Daylight Savings Time begins. Remember to adjust your clocks ahead one hour.
Sunday March 12 is the third Sunday in Lent. Water is a central image in both the Old Testament and Gospel lessons this week. Some well-known facts about water: We cannot live long without water, and Water refreshes us when we are thirsty. Irrigation, industrial usage, and population growth have dropped the water table in many areas. Wouldn’t it be great to have a steady source of refreshment, and a well that never grows dry? That’s what Jesus promises in the Gospel lesson for the day. But what does He mean by His claim? Jesus provides something far greater than H2O.
Scripture lessons for the day are Psalm 19:7-14; Exodus 17:1-7; Romans 5:1-8; and John 4:5-26.
For liturgy we will follow a modified version of Divine Service Setting 3 as found in the LSB hymnal beginning on page 184. Hymns chosen for the day are #423 Jesus Refuge of the Weary; #699 I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say; #855 For All the Faithful Women verses 1, 10, 3-4; and those present for communion will sing#616 Baptismal Waters Cover Me.
Psalm 19 is attributed as a psalm of David, addressed to the choirmaster. The psalm begins by recognizing how Creation, especially the sun and stars, declares the power and handiwork of God. Whether it is day or night, God’s greatness can be observed. We will read the psalm beginning at verse 7. Building on the observation that God’s glory can be seen everywhere, David indicates God’s word is also universal and should be spoken everywhere. Many of our English Bible versions (such as the ESV verse 7) translate Torah as being ‘law’ though it is more accurate to think of Torah as being God’s instruction, which would also include gospel promises, God’s actions to benefit us. David praises the Torah for its instruction for it is a sure word, not fickle or constantly changing. The Torah makes the simple wise; it enlightens our eyes. We should desire to hear and read God’s word. We sinners are often blind to our sinful ways. So, we should join in David’s concluding prayer in the psalm, that God would use His Word to guide us, directing us away from sin and toward Him. God is our Redeemer and the Rock of our salvation.
Exodus 17 recounts a miraculous event that took place in the Sinai wilderness in the days of Moses, about 2 months after God had rescued the tribes of Israel from slavery in Egypt. But the people had already forgotten God’s care for them. Each time they ran short of food or water, rather than remembering His kindness and praying to Him for aid, they complained against Him. Their complaints were evidence that they did not believe God was with them. (What does that say about our complaints?) Despite their complaints, God generously provides for them. This cycle of people complaining and God providing is repeated several times during the wilderness journey. In Chapter 17 the people are thirsty and there is no water to be seen anywhere. God instructs Moses to use his walking stick to strike a rock. When he does, water comes forth. God had provided the rock that miraculously refreshed and revitalized the people. Years later (recorded in Deuteronomy 32) Moses identifies God as the true Rock. In first Corinthians 10, St. Paul identifies the Rock as Jesus—not a physical rock but the Spiritual Rock who gives and refreshes life. The lesson is a reminder that God cares for you and wants the best for you, so we should trust and pray to Him. It also warns against overlooking God’s kindness or complaining about Him.
In His letter to the Romans, Paul points out how we are all sinners and cannot earn access to God by any of our works. Paul argues that instead we are declared righteous before God by the sacrificial work of Jesus, graciously credited to us. Though we are born God’s enemies, Jesus has reconciled us to Him. Faith receives this gift and holds to it. In Chapter 5, Paul encourages Christians. Since we are justified by Jesus and been given assurance of peace with God, we can rejoice even when we are suffering. Suffering can be a time of testing, where all our false hopes are sifted out. We are led to trust in God alone.
In John 4, Jesus runs into a woman drawing water at a well. It is not a chance encounter. He is about to change her life. Jesus asks her for a drink from the well. She is amazed that Jesus would talk to her. The woman is an outsider—a Samaritan, and as she confesses later, an adulteress. Most people would have avoided her. Jesus turns the conversation around, offering the woman ‘living water’ that leads to eternal life. This turns into a question about where the proper place is to worship. Jews worshipped in Jerusalem on Mt. Zion; Samaritans worshipped on Mt. Gerizim. Jesus foretells a time when it won’t matter what geographic location we worship. Led by the Holy Spirit, Christians will gather to worship Jesus in spirit and in truth.
Jesus reveals to the woman that He is God’s promised Messiah. It’s not included in the passage we are reading Sunday, but in her newly planted faith and excitement at this news, the woman rushes into town, urging the people to come and see Jesus. In that way she becomes a model to all of us. No matter your past, Jesus welcomes you, and offers you the water of eternal life, a spiritual drink that always refreshes the spirit in us. It will well up in you like a continuous bubbling spring of joy.
COLLECT: O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy, be gracious to all who have gone astray from Your ways, and bring them with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of Your Word,; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord and Savior, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
I also invite you to attend the Lenten Midweek services beginning at 6:30 on Wednesdays. God bless you. Pastor Boster
