​ 
​March 19, 2023
FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT
 
Gathering
 
MUSICAL OFFERING
 
ANNOUNCEMENTS
      April 2 we return to the Sanctuary as we begin Holy Week. Pastor Kolleen will lead us
t  hrough Palm/Passion Sunday meditations. One Great Hour of Sharing Offering will  be taken that Sunday supporting disaster relief.
  Don’t forget our community Good Friday events; see the back page for details.
  Worship with Pastor Joyce on Easter Sunday, April 9!
  Pastor Joyce plans to be in Clinton on  Tuesday, March 28. Friday April 7 and Monday       April 10.
 
PRAYER REQUESTS:  Please hold the following in your prayers.
Betty Farwell and JoAnn Grimm who struggle with health problems
Richard Lewis who broke a hip and is recovering at the Alverno.
Arlene Pawlik who is recovering from a broken leg.
Those who are on hospice:  Joan Pinkston & Maxine Wagner.
Jon Harper who is recovering after a recent hospitalization.
The people of Ukraine in their continued war and suffering.
The people of Turkey and Syria and the many aid workers who work to assist.
All who struggle and weep.
 
PRELUDE
 
CALL TO WORSHIP    Psalm 145:8-10, NLT
 
The Lord is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
 
The Lord is good to everyone and showers compassion on all of creation.
 
All of your works will thank you, Lord,
 
and your faithful followers will praise you.
 
GATHERING PRAYER
 
Holy God, our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, as we gather to worship may we sing your praise and offer prayers of thanksgiving. May we know your mercy and compassion even when we have failed. May we be filled to overflowing with your unfailing love, so that going forward we too can be good to others and shower blessings on creation.
 
HYMN  Christ Whose Glory Fills the Skies  #462
 
CALL TO CONFESSION    Ephesians 5:8-14, NIV
 
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. 14 This is why it is said: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
 
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
 
When we live in the darkness, Lord forgive us. When we judge others through the eyes of the world rather than your eyes of compassion, Lord forgive us. When we fear the world around us because we lack eyes of faith, Lord forgive us. When we try to hide our flaws and weaknesses rather than bring them to light for healing, Lord forgive us. When we choose to ignore what needs to change, Lord forgive us. Grant us eyes of mercy and faith that we may live in your light and your love. Amen.
 
WORDS OF ASSURANCE    Romans 5:1, GNT
 
Now that we have been put right with God through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Christ we are forgiven.  Thanks be to God!
 
SONG OF PRAISE  Gloria Patri  #579
 
PASSING THE PEACE  (Please greet those around you with these words.)
 
May the peace of Christ be with you. And also with you.
 
INTERLUDE
Word
PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION
 
SCRIPTURE LESSONS    1 Samuel 16:1-13, NET
 
The Lord said to Samuel, “How long do you intend to mourn for Saul? I have rejected him as king over Israel. Fill your horn with olive oil and go. I am sending you to Jesse in Bethlehem, for I have selected a king for myself from among his sons.”
 
2 Samuel replied, “How can I go? Saul will hear about it and kill me!” But the Lord said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ 3 Then invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you should do. You will anoint for me the one I point out to you.”
 
4 Samuel did what the Lord told him. When he arrived in Bethlehem, the elders of the city were afraid to meet him. They said, “Do you come in peace?” 5 He replied, “Yes, in peace. I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.” So he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.6 When they arrived, Samuel noticed Eliab and said to himself, “Surely, here before the Lord stands his chosen king.” 7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t be impressed by his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. God does not view things the way people do. People look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
8 Then Jesse called Abinadab and presented him to Samuel. But Samuel said, “The Lord has not chosen this one either.” 9 Then Jesse presented Shammah. But Samuel said, “The Lord has not chosen this one either.” 10 Jesse presented seven of his sons to Samuel. But Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen any of these.” 11 Then Samuel asked Jesse, “Is that all the young men?” Jesse replied, “There is still the youngest one, but he’s taking care of the flock.” Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and get him, for we cannot turn our attention to other things until he comes here.”
 
12 So Jesse had him brought in. Now he was ruddy, with attractive eyes and a handsome appearance. The Lord said, “Go and anoint him. This is the one.” 13 So Samuel took the horn full of olive oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers. The Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day onward. Then Samuel got up and went to Ramah.
 
