Immediate Word

For the Third Sunday in Lent, February 27, the gospel is John 4:5-42. In this story of Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well there are the two levels of meaning that are so often found in the Fourth Gospel. The woman would be satisfied with an guaranteed supply of plain old H2O, but the water Jesus has spoken about to her is something different. You can satisfy your thirst with ordinary water but eventually you'll be thirsty again. Jesus says that the person who drinks of his water will never thirst again.

Jesus repeats that idea later in our text when he talks with his disciples, though then he puts it in terms of food rather than drink. "I have food to eat that you do not know about." And in John 6:27 he tells the people who had experienced the feeding of the 5,000, "Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life."

This year February 27 is also the date of the 77th Annual Academy Awards, the Oscars. Actors and others in the movie business struggle and sometimes sell their souls to get one of those little statues. Reaching the top may be satisfying, but when you get there you may find yourself asking, "Is this all there is?" Fame doesn't always last, and a winner who isn't at least in the running for the top spot for the next few years may be considered all washed up. When you're at the top, the only way to go is down. Are there any prizes that really will last?

Two of the films that are nominated for best picture this year (as well as getting nominations for actors and actresses and in a number of other categories) connect with the same theme. In Million Dollar Baby Maggie Fitzgerald, played by Hilary Swank, is a woman in her early thirties whose only way out of a life as impoverished "trailer park trash" is to become a boxer. After overcoming a lot of resistance she succeeds. She persuades Frankie Dunn, a veteran of the fight business (played by Clint Eastwood) to train her. Under his direction, and with single-minded effort, she becomes a well-known, respected, and well-paid fighter who finally gets a title fight.

At this point I'm tempted just to tell you to go see the movie if you haven't done so already, but I've got to sketch the ending so that we can think about its possible homiletic relevance. A sucker punch from her opponent when she's already on the way to her corner sends Maggie down, with her head hitting the stool that's already been set out. Her neck is broken and she's paralyzed from the neck down. Lying in bed in a nursing facility, she asks Frankie to end her life: She's gotten what she wanted, she is somebody, and she can't face years of helplessness. Frankie refuses -- at first -- but finally does it and then disappears. My description doesn't remotely do the film justice, but that's what happens.

Some criticism of Million Dollar Baby has focused on its apparent approval of this final act of euthanasia/assisted suicide. It's worth noting, though, that it isn't presented as an unambiguous good. Frankie has been going to mass every morning for years. Before making his decision he talks with his priest who tells him that if he does it, he'll be lost so deeply that he'll never find himself. Frankie doesn't argue.

The other Oscar nominee I have in mind is The Aviator, with Leonardo DiCaprio's portrayal of Howard Hughes. Hughes was very successful in both the film and aviation business, and the movie gives us an excellent picture of his struggles and triumphs over about twenty years of his life. But it also hints at what he will become -- a recluse hiding himself from contact with other people because of his fear of germs. He got a lot of what he was striving for, but it didn't enable him to overcome his demons.

So what do we make of this, and how do we connect these films with the Johannine double entendres of water and food? One easy approach is to say that in the gospel Jesus is talking about satisfaction of spiritual needs while the movies, in typical Hollywood fashion, ignore that aspect of life and focus on the merely physical. That's not completely accurate. As I noted, Frankie attends mass every day, and we'll need to look at that more closely later.

But it's true that the two films that I've described don't present us with people who are searching explicitly for God. Neither Maggie Fitzgerald nor Howard Hughes mentions such a desire, and we're never clear on what Frankie thinks about God. As in many movies, the theology is implicit. People are looking for something that gives their life meaning, something that validates their existence. They would probably laugh at the idea that a boxing championship or success in the aircraft industry could be called union with God but in some ways that's how those desires function.

And that's the problem that we have to address -- that people seek their ultimate satisfaction, fulfillment, or meaning in something other than God. They're not necessarily searching for it in something bad but in something less than the highest good. Jesus doesn't tell the woman at the well that ordinary water is bad and that she shouldn't drink it. Drinking water can even have religious value -- Jesus commends those who give a cup of it to someone in need (Matthew 10:42). Nor -- to recall the gospel from a couple of weeks ago -- does "One does not live by bread alone" mean that we don't need food. These things are, of course, necessary for physical life. But there is something that sustains life on a more profound level, and that is what Jesus offers. Similarly, there's nothing wrong with wanting to succeed at what you're good at or in making money. The problem comes when those things get in the way of God.

