phone-in for (audio only) Phone Number: (646) 558-8656
Meeting ID: 825 1215 9155
Welcome and Theme
Good morning and welcome to the Upper Room on this third Sunday of Lent. Today we celebrate the courage and wisdom in Jesus’ choice to take risks to love deeply and openly. The Samaritan woman in our gospel and Jesus both play a role in demonstrating the Christian journey toward love and self-acceptance. Jesus and the the woman at the well have a brief yet world changing interaction that demonstrates for us all that we are called to be both Jesus and the woman. Seeing others as God sees them, and seeing ourselves as God sees us is the Living Water that can heal each of us and our world. There is no need for categories, divisions or exclusions in the kindom for which we yearn.
Opening Prayer
Holy One,
Hear our prayer for all who thirst for living water today. We pray for those who are spiritually thirsty, who long to know Your presence, but don’t know where to find You. We pray for those who are alone and without hope, those who long to feel needed and loved, those who are searching for meaning and purpose.
Let us see each person we meet through the eyes of our hearts that we may truly see each person's inherent worth. Let your love flow through us today to each person we meet.
Amen.
Opening Song: All Belong Here
https://youtu.be/sJBEwqBfw3I?si=LcVPjfX9UQdA7t4e
LITURGY OF THE WORD
Readings
First Reading: Excerpt from Woman at the Well by Edwina Gateley
I am on the edge-
Precipitous-
Balancing my weight
Before the dream of flowing water
That would never end…
Ah, I am so thirsty,
So deeply thirsty as I dare,
With mystic smile,
To imagine cleansing, freeing water
Pouring over me…
Me?
Ah, Give it to me!
I cry aloud,
From my deep dark place of longing.
Fetch your husband,
Says the man.
Ah, now I am undone…
Bereft of the mirage of flowing water,
For husbands I have none,
I am that scorned
Woman Alone-
Except in the darkness of the night.
And this man
Does not know me.
He cannot know me…
But, ah, he does-
For he tells me all,
Reminds me of my story,
Reveals my shame
In woman’s sacred space.
I am doubly condemned.
But then, oh, wondrous moment!
He does not damn me
But blesses me-me,
The woman scorned!
He tells me who he is-
The Christ-
The one we all await,
The one who is to come, is here!
Now!
With me!
Talking with me
In sacred space…
I am swelling with a joy and freedom
I have never known!
There is a rush like cleaning water
Running through me,
Leaving me light as air.
I have no need now
For my jar of clay.
These are the inspired words of Edwina Gateley and the community affirms them by saying: Amen
Gospel Acclamation: More Light by Christopher Grundy
Gospel John 4:5-42
Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar,
near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
Jacob’s well was there.
Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well.
It was about noon.
A woman of Samaria came to draw water.
Jesus said to her,
“Give me a drink.”
His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.
The Samaritan woman said to him,
“How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”
—For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.—
Jesus answered and said to her,
“If you knew the gift of God
and who 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 do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep;
where then can you get this living water?
Are you greater than our father Jacob,
who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself
with his children and his flocks?”
Jesus answered and said to her,
“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again;
but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst;
the water I shall give will become in him
a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The woman said to him,
“Sir, give me this water, so that I may not 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 and said to him,
“I do not have a husband.”
Jesus answered her,
“You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a 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 can see that you are a prophet.
Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain;
but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”
Jesus said to her,
“Believe me, woman, the hour is coming
when you will worship the Father
neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
You people worship what you do not understand;
we worship what we understand,
because salvation is from the Jews.
But the hour is coming, and is now here,
when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth;
and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him.
God is Spirit, and those who worship him
must worship in Spirit and truth.”
The woman said to him,
“I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ;
when he comes, he will tell us everything.”
Jesus said to her,
“I am he, the one speaking with you.”
At that moment his disciples returned,
and were amazed that he was talking with a woman,
but still no one said, “What are you looking for?”
or “Why are you talking with her?”
