At this time, all in-person gatherings at the Beloved building have been postponed until the COVID threat abates.
We are getting our systems in place to gather online regularly in different ways and will be regularly updating this part of our website with that information.
If the meantime, if you need a deep breath, take a look at the readings and prayer from our online bulletins from last Sunday.
Call to Worship(based on Psalm 95)
O come, let us sing to our GOD;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into God’s presence with thanksgiving,
singing joyful songs of praise!
Our God is great, Sovereign above all powers and principalities.
The sea, the depths of the earth, the heights of the mountains,
indeed all of creation were made by God and belong to God.
O come, let us worship and bow down,
let us kneel before the HOLY ONE, our Maker!
Yes! God is our God, and we are God’s people:
O that today we would listen for the Lord’s voice!
Let us not harden our hearts, as they did in the wilderness,
When our ancestors tested our Liberator,
requiring proof of God’s faithfulness,
even though they had witnessed miracles!
For forty years God contended with that generation and said,
“They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they do not regard my
ways.”
Today, Holy One, we have learned from their struggles.
Today, we re-dedicate our hearts to you
and strain our ears to hear your voice.
Speak now, Still-Speaking God, for your people are listening!
Psalm of the Day – Psalm 95
Come, sing with joy to God,
shout to our savior, our rock.
Enter God’s presence with praise,
enter with shouting and song.
A great God is the Lord,
over the gods like a king.
God cradles the depths of the earth,
holds fast the mountain peaks.
God shaped the ocean and owns it,
formed the earth by hand.
Come, bow down and worship,
kneel to the Lord our maker.
This is our god, our shepherd,
we are the flock led with care.
Listen today to God’s voice:
“Harden no heart as at Meribah,
on that day in the desert at Massah.
There your people tried me,
though they had seen my work.
“Forty years with that lot!
I said: They are perverse,
they do not accept my ways.
So I swore in my anger:
They shall not enter my rest.”
Hymn of the Day
- O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home. - Under the shadow of Thy throne
Thy saints have dwelt secure;
Sufficient is Thine arm alone,
And our defense is sure. - Before the hills in order stood,
Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting Thou art God,
To endless years the same. - A thousand ages in Thy sight
Are like an evening gone;
Short as the watch that ends the night
Before the rising sun. - O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Be Thou our guard while troubles last,
And our eternal home.
A Reading from the Hebrew Bible Exodus 17:1-7
From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. The people quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?” But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” So Moses cried out to the LORD, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” The LORD said to Moses, “Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the LORD, saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”
Prayer of Blessing
God of grace and truth,
we come to your house today to worship you.
We bring all of ourselves to you,
all of the good, the bad, and the ugly.
We entrust our hidden, fearful, and fragile selves
to your transforming power and gentle, loving care.
Blessing, glory, and honor are yours alone.
Thank you for the many ways your Spirit breaks into our lives
and into this troubled world.
We offer this prayer in the name of the One
whose name is above every name,
Jesus the Christ. Amen.
A Moment of Personal Reflection –Let us invite some silence in this space this morning – and into our noisy lives. Let us sit this morning for a minute with the heaviness on our hearts and with our hope, with our need for forgiveness and our need to forgive, with an awareness of our blessings and gratitude for them, and with a generosity of spirit toward others:
A Contemporary Reading When the thirst of life parches your soul, desperation sets in. It sets in hard, And you don’t remember who God is or what God has done. That’s just the truth. Desperation makes you believe you’re going to die; it makes you test the limits of faith, and of ethics. It makes you blame the “Moses” in your life, the one who gave you the word of your deliverance from bondage. It makes the past struggles seem not so bad. Church becomes a wilderness. Relationships become wastelands. It all gets big. It’s never just about you anymore when you’re desperate. It’s everything. It’s everyone. It’s the equivalent of “your children and your livestock.” When your throat, your life, is parched, you want to stone the messengers. You argue and you test. You bargain and you beg. It’s hard to trust who God is or what God has done. That’s just the truth. And still, God provides: even when you’re moaning and complaining; even when you’re parched and pleading; even when your faithis a faint whisper from the past. God still provides. Disappointed in our desperation, maybe. Wishing we would remember the miraculous escapes we’ve had. But providing nonetheless. That’s just the truth.Look up; there’s a rock gushing with refreshment for you somewhere in your life.Your past only sounds good because you can’t see the future. There is a rock gushing somewhere in your life. That’s just the truth. Look for it. – Valerie Bridgeman Davis, Africana Worship Book: Year A
The New Testament Reading of the Day John 4:5-42 So he 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? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” 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 worshiped 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 the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 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. God is spirit, and those who worship him 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.”
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?” Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” They left the city and were on their way to him. Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.”
So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. 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. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there 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.”
A Moment of Pastoral Reflection
A Moment of Communal Reflection and Prayer – are there prayers we need to offer for the world today? Let us end each one by affirming “This is our prayer.”
Holy Communion
This is God’s table. All are invited here to be in communion with God and with one another.
The table of bread is now to be made ready.
It is the table of company with Jesus,
and all who love him.
It is the table of sharing with the poor of the world,
with whom Jesus identified himself.
It is the table of communion with the earth,
in which Christ became incarnate.
So come to this table,
you who have much faith
and you who would like to have more;
you who have been here often
and you who have not been for a long time;
you who have tried to follow Jesus,
and you who have failed;
come.
It is Christ who invites us to meet him here.
Loving God,
through your goodness
we have this bread and juice to offer,
which has come forth from the earth
and human hands have made.
May we know your presence
in the sharing,
so that we may know your touch
and presence in all things.
We celebrate the life that Jesus has shared
among his community through the centuries,
and shares with us now.
Made one in Christ
and one with each other,
we offer these gifts and with them ourselves,
a single, living act of praise.
