Worship for the week of March 12, 2023
Let us worship!
O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.
The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed.
O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. O that today you would listen to his voice!
—Psalm 95:1-7
A prayer to center you
God of all, from the least of these to the most of these, you are the light of the world. Your love and light extends to all people. Your grace and compassion surrounds the world and provides hope even in the barren wilderness. Draw near to us this hour, that may feel your flowing waters of grace, peace and forgiveness.
Amen
Scripture to Ponder
John
Chapter 3
Verses 1-17
and
Chapter 4
Verses 5-29, 39-42
Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. 2He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” 3Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” 4Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” 5Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ 8The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 9Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? 11“Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. 12If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 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.
John 4:5-29, 39-42
5So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. 7A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8(His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9The 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.) 10Jesus 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.” 11The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” 13Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14but 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.” 15The 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.” 16Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” 17The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” 19The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23But 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. 24God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” 26Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”
27Just 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?” 28Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 29“Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?”
39Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” 40So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. 41And many more believed because of his word. 42They 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.”
Reflection: Night and Day
A whole lot of Scripture in these two stories. A lot to compare and contrast. These two stories in John often stand separately but when we hold them together we gain even more insight. Placed side by side we can see the entirity of who Jesus came to save, those who seek him to those whom he seeks, the least of these to the most of these, those who the world upholds to those who the world puts down.
In the first story we see a scholar, a man of faith, one for whom the system of life supports and upholds, come seeking Jesus in the darkness of night. Nicodemus is too scared of losing everything to seek Jesus out in the light of day. He comes seeking answers and slumps away unwilling to speak the truth that he has learned.
In the second story, we find a woman, who has nothing, a Samaritan, one for whom the laws and the systems of the day work to keep down, she is the one that Jesus seeks out and at the well she comes to believe in the living Christ.
Jesus seeks this woman out. Jesus goes down the uncommon path to reach this women.
And it is the woman at the well, the Samaritan (who Jews look down upon), to whom Jesus reveals himself. It is a woman, one who has had many husbands, who is the first to go and tell of the mystery of Jesus. It is a woman who is the first to go spread the word about Jesus and to bring people to his teaching. A woman. A Samaritian. The least of these. This is who Jesus sought out. This is who came to believe, above the Nicodemus, a named man, a Pharisee, a Jew—one who had it all.
From the most of those among us to the least, Christ Jesus came to make his works known.
From the most of those among us to the least, Christ Jesus can use us to reach out.
From the most of those among us to the least, Christ Jesus calls us to go and share the good news of the Gospel.
Let us go!
Prayer of sending
God,
You seek us out
You call to each of us
the most and the least
not one of us is unworthy of your words
your words of love, hope, promise and forgiveness
Help us recieve these gifts free given
Open our hearts and minds to you
and help us to go and share the Good News
we find in you.
Amen
Going out.
Be faithful in a little, that you may also be found faithful in much.
Be faithful in much, that you may be entrusted with the true riches that come from above.
Go to be faithful children of light,
And come to know the deep grace, hope and peace of the one who is truly faithful at all times.
Let all God’s people say: AMEN