(Some might question whether being a professional boxer is an appropriate calling for a Christian. In the early church, wrestlers and gladiators were required to renounce those professions before they were admitted to the catechumenate. I won't debate that point but note that, while boxing pervades Million Dollar Baby, its central theme could be developed in another way. It probably wouldn't be as good a movie, but one could do something similar with Maggie as an aspiring concert pianist.)

It's easy enough to say that we should find our satisfaction in God rather than in food and drink, fame, success, or any of those things. The trouble is that water, bread, and all the rest are concrete things that do seem to give satisfaction on some level. God, on the other hand, can seem like an abstraction. "God" may be understood as the First Cause who is ultimately responsible for all those other things or as one who gives hope for life after death. Those concepts make the deity something quite remote from everyday life and hardly able to provide any sense of fulfillment today.

Scripture doesn't point us just to a generic "God" as the one who gives fulfillment of our lives. Rather by the God who has acted to make Israel his people, an action that culminates in Jesus of Nazareth, that gives that fulfillment. In the Fourth Gospel he is the source of living water and the bread of life. It is in the concreteness of his incarnate life that we are given the pattern of a meaningful life as well as the possibility of living in accord with that pattern. More than that, the resonances of "water" and "bread" with Baptism and Eucharist point toward the offer of a present fellowship with Christ and with the people of God gathered around him.

(But sacraments don't always satisfy spiritual hunger. Clint Eastwood's character is troubled by a long separation from his daughter, though we're never told what tore them apart. The priest, Father Horvak, isn't the most profound theologian but he's on target when he tells Frankie that anyone who comes to mass every day for 23 years must have quite a load of guilt. Apparently all Frankie's devotion hasn't brought him the satisfaction of forgiveness. If there is no faith in the Eucharistic words "shed for you and for all people for the forgiveness of sins," then all the church attendance in the world won't bring any healing.)

But, even with a clear presentation of the Christian message, there comes a time in the life of many Christians (often as young adults) when other goods seem to offer more satisfaction than does Christ. Jesus' story of the prodigal son seems relevant here. The lure of the far country draws us off to find fulfillment -- or maybe just to have fun, which sometimes seems a good substitute! And we don't need to end up penniless and feeding swine like the prodigal. On the contrary, sometimes it's the fact that we've succeeded, that we've gotten what we were working toward for so long, that makes us realize that there must be something more, some satisfaction of a different order.

People who have succeeded in the pursuit of food, fame, or fortune do sometimes ask, "Is that all there is?" and the church needs to be prepared not just to say "No" but to give a convincing statement of the "more" that God has to offer. We also have to wait for the appropriate time to speak. Sometimes we -- and especially those of us who are older -- have to be patient, let the prodigal children come to themselves in the far country, and be warned by the elder brother's role in the parable when they do return.

Finally, I need to say something about Maggie's death in Million Dollar Baby. Suicide and assisting with suicide are morally objectionable, though not "the unforgivable sin." One reason that this movie's treatment of that idea is disturbing is that, in this case, for Maggie to ask to have her life ended is so understandable, and for Frankie to do that for her can be seen so clearly as an act of love.

But there is another aspect of this that ties in with my emphasis here. Maggie wants to go out "on top" and she does, even though she's flat on her back. She hasn't won the championship, but she's won respect from the sporting world. To that extent we could say that her life was fulfilled. That fulfillment, however, isn't enough to sustain her in the future that lies before her. In an important sense it's cheating to quit life when we think we're ahead. And it's only in the one who calls us to take the way of the cross, and who goes ahead of us on that path, that we can find satisfaction even when we're behind by the world's standards.


Team Comments

Chris Ewing responds: What does it take to satisfy us? When the hockey season goes down, most of us will be content to turn to basketball or a sitcom or a little extra time with the family. But when one's sense of purpose goes down, or adolescent invincibility is replaced by a middle-aged apprehension of finitude and the suspicion that "Vanity, all is vanity," where then does one turn?

Today's readings, like the films George Murphy refers to, explore questions of survival and satisfaction at levels from the physical to the social and spiritual. These are old questions, universal questions, questions that never seem to be answered so definitively that we lose our need to probe them.

