Third Sunday of Lent

  

 

 

 

March 7, 2026

Responses: 

Presider: Nick

Zoom link

 https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87935930592?pwd=qZlKA506MIS9okXQQxBkaKsyhsZJDV.1

 

 Call to Prayer

John: Listen, sisters and brothers of faith. Today, we will receive the good news of Jesus. 

R: The living water satisfies our hunger and thirst. 

John: Today, God will speak to us, filling our hearts and healing our souls. 

All: The living water loves us and knows our needs. 

John: Today, there will be enough bread for all, enough to mend every broken place. 

All: The bread of life has come to sustain us. Believing this promise, let us worship together!

 

Opening Song The Work of Imagination

https://youtu.be/KTnuoUqk7Ok?si=J3nr79gX7uXH8mGS

 

 

Opening Prayer  Nick

God of abundance, we confess we overlook your daily provision. We take your gifts for granted longing for what we do not have instead of treasuring what we do. Our hearts often overflow with envy, and our desires pull us away from thoughts of gratitude. Forgive us, O God. Open our eyes to your faithfulness and teach us to always live with a sense of contentment and thanksgiving. We trust that you provide all we truly need. Amen

Prayer for Illumination   Juanita

God, may the scriptures we read today become living bread. May your Spirit empower them to shape us in Jesus’ likeness. Give us wisdom as we interpret these words of scripture; may they nourish our minds and souls. Amen.

 

First reading   A reading from the book of Exodus   Penny

 

The Israelites left the desert of Syn to travel by stages, as YHWH had directed them. They camped at Rephidim but found no drinking water. The people were thirsty and complained even more to Moses. “Why did you bring us out of Egypt only to make us and our children and our livestock die of thirst?”  Moses appealed to YHWH. “What am I to do with these people? They are ready to stone me!”  YHWH answered Moses, “Take some of the elders and move to the front of the people. Take with you the staff with which you struck the Nile. Go! I will wait for you there by the rock of Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight the elders. Moses named the place Massah, “Testing,” and Meribah, “Quarreling,” for the Israelites tested YHWH when they said, “Is YHWH with us or not?”

The word of God.  R] Thanks be to God

 

Responsorial psalm   (Versus) - Kathy N

R] Response: If today you hear God’s voice, do not harden your hearts! 

1 Come, let us sing joyfully to God! Raise a shout to our rock, our deliverance!  Let us come into God’s presence with thanksgiving and sing our praises with joy.

 

2 Come, let us bow down in worship; let us kneel before YHWH, our Maker. For you are our God, and we are the people you shepherd, the flock under your care.

R] Response: If today you hear God’s voice, do not harden your hearts! 

 

Second Reading Rita

A reading from the letter to the Romans

Now since we have been made right in God’s sight by our faith, we are at peace with God through our Savior Jesus Christ.  Because of our faith, Christ has brought us to the grace in which we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to the day on which we will become all that God has intended.

 But not only that—we even rejoice in our afflictions! We know that affliction produces perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and character, hope.  And such a hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Gospel Acclamation:  

 

https://youtu.be/U6rmU9z2p_4?si=GDQJGt4Tr4X29Zfr

 

Gospel  Nick/Margaret

As Jesus passed through Samaria, He stopped at a town named Sychar near the tract of land Jacob had given to his son Joseph, and Jacob’s Well was there. Jesus, weary from the journey, came and sat by the well. It was around noon.  When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”  The disciples had gone off to the town to buy provisions. The Samaritan woman replied, “You are a Jew. How can you ask me, a Samaritan, for a drink?”—since Jews had nothing to do with Samaritans. Jesus answered, “If only you recognized God’s gift, and who it is that is asking you for a drink, you would have asked him for a drink instead, and he would have given you living water.”  “If you please,” she challenged Jesus, “you don’t have a bucket and this well is deep. Where do you expect to get this ‘living water’?  Surely you don’t pretend to be greater than our ancestors Leah and Rachel and Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it with their descendants and flocks?”  Jesus replied, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. But those who drink the water I give them will never be thirsty; no, the water I give will become fountains within them, springing up to provide eternal life.”  The woman said to Jesus, “Give me this water, so that I won’t grow thirsty and have to keep coming all the way here to draw water.” Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband and then come back here.” “I don’t have a husband,” replied the woman. “You’re right—you don’t have a husband!” Jesus exclaimed. “The fact is, you’ve had five, and the man you’re living with now is not your husband. So, what you’ve said is quite true.” “I can see you’re a prophet,” answered the woman. 20 “Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you people claim that Jerusalem is the place where God ought to be worshiped.”  Jesus told her, “Believe me, the hour is coming when you’ll worship Abba God neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You people worship what you don’t understand; we worship what we do understand—after all, salvation is from the Jewish people.  Yet the hour is coming—and is already here—when real worshipers will worship Abba God in Spirit and truth. Indeed, it is just such worshipers whom Abba God seeks.  God is Spirit, and those who worship God must worship in Spirit and truth.” The woman said to Jesus, “I know that the Messiah—the Anointed One—is coming and will tell us everything.” Jesus replied, “I who speak to you am the Messiah.” 

