Third Sunday in Lent

March 12, 2023

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?”

` John 4:28-29

_________

Welcome to worship!

We worship each Sunday at 9:30 am both in person and online.

You may access Sunday's worship in a variety of ways:

• A link is posted on Immanuel's website, www.immanuelwebster.org or by clicking the link at the bottom of this email.
• Go to www.YouTube.com and search Immanuel Webster. You will find all of our past worship services there as well.
• A link is will be posted on Immanuel's Facebook page.
• Click the link above at 9:30 on Sunday or anytime afterwards.



- Gathering -

Prelude     

Dialogue

We come to worship God who makes streams flow from rock, who turns the parched earth into springs of water, who sends the rain from heaven and makes the wilderness blossom and flourish.

As the deer thirsts for flowing streams, so we thirst for You, O God.

Come, let’s worship our life-giving God, who pours out living water on all who thirst.

Greeting

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

And also with you.

Kyrie  

Prayer of the Day



The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

Merciful God, the fountain of living water, you quench our thirst and wash away our sin. Give us this water always. Bring us to drink from the well that flows with the beauty of your truth through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.     

Amen.

Children's Moment 



Psalm 95  Sung responsively. 

¹Come, let us sing ^| to the Lord;

let us shout for joy to the rock of ^| our salvation.

²Let us come before God’s presence ^| with thanksgiving

and raise a loud shout to the ^| Lord with psalms.

³For you, Lord, ^| are a great God,

and a great ruler a- ^| bove all gods.

⁴In your hand are the caverns ^| of the earth;

the heights of the hills are ^| also yours.

⁵The sea is yours, ^| for you made it,

and your hands have molded ^| the dry land.

⁶Come, let us worship ^| and bow down,

let us kneel before the ^| Lord our maker. 

⁷For the Lord is our God, and we are the people of God’s pasture and the sheep ^| of God’s hand.

Oh, that today you would ^| hear God’s voice!

⁸“Harden ^| not your hearts,

as at Meribah, as on that day at Massah ^| in the desert.

⁹There your ancestors ^| tested me,

they put me to the test, though they had ^| seen my works.

¹⁰Forty years I loathed that gener- ^| ation, saying,

‘The heart of this people goes astray; they do not ^| know my ways.’

¹¹Indeed I swore ^| in my anger,

‘They shall never come ^| to my rest.’ ” 

First Reading               Exodus 17:1-7

¹From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. ²The people quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” ³But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” ⁴So Moses cried out to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” ⁵The Lord said to Moses, “Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. ⁶I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. ⁷He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Holy wisdom. Holy Word.   

Thanks be to God.



Gospel John 4:5-42

Holy Gospel according to John .

Glory to you, O Lord.

[Jesus] 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?” ³⁰They left the city and were on their way to him.

³¹Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” ³²But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” ³³So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” ³⁴Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. ³⁵Do 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. ³⁶The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. ³⁷For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ ³⁸I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

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.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, O Christ.

Sermon

Confession

God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. Let us confess our sins before God and one another. God of living water, we confess the dryness of our lives:

Silence follows each petition.

the brittle words we have thought and spoken . . .

the relationships that are crumbling . . .

the arid perspective that centers on self . . .

the cracked and jagged edges of our world . . .

Hear our confession, O Christ,

and rain down your mercy upon us. Amen.

Jesus says, “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 living water.”

Redeeming God, in You, we are always welcome and accepted, always forgiven and renewed. Draw us closer to You, today and always. Amen.

Prayer of the Church 

       Each petition concludes:

             In your mercy,

                receive our prayer

Peace

The peace of Christ be with you always. 

 And also with you.

- Meal -

Anthem Lord, Have Mercy - Lee Dengler

Offertory Prayer

Let us pray. God of good gifts,

receive these and all our offerings as we present them in faithful service for the sake of your gospel. Prepare our hearts to receive you in this meal as you pour out your very presence through Christ Jesus, the wellspring of eternal life. Amen.

Great Thanksgiving

It is indeed, right, our duty, and our joy... join their unending hymn:

Eucharistic Prayer

Lord’s Prayer

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, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.



