Bulletin – Sunday, March 8, 2026 – Third Sunday in Lent

Sunday, March 8, 2026
Third Sunday in Lent

We Gather as People of Faith

Welcome

Tennebrae 3

One:   There is so much every day that clamours for our attention. Our lives are noisy and full. We are bombarded with sound, from the alarm that awakens in the morning to texts, calls, emails, television, and the radio that call our attention all day long. There is little time to still our minds and hearts to hear the voice of God, that whispers to us. What a gift that we come together in this spiritual practice of worship to hear God speak to us. This is a place of quiet rest, and it is the place where God dwells amongst and within us. Let us be grateful for this place and for this time together to worship and know God. This week we continue our Lenten journey into the deep parts of ourselves that only God knows. Let the story of Jesus reach us in the quiet centres of our hearts and minds. Let it teach us wisdom.

(Silent Time)

One:   As we extinguish this light, we acknowledge the darkness and pain of violence in the world and on the Earth.

(A candle is extinguished)

One:   Let us pray:
All:      Draw us together in your love, O God. May our restless hearts welcome you Let us be content only when we find rest in you. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen

Minute Person

Announcements

Call to Worship

Honoring the God of love We come together in this place To be held in the womb of God’s creation To remember that just as we are loved We are called to love our neighbor as ourselves And as God loves us As midwives with the God of justice and mercy We come together to be renewed, strengthened and held In God’s care.

Please join in the singing of the hymn – “Come Worship God” (Voices United #815)

Come, worship God who is worthy of honour,
Enter God’s presence with thanks and a song!
You are the rock of your people’s salvation,
To whom our jubilant praises belong.

Ruled by your might are the heights of the mountains,
Held in your hands are the depths of the earth;
Yours is the sea, yours the land, for you made them,
God above all gods, who gave us our birth.

We are your people, the sheep of your pasture,
You are our maker and to you we pray;
Gladly we kneel in obedience before you,
Great is the One whom we worship this day!

Now let us listen, for you speak among us,
Open our hearts to receive what you say:
Peace be to all who remember your goodness,
Trust in your word and rejoice in your way!

Prayer of Approach and Confession

Gracious God, when are hearts are hardened, we know the door to you is closed Merciful God, when we feel alone and abandoned unsure of the road ahead Our thoughts fester and our minds lament We seek our own solutions and abandon your guidance Our anxieties dictate our approaches Help us to soften and surrender our worries and woes to you We pray, come O gentle one and sit near Provide us love and guidance, strength and wisdom In all that we do and all that we are.

Words of Assurance

God’s love is the rock on which we stand God’s compassion and wisdom are the waters and food for our spiritual nourishment God is with us We trust in God Our hearts and minds are opened and softened Our minds are at ease We welcome God in –

Then we are home.

Sung Response – “How Deep the Peace” (More Voices #95)

How deep the peace, the confidence, of those whose wrongs are forgiven.
How deep the peace, the confidence, of those whose hearts are healed.

Time for All Ages

We Hear God’s Word

Scripture Readings

The first scripture reading is from the book of Psalms 95:1-8

¹ O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! ² Let us come into God’s presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! ³ For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. ⁴ In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. ⁵ The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed. ⁶ O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! ⁷ For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. O that today you would listen to his voice!

The second reading is from the Gospel of John 4:5-42

⁵ So he 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 worshiped 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 worshipers 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.” ²⁶ 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?” ²  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 the one who sent me 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 labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

³⁹ Many Samaritans from that city believed in him 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 two days. ⁴¹ And many more believed because of his word. ⁴² They 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 Savior of the world.”

May God speak to us through these readings of scripture.
Thanks be to God!

Please join in the singing of the hymn – “All Who are Thirsty” (More Voices #4)

All who are thirsty
All who are weak
Come to the fountain
Dip your heart in the stream of life

Let the pain and the sorrow
Be washed away
In the waves of his mercy
As deep cries out to deep, we sing

Come Lord Jesus, come
Come Lord Jesus, come
Come Lord Jesus, come
Come Lord Jesus, come

Sermon

Anthem – “Fill My Cup, Lord”

Like the woman at the well I was seeking
For things that could not satisfy.
And then I heard my Saviour speaking:
‘Draw from the well that never shall run dry.’

Fill my cup, Lord,
I lift it up, Lord.
Come and quench this thirsting of my soul.
Bread of heaven, feed me till I want no more.
Fill my cup,
Fill it up and make me whole.

There are millions in this world who are craving
The pleasure earthly things afford.
But none can match the wondrous treasure
That I find in Jesus Christ, my Lord.

Fill my cup, Lord,
I lift it up, Lord.
Come and quench this thirsting of my soul.
Bread of heaven, feed me till I want no more.
Fill my cup,
Fill it up and make me whole.

So, my people, if the things this world gave you
Leave hungers that won’t pass away.
My blessed Lord will come and save you
If you kneel to Him and humbly pray:

Fill my cup, Lord,
I lift it up, Lord.
Come and quench this thirsting of my soul.
Bread of heaven, feed me till I want no more.
Fill my cup,
Fill it up and make me whole.

We Respond to God’s Word

Invitation to Share

Offering Sung Response – “These Lenten Gifts We Bring”

These Lenten gifts we bring,
Our living faith expressed,
We offer them, most lovingly,
And thus our hearts are blessed.

O loving God receive
These gifts we gladly give,
That show our faith and hope and trust;
Your way we seek to live.

Offering Prayer

Like the offering of water to Jesus By the Samaritan woman at the well As you sit close with us O living Christ, We offer to you our gifts And ask that you help us to use these to feed each other And the needs of the world around us. We ask this in your name, Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Prayers of the People

Invitation to the Passing of the Peace

I invite you now to pass the Peace of Christ to each other as you are comfortable.

The Prayer that Jesus Taught

One:   Please join me in praying the prayer Jesus taught us to pray: Our Creator who is like…
All:      Our Mother and Our Father, who art in heaven hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil; for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

We Go Into God’s World

Please join in the singing of the hymn – “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say” (Voices United #626)

I heard the voice of Jesus say, ‘Come unto me and rest;
Lay down, O weary one, lay down your head upon my breast.’
I came to Jesus as I was, weary and worn and sad;
I found in him a resting place, and he has made me glad.

I heard the voice of Jesus say, ‘Behold, I freely give
The living water; thirsty one, stoop down, and drink, and live.’
I came to Jesus, and I drank of that life-giving stream;
My thirst was quenched, my soul revived, and now I live in him.

I heard the voice of Jesus say, ‘I am this dark world’s light;
Look unto me, your morn shall rise, and all your day be bright.’
I looked to Jesus, and I found in him my star, my sun;
And in that light of life I’ll walk till travelling days are done.

Commissioning

During this Lenten Journey May you know God’s love is with you when you feel alone May you feel God’s comfort as you walk this sacred journey of salvation with Jesus May your faith in God, help you trust that all is well and all will be well Walk this week with God as your guide and helper.

Benediction

Strengthened in God’s love – Befriended by Jesus – Assured by the Spirit of God’s promise of hope – Let us go out into the world renewed in faith Ready to be a light for a world that cries out for redemption. Amen

Sung Response – “May the Christ Who Walks on Wounded Feet”

May the Christ who walks on wounded feet
Travel with you all your journey through.
May you see Christ’s face in all you meet
And may all you meet see Christ’s face in you.