The woman left her water jar
and went into the town and said to the people,
“Come see a man who told me everything I have done.
Could he possibly be the Christ?”
They went out of the town and came to him.
Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat.”
But he said to them,
“I have food to eat of which you do not know.”
So the disciples said to one another,
“Could someone have brought him something to eat?”
Jesus said to them,
“My food is to do the will of the one who sent me
and to finish his work.
Do you not say, ‘In four months the harvest will be here’?
I tell you, look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest.
The reaper is already receiving payment
and gathering crops for eternal life,
so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together.
For here the saying is verified that ‘One sows and another reaps.’
I sent you to reap what you have not worked for;
others have done the work,
and you are sharing the fruits of their work.”
Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him
because of the word of the woman who testified,
“He told me everything I have done.”
When the Samaritans came to him,
they invited him to stay with them;
and he stayed there two days.
Many more began to believe in him because of his word,
and they said to the woman,
“We no longer believe because of your word;
for we have heard for ourselves,
and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”
These are the inspired words from the gospel writer known as John and the community affirms them by saying:Amen
Shared Homily
Today’s gospel reading about the Samaritan woman is likely very familiar to many of us. The excerpt from Edwina Gateley’s poem reflects the same story from the woman’s perspective. Jesus, as a Jewish man, would be forbidden to speak with a Samaritan woman, by law. She was considered unclean and unworthy to even associate with the other women in her Samaritan society. So here we are again, finding Jesus going out of his way to break the rules in the name of love, justice and community. Jesus could have chosen to go to Jerusalem by going around the region of Samaria. For some reason, he doesn’t and so we see the set up for a deceptively complex interaction.
For starters, Jesus could have been severely punished for his choice to talk to a woman, a Samaritan and a sinner. The very act of accepting anything from her hands was an act of defiance for him. She , on the other side, would have been terrified because she could have been severely punished for talking to a Jew who was also a man. Giving him water would not have been allowed. Still, this everyday simple interaction reveals the heart of the gospel. Jesus is well aware of this woman’s status and her history. She is aware that he is the “enemy” of her tribe. Still, at it’s heart, the message is one of radical love, radical acceptance. The living water Jesus offers her is Love. He recognized her not as a sinner but as a beautiful daughter of God. He sees her in as God sees her…….as a precious equal. She can’t believe it, it confuses her. After it confuses her, it heals her. She will never be “thirsty” for love, acceptance or salvation again because of her encounter with Jesus. She is loved by another and surely this brings up a wellspring of self-love.
Like Jesus and the Samaritan woman, we are each called to stretch. We are called to love where it is not easy, when we are not “supposed to”. We are called to see the “other” as sister or brother who is also a precious child of God. Those who society or religion rejects are the ones we are called to look for and call beautiful, worthy, beloved. In order to do so we must look inward with courage. We each have to face the blocks, the prejudices, the fears that keep us from both offering love and accepting love from people. The more we do this, the freer we are. The more we are the Christlight for the world. As our Lenten journeys continue, may we challenge ourselves to venture straight into the heart of those situations that most challenge us so that we can truly expand our understanding of the inclusive kindom of God.
Statement of Faith
We believe in the Holy One, a divine mystery
beyond all definition and rational understanding,
the heart of all that has ever existed,
that exists now, or that ever will exist.
We believe in Jesus, messenger of the Divine Word,
bringer of healing, heart of Divine compassion,
bright star in the firmament of the Holy One's
prophets, mystics, and saints.
We believe that We are called to follow Jesus
as a vehicle of divine love,
a source of wisdom and truth,
and an instrument of peace in the world.
We believe in the Spirit of the Holy One,
the life that is our innermost life,
the breath moving in our being,
the depth living in each of us.
We believe that the Divine kin-dom is here and now,
stretched out all around us for those
with eyes to see it, hearts to receive it,
and hands to make it happen.