Communion

All are invited to this meal of love and grace and may come forward at the direction of an usher. Gluten-free bread and white grape juice are available. Please return to your pew by the side aisle.

Post Communion Blessing and Prayer

The body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ strengthen you and keep you in his grace.

Amen.

Merciful God, accompany our journey through these forty days. Renew us in the gift of baptism, that we may provide for those who are poor, pray for those in need, fast from self-indulgence, and above all that we may find our treasure in the life of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  

Amen.

Blessing

Dismissal            

Go in peace. Jesus meets you on the way.

Thanks be to God.

Postlude

What's Happening at Immanuel...

Sunday School Today!

Children's Sunday School meets at 10:45AM for kids age 3 years to grade 6. It is a fun-filled time of learning, growing, and gathering with friends as they a learn more about God and themselves

Adult Sunday School meets every Sunday at 10:45 on Zoom and is a wonderful time to gather for discussion and learning! Log into Zoom by clicking the link below:

Meeting ID: 849 5197 3602

Passcode: 219846

Journey through Lent



We gather each Wednesday evening in Lent at 6pm for a simple meal of soup and bread followed by a brief service at 7pm reflecting on faithful followers of God who struggled with their call. Being called by God is always holy, but isn't always easy. What can we learn from these well-known biblical heroes who struggled, resisted, wrestled, and then followed God? Lent is a wonderful time to find strength, companionship, and hope as we journey together as God's people. Make these opportunities a part of your Lenten journey.

Be a Part of Immanuel's Vision and Mission!

There is still the opportunity to join in the conversation about Immanuel's Vision and Mission to share your thoughts and ideas tomorrow evening, Monday, March 13, 7-9 pm. We will have conversation around where Immanuel is now in our faith journey together, as we begin to look ahead and discern together where God may be calling us. We will share refreshments 15 minutes before the hour and will begin our discussion on the hour. There is a sign-up sheet in the lower hallway. Mark your calendars - We need you!

March 26, 9:30 am Breakfast Church

What is Breakfast Church? A wonderful celebration of God in our midst! We gather in the Fellowship Hall for a delicious breakfast as we celebrate Eucharist and hear God's Word around the breakfast table. It is a time of conversation and connecting with one another in joy and love.

Bring your pledge card and celebrate our abundance as individuals and members of Immanuel! Sign up by March 19 in the lower hallway at church or by calling the office at 585-872-5180.

Personal Hygiene Kits

Throughout the month of March, we will collect items personal hygiene items for Person Centered Housing Options. The items provide people the tools for much-needed self-care in times of uncertainty. New items or entire kits may be placed in containers in the lower hallway. You may also make a financial contribution toward the project clearly marking it for "hygiene kits". Needed items include: socks, gloves, water bottles, Band-Aids, wet wipes, toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, sunscreen, single serving snacks, tuna & cracker snack packs, nail clippers. Thank you for your support!

Bible Study This Wednesday

Beginning this Wednesday and throughout the season of Lent, we will be digging into Matthew's story of Jesus' Passion and Resurrection. Deepen your Lenten journey by joining the conversation Wednesday mornings at 9 on Zoom. It's a great way to begin your day!

Meeting ID: 863 5628 3748

Passcode: 358139

or click the link below:

Confession: Joanna Harader, Spacious Faith; Opening Dialogue: Christine Longhurst

Come to Me, All Pilgrims Thirsty, Text © 1992, 1996 The Liturgical Press. Reprinted by permission under OneLicense #A-714459.

Lift Up Your Heads, Text © 2013 Susan R. Briehl, admin. Augsburg Fortress; Music © 2013 Zebulon M. Highben, admin. Augsburg Fortress. Reprinted by permission under OneLicense #A-714459.

Come to the Water of Life, Text and music © 1999 Ray Makeever, admin. Augsburg Fortress. Reprinted by permission under OneLicense #A-714459.

As the Deer Runs to the River, Text © 2002 and music © 1983 GIA Publications, Inc., 7404 S. Mason Ave., Chicago, IL 60638. www.giamusic.com. 800.442.3358. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission under OneLicense #A-714459.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.