Amen.
This is God’s table, not our table - and at it all are welcome. There are no restrictions on grace incarnate.
Prayer after Communion
Gracious and loving God - we give thanks for this moment, praying for those gathered here and for all those beyond these walls - to the very ends of the Earth.
We give thanks for the cloud of witnesses watching over us and inspiring us, the strength of our ancestors, that we might persist always in spirit and in truth.
May we bear witness to the transformation of ourselves, our communities, and to the vastness of Creation and its people. In the name of all that is holy, Amen.
Friends, because true communion in Christ is not limited by the walls of a building, we now carry this means of grace out into the time and space of our daily lives. This is the work of God’s church and its people. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Benediction
Thirsting for Grace: Service Prayers for the Third Sunday of Lent, was written by the Rev. Dr. Renee C. Jackson, Minister for Ministerial Formation, UCC.
Copyright 2020 Justice and Local Church Ministries, Faith INFO Ministry Team, United Church of Christ, 700 Prospect Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44115-1100.
Communion Liturgy from Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals
Evening Worship: Third Sunday in Lent
OPENING MUSIC
GREETING
OPENING HYMN – Woke Up This Morning
Woke up this morning with my mind stayed on Jesus
Woke up this morning with my mind stayed on Jesus
Woke up this morning with my mind stayed on Jesus
Hallelu
hallelu
Hallelujah.
I’m walking and talking with my mind stayed on Jesus
I’m walking and talking with my mind stayed on Jesus
I’m walking and talking with my mind stayed on Jesus
Hallelu
hallelu
Hallelujah.
I woke up singing with my mind stayed on Jesus
I woke up singing with my mind stayed on Jesus
I woke up singing with my mind stayed on Jesus
Hallelu
hallelu
Hallelujah.
I’m freeing myself with my mind stayed on Jesus
I’m freeing myself with my mind stayed on Jesus
I’m freeing myself with my mind stayed on Jesus
Hallelu
hallelu
Hallelujah.
Woke up this morning with my mind stayed on Jesus
Woke up this morning with my mind stayed on Jesus
Woke up this morning with my mind stayed on Jesus
Hallelu
hallelu
Hallelujah.
OPENING PRAYER
COMMUNITY BUILDING
Activities and News in the Community
Peace and Greetings – please give your name, your maternal grandmother’s name, and where she was from. This is a manner of introduction favored by the late writer and organizer Dr. Vincent Harding
Prayers of the People—
We pray our joy and thanksgiving
We pray our concerns and our sorrows
We pray for the world and its people.
Speaker – This is my prayer. Response – This is our prayer.
SCRIPTURE *Psalm 95
*Translation by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy
Come, sing with joy to God, shout to our savior, our rock.
Enter God’s presence with praise, enter with shouting and song.
A great God is the Lord, over the gods like a king.
God cradles the depths of the earth,
holds fast the mountain peaks.
God shaped the ocean and owns it, formed the earth by hand.
Come, bow down and worship, kneel to the Lord our maker.
This is our god, our shepherd, we are the flock led with care.
Listen today to God’s voice: “Harden no heart as at Meribah,
on that day in the desert at Massah.
There your people tried me, though they had seen my work.
“Forty years with that lot! I said: They are perverse
they do not accept my ways.
So I swore in my anger: They shall not enter my rest.” May we be blessed by the reading of this word. Amen.
OFFERING – please put your offerings in the donation box before or after the service or make them online http://www.belovedcommunitychurch.org/give-gladly/
[note: I’m not sure why that dialogue box immediately below came up and I’m equally baffled as to why I can’t delete it – click the link just above to give your offerings and then scroll on down.
– Rev. Jennifer]
MESSAGE Rev. Jennifer Sanders, Pastor
Holy Communion (with individually packaged elements)
This is God’s table. All are invited here to be in communion with God and with one another.
The table of bread is now to be made ready. It is the table of company with Jesus, and all who love him.
It is the table of sharing with the poor of the world,
with whom Jesus identified himself.
It is the table of communion with the earth,
in which Christ became incarnate.
So come to this table,
you who have much faith
and you who would like to have more;
you who have been here often
and you who have not been for a long time;
you who have tried to follow Jesus,
and you who have failed;
come.
It is Christ who invites us to meet him here.
Loving God,
through your goodness
we have this bread and juice to offer,
which has come forth from the earth
and human hands have made.
May we know your presence
in the sharing,
so that we may know your touch
and presence in all things.
We celebrate the life that Jesus has shared
among his community through the centuries,
and shares with us now.
Made one in Christ
and one with each other,
we offer these gifts and with them ourselves,
a single, living act of praise.
Amen.
*Communion Litany from Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals
Prayer after Communion
Gracious and loving God - we give thanks for this moment, praying for those gathered here and for all those beyond these walls - to the very ends of the Earth.
We give thanks for the cloud of witnesses watching over us and inspiring us, the strength of our ancestors, that we might persist always in spirit and in truth.
May we bear witness to the transformation of ourselves, our communities, and to the vastness of Creation and its people. In the name of all that is holy, Amen.
Friends, because true communion in Christ is not limited by the walls of a building, we now carry this means of grace out into the time and space of our daily lives. This is the work of God’s church and its people. Thanks be to God. Amen.
ANTHEM Quincy Palmer
CLOSING HYMN – O God Our Help in Ages Past
- O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home. - Under the shadow of Thy throne
Thy saints have dwelt secure;
Sufficient is Thine arm alone,
And our defense is sure. - Before the hills in order stood,
Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting Thou art God,
To endless years the same. - A thousand ages in Thy sight
Are like an evening gone;
Short as the watch that ends the night
Before the rising sun. - O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Be Thou our guard while troubles last,
And our eternal home.
BENEDICTION