      John 9:1-41, NLT
As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. 2 “Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?”
 
3 “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him. 4 We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us. The night is coming, and then no one can work. 5 But while I am here in the world, I am the light of the world.”
 
6 Then he spit on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and spread the mud over the blind man’s eyes. 7 He told him, “Go wash yourself in the pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “sent”). So the man went and washed and came back seeing!
 
8 His neighbors and others who knew him as a blind beggar asked each other, “Isn’t this the man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some said he was, and others said, “No, he just looks like him!”
 
But the beggar kept saying, “Yes, I am the same one!”
 
10 They asked, “Who healed you? What happened?”
 
11 He told them, “The man they call Jesus made mud and spread it over my eyes and told me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash yourself.’ So I went and washed, and now I can see!”
 
12 “Where is he now?” they asked.  “I don’t know,” he replied.
 
13 Then they took the man who had been blind to the Pharisees, 14 because it was on the Sabbath that Jesus had made the mud and healed him. 15 The Pharisees asked the man all about it. So he told them, “He put the mud over my eyes, and when I washed it away, I could see!”
 
16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man Jesus is not from God, for he is working on the Sabbath.” Others said, “But how could an ordinary sinner do such miraculous signs?” So there was a deep division of opinion among them.
 
17 Then the Pharisees again questioned the man who had been blind and demanded, “What’s your opinion about this man who healed you?”
 
The man replied, “I think he must be a prophet.”
 
18 The Jewish leaders still refused to believe the man had been blind and could now see, so they called in his parents. 19 They asked them, “Is this your son? Was he born blind? If so, how can he now see?”
 
20 His parents replied, “We know this is our son and that he was born blind, 21 but we don’t know how he can see or who healed him. Ask him. He is old enough to speak for himself.” 22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who had announced that anyone saying Jesus was the Messiah would be expelled from the synagogue. 23 That’s why they said, “He is old enough. Ask him.”
 
24 So for the second time they called in the man who had been blind and told him, “God should get the glory for this, because we know this man Jesus is a sinner.”
 
25 “I don’t know whether he is a sinner,” the man replied. “But I know this: I was blind, and now I can see!”
 
26 “But what did he do?” they asked. “How did he heal you?”
 
27 “Look!” the man exclaimed. “I told you once. Didn’t you listen? Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?”
 
28 Then they cursed him and said, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses! 29 We know God spoke to Moses, but we don’t even know where this man comes from.”
 
30 “Why, that’s very strange!” the man replied. “He healed my eyes, and yet you don’t know where he comes from? 31 We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but he is ready to hear those who worship him and do his will. 32 Ever since the world began, no one has been able to open the eyes of someone born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he couldn’t have done it.”
 
34 “You were born a total sinner!” they answered. “Are you trying to teach us?” And they threw him out of the synagogue.
 
35 When Jesus heard what had happened, he found the man and asked, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
 
36 The man answered, “Who is he, sir? I want to believe in him.”
​37 “You have seen him,” Jesus said, “and he is speaking to you!”
 
38 “Yes, Lord, I believe!” the man said. And he worshiped Jesus.
 
39 Then Jesus told him, “I entered this world to render judgment—to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind.”
 
40 Some Pharisees who were standing nearby heard him and asked, “Are you saying we’re blind?”
 
41 “If you were blind, you wouldn’t be guilty,” Jesus replied. “But you remain guilty because you claim you can see.
 
SERMON  What Do You See?
 
HYMN  Open My Eyes  #324
 
PASTORAL 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. Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors;
and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
 
OFFERING OUR LIVES
 
Amazing God, we offer ourselves to have our eyes opened that we might learn to see as you see, to follow in your path as you lead us, to be your disciples, and to give you our praise. May we be a blessing to others, even as you have blessed us.
 
DOXOLOGY  Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow  #592
 
AFFIRMATION OF FAITH    Psalm 23, NJKV
 
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters. 3 He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil; For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
 
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever.
 
HYMN  Be Thou My Vision                                     #339
 
Sending Forth
 
CHARGE & BLESSING  
 
POSTLUDE
 
We will remain seated throughout the service.
Bold text is to be read together aloud as a congregation.
 

