03/08/26

As We Gather

God’s mercy and grace are revealed to those who deserve anything but. A marginalized Samaritan woman didn’t receive compassion from her community and didn’t deserve it from our Savior Jesus Christ, yet she was given and shown mercy and grace and came to believe He is the Savior of the world. We, too, have gone astray and deserve much less than mercy and grace from God Himself. Yet, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Children Activity Bags We value children in our worship services. If needed, there is a family room available for families with children. The family room has a diaper changing table, a closed-circuit TV to watch the worship service, toys and books for children. The family room is located across from the kitchen in the long hallway, the first door on the right, just past the bathrooms. There are “King’s Kids” bags with activities for children to help them worship. They are near the usher’s station on a small rack. Please return the bag to the rack after the service.

Holy Communion The Scripture teaches the Lord’s Supper is a precious gift of God in which Christ gives us His true body and blood, together with the bread and wine, for the forgiveness of our sins and the strengthening of our faith. Because the Bible teaches that this Sacrament may also be spiritually harmful if misused, and that participation in the Lord’s Supper is an act of confession of faith, we ordinarily commune those who have been instructed in the teachings of our church and who have confessed their faith in these teachings. If you have a question, please speak to Pastor Ralph before the service. For those who prefer a non-alcoholic alternative, there is grape juice at the center of each tray. Those not receiving the Sacrament, including children, are invited to come to the altar, cross their arms over their chest, and receive a special blessing.
Christians Love Even Their Enemies “To love him who loves us is the law of nature. To love enemies sincerely is characteristic of the children of God. To love God is to love our closest Friend!” “There is no greater love than to intercede before God for bloodthirsty enemies.”  What Luther Says # 2588 & 2589

Third Sunday in Lent

March 8, 2026

Opening Hymn                           Today Your Mercy Call Us                       LSB  915    vs 1-3

Invocation, Confession and Absolution (Portions of Psalm 95)

P:   We gather in the name and at the invitation of our great and gracious triune God;

C:   In the name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

P:   Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; 

C:   let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!

P:   Let us come into His presence with thanksgiving;

C:   let us make a joyful noise to Him with songs of praise!

P:   For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.

C:   In His hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are His also.
The sea is His, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry land. Amen.

C: We confess to You we forget Your power and might, fail to trust in Your ever-providing hands, and are found lacking in our managing of this world You formed. We confess we like sheep have gone astray, listening to other voices of this world and have not loved You with our whole heart nor our neighbors as ourselves. Send Your Holy Spirit to help us live in the forgiveness Jesus has already earned for us. Amen. 

P:   Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, but receive the bounty of God’s grace through Christ who died for you. You have peace with God because He is at peace with you. Your sins are forgiven in the name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit. 

C:   Amen!

Hymn of Response                    Today Your Mercy Call Us                            LSB  915    vs 4

Prayer of the Day

All:   O God, whose glory it is to have mercy, be gracious to all who have gone astray from Your ways and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of Your Word; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

O T Lesson                                   (Water from the rock)                                 Exodus 17:1–7

The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. ² So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?” ³ But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?” ⁴ Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.” ⁵ The Lord answered Moses, “Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. ⁶ I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. ⁷ And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?” 

N T Lesson                               (Peace with God through faith)                             Romans 5:1–8

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. ³ Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴ perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵ And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. ⁶ You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 

Gospel Lesson (Jesus and the woman of Samaria)     John 4:5–26 (27–30, 39–42)

⁵ So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶ Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. ⁷ When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” ⁸ (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) ⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) ¹⁰ Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” ¹¹ “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? ¹² Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?” ¹³ Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” ¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” ¹⁶ He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” ¹⁷ “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. ¹⁸ The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” ¹⁹ “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” ²¹ Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴ God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” ²⁵ The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” ²⁶ Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am he.” ²⁷ Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?” ²⁸ Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ²⁹ “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” ³⁰ They came out of the town and made their way toward him. 

Message Song                                        Gather Us In

Here in this place new light is streaming,  Now is the darkness vanished away.

