Worship I 3/15/20

Even though we aren’t gathering in person today, we invite you to join your SSUMC community by reading through this worship guide. Together, we’ll say the same prayers, read the same scripture, and reflect on where God is calling us in this wilderness season of Lent and Coronavirus pandemic. Next week we hope to be with you by video. May we pray and worship without ceasing. This is the day the Lord has made: Let us rejoice and be glad in it! 
 

The Worship of God

Sandy Springs UMC I Online Worship Guide
March 15, 2020 | 3rd Sunday of Lent

Today we read the story of how Jesus encounters a Samaritan woman as she collects water at the well. After they meet, Jesus tells her to go and proclaim the good news of who he is and how she has changed. Let us examine how our own encounters with Jesus, and with the Samaritan woman of our day, can help us know and share the good news of Jesus’ love with others. 

Call to Worship 
(Say this out loud! By yourself or with others in your household)

Come, all who are thirsty
says Jesus, our Lord,
come, all who are weak,
taste the living water
that I shall give.
Dip your hands in the stream,
refresh body and soul,
drink from it,
depend on it,
for this water
will never run dry.
Come, all who are thirsty
says Jesus, our Lord. 

Song: Wade in the Water -- Listen HERE

Children’s Moment

What things have to happen every day to keep you alive? (Things like eating, drinking water, breathing, and keeping your body safe)

What other kind of things do you do that make you enjoy life?  What makes life fun for you? 

I bet one of those things in time with family and friends. In our scripture passage today, Jesus meets a woman who is alone because other people have judged her.  She is gathering water, which she needs in order to live, but Jesus wants her to have God’s love in her life so that she can enjoy life and not be alone anymore. Jesus also tells his disciples that sharing God’s love with other people is what gives him life! What is a way you can share God’s love with other people this week, even as our daily lives look a little different than usual? (call someone who might be alone, write a card or letter, draw a picture and mail it to someone, donate to a local food drive, etc)

You can download a bible story coloring sheet for today’s scripture here: https://coloringhome.com/coloring-page/1676895

You can download a crossword puzzle here. 

Prayers of the People and The Lord’s Prayer

God:
meet us at the wells
where we are lonely
where we are forgotten
where we are hurt by others
and give us to drink
the grace that brings life again

God:
speak to us in the secret places
where the sinners gather
where the prejudices are made known
where our histories are broadcast
and give us to drink
the forgiveness that brings peace again

God:
Renew all that we are and have been
fill us with a new future
inspire us with recreation
pull us into resurrection
and give us to drink
the promise of heaven

And now let us pray together the prayer that Jesus taught us, saying: 

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. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, Amen.

Scripture: John 4:5-42

So he 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 worshipped 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. 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 worshippers 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 labour. Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour.’

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 for 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 Saviour of the world.’

This is the Word of God, for us, the people of God: Thanks be to God! 

Reflection Questions: 

Spend some time in silence reflecting on scripture and answering the following questions:

Who do I overlook and ignore that might be sharing God’s love and light with me? 

How can I look for God in unexpected people and places, like the Samaritan Woman? 

Who can I share God’s living water with in this time of uncertainty, anxiety, and social distancing? 

Song: Come and Find the Quiet Center -- Listen HERE

Prayer of Confession

God of mercy, hear the prayers of your thirsting people. 
For every time we have attributed your miracles in our lives 
to our own hands alone,
Forgive us, we pray.
For every time we promised to trust you but turned to our own way 
when your response did not come soon enough 
or in the way we expected,
Grant us mercy, O God.
For the many opportunities to extend forgiveness 
that we have refused,
Show us what it means to love, again, dear Lord.
For each way we put our own understandings above your wisdom, 
For each time we resist your command to be reconciled with those 
who believe differently from us,
Direct us in the way of peace, we pray.
For our silent sins, our quiet acts of violence, 
and our indifference to the suffering round us,
Forgive us, Loving One, and quench our thirst with your grace;
Remake us into vessels of tenderness and compassion. 
For Christ’s sake we pray.  Amen.

Offering

During this time, listen to the music, and prayerfully consider writing a check to the church and putting it in the mail; or go to your bank’s website and set-up automatic bill pay. 

Song: Be Thou My Vision -- Listen HERE

Offertory Prayer

O God, our gifts are so minute in comparison to your bounty. Transform our simple offering into ministries that quench parched lives with the water of eternal life. Nurture our need to share your water and your spirit through the gifts that you have given so freely. In the name of the One who is the Messiah, we pray. Amen.

Benediction

May the God of living water fill your spirit; May the Savior of hope fill your heart; and May the Spirit of grace surround you with peace, love, and joy. Let us share this good news and these blessings with one another. 

Benediction Response: Sanctuary -- Listen HERE