​ 
March 12, 2023
Gathering
 
MUSICAL OFFERING ANNOUNCEMENTS
All PULSE articles are due on March 15th.
PRAYER REQUESTS Please hold the following in your prayers.
· Jon who has been in the hospital.
· Betty Farwell and JoAnn Grimm who struggle with health problems.
· Richard Lewis who broke a hip and is recovering at the Alverno.
· Arlene Pawlik who is recovering from a broken leg.
· Those who are on hospice: Joan Pinkston & Maxine Wagner.
PRELUDE
​
CALL TO WORSHIP (Psalm 95: 1-3)
 
L: O Come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
 
P: Let us come into God’s presence with thanksgiving.
 
L: Let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
 
P: For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
 
L: Today we come to listen to his voice.
 
P: Today we come to hear his call and know his presence.
 
L: Let us worship our God.
 
 
GATHERING PRAYER
 
From the wilderness of sin we come to worship you, Eternal Lord. You gave drink to your thirsty people in the wilderness and living water to the woman at the well, so we hold our parched and thirsty lives to you. May we worship you in spirit and in truth and know ourselves held in your care. Amen
 
HYMN From All That Dwell Below the Skies #229
 
 
CALL TO CONFESSION
 
Beside a well in Samaria Jesus offered the woman a gift of life. Let us begin to claim for ourselves that spring of water gushing up to eternal life. Let us lay bare our soul before our Savior in order to receive this gift. Please join me in our prayer of confession.
 
 
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
 
How often, Loving Lord, do we doubt your presence and care? We cry out in anger or despair while failing to notice your blessings showered upon us. We turn away from your word, and bargain with ourselves, justifying actions that we know are wrong. Lord, we need this living water that only you can offer. Help us to open our hearts to you, our Savior. May we, too, worship you in spirit and in truth.
Amen
 
 
WORDS OF ASSURANCE
 
God has proven his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. We were reconciled to God through the death of his Son. Believe this good news: In Christ Jesus we are able to stand before our Lord.
 
 
 
SONG OF PRAISE Gloria Patri #579
 
PASSING THE PEACE
(Please greet those around you with these words.)
 
May the peace of Christ be with you. And also with you.
 
INTERLUDE
 
Word
 
PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION
 
Help us, O Lord, to be aware of our own deep yearning and thirst for your presence. Open our hearts that we might hear your words of life. Allow us to receive refreshment for our souls, reassurance for our worries and direction for our lives. By your Spirit, allow your word to give us these waters of eternal life. Amen
 
 
SCRIPTURE LESSONS
 
Exodus 17: 1-7
17 The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.  “Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the LORD to the test?”  3 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”  4 Then Moses cried out to the LORD, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”  5 The LORD answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the LORD saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”
                                            
John 4: 5-42
5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.  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 worshiped 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 worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers 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.” 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 ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward 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 rue. 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 labor.” 39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 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 Savior of the world.”
 
