LOVELY LANE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT, YEAR A
MARCH 8, 2026
† Stand as you are able
Organ Prelude
Welcome and Announcements John Strawbridge, Lay Leader
Choral Introit “I Want Jesus To Walk With Me” Spiritual, arr.Moore
I want Jesus to walk with me;
All along my pilgrim journey,
I want Jesus to walk with me.
†Call to Worship
Come to the well—where Christ meets us with truth and tenderness.
We come with thirst only God can satisfy.
Come with your questions, your weariness, your longing.
We come, trusting the Living Water.
Let us worship the God who does not pass us by.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
†Opening Hymn “Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah” UMH 127
Prayer of Illumination
Holy Spirit, breath of the living God, open our ears to hear what is good, and open our hearts to receive what is true. Where we have made faith a performance, teach us worship that becomes justice. Where we have settled for easy answers, give us the wisdom of the cross. Where we have grown weary or afraid, speak the blessing of your kingdom again: Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are the peacemakers. Illuminate your Word within us, that we may do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with you—not only in this sanctuary, but in the world you so love. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
A Reading from the Old Testament Exodus 17:1-7 NRSV
From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. The people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?” But the people thirsted there for water, and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” So Moses cried out to the LORD, “What shall I do for this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” The LORD said to Moses, “Go on ahead of the people and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile and go. I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the LORD, saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”
The word of God, for the people of God. Thanks be to God!
Congregational Prayer
Living God, we confess our thirst—our craving for affirmation, control, and comfort. Too often we drink from wells that do not hold: distractions that numb, habits that harm, resentments that poison. Meet us where we are, as you met the woman at the well. Speak the truth in love. Heal what is broken in us. Give us courage to lay down what cannot give life, and receive the gift you offer freely. Make us a people whose faith becomes a spring of compassion—overflowing in welcome, justice, and peace. Amen.
Passing of the Peace “Sweet, Sweet Spirit” UMH 334
Sharing Joys and Concerns
Pastoral Prayer
Lord’s Prayer
Choral Response “Holy Spirit, Come to Us” TFWS 2118
†A Reading from the Gospel John 4:5-42 NRSV
So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 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.) 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.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well,and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” Jesus said to 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.” 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.” Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 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.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.” 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?” Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?”
The Gospel of our Lord. Praise be to you, O Christ.
Sermon Reverend. Levon D. Sutton, Pastor
Invitation to Offering
Offertory “Jesu, The Very Though of Thee” Thiman
Jesu, the very thought of Thee
With sweetness fills my breast;
But sweeter far Thy face to see
And in Thy presence rest.
Nor voice can sing, nor heart can frame,
Nor can the memory find
A sweeter sound than Thy blessed Name,
O Savior of mankind.
Jesu, our only joy be Thou;
As Thou our Prize will be.
Jesu, be Thou our glory now,
And through eternity.
Amen.
Offering Prayer
God of Living Water, receive these gifts. Let them become streams of hope in dry places—support for the weary, welcome for the stranger, and witness to your love. Amen.
†Closing Hymn “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing” UMH 400
†Benediction
†Benediction Response “Steal Away” Spiritual, arr. Moore
Steal away, steal away, steal away to Jesus
Steal away, steal away home; I ain’t got time to stay here.
Ringing the Bicentennial Bell
Organ Postlude