Eucharistic Prayer of Belonging
Presider: As we prepare for the sacred meal we bring to this table our blessings, cares and concerns. Please feel free to voice your concerns beginning with the words “I bring to the table….”
Presider: We pray for these and all unspoken concerns. Amen.
Presider: We are a priestly people. We are anointed. With open hands let us pray our Eucharistic prayer as one voice:
O Nurturing, Mothering one, You are always with us. We are grateful for Your constant loving and unconditional presence. At times we forget that You are holding us, attending to us. We fall and You pick us up. You send strangers, friends and family to our aid. We are never without Your Light and Spirit.
We experience great joy and we experience great pain and suffering. You are with us in the joy and the pain and suffering. When we experience Your presence we long to sing our hymn of praise:
Here In This Place by Christopher Grundy
https://youtu.be/uXyu57tR2gk?
Creator and Lover of all beings, we cannot grow in the darkness of this world without Your Light. Our desire to be in Your light is a gift from You. Help us keep our hearts and minds open to You through our love and care for each other and all creation.
Presider: Please extend your hands in blessing
This bread and wine is a sign of Your nourishment and a sign of Your great love. Your Spirit is upon us and we belong to You and one another.
We thank you for Jesus, simple servant, lifting up the lowly, revealing you as God-With-Us, revealing us as one with you, and all creation.
On the night before he died, Jesus gathered for supper with the people closest to him. Like the least of household servants, he washed their feet. Once again he showed us how to love one another.
Presider lifts bread.
Back at the table, he took the bread, spoke the grace, broke the bread and offered it to them saying, Take and eat, this is my very self.
Presider lifts the cup as community prays the following:
Then he took the cup of blessing, spoke the grace, and offered it to them saying:
Take and drink of the covenant
Made new again through my life in you.
Whenever you remember me like this,
I am among you.
Bread and wine is transformed by Your Spirit and we are transformed when we open ourselves to Your Spirit. Every time we share this bread and wine we choose to be transformed. We choose to love as You love us.
As we celebrate and recognize You in this bread and wine we love and recognize you in each other. We are filled with gratitude and joy. Glory and Praise to you both now and forever. Amen
Presiders hold bread and cup:
All:
Through Jesus, we have learned how to live.
Through Jesus, we have learned how to love.
Through Jesus, we have learned how to serve.
AMEN.
Presider: Let us pray together the prayer of Jesus:
O Holy One, who is within, around, and among us, we celebrate your many names. Your wisdom come. Your will be done, unfolding from the depths within us. Each day you give us all that we need. You remind us of our limits, and we let go. You support us in our power, and we act with courage. For you are the dwelling place within us, the empowerment around us, and the celebration among us, now and forever. Amen.
The Prayer of Jesus as interpreted by Miriam Therese Winter
Presider: Please join in the prayer for the breaking of the bread:
Loving Source of our being, You call us to live the Gospel of peace and justice. We live justly, we love tenderly, we walk with integrity in Your Presence.
Presider: Let us pray our communion prayer together:
What we have heard with our ears, we will live with our lives: as we share communion, we will become communion, both Love’s nourishment and Love’s challenge.
Presider: Please receive the bread with the words: You are beloved of God
Presider 1: Our Communion Song: How Could anyone ever Tell You sung by Shaina Noll
https://youtu.be/Cr66u-fTxik?si=HGePE51wzJdGT5dY
BLESSING
Presider: Please extend your hands and pray our blessing together
May you find a harmony between your soul and your life
May the sanctuary of your soul never be haunted
May there be kindness in your gaze when you look within.
May you allow the wild beauty of the invisible world to gather you
Mind you and embrace you in belonging.
All: Amen.
(Blessing by John O’Donohue
Closing Song: You Say by Lauren Daigle
https://youtu.be/N8WK9HmF53w?si=BQYzQrdhlJQEnid_
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