Liturgy

As we gather around your creations,
In all our weaknesses and strengths,
with our youth-filled spirits and aging bodies,

may we be your people, O God.

Honest in our faith and eager with questions,
singing our praise and whispering our prayers,

may we be your people, O God.

Filled with saintly determination
yet mindful of our human limitations,

may we be your people, O God.

Made strong in your endless love for us,
we know ourselves to be yours and ask that

may we be your people, O God.

And as we dwell together as family, as friends,
as neighbors, as a community, as a city
filled with your beloved people,

may we find both rest and strength
in your eternal love for us, and we praise
you God, our Creator,
Christ, our Savior,
and Holy Spirit, our breath of life.
Amen.

Scripture

We invite you to hear from the gospel of John 4:

6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. 7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.

9 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.), 10 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.”

25 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.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”

27 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?” 28 Then 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?”

The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God!

The grass withers and the flower fades,
but the Word of the Lord endures forever. Amen.

Homily and Reflection

Homily Podcast – Illuminating Rest 3.12.2023

Where might you listen for your embodied life’s need for rest?

How might the light of day be illuminating uncomfortable realities of bias in our community?

Is there anything you need from Jesus? In mutuality what might Jesus need from us?

Benediction

Let us leave with a benediction.

May we find rest and play in our hearts this week.
May we allow the moving through of the Spirit’s work.

May we observe the ever changing inner and outer world.
May we help each other find our way back home.

May we “come and see” in subtle ways.
May we soften around old patterns and ways of being.
May we practice living with fierceness to truth and beauty.

In the name
of God, the Creator,
Christ, our Savior,
And the Holy Spirit,
our Advocate and Guide.
Amen.

[ Photo by Kelly Sikkema ]