All of the lectionary readings explore the interface between felt and real needs, sometimes even between identified and real desires. In Exodus 17, a crisis of physical survival surfaces a deep ambivalence and anxiety about whether they have even done the right thing in leaving Egypt (v. 3). Were they satisfied in slavery there? Perhaps some were; many more would have found it, if not satisfying, at least safe. Yet enough yearned for something more that Moses was able to persuade the whole community to follow him across the desert in search of their own land, freedom, self-determination, and hope.

Is the need for fulfillment (however that may be construed) greater than the need for safety and predictability? It depends on whom you ask, and when. In the lives of our churches, and in our individual lives, seasons of bravely leaving the past behind alternate with temper tantrums over what has been lost. Yet in these times of regret, the losses are perhaps not the issue in themselves, or even only the security that they represent. In summarizing the "quarrel" and "test" at the heart of this legendary incident in Exodus, the final polishers of the account identify it as a matter of God's presence: "Is the Lord among us or not?" (v. 7).

The presence of God speaks to a host of human needs: perhaps as basic as the physical protection and provision without which it would be insane to take a large community into the desert; or perhaps, more deeply, the need for identity ("You will be my people and I will be your God"), or for purpose and transcendence -- to be about something that has meaning and will stand the test of time. This ancient crisis and the people's response to it continue to strike chords of identification some 3,500 years later among people of vastly different culture and circumstance. However we understand God, and whatever meaning we attach to God's presence, it seems we need to know God is with us, or we just are not satisfied.

This is a theme developed in our other readings, too. The psalm and the gospel introduce the idea that satisfaction is found not only in God's provision but also in our service to God. For the psalmist, it is at the moment of worship that he is most aware of his identity as one of God's flock (Psalm 95:6-7), and this launches him on an impassioned appeal not to become hardened to the signs of God's presence. In our unbelievably wealthy yet perpetually unsatisfied North American society, this alone might be worth a preacher's time this Sunday: are we refusing to be satisfied and refusing the worship wherein we might find what we truly need? Perhaps our worship is being vested in the wrong places. We think we will be satisfied with a certain standard of living, or level of career achievement, or family arrangement, and we pour ourselves into achieving it ... only to find that this cannot, after all, satisfy -- and we do not know what else to worship, or how. (It could be worth noting that "worship" is rooted in Old English "worth-ship": to ascribe worth, or value. What do we value with our time, our money, our energy, or our desire?) The psalmist's plea not to harden our hearts but to worship our Maker can be an important key to finding fulfillment.

Jesus takes this one step further when he tells his disciples that his food is to do the will of the one who sent him, and to complete God's work (John 4:31-34). One could spend many sermons -- or, perhaps better, some workshop time -- exploring with people what it means to do God's will and complete God's work, particularly in a context where workaholism is common and frequently a source of pride (not least among pastors!). One senses that more hours and increased busyness are not necessarily what Christ had in mind!

On another tack, the gospel affords us the opportunity to consider the social dimension of satisfaction. One of the aspects of the salvation that came to the Samaritan woman's house that day seems to have been her reintegration into her community. A woman who began the story having to come to the well in the heat of the day, instead of with her neighbors early in the morning, and whose marital history was a scandal, becomes the evangelist on whose account the community come to check out a possible Messiah -- and they end up concurring with her that "this is truly the Savior of the world" (v. 42). Although this is by no means the only, and perhaps not the most important, aspect of what she found in Jesus, surely her reconciliation with her community ranks as one very thirst-quenching stream of the living water.

Reconciliation is also a significant thread for Paul: "We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1), giving hope for sharing God's glory (v. 2), and a sense of peace and purpose even through the middle of trying times (vv. 3-5). The restored relationship with God is both the foundation and the culmination of the satisfaction that Christians may hope for. In a society offering a million gilded idols, it would be worth some time to explore just what the reconciled relationship looks like, and why it is worth letting go of all other contenders for fulfillment in order to pursue.

Carlos Wilton responds: George, when we first spoke about this week's topic in our weekly conference call, I wondered how you were going to get from Million Dollar Baby and The Aviator to the Woman at the Well, but by golly, you've done it.

