A gathering prayer:
Lord, we are drawn to your well,
to seek the water of eternal life.
Refresh us with your Word.
Surround us with your Love.
And fill us to overflowing with your Spirit,
the water of life,
that we may never be thirsty.
Amen.
StF 427 – I’m accepted, I’m forgiven.
I’m accepted, I’m forgiven,
I am fathered by The true and living God
I’m accepted, no condemnation,
I am loved by the true and living God.
There’s no guilt or fear as I draw near,
To the Saviour and Creator of the world
there is joy and peace
as I release my worship to you, O Lord.
Bible Readings
Psalm 95
1 Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.
3 For the Lord is the great God,
the great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth,
and the mountain peaks belong to him.
5 The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.
6 Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
7 for he is our God
and we are the people of his pasture,
the flock under his care.
Today, if only you would hear his voice,
8 ‘Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah,
as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness,
9 where your ancestors tested me;
they tried me, though they had seen what I did.
10 For forty years I was angry with that generation;
I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray,
and they have not known my ways.”
11 So I declared on oath in my anger,
“They shall never enter my rest.”’
John 4:5-42
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, ‘Will you give me a drink?’ 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?’ (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.’
11 ‘Sir,’ the woman said, ‘you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?’
13 Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’
15 The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.’
16 He told her, ‘Go, call your husband and come back.’
17 ‘I have no husband,’ she replied.
Jesus said to her, ‘You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.’
19 ‘Sir,’ the woman said, ‘I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.’
21 ‘Woman,’ Jesus replied, ‘believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.’
25 The woman said, ‘I know that Messiah’ (called Christ) ‘is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.’
26 Then Jesus declared, ‘I, the one speaking to you – I am he.’
The disciples rejoin Jesus
27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, ‘What do you want?’ or ‘Why are you talking with her?’
28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 ‘Come, see a man who told me everything I’ve ever done. Could this be the Messiah?’ 30 They came out of the town and made their way towards him.
31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, ‘Rabbi, eat something.’
32 But he said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you know nothing about.’
33 Then his disciples said to each other, ‘Could someone have brought him food?’
34 ‘My food,’ said Jesus, ‘is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Don’t you have a saying, “It’s still four months until harvest”? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying “One sows and another reaps” is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labour.’
Many Samaritans believe
39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I’ve ever done.’ 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers.
42 They said to the woman, ‘We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world.’
Prayers:
We pray for places around the world where there is no fresh water;
for places that suffer constant drought,
or where people have to walk miles to the nearest well.
Water of life, quench us with your life-giving Spirit and bring hope.
We pray for those on the margins of society
because of their status, age, disability, background or race;
those who seem to have no voice.
Help us to hear their cries, to listen to their pleas.
Help us to open our eyes and our ears.
Water of life, quench us with your life-giving Spirit and bring hope.
The Samaritan woman took a risk speaking to Jesus.
We pray for all who take risk on a daily basis
in their jobs, for mere survival, to get food and water for their families;
and for children involved in risky situations all over the world, trying to survive.
Water of life, quench us with your life-giving Spirit and bring hope.
We pray for those in our communities who need your water of life;
those who are lonely, bereaved, sad, or have lost all hope.
Bring them your comfort, joy and peace.
Water of life, quench us with your life-giving Spirit and bring hope.
Amen.
This prayer was originally published in 2020.
Author unknown
On the third Sunday of Lent here are three short prayers.
Lord, as we enter Lent help us to draw near to you in praise, stripping away all that distracts us from worship.
Amen.
As Jesus resisted temptation by the devil in the wilderness, help us reflect on his faithfulness to God, his rejection of worldly values and hold these thoughts in our hearts throughout Lent and beyond.
Amen
Jesus, you prayed and fasted. As your disciple teach me about spiritual discipline in my relationship with you.
Amen
The Lord's Prayer
Please use the version that you prefer
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.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be your name,
Your kingdom come,
Your will be done,
On earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
As we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial
And deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power
and the glory are yours
Now and for ever.
Amen.
Time to reflect:
In John 4 we read the longest conversation recorded in the Bible of Jesus talking with the Samaritan woman at the well.
Jesus travels into Samaria, an area that most Jews would not enter as the Samaritans were hated by the Jewish Rabbi’s, they had their own temple and intermarried outside of the Jewish Faith. Many Jews would travel a longer route around Samaria rather than travel through it.
In just four words by asking the Samaritan woman at the well ‘Give me a drink’ Jesus starts a conversation and speaks with someone who was seen by many as someone who was unclean. It was also against Jewish rules that a man should hold a conversation with a woman in the street.
Therefore, when the disciples returned from getting food, Jesus had spoken to the Samaritan woman, they were shocked. However, these four words had an impact on the Samaritan women as on leaving her jar, she said to those in the village. “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?”
In a recent conversation with a man at a food bank who was accessing a food parcel for his family, I had the opportunity to sit down with him and have a conversation about all the things going on his life. I asked what we could do as a church to help him. With tears in his eyes, he lifted his hands and just said ‘this’.
As Christians we are called to live and work right where we are. Over the years in ministry, I have met and seen so many who want to have an opportunity to talk to someone and have connected with Church after someone taking time to listen to them and hear their story. Having a conversation can lead to others being introduced to Jesus.
Reflecting on this story there are some challenges for each of us as we think about the woman’s ‘left water jar’.
Firstly, have we left everything to follow Christ?
Secondly during this season of Lent have we been reading and reflecting on Bible verses and using them as we pray.
We are all offered a new Salvation, and this is a gift of God. In verse 9 the Samaritan woman questions why Jesus is talking to her, a Samaritan woman and hears Jesus’ reply in verse 10 saying, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”
There is a way of life offered to all who would choose to follow, we are all offered a new eternal Hope and Faith. Many people have different belief systems but our faith and trust in God is more than a belief system.
In verse 21 Jesus replied, “Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem.
Verse 24 says ‘For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. ’ We are all called to receive the Holy Spirit and worship the Lord.
May we be able to say like the Samaritan woman to our friends and those we meet Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?”
As Christians we are called to follow Christ.
StF 424 – God forgave my sin in Jesus’ name
God forgave my sin in Jesus’ name;
I’ve been born again in Jesus’ name;
and in Jesus’ name I come to you
to share his love as he told me to:
He said, freely, freely you have received,
freely, freely give;
Go in my name and, because you believe,
others will know that I live.
All power is given in Jesus’ name,
in earth and heaven in Jesus’ name;
and in Jesus’ name I come to you
to share his power as he told me to.
Refrain.
Final prayer:
Thank you that we are accepted.
Thank you that we belong.
Thank you that you give us the water of life to drink.
Help us to be accepting of others,
and invite them to drink your water too.
Amen.
