Sunday March 8, 2026.
Call to Worship & Prayer (inspired by John 4.5-42)
God of Wonder & Glory. God of Grace & Mercy. God of our hearts…here we are!
We have come with thirsty hearts, praying that your Word will satisfy us and our thirst for justice, wholeness & grace.
We come with aching hearts, praying for good news to comfort & hold us. You continue to hold the world together, even as we threaten to tear it apart.
We come with overflowing hearts, praying for a chance to share Your love that you have shown us in Jesus. A love that welcomes & restores.
We come to You thirsting for Your Living Waters. You, who know our hearts and hear our prayers, be with us now in this hour of worship. Amen.
Sermon: Living Waters.
After this long Gospel reading that has so many layers in it and certainly so much focus on water, we are a little thirsty ourselves, aren’t we? All that talk about water makes us think about water and even crave water.
I stumbled over a fine and funny little poem by Steven Peterson reflecting on todays Gospel of the Samaritan Woman at the well with Jesus.
LADY’S YANKING UP A BUCKET OF WATER FROM A WELL.
JESUS COMES BY AND SAYS,
“HEY, GIMME SOME OF THAT WATER!”
SHE’S THINKING:
“GO YANK YOUR OWN WATER, MISTER!”
THEN HE STARTS IN ON HUSBAND NUMBER ONE,
AND HUSBAND NUMBER TWO,
AND HUSBAND NUMBER THREE,
AND BY THE TIME HE GETS TO THE CURRENT RESIDENT,
SHE SAYS:” OH YEAH? HOW DO YOU KNOW?”
HE JUST LOOKS AT HER WITH ONE OF THOSE SMILES.
THAT’S LIKE: CUZ, I DO!
AND SHE SAYS “MISTER, I’M DRINKING WHATEVER YOU’RE DRINKING!”
Yes, we want to drink whatever Jesus is drinking or whatever water his is giving us. The living water. The water of life. The essential, fundamental, living and forgiving water that makes us forget all the trivial non-essential stuff like how many or how few husbands she had, if she belonged to that group of people that we normally despise, if Jesus should have talked to her and should have known better, - but instead focus on the living water that quenched our thirst, that gives us courage and that brings us closer to God.
Water is at the center of all the readings this morning from Moses in the desert with the quarreling people complaining that there is no water. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.
Water is at the center of the story about the Samaritan woman at the well with Jesus and the conversations with the disciples following that encounter. 10 times the word water is said today in the readings, and I will keep on saying the word water again… as we need water.
Water is one of those things, you cannot live with too much of it, and you cannot live without it. Too much water will cover everything with terrifying monstrous waves and leave a smelly mucky mess behind. Too little water and the plants wither, the ground cracks and people die if they do not relocate to find a place with water.
Water is essential for our survival and being. Water is essential for the fact that there is even life on this blue planet of ours.
Water surrounded us in our earliest paradise of our mothers womb.
Water dominated the imagination of our ancestors in faith and the telling of their stories often called for a miraculous spring of hope or the need for a lifeboat.
The Bible begins with the watery chaos that covers the unformed land, yet God moves over it, separates it, organizes it.
A flood devastates all creation saving only a few righteous ones and killing all he wicked.
As the stories goes on in the Bible, wells become a place to meet a potential wife and even meeting God.
So, the Gospel of John is drawing on a long tradition of water stories. The baptism of Jesus in the waters of Jordan, the first miracle of turning water into wine, the meeting with the woman at the well. And all people are thirsty for that kind of water that Jesus offers: the living water.
We physically need water, but spiritually and emotionally we need that living lifegiving water too.
The story about the woman at the well is a beautiful story about an encounter that changes the path.
The story about the woman at the well is a beautiful story about being seen and cared for.
The story about the woman is about breaking down barriers between people who should not or could not speak to each.
The story about the woman at the well is about the longest recorded conversations Jesus had with anyone. And of course it had to be with a woman!!!
A reminder to us that faith is about dialogue, growth, honesty and change.
Being among and with curious people is what we are thirsting for. Certainty and fundamentalism are like a drought, and it is killing us and killing any dialogue.
This Wednesday a group of 8 good people from this congregation went to the well of living waters. A group of curious, open-minded and faithful people went to an Interfaith Meeting and Delicious Iftar Dinner at the Islamic Center in YL.
WE gathered to build bridges. To engage in conversations. To pray together. To be together. To be reminded of all our shared values despite diverse paths and religions.
It was truly a meeting at the water well – listening, talking, praying and dining with other curious people of all kinds of faiths and denominations.
An evening like that shows us that faith is not about division and walls, but about conversation and bridges. It is about sharing this life and drinking of the same living waters of faith, hope and love.
The story about the woman at the well is a story of so many layers and so much truth to unfold.
Jesus tried to reach unexpected people and, in that effort, overcame several obstacles and barriers to interact and have honest conversations. Last week it was Nicodemus, Today it is the nameless woman at the well.
The story about the woman at the well breaks down barriers of gender, ethic identity, faiths, social roles that might prevent them for ever talking. And the opening line for that conversation is simply: “Give me some water, please!”
It is a simple request, but in this very simplicity Jesus shows vulnerability. Water is one of our most fundamental needs, and Jesus also needs to drink water. She has a bucket to draw the water, and he has the living water.
And they engage in a trusting honest dialogue. like running water dripping life and freshness on their words. And Jesus invites her and us to embrace a future where neither of their inherited faiths wins because God’s plan is so much bigger.
This encounter at the well, this deep conversation between a woman of no name and a man named Jesus, reveals a space for connection, trust and leaning. That faith truly is a place of conversation and trust between curious honest people.
So, today we pray:
God:
meet us at the wells
where we are lonely
where we are forgotten
where we are hurt by others
and give us to drink of the grace that brings life again
God:
speak to us in the trysting places
where the sinners gather
where the prejudices are made known
where our histories are war and violence
and give us to drink of the forgiveness that brings peace again
God:
Renew all that we are and have been
fill us with a new future
inspire us with recreation
pull us into resurrection
and give us to drink the Living Water of Faith, Hope and Love. Amen.