You've reminded me once again what a powerful encounter this is, between Jesus and the nameless Samaritan woman. It's a fleeting encounter, but no less memorable for its brevity. Think of the countless chance encounters we have in life: how many people we meet in our ordinary comings and goings, to whom we give scant attention. Jesus, however, demonstrates a radical openness to other people -- most particularly those, like the Samaritan woman, who are profoundly wounded inside. Had this woman come to the well an hour earlier or an hour later, her life might have been very different: but because she comes at the moment when Jesus, Savior of the world, is there, she ends up exclaiming to all her friends, "Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done!"

Several of the sources I've consulted this week have reminded me of the sexual tension that undoubtedly charged the air, as Jesus broke the noonday silence to ask the woman for a drink. This was a culture in which women did not speak to strange men unless spoken to, and sometimes not even then. Walter Burghardt and Katharyn Waldron, writing in the January-March 2005 Living Pulpit, point out that there were but five scriptural books Jews and Samaritans had in common: the five books of the Pentateuch. These five books are rich in romantic stories of men and women meeting each other at wells:

"In the first book Abraham's servant meets Rebekah (Genesis 24:16) and Jacob meets his cousin Rachel (Genesis 29:1-20); both those meetings occur at a well. In the Pentateuch's second book Moses defends the seven daughters of a priest (Exodus 2:15-21). Where? At a well. Each of these three incidents involves a male stranger and one or more women. Jesus, suspecting the Samaritan woman is likely acquainted with the earlier stories involving wells, risks leading her into dialogue. He takes her seriously and with respect he interacts with her." (pp. 46-47)

John unfolds the story masterfully, and in a way that might well have taken his first-century readers by surprise. Expecting a boy-meets-girl story ? la Jacob and Rachel, his readers would have been jarred by Jesus' declaration, "you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband." This woman is no spring flower; she is what United Methodist theologian Tex Sample, writing about contemporary evangelism, has called a "hard living" person:

"[A] distinction needs to be made between 'the respectables' and the 'hard living.' By respectables I mean the hard working, church going, patriotic, family-oriented people who find in respectability hard earned compensation for not realizing the dominant culture's valuing of winning and achievement, on the one hand, and their own rightful claim of dignity, on the other. By hard living I mean that sizable but smaller group on the cultural right who have given up on respectability. The larger society has a variety of names for them: poor white trash, underclass blacks and Hispanics, and so on. These are the people who struggle with employment, abuse drugs, experience household instability, and have histories of violence, either as victims or perpetrators or both." ("Indigenous Ministry in the Context of the United States," at http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=159; Sample also makes this distinction in his book, Hard Living People and Mainstream Christians [Abingdon, 1994].)

Jesus meets her at the well. There is rich symbolism here -- symbolism that may be lost on our modern listeners, who for the most part have lost the common cultural experience of daily trips to the well to draw water. For us, water comes gushing out of the kitchen tap, on demand -- or perhaps cascades out of the upturned water-cooler bottle, obligingly delivered each week to our home or workplace by a man with a truck. We've lost track of the sense of wonder at the sight of water that comes burbling up from a natural spring, or that lies waiting for us in the cool, mossy depths of a well, a seemingly endless supply. The Samaritan woman has come to the village square to imbibe her little daily miracle -- what she gets instead is a great miracle, a man who offers her "living water."

What is "living water" for us? The answer to that question is probably individual to each one of us. What is it we thirst for? That's where we need to begin: at the point of thirst. In The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge has one of his characters look out over the sea and marvel, "Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink." Such is the vista we take in, as we look out upon the turbulent waters of our culture. There is such abundance out there -- but abundance of the wrong thing. What we all need is the living water Jesus gives.



Related Illustrations

From Carlos Wilton:

For the sea lies all about us.... In its mysterious past it encompasses all the dim origins of life and receives in the end, after, it may be, many transmutations, the dead husks of that same life. For all at last return to the sea -- to Oceanus, the ocean river, like the ever-flowing stream of time, the beginning and the end.
-- Rachel Carson, The Sea Around Us (1951)

***

If there is little water in the stream, it is the fault, not of the channel, but of the source.
-- St. Jerome, Letter 17

***

Most of us believe in "order" to feel secure, in order to make our individual lives seem valuable and meaningful. Belief has thus become an attempt to hang on to life, to grasp and keep it for one's own. But you cannot understand life and its mysteries as long as you try to grasp it. Indeed, you cannot grasp it, just as you cannot walk off with a river in a bucket.... To have running water you must let go of it and let it run. The same is true of life and of God.
-- Flannery O'Connor

***

I know that when I tell my terrible truth to someone, the air and sunlight gets in and somehow heals me. For the life of me I don't know how that works, but it does. It is the mystery of grace. I know when I was drunk and stoned and having tiny little boundary issues with men, sometimes several times a day, I staggered into a little church where I was no longer sure of one single thing, except that I was lost. The people were civil rights activists, and the music was beautiful, and that turned out to be enough.

