Fine.  How are you?  . . . yadda, yadda.”  With her luck, the service would be a little slow, so she would end up stuck talking to some guy.  The small talk gets to, “So what do you do?”  A dreaded question for a single minister.  But she said that she never lied, saying.  “I’m a minister.”

Now, that did it!  Every time!  Either the guy would turn around and ignore her, or, more likely, it would begin a whole new level of theology on tap.  

I can tell you that this is not a single female thing.  It’s happened to me a thousand times over, as well.

I’ve heard about folks who grew up Catholic and haven’t been to church in years and they’d end up confessing to me years of sins.  Or, we discussed the “I’m spiritual, but not religious” thing.  Or they’d go off on some random tangent about the end of times, or some prophecy they read in the supermarket tabloid, or reincarnation, or who knows what.  Anyway, as Sarah says, one can’t say churchy things and expect to evade churchy conversations.

Especially not Jesus . . . right?

And the woman at the well recognizes that this is a pretty special person, who is saying amazing things.  But, could he actually be the ONE?  Yes, Jesus said.  I AM.

These are the same words God spoke to Moses through the burning bush.  This outcast woman just had an encounter with the Divine, a non-judgmental, non-threatening, non-arrogant Divine.  

And that is amazing news to share!  So, she spoke.  She ran off to tell her people what had happened.  This lonesome woman confronted the men, all comfortable in the square, she confronted the women, who didn’t allow her to be part of their inner circle, and she sounded the call.  Come and see!  She didn’t even demand that they take her word for it.  They heard her voice, as she spoke the Word.  She witnessed out of her experience, her questions, and her possible belief.  

This is how the great preacher Fred Craddock puts it:

She is a witness, but not a likely witness and not even a thorough witness.  “A man who told me all that I ever did” is not exactly a recitation of the Apostles Creed.  She is not even a convinced witness: “Can this be the Christ?” is literally “This cannot be the Christ, can it?”  Even so, her witness is enough: it is invitational (come and see), not judgmental; it is within the range permitted by her experience; it is honest with its own uncertainty; it is for everyone who will hear.  How refreshing.  Her witness avoids triumphalism, hawking someone else’s conclusions, packaged answers to unasked questions, thinly veiled ultimatums and threats of hell, and assumptions of certainty on theological matters.  She does convey, however, her willingness to let her hearers arrive at their own affirmations about Jesus, and they do: “This is indeed the Savior of the world.”

Pause.

How often do we come across as witnesses who know it all?  We have all the answers, and if you don’t believe like me, then your beliefs are wrong?  How often do we let the outcast persons in our midst leave without sharing the Good News of Jesus?

We like to believe that we’d invite the loners and the poor and the hungry to our tables, but do we?  And if we did invited them in, how are we empowering them to witness to divine mercy.  We might give money to refugees, or even walk to fight some disease, and pray for children.  But how often do we sit down with immigrants and invite them to church?  Have you hugged someone with a disabling disease lately?  How many of our preschool families or our afterschool kids do you know? 

Jesus shared himself with the woman at the well.  She left the well with a tale to tell.  May all who have ears to hear; listen and respond to her call.

Thanks be to God.  Amen.

 

Offertory –

Doxology –

Prayer of Dedication –

Lord, here is our gratitude, for all that you have poured out in blessings upon us.  Let these offerings be a true reflection of our thankfulness and a true measure of our discipleship.  AMEN.

Closing Hymn – In the Cross of Christ I glory                Hymn #84/328

Benediction –

          We have encountered the living God through the love of the living Christ.  We have been refreshed by living water.  Go now to live in the hope this encounter inspires.  Be water bearers to a dry and parched world, knowing that the God of love and hope goes before you and with you always.  AMEN.

Postlude