You can watch today’s service here.
If you are watching our live stream this morning, you are invited to find a candle, so that we can all light candles at the same time.
OPENING PRAYER LITANY: PSALM 85 (L.G. Parkhurst, Jr.)
Lord, you were favorable to your land.
You restored our fortunes.
You forgave the iniquity of your people.
You pardoned all our sin.
Restore us again,
O God of our salvation.
Will you not revive us again,
so we may rejoice in you?
Show us your steadfast love, O Lord.
Grant us your salvation.
Let us hear what God the Lord will speak,
for God will speak peace to the people, to the faithful,
to those who turn to God in their hearts.
Surely salvation is at hand for those who live in awe of the Lord,
that God’s glory may dwell in our land.
Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet.
Righteousness and peace will kiss each other.
Faithfulness will spring up from the ground.
Righteousness will look down from the sky.
The Lord will give what is good.
Our land will yield its increase.
Righteousness will go before the Lord
and make a path for God’s steps.
CALL TO CONFESSION (Presbyterian Book of Common Worship)
When we pass through deep waters or go through times of fiery trial, the Lord our God is with us. With confidence in God, our creator and redeemer, let us confess out sin.
I invite you to join with me in our unison prayer of confession, followed by a time either for silent personal confession.
Moment of silent prayer–people of God, what do you need to confess this week?
PRAYER OF CONFESSION (Presbyterian Book of Common Worship)
Gracious God, our sins are too heavy to carry, too real to hide, and too deep to undo.
Forgive what our lips tremble to name, what our hearts can no longer bear, and what has become for us a consuming fire of judgment.
Set us free from a past that we cannot change; open to us a future in which we can be changed; and grant us grace to grow more and more in your likeness and image; through Jesus Christ, the light of the world. Amen.
ASSURANCE OF PARDON (Isaiah 43:1)
God says, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.”
I declare to you, in the name of Jesus Christ, we are forgiven! Amen.
PRAYER FOR UNDERSTANDING (TERI MCDOWELL OTT, PRESBYTERIAN OUTLOOK)
Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on us. Open us to your lifegiving Word. Quiet the voices within us that do not align with your will. Focus our minds on the message you intend for us so we may faithfully follow your way. Amen.
FIRST SCRIPTURE READING
excerpts from 2 Samuel 6:1-19
David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand. David and all the people with him set out and went from the city, to bring up from there the ark of God. They carried the ark of God on a new cart, and brought it out of the house where it had been kept. David and all the house of Israel were dancing before the Lord with all their might, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals.
David went and brought up the ark of God from the house to the city of David with rejoicing; and when those who bore the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatling. David danced before the Lord with all his might. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet.
They brought in the ark of the Lord, and set it in its place, inside the tent that David had pitched for it; and David offered burnt-offerings and offerings of well-being before the Lord. When David had finished offering the burnt-offerings and the offerings of well-being, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts, and distributed food among all the people, the whole multitude of Israel, both men and women, to each a cake of bread, a portion of meat, and a cake of raisins. Then all the people went back to their homes.
SECOND SCRIPTURE READING
excerpts from John 4:5-42
So Jesus 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?’
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 worshipped 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 God neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship God in spirit and truth, for God seeks such as these… God is spirit, and those who worship God 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.’
Then the woman left her water-jar and went back to the city.
Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony.
So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there for two days. And many more believed because of his word. 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.’
Consider:
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The woman left her water-jar and went back to the city. What have you left behind?
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Jesus tells the woman that the day will come when God’s people worship neither in the temple nor on the holy mountain. In what places do you worship? Which spaces feel the most holy to you?
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What would it be like to never be thirsty?
You can listen to Pastor Leia’s sermon, “The Ark and the Water Jar,” here.
HYMN “IN THE LORD I’LL BE EVER THANKFUL”
lyrics by Taizé Community, 1986
music by Jacques Berthier, 1986
© 1991 Les Presses de Taizé (admin. GIA Publications, Inc.)
Used with permission under ONE LICENSE # 738214-A
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE (TERI MCDOWELL OTT, PRESBYTERIAN OUTLOOK)
God of healing and wholeness, as the world is opening, people are traveling, and our faces are once again being seen from behind our masks, it would be easy to forget: where we’ve been, what we’ve learned, who we’ve lost
Help us, Holy God, not to be so desperate to move forward that we fail to appreciate the present: the communion of friends gathering, the sounds of children summering, the open road of vacation adventuring.
Help us, Holy God, not to be so desperate to move on that we neglect to pray for those still suffering: the businesses forced to close, employees laid off, families grieving loved ones lost, COVID patients still waiting for renewed health, countries without access to vaccines.
Help us, Holy God, embrace the lessons we have learned, the grace we have received, and the hope you offer every day, but especially in the tough and tragic days when we lean on our faith to get us through. You are here for us, God, and we are grateful. Help us be here for each other — acting as your hands and feet in a hurting world.
United as a family of faith and as the Body of Christ we lift these prayers up to you, God our Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer. Finally, hear us pray the prayer Christ taught us, saying…
THE 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 debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
HYMN Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
music from Wyeth’s Repository of Sacred Music, Part Second, 1813
1 Come, thou Fount of every blessing;
tune my heart to sing thy grace;
streams of mercy, never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above;
praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
mount of God’s unchanging love!
2 Here I raise my Ebenezer;
hither by thy help I’m come;
and I hope, by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God;
he, to rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood.
3 O to grace how great a debtor
daily I’m constrained to be!
Let that grace now, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here’s my heart; O take and seal it;
seal it for thy courts above.
MORNING OFFERING (TERI MCDOWELL OTT, PRESBYTERIAN OUTLOOK)
God’s abundance cannot be matched. Still, we are inspired to be generous by a generous God. We are inspired to give by the greatest of givers. In gratitude to God, let us present our tithes and offerings.
If you are able to, please consider mailing your offerings to the church (210 Smith Street) or dropping them off in the mail slot. Alternatively, if you visit peoples presbyterian dot org, you’ll find a donate button at the top of the page that will link you directly to a secure page where you could make a donation online. We appreciate the generosity of the Peoples family as we live out our faith in MISSION and ministry.
PRAYER OF DEDICATION (TERI MCDOWELL OTT, PRESBYTERIAN OUTLOOK)
Gracious God, the gifts we offer reflect only a portion of all that you have given us. Take these offerings, we pray, and multiply them for your use. May our offerings be a blessing to those most in need, to those most vulnerable. May our offerings, given in a spirit of generosity, abate the desire to hoard, and spread the desire to share. Amen.
AFFIRMATION OF FAITH (FROM A BRIEF STATEMENT OF FAITH)
We trust in God the Holy Spirit,
everywhere the giver and renewer of life.
The Spirit justifies us by grace through faith,
sets us free to accept ourselves
and to love God and neighbor,
and binds us together with all believers
in the one body of Christ, the Church.
The same Spirit who inspired the prophets and apostles
rules our faith and life in Christ through Scripture,
engages us through the Word proclaimed,
claims us in the waters of baptism,
feeds us with the bread of life and the cup of salvation,
and calls women and men to all ministries of the Church.
In a broken and fearful world
the Spirit gives us courage
to pray without ceasing,
to witness among all peoples to Christ as Lord and Savior,
to unmask idolatries in Church and culture,
to hear the voices of peoples long silenced,
and to work with others for justice, freedom, and peace.
CHARGE AND BENEDICTION
May the Lord bless you and keep you.
May God’s face shine upon you and be gracious unto you.
May God’s countenance be lifted upon you and give you peace.
From wherever you are, serve the Lord: Creator, Son, and Holy Spirit.