After a year in that church, I started to call God "Jesus." I wish that this did not worry people so much. My friend Neshama calls God "Howard," as in "Our father/mother, who art in heaven, Howard be thy name," and this does not seem to worry people. When I was still afraid to call God Jesus, I called him my Higher Power, or for the sake of brevity, my old H.P. Then I started to think of Him as my old Hewlett-Packard, and that worked, and it worried people a lot less than this Jesus business.

I told everyone at MCC I know that there is a solution, and the solution is spiritual, and that it probably has nothing to do with the problem. Most of the time, I simply have to remember to breathe, and have a sip of cool water. Spirit is breath, and breezes. In the Christian tradition it's also expressed as living water, poured over us, poured into us, into our dark, thirsty lives, and that sometimes it streams down our faces in tears. It cleanses us, hydrates the ground at our feet, grows things, buoys us up and cools us down. Unfortunately, I do not actually like to think about breathing -- it leaves me gasping like a fish on the dock -- and I don't like water at all. I personally would have preferred the Spirit to be experienced as lemonade....

Two weeks ago at my church we sang "Wade in the Water," and our pastor said that even as we now find ourselves in deep, frightening waters, there's no solution in focusing on the chaos. She said confidence begins when we focus on those who have led us out of hate and madness, people who never gave up hope. -- Dr. King, Nelson Mandela, Corazon Aquino

Veronica also said that when the slaves in the American South sang "Wade in the Water," out in the fields, the slave owners thought they were singing wistfully of the River Jordan, or the Red Sea. And maybe that's true, but this song, like most African-American spirituals, was also subversive, instructional. It urged people to seek freedom in the North, on the other side of the Ohio River -- and if you left dry land, and waded in the water, the bloodhounds couldn't pick up your scent.
-- Anne Lamott, 2/14/2003, describing a sermon she had recently preached at the Metropolitan Community Church, San Francisco

***

Everyone knows that the best form of advertising ever invented and the one that is still most successful is word-of-mouth -- people telling other people. About forty years ago there used to be an automobile named the Packard. Packard was the last car manufacturer to get into advertising. It didn't happen until old man Packard died, because whenever he was approached to buy some advertising for his cars he always said, "Don't need any; just ask the man who owns one." After his death, "Ask the man who owns one" became the Packard slogan.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is also known through word-of-mouth advertising. That's how the word about him gets out. Only the Shepherds at the first Christmas heard the good news from angels. Only the Wise Men were led by a Star. Just a comparative few were touched by miracles. Almost everybody came to know Jesus Christ.
-- Daniel G. Mueller, "The Best Advertising of All," in Just Follow The Signs (CSS, 1984) p. 50

***

How I would like to engrave this great idea
on each one's heart:
Christianity is not a collection of truths to be believed,
of laws to be obeyed,
of prohibitions.
That makes it very distasteful.
Christianity is a person,
one who loved us so much,
one who calls for our love.
Christianity is Christ.
-- Archbishop Oscar Romero, November 6, 1977

***

There are many reasons for the failure to comprehend Christ's teaching ... but the chief cause which has engendered all these misconceptions is this: that Christ's teaching is considered to be such as can be accepted, or not accepted, without changing one's life.
-- Leo Tolstoy

From Chris Ewing:

I find I can generally accomplish more for the Kingdom in 45 good hours than 70 exhausted ones.
-- Rev. Glenn Cooper (Presbyterian Church in Canada)

"Is Overtime Worth It?" explores the cost/benefit ratio of those extra hours in financial, social, health, and other terms. http://lifestyle.sympatico.msn.ca/BodyandMind/ContentPosting_CL.aspx?con...