The disciples, returning at this point, were shocked to find Jesus having a private conversation with a woman. But no one dared to ask, “What do you want of him?” or “why are you talking with her?”  The woman then left her water jar and went off into the town. She said to the people, “Come and see someone who told me everything I have ever done! Could this be the Messiah?”  At that, everyone set out from town to meet Jesus.  Meanwhile, the disciples were urging Jesus, “Rabbi, eat something.”  But Jesus told them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”  At this, the disciples said to one another, “Do you think someone has brought him something to eat?”  Jesus explained to them, “Doing the will of the One who sent me and bringing this work to completion is my food. Don’t you have a saying, ‘Four months more and it will be harvest time’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields—they’re ripe and ready for harvest! 

 and you’ve come upon the fruits of their labor.”  Many Samaritans from that town believed in Jesus on the strength of the woman’s testimony—that “he told me everything I ever did.”  The result was that, when these Samaritans came to Jesus, they begged him to stay with them awhile. So Jesus stayed there two days, and through his own spoken Word many more came to faith. They told the woman, “No longer does our faith depend on your story. We’ve heard for ourselves, and we know that this really is the savior of the world.”

Homily

Statement of Faith Patti and JayCee (alternate)

1.We believe God created a world to provide for our needs with abundant nourishment. We believe God wants everyone to have the food they need to thrive. 

2. We believe God calls us to share our bread with those who hunger. We believe that in God’s kindom, there is enough for everyone. We believe the bread of life is not just for the body but also for the soul. 

1.We believe the Spirit of God inspires us to work for justice, so all people have what they need.

2.We believe that when we break bread together we experience a glimpse of God’s banquet of love, which is available to everyone. Amen.

 

Exchange peace

 

Juanita: Jesus the Christ, you said to your disciples, “My peace I leave you. My peace I give you.” We ask you to look on the faith of those gathered here. Give us your peace, and spread your peace throughout the world, always and forever. 

     May the peace of Christ be always with you. R] And also with you. 

 

 

Prayers of the Community 

 

Pat As we prepare for the sacred meal, we bring to this table our blessings, cares and concerns. Please feel free to voice your concerns beginning with the words “I bring to the table….”

 

We pray for these and all the unspoken concerns held in the silence of our hearts. R] Amen

 

 

Offering of Gifts

Janet: Blessed are you, God of all creation! Through your goodness we have this bread to offer. Fruit of the Earth, work of human hands, it will become for us the bread of life.

     R] Blessed be God forever

 

Galen: Blessed are you, God of all creation! Through your goodness we have this wine to offer. Fruit of the vine, work of human hands, it will become for us the cup of life.

     R] Blessed be God forever

 

Nick: Pray sisters and brothers that our gifts please our loving God.

      R] May God accept this offering from our hands for the praise and glory of God’s name, for our Good and the good of all God’s holy people.

Nick: Our God be with You

R:  And also, with you

Nick:  Lift up your hearts

R:  We lift them up to our God

Nick: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God

R:  It is right and just to give God our thanks

  Karla: God of All Life, we have seen Your glory, felt the touch of Your love, and felt Your presence with us. With joyful hearts, we offer You, our gifts. Having heard Your call, we offer You our lives and our service. 

Melissa:  Gracious God, we praise and proclaim Your wonder. Before time, you have created us and held us in Your heart - each one of us, special and unique to You. You call us each by name and say that we are good and set us free. We sing your praise with all the angels and saints.

Holy, Holy Holy https://youtu.be/A4kiEGVb3E8?si=tud9QkoeeRCxKNS5

Cathy W. :We are grateful for your Spirit at our Eucharistic Table and for this bread and wine which reminds us of our call to be the body of Christ in the world.

 Juanita: Please extend your hands in blessing over your bread and wine. 

Together, we call on Your Spirit, present in these gifts - bread that satisfies our hunger and wine that quenches our thirst – to make us more deeply One, living in the fullness of holy compassion and Sophia Wisdom, that they may become for us the Body +and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ at whose command we celebrate this Eucharist, these mysteries.

Nick: On the night when Jesus was gathered with his friends at the Passover meal, he took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them saying:

All: Take this, all of you and eat it, for this is my Body which is given for you.

When the supper was finished Jesus picked up the cup, blessed it then gave it to his friends as he is giving himself to each of us saying:

All: Take this all of you and drink from it, for this is the cup of of the everlasting covenant, Do this in memory of me.

Nick: Let us proclaim the mystery of our faith.

R: Save us, Savior of the world, for by your cross and resurrection you have set us free.

Rita: We celebrate the memory of Jesus’ death and resurrection. We embrace the possibility of reconciliation, justice and peace. Holy God, here at this table, we have encountered Jesus’ Spirit, bringing us wholeness so we might be satisfied by the bread of life. Because Jesus faced death and emerged victorious, this bread does not spoil; this cup never runs dry. As we leave this place of celebration, our spirits are renewed and rejuvenated. There is enough for each of us.

Kathy N: Let us pray the Celtic Version of the Lord's prayer written by (John Phillip Newell.  Holy One Beyond all names, Eternal Wellspring, may love rise again in today. With food for every table, shelter for every family and reverence for every life. Forgive us our failings in love and free us from all falseness, that the light of our soul may shine, and the strength of our spirits endure. For the Earth and all its people this day, tonight, and forever. Amen

P:Let us all receive Jesus together as we are the Body and Blood of Christ.

Communion Song: I am willing, I am open

 

https://youtu.be/_XXYhhh-5sg?si=iYNdnXxVy3deptev

 

Blessing Prayer   Nick

Go now into the world brimming with love for God and others. May you share the bread of life, offering not only what sustains the body but what nourishes the soul. Live your lives serving in the way of Jesus, extending compassion to the weary, hope to the despairing, and bread to the hungry. 

As you go, may the love of God enfold you, the peace of Christ guide you, and the power of the Sophia Wisdom sustain you, now and forever. Amen.

 

Dismissal: Margaret

 

Closing song: Here I am Lord

 

https://youtu.be/EcxOkht8w7c?si=f6c6G5M_q0T6y29x