Bulletin – Sunday, March 23, 2025 – Third Sunday in Lent

Sunday, March 23, 2025, 2025
Third Sunday in Lent

We Gather as People of Faith

Welcome

Announcements

Minute Person

Call to Worship

One:   The Grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Love of God and the Communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
All:      And also with you.

One:   Out of a world of cut-throat competition, of winners-and-losers, and too many left behind we come together.
All:      The world’s ways are not our ways. The world’s ways are not Christ’s ways.

One:   Come and worship the One whose love knows no limits! In this place, we acknowledge God is the First and the Last. Here all our spirits are alive and our souls rejoice.
All:      Praise be to the Everlasting One!

Hymn – “All Who are Thirsty” (MV #4)

All who are thirsty, all who are weak,
Come to the fountain. Dip your heart in the stream of life.
Let the pain and the sorrow be washed away
In the waves of his mercy as deep cries out to deep.
We sing Come, Lord Jesus, come.

Lenten Candle Tenebrae

One:   We live in a world of many divisions: class, gender, religion, race, and politics.
All:      It is not easy to risk our vulnerabilities in order to get to know someone who seems different.

One:   Though God welcomes all peoples, invites the gifts of all nations, and celebrates the uniqueness of each culture, we live in poverty when we remain separated.
All:      Our lines of separation diminish our togetherness and diminish our humanity.

One:   Like the woman at the well, we are thirsty for a drink that will quench our deepest yearnings.
All:      We long to drink deeply at the well. Yet, we remain thirsty and we live a life of quiet desperation.

The third candle is extinguished

Sung Response – “Don’t Be Afraid” (MV #90)

Don’t be afraid. My love is stronger, my love is stronger than your fear.
Don’t be afraid. My love is stronger and I have promised, promised to be always near.

One:   Let us pray:
All:      O Christ, you said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.” Therefore, O God, we pray that you will quench our deepest thirst for acceptance, love, and peace. Fill our cup with your spirit till it overflows. May we drink to our heart’s content at your well. May we live a life of blessing by giving to others what you give to us with generosity, courage, and hope. Amen.

Prayer of Confession

Lord Jesus Christ, we know that when we become disconnected from you, our lives become parched and unfruitful. We act in our own best interest. We focus on ourselves and our families.

When we listen to you, our lives include others who will enrich us and give meaning to our commitment to you. During these Lenten Days we pray to consciously slow down and strengthen our ability to focus on you. May we become the fruit of your mercy, your love, and undying life.

Silent Prayers of Confession

One:   Lord, have mercy up on.
All:      Christ, have mercy upon us.

One:   Lord, have mercy upon us.

Assurance of Forgiveness

Sung Response – “And When You Call for Me” (MV #96)

And when you call for me, I have already answered.
And when you call for me, I am already there.

We Hear God’s Word

Prayer for Understanding

Scripture Reading:         Jeremiah 7:1-11

¹ This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ² “Stand at the gate of the Lord’s house and there proclaim this message:

“‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the Lord. ³ This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. ⁴ Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!” ⁵ If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, ⁶ if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, ⁷ then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever. ⁸ But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless.

⁹ “‘Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, ¹⁰ and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe”—safe to do all these detestable things? ¹¹ Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the Lord.

Scripture Reading:         John 2:14-22

¹⁴ In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. ¹⁵ So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. ¹⁶ To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” ¹⁷ His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

¹⁸ The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”

¹⁹ Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

²⁰ They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” ²¹ But the temple he had spoken of was his body. ²² After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.

May God speak to us through these readings of scripture.
Thanks be to God!

Hymn – “All the Way My Saviour Leads Me” (VU #635)

All the way my Saviour leads me; what have I to ask beside?
Can I doubt his tender mercy who through life has been my guide?
Heavenly peace, divinest comfort, here by faith in him to dwell,
For I know, whate’er befall me, Jesus doeth all things well.

All the way my Saviour leads me; cheers each winding path I tread,
Gives me grace for every trial, feeds me with the living bread.
Though my weary steps may falter, and my soul athirst may be,
Gushing from the rock before me, lo, a spring of joy I see!

All the way my Saviour leads me; O the fullness of his love!
Perfect rest to me is promised in my Father’s house above.
When my spirit, clothed, immortal, wings its flight to realms of day,
This my song through endless ages, “Jesus led me all the way!

Meditation – “Did You Hear What Happened in the Temple”

Anthem – “Jesus, Take All of Me”

Just as I am without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me.
And that Thou bidd’st me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God I come, I come.

Just as I am Thou will receive,
Will welcome pardon, cleanse, relieve.
Because Thy promise I believe,
O Lamb of God I come, I come.

Jesus, take all of me.
I come to You, I run to You.
There is nothing that You don’t see.
You love me just as I am.

Just as I am broken in two.
Just as I am, I come to You.
Because I know Your Word is true,
O Lamb of God I come, I come.

Jesus, take all of me.
I come to You, I run to You.
There is nothing that You don’t see.
You love me just as I am.

Just as I am, Thy love unknown
Has broken ev’ry barrier down.
Now to be Thine, yes, Thine alone,
O Lamb of God I come, I come.
I come, O sweet Lamb of God, I come,
I come.

We Respond to God’s Word

An Invitation to Share

Offering Sung Response – “These Lenten Gifts We Bring”

These Lenten gifts we bring, our living faith expressed,
We offer them most lovingly, and thus our hearts are blessed.

O loving God receive these gifts we gladly give,
That show our faith and hope and trust; your way we seek to live

Offering Prayer

Prayers of the People

Prayer Jesus Taught Us

All:      Our Father, who are in heaven, hallowed by thy name, thy kingdom come, they 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 evil: for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

We Go Into God’s World

Hymn – “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say” (VU #626)

I heard the voice of Jesus say, ‘Come unto me and rest;
Lay down, O weary one, lay down your head upon my breast.’
I came to Jesus as I was, weary and worn and sad;
I found in him a resting place, and he has made me glad.

I heard the voice of Jesus say, ‘Behold, I freely give
The living water; thirst one, stoop down, and drink, and live.’
I came to Jesus, and I drank of that life-giving stream;
My thirst was quenched, my soul revived, and now I live in him.

I heard the voice of Jesus say, ‘I am this dark world’s light;
Look unto me, your morn shall rise, and all your day be bright.’
I looked to Jesus, and I found in him my star, my sun;
And in that light of life I’ll walk till travelling days are done.

Benediction

Sung Response – “May the Christ who Walks on Wounded Feet”

May the Christ who walks on wounded feet travel with you all your journey through.
May you see Christ’s face in all you meet and may all you meet see Christ’s face in you.