Hi everyone,
Welcome to worship for March 8, 2026, for the 3rd Sunday in Lent!
The bulletin for this service can be found here. You can use it to follow along with the service, or you can just use the words that appear on your screen. The sermon is found both in the bulletin and on this page below the video.
For an enhanced online worship service, you can have a candle in your space, lit for most of the service but extinguished near the end after the sending hymn when the altar candles are extinguished. You are also welcome to participate in communion if you are comfortable, by having something small to eat and drink ready for the appropriate portion of the service. Further instruction will be given then.
May God’s unending love fill you with hope and peace, now and always!
Living God, through your Word and your Spirit, may we hear the good news that you bring, that we might believe in and in turn, proclaim the same good news to all the world that you so love, through Jesus Christ. Amen.
So as per my normal-ish practice, I started my sermon preparations for today by looking back at my past sermons on the same text and/or day of the church calendar to see what nuggets of wisdom I can steal… I mean plagiarize… I mean borrow from myself. Don’t worry, I always give them back. But as you probably know by now, today is the 3rd Sunday in Lent of Lectionary Year A, so I went back 3 years of our 3-year Lectionary cycle into my archived sermons and pulled out the last 3rd Sunday in Lent of Lectionary Year A sermon, dated March 12, 2023, and gave it a quick read. And you know what I found? My sermons don’t age very well at all.
But I’m a glutton for punishment, so I went back another 3 years to the prior 3rd Sunday in Lent of Lectionary Year A, and before I could even read it, I saw the date for it. It landed on March 15… of 2020. And a flood of memories and a bit of emotion hit me.
Now if you can remember back that far, that was the first day we started streaming our worship services online here at Grace. Not because we’re a super innovative and forward-thinking bunch… or I should say, not only because we are… but also because that day was the first day we suspended our in-person services because of this obscure global pandemic that was raging globally in pandemic-y proportions. Gosh it seems like forever ago now, doesn’t it? But we still see the effects of it, the aftermath, the stark changes that happened to us and all around us. Because if we’re honest, things really have not been the same since.
I mean, how we saw the situation changed how we saw each other. How we saw each other changed how we lived as a community. How we lived as a community changed, in a way, who we are. I’m not just talking about us here in this congregation, but all around our society, this country, much of the observable world was deeply affected by the pandemic, whether we liked it, acknowledged it, or admitted to it or not.
Before the pandemic, it was like we were all finally making progress. We were learning to work together. We were moving forward toward a better world. But then it was almost like a switch was hit with the pandemic and people suddenly were so divided, families were torn and split, walls between “us” and “them” were put up and fortified. And even now, six years after the fact, it seems to me that feelings toward others are still hardened, darkened, and more jaded than ever before. The damage was done and it appears irreversible.
The pandemic really did a number on us, huh? All these broken relationships, these broken families and communities, these broken people who we’ve lost respect for and/or who have lost respect for us. It wasn’t always like this, was it?
Actually, maybe it was, if the stories in our bibles have anything to say about it. Throughout scripture we see division in families, like Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, even Mary and Martha at one point. We see nations against nations, with Israel being in the middle of course facing exile after exile and occupation after occupation, causing drastic changes in borders and political landscape of the region. And we also see religious group against religious group, as seen today’s gospel reading with how the Jews and Samaritans saw, regard, and treat each other.
Just for a quick recap, these two groups didn’t get along because during one of the exiles, some “pure” Jews associated with some “not as pure” non-Jews and created what was seen as an abomination of a people group. Basically, the Samaritans were half-breeds that looked different, sounded different, and worshipped the same exact God different. And thus started this multi-generational feud that really at its core could only be labelled as racism.
And we see it throughout the story from our gospel lesson today.
Not just racism, but sexism, classism, and a bit of religious piety for good measure. It was essentially a mess. And in the middle of it all, was Jesus. Resting by the well. Soaking up the rays. Asking for a drink.
But of course, as we just talked about, this was a no-no. A Jew fraternizing with a Samaritan. A priest chatting with a commoner. A single man asking a favour from a single woman… at the most romantic spot in the land of Jacob’s well, no less. Bow chicka wow wow.
See, we here in the 21st Century Western society wouldn’t get all these nuances, because we’re far removed and we don’t care about the historical beef between these groups or the cultural norms that were seen as proper morals and ethics. But this story would have evoked strong emotions in the early readers. The scandal of the whole episode would have been so dirty that they’d want to bathe afterwards. The very words and insinuations would have left such a taste in their mouths that the purest well water couldn’t wash it out. The thought of such an interaction should have been so hair-pullingly infuriating…
…but also very telling.
Because what really was so infuriating about this story? What is so wrong with a man who was weary from walking in the heat asking a woman for some water? Why was it seen as so bad that she came to the well at noon when sun was at its hottest and the people at the well would be most scarce? Why was so much shame thrown her way for having lost so many husbands? We in our modern times frame the story differently and miss the emotion that is supposed to be tied to it. We don’t get the scandal. This story isn’t the rage bait that it once was.
But in the climate from whence this story came? It would be unheard of. This woman had everything going against her and a laundry list of reasons why she shouldn’t be given the time of day. All that she is, where she comes from, her very identity is enough for the disciples to just wish this episode to come to a swift conclusion, so they could wash their hands of it and be on their way.
But Jesus doesn’t end it, not in the way they would have hoped at least. Instead, Jesus informs, reforms, and transforms this woman and her whole life. He teaches and proclaims truth. He reveals to her a new way to see things, a new purpose in life, a new identity that is not bound with conformity or nonconformity to societal norms, not trapped by what side of the tracks she was born or the size of her bank account, not set by her circumstance, the labels that we assigned to her, or how the general populace would assume about her.
Jesus proclaims her as a child of God.
As with all of us, while we might be more comfortable in drawing lines, defining who is welcomed as “us” and who is to be avoided as “them”, and discerning how wrong they could be in contrast to how right we absolutely are, God removes the stereotypes, the biases, the reasons for prejudice and reveals to us all how we are all included at the well, we are all welcomed into the family, we are all called to be people of God: diverse in culture, tradition, and expression; and united not necessarily in perspective, opinion, and interpretation, but in community, relationship, and God’s love as shown to us all through Jesus Christ.
So we aren’t meant to keep drawing those lines. We aren’t made to be separated by whatever reason we want to separated by. We aren’t molded in God’s image so we could tarnish others. Rather, we are brought together by God’s grace, welcomed by God’s mercy, and given the living water of our salvation by God’s love.
So even though our division through our stubbornness runs deep throughout history, we continue to be called by God to live as one. Even though we classify each other by criteria that are more excuses to hate than anything else, God continues to bring us together and reconcile us by the Spirit. Even though we try to draw these lines and point these fingers, God will continue to forgive, heal, and save. Now and always.
As continue in this season of Lent, may our reflections of self lead not just to repentance, but to recognition of who we are and whose we are as God’s own beloved people in the world. Thanks be to God. Amen.
