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Morning Devotion, March 15, 2020 3rd Sunday of Lent GATHERING WORDS Breath of God, breath of life, breath of deepest yearning, Come, Holy Spirit. Comforter, Disturber, Interpreter, Challenger, Come, Holy Spirit. Heavenly Friend, Lamplighter, Revealer of Truth, Midwife of Change, Come, Holy Spirit. God is here, We are open.
PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well-pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we dreamed too small, when we arrived safely because we sailed too close to the shore. Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of the things we possess, we have lost our thirst for the water of life. Stir us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas where storms will show your mastery, where in losing sight of land we shall find the stars. We ask you to push back the horizons of our hope, and to push us into the future in strength, courage, hope and love. Amen
The Gospel
John 4: 5-42
Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
2 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.” Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” They left the city and were on their way to him. Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.” Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”
TIME OF REFLECTION
Following the reading of the gospel I encourage you to think about what you have just heard/read in this beautiful encounter with Jesus. For the first time, perhaps in a long time, I suspect our woman at the well didn’t feel like an outsider. Jesus listened to her and I imagine he looked at her in a way she may have never experienced.
So today I am wonderingHave you ever felt really heard, really seen, really understood? Who did that with or for you? And as we walk forward on our journey in community how can we do that more and more for others?
The world will always have people who don’t understand something about our lives- choices we have made, things we couldn’t control, complete misunderstandings... the list goes on and on. And while that doesn’t sound like very good news, it is very much the truth.
What is good news, is discovering a kind of unexpected love that can turn your world around.
What is good news, is realizing that we too have the power to do that for others every day in our lives. What is good news is that the source of that love isn’t a prize to be won, but a presence waiting to be noticed and embraced and shared. What is good news, is that you can put on your running shoes, hit the streets, tell anybody who will listen about this kind of love and I guarantee you, amazing things will happen and you will change your life and the world forever. May it be so.
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AFFIRMATION OF FAITH We believe in the God of Life, who creates and loves people, who acts in history. We believe in Jesus of Nazareth, who is our brother, who wants not to be idolized but to be followed. We believe that we dwell in the presence of the Holy Spirit; without Her we are nothing; filled with Her we are able to become creative, lively and free. We believe in the Church of Jesus Christ, a community where we find companions and courage for the struggles of life, where we grow in our understanding of the faith, through worship, prayer, nurture and service. We believe that God has a use for us in this time and place, that though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we are called to be instruments of God’s peace. We believe in living, hoping, laughing, and enjoying the good of the earth. We believe that people can change, and that God keeps pulling us to life and to a new world of joy and peace. Amen.
PRAYERS O Christ, kindle in our hearts within a flame of love to our neighbor, to our foes, to our friends, to our kindred all. O Christ of the poor and the yearning, from the humblest thing that lives to the name that is highest of all, kindle in our hearts within a flame of love. (Please offer your own thanksgivings, intercessions and petitions at this time)
May we learn to open in love so all the doors and the windows of our bodies swing wide on their rusty hinges. May we learn to give ourselves with both hands, to lift each other on our shoulders, to carry one another along. May holiness move in us so we pay attention to its small voice and honor its light in each other. Amen.
Confession & Absolution Let us confess our sins to God and each other. God, bring new life where we are worn and tired, new love where we have turned hard-hearted, forgiveness where we feel hurt and where we have been wounded, and the joy and freedom in your Holy Spirit where we are the prisoners of ourselves. (silence) To all and to each where regret is real, God pronounces pardon and grants us the right to begin again. AMEN.
BLESSING
THE DISMISSAL:
May the rain fall off your shoulders when you’re caught in a storm. When the frost comes a callin’ may it find you safe and warm. May your place be set, and may your promises be kept. And may you never forget that you are loved. Go in Peace to love and serve the Lord- Thanks be to God!