Worship Service – March 12, 2023

We are thirsty this week.  That is the point.  Thirsting for the living waters that Jesus spoke about to the woman at the well.  And not simply a one time or easy but unsatisfying spiritual refreshment, but a recognition of the deepest thirsts that we have and how we seem to always be thirsty, no matter how often we drink.  Come, let us worship God!
3rd  Sunday of Lent
Sunday March 12,2023
Scripture: John 4:1-42
Message; “It’s My Way or The High Way?”
John 4:1-42
Jesus Talks with a Samaritan Woman
(1) The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, (2) although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. (3) When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. (4) Now he had to go through Samaria. (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 the sixth hour.
(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 flocks and herds?”
(13) Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, (14) but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him 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. (18) Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 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 fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
(21) Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, 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 spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. (24) God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in 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 who speak to you 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 Christ ?” (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) Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. (36) Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the 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 true. (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.”

This is the word of God, for the people of God. Thanks be to God.j

What would it take for you to change your ways? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard someone say, “It’s my way or the highway”. What would it take for you to change your opinion of another group of people? What would it take for you to change your opinion of another person? Would it take a miracle?
Last week, the title of the message was, “Honest Faith”. This third Sunday of the Lenten season, the lectionary suggested that we read John 4:5-42, the story of the “ Samaritan Woman at the Well”. And in this story both Jesus and the Samaritan woman expressed to each other, “It’s my way or the highway. “revealing their, “Honest Faith”.
There are stories in the Bible of people who met Christ and then changed their ways. Who met Christ and change their opinion of others. Such is the story of the “Woman at the Well”. Because of her Honest Faith , a miracle of Grace was recorded for us.
Let’s take a closer look at our text today. First of all, we need to note that this story is set in Samaria. Are you familiar with the prejudices that Jews had against Samaritans? The Samaritans were a group of Jews from the province of Samaria who had intermarried with foreigners. The Jews considered Samaritans as social outcasts, untouchables, racially inferior, practicing a false religion.
Both claimed to be true descendants of the nation of Israel. Samaritans descended from the northern kingdom of Israel while the Jews descended from the southern kingdom of Judah. The Jew’s believed Jerusalem was the only true place of worship, while the Samaritans located the true place of worship at Mt. Gerizim. To add insult to injury, it was a well-known fact that in 128 B.C., the Jews destroyed the Samaritan temple at Mt. Gerizim.
So, any close physical contact with a Samaritan, drinking water from a common bucket, eating a meal together, would make a Jew ceremonially unclean. This meant they were unable to participate in temple worship for a period of time. The hostility between the two groups was so great that Jewish travelers usually chose not to travel through the area where the Samaritans lived. They would not even talk to each other. This is the background of this story.
Jesus and his disciples have been traveling for some distance and he is tired and thirsty. His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. He sits down by a well, known as Jacob’s well. A Samaritan woman comes to the well to draw water. Jesus says to her, “Will you give me a drink?” There was no, “Please, will you give me a drink” or “May I borrow your jar so that I might draw some water? No pleasantries before asking for a favor. My mother would’ve scolded me for asking for something in such an unpolite way. That may have set the tone for the conversation that followed, between them.
You see in those days, there were not only strict rules about Jews and Samaritans talking with one another. There were also rules about men and women conversing.
So, the Samaritan woman is surprised, and somewhat rude. And she says to him, “You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” Pleasantries were out the door! Because of her upbringing and heritage, she may have been thinking, ‘It’s my way or the highway buddy! What gives you the right to ask me for a drink. You don’t even have a jar to draw water from the well. Because we never told she gives him a drink.
I think the first thing that we learned from this story is, as it was in Jesus’ day, there is blind hatred in this world. Why can’t we all get along? If there was a way to remove blind hatred from human relationships, couldn’t we solve most of the world’s problem? All too many in the world today hold to the attitude of, “It’s my way or the highway”.
We may not always agree with one another, we may not approve of one another, but must we hate? In the providence of God, it is probably not accidental that our story for today is set in Samaria. The greatest problem in our world today is not global warming or poverty. The greatest problem is the animosity between differing groups of people.
Jesus, in His reaching out to the Samaritan woman is the second thing we need to take note of. When the Samaritan woman somewhat curtly turns aside his request for water, he turns a seemingly chance encounter into an evangelistic opportunity. Jesus reaches out to her apologetically saying, “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.” and the woman recognizes that when she responds by saying, “Sir”.
Realizing her rudeness, she takes a more cooperative view of the situation. Saying, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?”
At that moment, she didn’t realize that Jesus was offering her the gift of grace. The gospel writers made it clear that Jesus targeted his ministry at Jews, and Jews alone. In Matthew 15:24, he says specifically, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” Yet here he was offering the gift of “living water” to a Samaritan woman. He explains to her that if you drink this living water, you will never be thirsty again. But then the situation gets even more remarkable.
She responds to his offer: “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.
Then Jesus says to her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” Uh-oh! Do we have a problem? “I have no husband,” she replies.
Jesus says to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 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.”
Surprised, “Sir,” the woman says, “I can see that you are a prophet.”
He was a prophet, all right, but he was different than any other prophet she would ever encounter. He was breaking all the cultural taboos. He was reaching out to a woman, a Samaritan woman, a Samaritan woman who had been married five times and who was now living with a man who was not her husband. And He offers her grace.
This is startling even to this day–not what it says about Jesus, but what it says about us. How did we as a faith community miss the Gospel so completely? How did we become so judgmental toward others? How did we allow ourselves to shut out those of whom we disapproved, when time and time again Jesus did exactly the opposite? What is wrong with us that we cannot love those for whom he died?
That’s the Gospel. That’s the Good News. God’s grace is available to all. To the immoral and the amoral, to the illegal immigrant, to gay and straight, to black and brown and yellow and white. And it is “Good News”.
You see, not only are we blinded by our prejudices toward people like the Samaritan woman with her unseemly lifestyle, but we are also blinded to the fact that we are the Samaritan woman. We, too, have fallen short of the grace of God, but the hand of grace is reached out to us as well.
This is a story of a changed life. You may remember how the story ends. His disciples return and are surprised to find Jesus talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
Then, leaving her water jar, the woman goes back to the town and says to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” And the Gospel of John tells us that the people came out of the town and made their way toward Jesus. Truly, a miracle had occurred. Eyes were opened and lives were changed.
John concludes this story of the Samaritan woman like this: Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” So, when the Samaritans came to Him, they urged Him to stay with them, and He stayed two days. And because of His words many more became believers. 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.”
Wow! What a witness! A Samaritan woman with a questionable lifestyle becomes a recipient of God’s grace and now she is a vehicle of grace to guide others to Christ. Isn’t that a miracle in itself? God can use anyone!
That’s the bottom line, isn’t it? When we stop telling others, “It’s my way or the highway”, and start living and reaching out to others, like it’s, “God’s way to the High Way”, that leads to eternal life. Remembering that we too, had fallen short of the grace of God, but the hand of grace is reached out to us as well.
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God”(Ephesians 2:8).
When our Prejudices, our Hatred is replaced by, God’s Grace, we become an effective Christian witness. When we tell and show others by our life and example what it is like to be a Christian, only then will they come and believe in Him for themselves. We need to be honest enough in our faith, realizing that we are like the Samaritan Woman. After her encounter with Jesus, the Samaritan woman passed the test for being an effective Christian witness. So, the question is, in light of Christ’s great love for all people, can we?
Jesus said: “whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
You choose. How are you reaching out to others? Are you telling them, “It’s my way or the highway? or are you reaching out acknowledging that, “It’s God’s way to the High Way?
In His Service,
Pastor Joe
Listen To Audio: Sermon 20230312
Listen To Audio: Service 03122023
Call to Worship:L:  Welcome pilgrims on the way to the cross.
P:  We are learning to follow Jesus.

