Third Sunday of Lent 24th February 2008
Welcome to all the family and friends of Thomas Sebastian Hunt who is to be baptised this morning during our service. We keep all the family in our prayers at this time of celebration.
Collect
Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
First reading - Romans 5.1-11
1) Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2) through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3) And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5) and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. 6) For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7) Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person - though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. 8) But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. 9) Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. 10) For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. 11) But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now recieved reconciliation.
The Gospel
Gospel - John 4.5-42
5) Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6) Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. 7) A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink.’ 8) (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9) 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.) 10) 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.’ 11) The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12) Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?’ 13) Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14) 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.’ 15) 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.’ 16) Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come back.’ 17) The woman answered him, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You are right in saying, “I have no husband”; 18) for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!’ 19) The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20) Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.’ 21) Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22)You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23) 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. 24) God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.’ 25) 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.’ 2) Jesus said to her, ‘I am he, the one who is speaking to you.’ [27) 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?’ 28) Then the woman left her water-jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 29) ‘Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?’ 30) They left the city and were on their way to him. 31) Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, ‘Rabbi, eat something.’ 32) But he said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you do not know about.’ 33) So the disciples said to one another, ‘Surely no one has brought him something to eat?’ 34) Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. 35) Do you not say, “Four months more, then comes the harvest”? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. 36) The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37) For here the saying holds true, “One sows and another reaps.” 38) I sent you to reap that for which you did not labour. Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour.’ 39) Many Samaritans from that city believed in Jesus because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I have ever done.’ 40) So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there for two days. 41) And many more believed because of his word. 42They said to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Saviour of the world.’ ]
Post-communion
Merciful Lord, grant your people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh and the devil, and with pure hearts and minds to follow you, the only God; through Jesus Christ our Lord.