***

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will -- all that I have and call my own. You have given it all to me. To you, Lord, I return it. Everything is yours; do with it what you will. Give me only your love and your grace. That is enough for me.
-- Ignatius of Loyola

***

Lord, help us not to ask you to bless what we're doing ... but to do what you're blessing.
-- Rick Warren

***

God won't ask, "What kind of car do you drive?" God will ask, "How many people have you [driven] without transportation?" and a dozen other such questions that can be found at http://www.feelgoodpages.com/godwontask/

***

I've never made a fortune,
And it's probably too late now.
But I don't worry about that much,
I'm happy anyhow.
And as I go along life's way
I'm reaping better than I sowed.
I'm drinking from my saucer,
'Cause my cup has overflowed.

Haven't got a lot of riches,
And sometimes the going's tough.
But I've got loving ones all around me
And that makes me rich enough.
I thank God for His blessings
And the mercies He's bestowed.
I'm drinking from my saucer
'Cause my cup has overflowed.

I remember times when things went wrong,
My faith wore somewhat thin.
But all at once the dark clouds broke,
And the sun peeped through again.
So Lord help me not to gripe
About the tough rows I have hoed.
I'm drinking from my saucer,
'Cause my cup has overflowed.

If God gives me strength and courage
When the way grows steep and rough,
I'll not ask for other blessings:
I'm already blessed enough.
And may I never be too busy
To help others bear their loads.
Then I'll keep drinking from my saucer
'Cause my cup has overflowed.
-- Source unknown


Worship Resources
By George Reed

OPENING

N.B. All copyright information is given from the first cited place where found. Some copyright information may differ in other sources due to adaptations, etc.

Music

Hymns

"You Satisfy The Hungry Heart." (especially if Eucharist is celebrated). WORDS: Omer Westendorf, 1977; MUSIC: Robert E. Dreutz, 1977. (c) Archdiocese of Philadelphia. As found in UMH 629; TPH 521; CH 429.

"Jesus Is All The World To Me." WORDS: Will L. Thompson, 1904; MUSIC: Will L. Thompson, 1904. Public domain. As found in UMH 469; AAHH 382; TNNBH 283.

"Sing Praise To God Who Reigns Above." WORDS: Johann J. Schutz, 1675; trans. Frances E. Cox, 1864; MUSIC: Bohemian Brethren's Kirchengesange, 1566; harm. Maurice F. Bell, 1906. Public domain. As found in UMH 126; Hymnal '82; TPH 483; TNCH 6; CH 6.

"What Wondrous Love Is This." WORDS: USA folk hymn; MUSIC: USA folk hymn; harm. Paul J. Christiansen, 1955. Harm. (c) 1955, renewed 1983 Augsburg Publishing House. As found in UMH 292; Hymnal '82: 439; LBOW 385; TPH 85; TNCH 223; CH 200.

"Amazing Grace." WORDS: John Newton, 1779; st. 6 anon.; MUSIC: 19th-cent. American melody; harm. Edwin O. Excell, 1900. Public domain. As found in UMH 378; Hymnal '82: 671; LBOW 448; TPH 280; AAHH 271, 272; TNNBH 161, 163; TNCH 547, 548; CH 546.

"It Is Well With My Soul." WORDS: Horatio G. Spafford, 1873; MUSIC: Philip P. Bliss, 1876. Public domain. As found in UMH 377; AAHH 377; TNNBH 255; CH 561.

Songs

"Fill My Cup, Lord." WORDS & MUSIC: Richard Blanchard. (c) 1959 Richard Blanchard; (c) 1964 Sacred Songs. As found in CCB 47. The first verse fits perfectly with the gospel reading. It can be found in Music Supplement II of The United Methodist Hymnal, 62:
"Like the woman at the well I was seeking
For things that could not satisfy;
And then I heard my Savior speaking;
'Draw from My well that never shall run dry.' "

"All I Need Is You." WORDS & MUSIC: Dan Adler; arr. Nylea L. Butler-Moore. (c) 1989 Out of the Door Music. As found in CCB 100.

"More Precious Than Silver." WORDS & MUSIC: Lynn DeShazo. (c) 1980 Integrity's Hosanna! Music. As found in CCB 25.

CALL TO WORSHIP

Leader: O come, let us sing to God.
People: Let us be joyful to the rock of our salvation.
Leader: Let us come with thanksgiving.
People: Let us sing songs of praise.
Leader: God is our God.
People: We are God's people, God's flock.
Leader: Let us listen to God.
People: We open our ears and our lives to God.