See in this space our fears and our dreamings  Brought here to You in the light of this day.

Gather us in, the lost and forsaken; Gather us in, the blind and the lame.

Call to us now and we shall awaken; We shall arise at the sound of our name.

We are the young; our lives are a mystery. We are the old who yearn for your face.

We have been sung through-out all of history Called to be light to the whole human race.

Gather us in, the rich and the haughty; Gather us in, the proud and the strong.

Give us a heart so meek and so lowly; Give us the courage to enter the song.

Here we will take the wine and the water, Here we will take the bread of new birth.

Here you shall call Your sons and Your daughters, Call us a-new to be salt for the earth.

Give us to drink the wine of compassion, Give us to eat the bread that is You.

Nourish us well, and teach us to fashion Lives that are holy and hearts that are true.

Not in the dark of buildings confining, Not in some heaven light-years away,

But here in this place the new light is shining, Now is the kingdom, now is the day.

Gather us in and hold us forever. Gather us in and make us your own.

Gather us in, all peoples together, Fire of love in our flesh and our bone,

Fire of love in our flesh…    and our bone.

Message                                         Grace Knows No Strangers

 1.      God knows what’s in everyone’s heart.     Jer. 23: 9-10; Luke 16: 15

2.      Jesus’ engages the un-engageable              .  Psalm 34: 17ff; John 6:37ff; Prov. 21:2

3.      The living water Jesus gives brings eternal           life           to those who drink of it!

                                                                                             Isaiah 55

Creedal Statement from Small Catechism – 3^rd Article

P:   “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life.” What does this mean?

C:   I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlighten me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith… On the Last Day He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers. This is most certainly true.

Prayers of the Church  

 After each petition:

 P:  Lord, in your mercy,

 C:  hear our prayer.

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 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 and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

The Lord’s Supper

Preface                                                                      page 194 in the hymnal

P:  The Lord be with you.

C:  ♪ And with thy spirit.

P:  Lift up your hearts.

C:  ♪ We lift them up unto the Lord.

P:  Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

C:  ♪ It is meet and right so to do.

P:  It is truly good, right, and salutary …. And with the host of heaven we sing:

Sanctus — Holy, Holy, Holy                                          page 195 in the hymnal

C:  ♪ Ho -ly, ho-ly, ho-ly Lord God of Sa – ba – oth. Heaven and earth are full of Thy   

        glory. Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest. Blessed is He, blessed is He, 

        blessed is He who cometh in the name of the Lord.  Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna 

        in the highest.

The Words of Institution (Jesus Institutes the Lord’s Supper)

Pax Domini—The Peace of the Lord                  page 197 in the hymnal

P:  The peace of the Lord be with you always.C:  ♪ Amen.

Agnus Dei – Lamb of God                                                                          page 198 in the hymnal                                      

C:  ♪ O Christ, Thou Lamb of God, that takest away the sin of the world; 

         have mercy upon us.

         O Christ, Thou Lamb of God, that takest away the sin of the world; 

         have mercy upon us.

         O Christ, Thou Lamb of God, that takest away the sin of the world; 

         grant us Thy peace.  A – men.

Distribution of Communion

Distribution Hymn                              What Wondrous Love Is This               LSB 543

Nunc Dimittis                                                                                              page 199 in the hymnal        

C: ♪ Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace according to Thy Word, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of Thy people Israel. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.  Amen. 

Post Communion Collect

All:  We give thanks to You, almighty God, that You have refreshed us through this salutary gift, and we implore You that of Your mercy You would strengthen us through the same in faith toward You and in fervent love toward one another; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen

Benediction                                                                                                    Numbers 6:24–26                                                                                           

P:   The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord look upon you with favor and ✠ give you peace.

C:   Amen.   

Closing Hymn                                     Guide Me, O Thou Great Redeemer                LSB 918

Announcements 

Dismissal

P:   Go in peace as you serve the Lord.      

C:   Thanks be to God!   

Postlude

¹² Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”