Worship Leader: Paul Whiteley, LLWL Music Director: Tim Hallman, B.Mus., B.Ed.
THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT, MARCH 8, 2026
“Testing the Lord”
Welcome / Announcements / Celebrations
Land Acknowledgement
Lighting Of Candle
Meditation:
There is so much during the day that clamors for our attention. Friends, family, work, household tasks. Ane the noise!! We are bombarded with sound, from the clock that awakens us, to the telephone, the radio, the television, conversation that we have or overhear. Where is the time, and place to listen for the still, small voice of God? Sometimes it seems that God would have to speak in a whirlwind to be heard above the clamor! Listen now. There is a place of quiet rest, and it is the place where God dwells within you. Close your eyes. Be aware of the place. In Lent, we journey to the parts of ourselves know only to God, beneath the clamor. Let the story of Jesus reach us there. Let it teach us wisdom in our secret hearts.
As we extinguish this light, we acknowledge the darkness and pain of violence in the world and to the Earth.
Let us pray together:
Draw us together in your love, O God. May our restless hearts not resist you, but continue to search until they find their rest in you. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Opening Hymn: VU 815 “Come, Worship God” (Psalm 95)
Passing Of The Peace
Movement Prayer:
One: Creator, touch our minds—
All: (Touching head)
that we may worship with understanding.
One: Christ, touch our eyes—
All: (Touching above eyes)
that we may recognize each other.
One: Holy Spirit, touch our voices—
All: (Touching lips)
that our words would always praise you.
One: Love Divine, touch our hearts—
All: (Touching chest, above heart)
that your compassion would overflow.
One: God of all, touch our hands—
All: (Placing one hand on top of the other, palms up)
that all we touch would be blessed,
that all we touch would be transformed,
that all we touch would be made new,
by your love.
One: With all that we are—
All: (Touching head, above eyes, lips, heart, and hands)
we worship you. Amen.
-Called to Be the Church, United Church of Canada, 2025
Learning Together
Hymn: MV 12 “Come Touch Our Hearts” (verses 1–2)
Scripture:
Exodus 17:1–7: “Quarrelling and Testing”
John 4:5–14 “Living Water”
Anthem: “MV 71 When the Wind of Winter Blows”
Reflection: “Establishing Connection”
There are things about our lectionary – the order of scripture readings the mainline churches follow, most of the time – that frustrate worship planners at times. We have a church year, but the readings are spread over three years, and every Sunday offers more choices than a worship leader can use. This means that some passages only come up every three years, and some important passages may not be read at all depending on what is demanding attention at the time. As a general rule, we are taught not to read a rich and meaningful passage of scripture without including it in our reflection, and there is enough to engage with that the trend has been to read less scripture, not more.
So this year, in Lent, we have two very important passages: the story of Moses at Massah and Meribah,
and the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. I remember this week of lectionary in particular, because ten lectionary cycles – thirty years – ago, when I was a worship committee member at First United in Ottawa, I preached the less confusing of the two sermons I wrote in my 20s, using this exact pair of readings. After those early sermons I didn’t follow the path of worship leadership for 20 years, until Wendy McLean made her fateful suggestion – that is, except for reading occasional scripture and offering the odd prayer. But I am happy to return to these powerful stories, to see the different themes that emerge at a different place and a different time.
Both of these passages seem to me to be about relationships, and with these stories it helps to hold in mind the different perspectives presented in the story. The initial action at Massah and Meribah belongs to the people of Israel – they’ve been wandering through the wilderness of Sin, they’re tired and hungry, and now they have nothing to drink. “Why did you bring us out of Egypt: to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” The people are angry at their situation, angry at God and most of all angry at Moses.
Now Moses, as often in the book of Exodus, is stuck in the middle. He has been given an obligation to lead the people out of slavery to the promised land, but the people aren’t always cooperative and Moses doesn’t have the ability simply to give them what they want. Moses has a strong and healthy relationship with God, at this point in the story, but the people of Israel are quarrelling with Moses and testing the Lord.
The book of Exodus presents this triangular relationship, between God and the people of Israel with Moses in the middle. What I appreciate most about this story is the human side of Moses: he gets frustrated with the people for their short-sightedness and lack of trust; he complains to God when he feels unable to satisfy the people and sustain them in their covenant relationship. Like a middle child, he wants everyone just to get along, but that can’t possibly happen without some kind of a miracle.
And so, at Massah and Meribah, God offers a miracle. I suppose the other side of this passage is that it presents something that can actually happen. As you know, my father’s career was teaching hydrology, and he sometimes had to explain ground water as well as surface water. In a desert there often is water in secret places, artesian springs where pure water comes to the surface through a fracture. And so the miracle here happens when God shows compassion for Moses and lets him know what he has to do, where, and when, to show the doubters among the people that God will continue to honor the covenant and meet the needs of the people.
At Sychar, in Samaria, we find more living water from underground. This well still exists, in the West Bank, and a Greek Orthodox Church has been built above the traditional well so it is now in a crypt, underground. But at the time John’s gospel was written, the well was in open space where strangers could meet and converse. (I’ll leave the comparison with our well for another time.)
This story has two main perspectives – Jesus and the Samaritan woman – and for today I’ve left out the chorus of disciples who show up after the conversation and judge Jesus for talking to someone from the wrong religion who may have a dubious reputation. In this story, as in so much of John, Jesus is set apart by what he knows – he understands the woman’s past without being told, he acknowledges her hopes and faith, and he promises the coming of God in spirit and truth.
But what I find more intriguing and relatable in this story is the perspective of the Samaritan woman. Like many women of the gospels she is clear-eyed and practical, with a strong sense of her material and spiritual needs and yearnings. When Jesus engages with her at the well she shows a solid faith, acknowledging that the well represents a covenant relationship with God since the time of Jacob.
And when Jesus moves further, shifting the conversation to the water of life, she engages with him, and tests him. While not quite quarrelling, her questioning – like that of Zaccheus and Thomas – seems to be the best approach to coax Jesus into offering the gospel promise of abundant life in a new covenant offered to Jew, Samaritan and gentile alike. There are those who look in scripture to find examples of “perfect faith”: of unquestioning deference to rules, or a single universal experience, or one right way to connect with God.
But many stories of scripture present a very different picture. The covenant relationship forged in the march through the desert, and the covenant relationship established through Jesus life and ministry – these are living connections made stronger by quarreling and questioning. We experience miracles in relationships because we need them, not because we’ve earned them. The people ask if they’re being led to die of thirst in the desert; Moses strikes the rock and produces water. The Samaritan woman needs water for thirst but also her thirst for meaning, and Jesus fulfils her hope in the Messiah before his disciples understand who he is.
Our faith is about connections: our connection with the world, with God, and with each other. Our journey through lent, through desert places, is like a pilgrimage or a political march – is one place to establish connection. Our gathering at the well, in our common places, where we meet people different from ourselves and engage in open dialogue – is another place to establish connection. In trying times, it is good to remember stories of faith that remind us that miracles happen, that needs are met and that promises are renewed. And for all this, to God be the praise and the thanks. Amen.
Invitation For Offering
Offering Hymn: VU 541 “Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow”
Offering Prayer
Prayers Of the People / Lord’s Prayer
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 those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from the evil one.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
Hymn: VU 401 “Worship the Lord”
Benediction
Choral Blessing: MV 97 “Listen, God Is C
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