Living Lent
Imago Dei
Lent • Week 3 • 2020
Greeting: Grace to you and peace from God and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present age, according to the will of our gracious God, to whom be glory forever and ever.
All: Amen
Leader:
This is what the Sovereign Lord ,
the Holy One of Israel, says:
Only in returning to me and resting in me
will you be saved.
In quietness and confidence is your strength.
Isaiah 30:15
Prayer for entering silence
Leader: Spirit of stillness
All: be with us as we enter the silence
where you wait for us.
Leader: Spirit of holiness
All: be in us as we enter the silence
which is your gift to us.
Leader: Spirit of quiet, help us to listen.
Silence
Song In God Alone
In God alone my soul can find rest and peace,
In God my peace and joy.
Only in God my soul can find its rest,
find its rest and peace.
Leader: The Lord be with you
All: And also with you.
Leader: You are here, Lord.
You are here in the quiet evening of this Lent journey.
In the lengthening shadows
In the wakening stars
In the people gathered here.
You are here, Lord.
All: We are here, Lord.
To remember your presence
To bring you our day
To give you ourselves
To share in your stillness
To make room in our hearts and lives
For your grace.
We are here, Lord.
(Light the candle)
Leader: The light shines in the darkness
All: and the darkness can never put it out.Readings
Exodus 17:1-7 (NIV)
1 The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”
Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?”
3 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”
4 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”
5 The Lord answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
Reader: The Word of the Lord
People: Thanks be to God
Psalm 121
1 Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.
3 For the Lord is the great God,
the great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth,
and the mountain peaks belong to him.
5 The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.
6 Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
7 for he is our God| and we are the people of his pasture,
the flock under his care.|
Today, if only you would hear his voice,
8 “Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah,
as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness,
9 where your ancestors tested me;
they tried me, though they had seen what I did.
10 For forty years I was angry with that generation;
I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray,
and they have not known my ways.’
11 So I declared on oath in my anger,
‘They shall never enter my rest.’”
Reader: The Word of the Lord
People: Thanks be to God
Romans 5:1-11
1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Reader: The Word of the Lord
People: Thanks be to God.
John 4:5-42
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 noon.
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 livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them 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.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 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 ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, 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 the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the 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, the one speaking to you—I 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 Messiah?” 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 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a 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.”
Reader: The Gospel of Christ
People: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ
Reflections on Readings
Prayer of response
Leader: In the quietness of this place let us remember before God all that has been part of this day.
Where did you see God?
Where might you have missed God?
Silent Prayer
Leader: We thank you, Lord, for all the natural wonders of this earth – the Light of the moon, sun and stars and for the gift of life this day.
All: With grateful hearts we give you thanks, Lord.
Leader: We pray for family, friends and for
all those in need.
(silence)
Send the light of your love to all those
we carry in our hearts.
Communion
The Word of God
Leader: Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Those who come to me shall not hunger, and those who believe in me shall never thirst. Happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.”
Prayer of Thanksgiving
Leader: Let us pray.
People: Lord, God, we praise you for providing us with nourishment for body and soul in our journey of faith. Accept now the praises of our hearts.
Leader: Lift up your hearts.
People: We lift them up to the Lord.
Leader: Let us give thanks to the Lord, our God.
People: It is fitting for us at all times to give thanks to you, O Lord, Holy Father, Almighty, Everlasting God.
Leader: We bless you for creating us in your image, for remaking us after the image of your Son. With humble and penitent hearts and minds, we acknowledge your greatness and the splendour of your presence. We join, therefore, with all your saints and angels in bringing you praise:
People: Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.
Leader: We bring our thanks to you, for the gift of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord: the Bread of Life, who came to nourish his children; the Lamb of God, who came to take away the sins of the world; the Servant of the Most High; who remained obedient even to death by execution. For this love for us, for the good news of the gospel, for the privilege of walking in the way of our Lord, we bring our praise.
Amen.
SILENCE
Leader: The Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
The Invitation
Leader: Come to me, all you who labour and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
People: Eternal God, we accept our Saviour’s invitation. We come to his table in search of rest and peace. Send your Holy Spirit to us, that these gifts may be for us the bread of life and that we may be for the world the body of Christ.
People: Carrying a vision of creation
healed and restored, we welcome all in the name of Christ. Invited to the table where none shall go hungry, we gather as Christ’s guests and friends.
People: We come with gladness. Thanks be to God!
Leader: The gifts of God for the people of God.
The Communion
Leader: Take, eat, remember and believe that the body of the Lord Jesus Christ was given for the complete remission of all our sins.
Take, drink, remember and believe that the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ was shed for the complete forgiveness of all our sins.
Song: Wait for the Lord
Wait for the Lord whose day is near.
Wait for the Lord, keep watch, take heart.
The Benediction
All:
Righteous God,
Compassionate and generous one
Who forgives our sins and has mercy on us,
Fill our hidden places with your healing light,
Breathe on us afresh this night and grant us rest.
May your compassion bloom in us.
May your righteousness bear fruit.
May your generosity encourage us to share.
May your love grow strong and deep within us.
Breathe on us afresh this night and grant us rest.
Amen.