L:  The way is long, and we are thirsty.
P:  We seek the living waters of Jesus.

L:  Pilgrims on the way, come let us worship God!
P:  We come to worship God as we learn to live inside out!

 

Prayer of Confession:   We are dry, Lord, like the pavement on a sweltering summer day.  Our lives are heated, and the streams of our souls sometimes run dry.  We catch our tears, but they cannot ease our thirst.  We drip in sweat, but this cannot ease the heat.  So, we beg for only a few drops of refreshing rain to moisten the dryness in our world.  God’s promise is greater than rain or streams.  God promises a Savior sent to redeem and fill us with water eternally.  [Living] in the will of God, we [live] without thirst anymore. Amen.

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

 

Pastor Joe will be available at the church on Thursday afternoon from 11 to 1.  If you need to speak to him, contact Pastor Joe at 570-267-4570 (cell) or Email: joe.s.travis@gmail.com

Social Hour after church TODAY to celebrate the baptism of Katherine Melissa Traver.

One great hour of sharing during lent.

Loose change goes to General Fund

Sunday School starts at 8:30am

Choir practice will be on Thursday at 1:00! Please come a join us in singing praises to Jesus! 

Men’s Breakfast 8:00 on March 15th.

Meadow View St. Pat’s party on Friday the 17th at 2:00.   Join Kaylee Sue and Joyce for a happy time with the residents.

Session Meeting on Saturday March 18th at 9:00.

Newsletter Deadline – Tuesday, March 28th, 2023.

Good Friday service at 7:30pm on April 7th.

Easter Egg Hunt supplies-  small wrapped candies and small (egg sized) trinkets are welcome.  There is a donation basket in the rear of the church. 

The Easter Egg Hunt will be on Saturday, April 1st, at 11:00 am on the church grounds

Please sign up to host one of the social hours on the Sunday after Communion Service on the first Sunday of the month.  

Listen to WPEL 96.5 for church cancellation if your internet is down during a storm this winter.

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