COLLECT / OPENING PRAYER

O God, who knows us better than we know ourselves: Grant us the faith to trust that you freely offer us all that we need to satisfy our souls; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

or

We come to worship and adore you, God, for we know that you have the waters of life. We have drunk from other springs and have not been satisfied. We come asking for your gracious gift of life giving water that we may forever life in and with you. Amen.

PRAYERS OF CONFESSION / PARDON

Leader: Let us together confess the state of our lives, asking to know once again the love and grace of our God.

People: We confess to you, O God, that we have been a wayward people. You have offered us the living waters that we may know joy and life eternal in you. We have tasted these waters and know their powers. Yet we have been seduced by the world and have believed other waters could be sweeter. We have drunk and they do not satisfy. Some are sweet in the mouth but turn sour in the stomach. Instead of quenching our thirst, they make us desire more and more until we feel we cannot leave them. Forgive us and renew us with your Spirit as you pour forth your waters of life for us once again. Wash us, refresh us, and use us to share those waters with others. Amen.

Leader: God is gracious. God is good. God desires nothing more than that all creatures of the earth might now salvation. Drink deeply and know that your sins are forgiven, your thirst is quenched and you are commissioned to share this good news with all the world.

GENERAL PRAYERS, LITANIES, ETC.

All praise and adoration is yours, O God, for you have created all that is and was and ever shall be. It is out of your love and your power that we, and all creation, exist. Even in creation we see your power expressed as your giving.

(The following paragraph is most suitable if a prayer of confession will not be used elsewhere.)

We confess that we live our lives unaware of your giving presence. We seek after life and satisfaction in things that destroy us, and the earth. When these things fail to satisfy we seek more of them. We are like pigs with our snouts buried in the trough and we cannot see you standing there offering us your own Self, the only thing that will satisfy. We have spent ourselves in searching for what you have always offered us. Forgive us and open our eyes to see in you the waters of life. Help us to drink deeply and remember who and whose we are. Fill us with your Spirit and call others to you through us.

We thank you for the gift of life: for physical life with all of its joys and pleasures and for our life that is in you, eternal and joyous. We are grateful for the abundance of the earth and even more so for the abundance of your grace.

(Other specific thanksgiving may be offered.)

We offer up to you the sufferings of your world. We ask that our spirits, our love, and our prayers may be united with you in healing ministry to your lost and suffering children. Help us to feed your hungry, to clothe your naked, to visit your imprisoned, to lift your lowly and to raise your dying. They are your children and our brothers and sisters.

(Other petitions may be offered.)

All these things we ask in the Name of Jesus who taught us to pray saying, "Our Father...."

Hymnal & Songbook Abbreviations

UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
Hymnal '82: The Hymnal 1982, The Episcopal Church
LBOW: Lutheran Book of Worship
TPH: The Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
TNNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
TNCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
PMMCH3: Praise. Maranatha! Music Chorus Book, Expanded 3rd Edition
Renew: Renew! Songs and Hymns for Blended Worship


A Children's Sermon

Are you thirsty?

Object: a glass of ice water

Based on John 4:5-42

Good morning! I want to ask you something: What should you do when you get thirsty? (get responses) That's right. Drink something. And one of the best things to drink is water. In the Bible lesson today, Jesus sits beside a well and speaks with a woman. He is thirsty from his journey and asks her for a drink of water. Then he says something that's very mysterious to her. (hold up the glass) He tells 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." What do you think that means? (see what they think)

How many of you have ever been REALLY thirsty? (show of hands) How do you feel when you're thirsty? (let them speak a few moments) When you have been playing or working really hard you get thirsty, especially if the day is very hot. (hold up the glass again) A glass of water like this one tastes really good, doesn't it? It's refreshing, cool and wet. It helps you feel better again! Well, Jesus tells the woman that his love is like a refreshing glass of water. When life is hard, when we're tired, when we're worn out: his love refreshes us and helps us keep going.

Jesus is using something ordinary to teach about something special. He wanted the woman to think about how it feels to be thirsty and how it feels when our thirst is satisfied. Yes, this glass of water is refreshing for the moment, but God's love will refresh us forever.

Prayer: Jesus, renew us with your love when we are tired. Please give us a taste of the water that will refresh us forever. Amen.

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The Immediate Word, February 27, 2005, issue.

Copyright 2004 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.

All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.