SERMON                Washing Away the IF
Don’t you have to wonder about those ex-slaves in the wilderness?  They’d seen the power of God.   They had watched on the sidelines, giggling, I imagine as God smited the  Egyptians.  Moses had struck the Nile and it turned to blood.  Can you imagine?  I hope everyone had gathered water to drink before that happened!  We don’t know that the Hebrew people had, but I’m going to assume that Moses had given them a heads up.  And all those other plagues.  My favorite is frogs.  I can just imagine grabbing for a bowl a cereal and having frogs jump out of the cabinet!  Gnats, flies, locusts, boils, hail,  darkness, livestock disease, and then the big one.  The death of the first born, but those slaves were safely tucked away in their houses, the blood of the lamb guarding the doorposts.  And then they were off—on their way to freedom.  Their Egyptian overlords had even pressed gold and silver in their hand to launch them—Just get out of Dodge!
But that wasn’t the end of the matter.  When Pharaoh had second thoughts, here came the army trapping the people between approaching disaster and the Red Sea.  Once again God saved the day.  Now Moses struck the waters and a pathway opened up.  Across they went and when Pharaoh’s troops tried to follow the waters closed over top of them.  Finally freedom.
Hadn’t God taken care of them?  Even in the wilderness God had provided sweet water when all they could find was undrinkable, bitter drink.  He had rained manna upon them.  He even sent quails for meat, but here they were once again grumbling and building themselves into a fit, threatening to stone Moses, moaning about the food back home.  Why did God bring them out into the wilderness in the first place.  Was it so they could die of thirst?
No confidence at all.  They’d seen all of this, why couldn’t they trust?  Maybe it’s because that’s just not the nature of us humans.  Don’t we want to control our destiny?   We want to know what’s up ahead and how we are going to get there.  We NEED to plan and make preparation, to bargain if needed and explore options.  We form committees to find answers.  That’s just who we are, and we get frustrated when those things are taken from us.
And another thing that we might consider about those ex-slaves is that for their whole lives they had been taken care of in predictable, even if hostile, ways.  Now they needed to trust in God, but it wasn’t predictable, and God didn’t give out an itinerary for how things were going to go. 
It was a completely different system, and doesn’t that throw us off track?  Even something as minor as the beginning of Daylight Savings time.  I bet several of us plan a nap this afternoon, and we’ll be out of sync for a few days, to boot.
So maybe we shouldn’t shake our finger too hard.  And then there is this, that I think compounds the uncertainty.   It was after God had provided drinkable water after they had first crossed the Red Sea.  God had said, “IF you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in his sight, and give heed to his commandments and keep all of his statues, I will not bring upon you any of the diseases that I brought upon the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you.”  That’s a conditional phrase and there are four big Ifs.  A lot of conditions to meet, even if we might argue that they boil down to one big one.  So maybe under those conditions we might be a little less assured of God’s continued care, too. 
Isn’t that why God sent his Son into our world—to eliminate a lot of those Ifs?  And the story of the Samaritan woman’s encounter with our Lord is a perfect example.
To begin with, it was just the two of them.  Jesus was on his own.  His disciples had gone to find food.  The woman was alone, as well.  The busy time at the well would be in the morning.  We don’t know why she was late.  Perhaps she’d been there earlier, as well and now needed more water.  Maybe she was avoiding the busy time, or avoiding the other women.  We don’t know.
How surprised she must have been to see a Jewish man loitering by the well, and when he spoke to her that was a surprise, too.  Men didn’t regularly engage in conversation with unknown women.  But here he is asking her for a drink, and she noted his uncustomary request. 
Do you notice how Jesus sort of ignores the point of her question and offers the heart of the matter?   He tells her that if she just knew who was asking she would request that he give her “living water.”  (Living water is running water as from a brook or a spring, even a river.  It was considered a higher quality water.)
The woman takes offense, assuming that he is insulting the well which was rather famous, from the time of Jacob.  “Sir, you don’t have a bucket and this well is deep.  (In other words, you’re not fooling me!)  And Hey do you think you’re better than our ancestor Jacob?  Do you hear the way she’s bristling against this arrogant Jew?
Jesus tries to explain.  “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again.  But those who drink of the water that I will give will never grow thirsty.  The water that I give will become in them a spring gushing up to eternal life.”
Now he has her attention.  Now she’s willing to ask the question.  “OK, give me this water so I won’t be thirsty and won’t have to keep coming here to draw water.” 
But there is a price.  And now Jesus get to that. “Go and get your husband and bring him back.”  That would be fine except the woman has to admit she doesn’t have a husband.  Now she’s beginning to come clean.
Jesus tells her what he already knows.  Not only does she not have a husband now, she’s had five husbands and her living arrangement is with a man to whom she’s not married.  Now that might mean she’s broken one of those commandments God sent down the mountain.  “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”  But there are other scenarios that might also be true.  Living with another male relative or being a servant or a slave with a household.  Regardless, she would really like to change the topic, so she turns the classic dispute between Jews and Samaritans—Where is the proper place to worship God?  Is it in Jerusalem as the Jews claim or on Mount Gerizim as the Samaritans assert.
Jesus replies that the time is coming when neither place will be an option for worship.  He slides in that salvation is from the Jews, but the important piece is worshipping God in spirit and truth.
When the woman comments that she knows that the Messiah is coming, Jesus tells her “I am he, the one speaking to you.” 
And with that hanging in the air, his disciples return.  How surprised they are that he is speaking with this Samaritan woman.  She has three strikes against her.  Samaritan, female and of questionable reputation.  Even if her current living arrangement were acceptable, five husbands is a LOT.
Do you notice that Jesus doesn’t put any IFS on this woman?  There is no condition except that she make the request for her to receive this living water, this eternal life, this presence of God to walk with her along the way.
Later we discover that the woman has accepted Jesus offer.  She has told her whole community about him and they, too, have come to believe.
Suddenly we get it.  Jesus accepts us BEFORE we can get all our IFS in order.  God bends low and gives us this gift of living water.  It’s an assurance that God’s love and forgiveness are ours for the asking.  We get to be agents of light and hope in Jesus’ name.  We can let go of our fear and anxiety. We can be patient in waiting for God because we know that it will be OK.  We can see life’s difficulties, not as obstacles, but as stair steps to grow closer to God.
All of us have things that we wish we’d done differently.  We wish we’d been smarter and more sensitive about how we handled something.  We wish we’d avoided doing or saying that thing that hurt our brother or sister.  We wish we’d spent more time showing forth God’s love.  I bet the Samaritan woman had some of those same wishes.  But ultimately she could let them go because Jesus had offered her living water and she’d drunk deep into eternal life.
 
