Call to Worship

Ancient Words Antiphone

Ps 103:15-17; Ps 91:1-4; Joel 2:12-14; Joel 2:28-29

As for mortals, their days are like grass;
they flourish like a flower of the field;
for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
and its place knows it no more.
But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting
on those who fear him,
and his righteousness to children’s children,

Holy words long preserved
for our walk in this world,
They resound with God’s own heart
Oh, let the Ancient words impart.

You who live in the shelter of the Most High,
who abide in the shadow of the Almighty,
will say to the Lord, ‘My refuge and my fortress;
my God, in whom I trust.’
For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler
and from the deadly pestilence;
he will cover you with his pinions,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.

Words of Life, words of Hope
Give us strength, help us cope
In this world, where e’er we roam
Ancient words will guide us Home.

Yet even now, says the Lord,
return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
rend your hearts and not your clothing.
Return to the Lord, your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,
and relents from punishing.
Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,
and leave a blessing behind him,
a grain-offering and a drink-offering
for the Lord, your God?

Holy words of our Faith
Handed down to this age.
Came to us through sacrifice
Oh heed the faithful words of Christ.

Then afterwards
I will pour out my spirit on all flesh;
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
your old men shall dream dreams,
and your young men shall see visions.
Even on the male and female slaves,
in those days, I will pour out my spirit.

Ancient words ever true
Changing me, and changing you.
We have come with open hearts
Oh let the ancient words impart.
Ancient words ever true
Changing me, and changing you.

We have come with open hearts
Oh let the ancient words impart.
We have come with open hearts
Oh let the ancient words impart.

Invocation

Holy God,
From the very beginning,
Your Word has moved over the the earth
in the earth
and through the earth.
Your Word has ordered the heavens
and brought life to land and seas.
Your Word is the lamp to our feet
and the light to our path.
So we pray that You would be our revealer today.
Give us understanding, so that we can walk well in your ways.
Turn our hearts to your promise
So we will not stray from your goodness.
Teach us the joy of your love
So that we can celebrate with you:
Serving our neighbor,
Honoring your generosity,
Sowing your peace.
By your Living Word we pray, Amen.

John 4:1-30 NRSV

Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard, ‘Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John’— although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized— he left Judea and started back to Galilee. But he had to go through Samaria. 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.

Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul,

Do not forget all God’s blessings
who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from darkness
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
who satisfies you with good as long as you live

The Lord works vindication
and justice for all who are oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moses,
his acts to the people of Israel.
The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love towards those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far he removes our transgressions from us.

The Lord has established his throne in the heavens,
and his kingdom rules over all.

Bless the Lord, O my soul!

God shapes us for purposes greater than our own, to not be captive to worldly divisions, but instead to bear the image of the heavenly, giving evidence of God’s love in Jesus Christ. As Jesus turned ordinary water into wine of celebration, may we also be blessed, truly born of God and God’s love. May the hungry be fed, the stranger welcomed, the enemy loved, and the broken healed. May we be the body of Christ.

You have set the bounds of the garden
in which we can have life and joy with you.
The boundary lines have fallen for us, in good places.
And yet we have run off, distrustful
seeking more by our own devices,
and gotten lost, finding only emptiness.

But you have entered our darkness
to show us light again.

So guard us on your way.
Teach our hearts humility and trust.
Help us to live lives that believe and proclaim
that your love reigns. Amen.

Adapted from prayers by Thom Shuman
http://lectionaryliturgies.blogspot.com/