He offers it to us, as well.  Regardless of our “I wish I didn’t have this in my history”  living water that gushes up to offer us eternal life is as close as our “Yes, please, Lord.”  It’s sweet and refreshing.; it keeps us hydrated in ways that are sweet and hopeful.  It carries us through stress and crises.  It reminds us that God is present.  God is providing that which we need.
Those Hebrew slaves will come to understand these things, and at times they will fall back to doubting.  But Jesus comes to us with an invitation and a pitcher of cold, refreshing, life giving water.  Let’s drink and know the sweetness that carries us forward into God’s eternal grace.  Amen.
 
 
HYMN Amazing Grace #280 PASTORAL 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.
Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors;
and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, now and forever. Amen.
 
OFFERING OUR LIVES
 
DOXOLOGY Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow #592
 
Eucharist
 
 
INVITATION TO THE LORD’S TABLE
 
 
THE PRAYER OF GREAT THANKSGIVING
 
God who offers us life and hope and forgiveness, we praise you, Lord.
We offer our joyful thanks for your gift of life. You, O Christ, were obedient unto death for us. Help us to remember that we can’t do it ourselves. We need you.
 
We need your strength and your wisdom, your love and your guidance, your salvation and your unending grace.
You offer all these things to your people. You call us just as you called
disciples long ago.
 
With those disciples you sat to share this sacred meal. You offered to them, and to all of us, participation in your life and in your death. You took the bread and broke it,
Calling for us to remember not only the unleavened bread that the Hebrew slaves ate as they fled from Egypt,
 
But also you, our Bread of life,
Your body broken on a cross for us.
 
You poured out the cup
Calling for us to share in the drinking of it.
 
It is salvation, release from the bondage of sin and death.
But it is also the power in your blood that offers to us the new covenant by which God writes his laws upon our hearts.
 
As we eat at this table, sharing your body broken, your life-blood poured out, we know ourselves to be the children of the living God.
May we be lifted to you by the power of your Holy Spirit.
 
Thank you, Lord Jesus. Be our host in this banquet of life.
Come Lord Jesus into our hearts and into our lives. Amen
 
 
RECEIVING THE BREAD AND CUP COMMUNION PRAYER
HYMN Come Sing, O Church in Joy! #430
 
Sending Forth
 
CHARGE & BLESSING POSTLUDE
We will remain seated throughout the service.
Bold text is to be read together aloud as a congregation.

 
​March 5, 2023
SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT
 
Gathering
 
MUSICAL OFFERING
 
ANNOUNCEMENTS
 
The Ladies Lunch Bunch will gather at Yen Ching’s on March 8.  All the women of the church (and guests) are invited.  Please RSVP on the sheet outside the Administration Office.
 
Session meets on March 12th.
 
Turn your clocks ahead on March 12th.
 
All PULSE articles are due on March 15th.
 
PRAYER REQUESTSREQUESTS  Please hold the following in your prayers.
 
·    Jon who has been in the hospital.
· Betty Farwell and JoAnn Grimm who struggle with health problems
· Richard Lewis who broke a hip and is recovering at the Alverno.
· Arlene Pawlik who is recovering from a broken leg.
· Those who are on hospice:  Joan Pinkston & Maxine Wagner.
 
PRELUDE
 
PSALTER                                                                       Psalm 121, NIV
 
Leader: I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from?
 
People: My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
 
Leader: He will not let your foot slip—he who watches over you will not slumber;
 
People: indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
 
Leader: The Lord watches over you—the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
 
People: the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.
 
Leader: The Lord will keep you from all harm—he will watch over your life;
 
People: the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.
  
GATHERING PRAYER
 
Gracious God, Almighty Savior, you are our strength and our protection, our guide and our friend. You have been our help, and you have seen us through the night. You watch over us as we sleep and when we rise. May we this day, therefore, serve you, praise you, draw near to you, and adore you, for that is our privilege and our calling.
  
HYMN                       Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee                     #464
 
CALL TO CONFESSION
 
We sing and rejoice in God our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, and yet we are sometimes guilty of holding back, of wearing blinders, of trying to limit God’s activity, or of refusing to accept the broad magnitude of God’s love and grace. God is and does and loves so much more than we are willing to accept. Let us confess our sometimes narrow-minded faith to our God who is infinitely more than we can imagine.
 
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
 
We admit to you, O God, the times that we define you as the world around us defines you, and that often means we stuff you in a box that is too small for your awesome wisdom and might. You are the Creator of the universe, yet we try to reduce you to something much smaller, something we can not only understand but control. Yet heavenly Holy One, you are the Divine Mystery. You will not be contained by our humble attempts; still you choose to be intimately involved in our lives if we welcome you. May we learn to be more mindful of your magnificence and still give thanks for your beneficence. May your Spirit guide us toward truth, and by your compassion may we be forgiven for the truth about our own efforts to limit or manipulate you. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
 
WORDS OF ASSURANCE                                          John 3:17, NET
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him.
 
Through Christ we are forgiven.  Thanks be to God!
 
SONG OF PRAISE                 Gloria Patri                                                        #579
 
PASSING THE PEACE
    (Please greet those around you with these words. But let’s refrain from touch.)
May the peace of Christ be with you. And also with you.
 
INTERLUDE
 
 
Word
 
PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION
 
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God of us all, may we hear your Word through scripture and proclamation in a way that gives us new life. Amen.
 
SCRIPTURE LESSONS                
Genesis 12:1-4a, GNT
12 The Lord said to Abram, “Leave your country, your relatives, and your father's home, and go to a land that I am going to show you. 2 I will give you many descendants, and they will become a great nation. I will bless you and make your name famous, so that you will be a blessing.
 
3 I will bless those who bless you,
But I will curse those who curse you.
And through you I will bless all the nations.”
 
4 When Abram was seventy-five years old, he started out from Haran, as the Lord had told him to do; and Lot went with him.
 
Romans 4:1-5, GNT
What shall we say, then, of Abraham, the father of our race? What was his experience? 2 If he was put right with God by the things he did, he would have something to boast about—but not in God's sight. 3 The scripture says, “Abraham believed God, and because of his faith God accepted him as righteous.” 4 A person who works is paid wages, but they are not regarded as a gift; they are something that has been earned. 5 But those who depend on faith, not on deeds, and who believe in the God who declares the guilty to be innocent, it is this faith that God takes into account in order to put them right with himself.
 
John 3:1-17, NET
Now a certain man, a Pharisee named Nicodemus, who was a member of the Jewish ruling council, 2 came to Jesus at night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs that you do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus replied, “I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter his mother’s womb and be born a second time, can he?”
 
5 Jesus answered, “I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must all be born from above.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it will, and you hear the sound it makes, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
9 Nicodemus replied, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you don’t understand these things? 11 I tell you the solemn truth, we speak about what we know and testify about what we have seen, but you people do not accept our testimony. 12 If I have told you people about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven—the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
 
16 For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him.
 
SERMON                                    By Faith                                                          
 
HYMN                         O For A Thousand Tongues                       #466
 
PASTORAL 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.
Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors;
and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, now and forever. Amen.
 
OFFERING OUR LIVES
 
All powerful God, may we give freely of ourselves to you, as you have so freely given yourself to us. May our passion for your world and our compassion for one another not be limited by our experience or vision, but may we truly hear and see what you would show us and live accordingly. Amen.
 
DOXOLOGY Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow                                   #592
 
AFFIRMATION OF FAITH A Brief Statement of Faith  inside back of hymnal
 
HYMN                      Go With Us Lord (Tallis Canon)                    #535
 
Sending Forth
 
CHARGE & BLESSING                                                                        
 
POSTLUDE
 
We will remain seated throughout the service.
Bold text is to be read together aloud as a congregation.