A Gathering in Worship Offered by the People of the Church of Christ, Union
March 8, 2026 10:30 am Third Sunday of Lent
Meditation
You cannot hate enough to make yourself happy.
You cannot destroy enough to make yourself feel secure.
You cannot oppress enough to make yourself feel superior.
You cannot commit enough evil to make yourself feel holy. ~ Bishop LaTrelle Miller Easterling
From There to Here: We Gather
Welcome
Welcome to this service of worship! Please sign in using the pew folder, passing it back down the row so all can greet one another by name, and place the sheet in an offering plate. We’re glad you’re here! During the service, you are invited to rise in body or in spirit, standing or sitting, at points in the service marked “<>.”
Introit Roll Down Justice Mark A. Miller
There’s a voice strong and clear ringing out far and near,
“Let justice roll down! Let justice roll down!”
Like the rush of a stream comes a powerful dream,
Let justice roll down, justice rolls down!
Let the earth be restored, every soul be reformed
Let the healing renew, creation reborn!
Here in this sacred space, with the strength of God’s grace
Let justice roll down, justice rolls down!
Roll down! Roll down, justice!
Roll like an everflowing stream.
Roll down, justice!
Roll like an everflowing stream, roll down!
¨ Call to Worship Deb Beishline, Reader
One: Do we, as a church, look and act like Jesus?
All: We dream of a church where justice flows and hope and peace grow.
One: Do we help others find living water in the deserts of their lives? Do we speak WITH those we have “othered” as often as we speak ABOUT them?
All: We dream of a church that reaches out to strangers—those who are different; those who are from somewhere else; those we may perceive as enemies.
One: Holy and Living God, what do we need the shed to make room for hope and peace to grow in and through our lives and this church?
All: Extend us beyond our comfort zones, O God, so that we may be representatives of Jesus.
One: Open us to see our inherent connection to others.
All: May peace flow. Let justice roll.
One: May your will be done here on earth.
All: May peace flow. Let justice roll.
¨ Hymn #575 O for a World Azmon
1. O for a world where everyone
respects each other’s ways,
Where love is lived and all is done
With justice and with praise.
2. O for a world where goods are shared
and misery relieved,
Where truth is spoken, children spared,
Equality achieved.
3. We welcome one world family,
And struggle with each choice
That opens us to unity
And gives our vision voice.
4. The poor are rich, the weak are strong,
The foolish ones are wise.
Tell all who mourn: outcasts belong,
Who perishes will rise.
5. O for a world preparing for
God’s glorious reign of peace,
Where time and tears will be no more,
And all but love will cease.
Prayer of Approach and Confession
One: For the divisions we’ve created between “citizen” and “undocumented,” “American” and “illegal” and all the violence those divisions create:
All: God, have mercy.
One: For the segregation we’ve inhabited between “ghetto” and “good schools,” for every border and wall and fence and redline and all the injustice that segregation creates:
All: Christ, have mercy.
One: For each time we say “us” and mean, “not them.” For every “those people” and “you people” and all the fear and distaste that lives under our breaths:
All: God, have mercy.
One: Heal us from the ways we deny our kinship and disregard the dignity and belovedness of each and all of us.
All: Turn us around, Holy One. Amen.
¨ Words of Assurance
One: When Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well, ancient prophetic visions and age-old dreams of one human family swirled under their feet. Old promises of love and liberation became the living water of new life.
All: Praise God who forgives us and frees us inviting us, as siblings in Christ, to make our lives liturgies of Spirit and truth.
One: Freed and forgiven we turn to one another in peace to make peace in Christ’s way.
¨ Passing the Peace of Christ
All who come to this sanctuary are welcome companions on the journey of faith. Please turn to those nearest you and greet them with words of peace.
Word and Worship
Special Music I Believe Union Church Choir
I believe in the sun even when it’s not shining. I believe in love, even when I don’t feel it. I believe in God, even when God is silent.
Scripture Reading 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 for 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?”
~ New Revised Standard Version, updated
Children’s Moment as the children return to their seats we sing:
May God’s blessings guard, protect and guide you. God bless you, God bless you. Our savior’s loving arms be ever ’round you. God bless you, God bless you.
Sung Psalm #95 p. 683
The psalms were originally musical compositions. During Lent we will pray the psalms in musical form. You are invited to sing the response when invited, at the “R” if using the hymnal.
Scripture Reading 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.”
~ New Revised Standard Version, updated
Sermon Living Waters from Hidden Depths Rev. Kent Gilbert
Video Reflection
Living Prayer
Call to Prayer
Each week, we join millions of Christians who pray for one another through the ecumenical prayer cycle and, locally, the Berea Ministerial Association’s prayer cycle. Let us hold the people of Next week we pray for Ireland; United Kingdom: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales; and our siblings at Wallace Chapel in our hearts, and pray for them today and throughout the week.
Ringing the Peace Bell
The Union Church Peace Bell was created by Jeff Enge in honor of Union Church member Carl Eschbach (1904-1998). A twin bell hangs in Berea’s sister province in Japan and is also rung in the hope of peace for all nations.
Embodied Prayer
You are invited to reflect and pray at the candle table. You may also choose to source the essential ingredient of solitude and private prayer, remaining with your own thoughts in your pew.
For Reflection
I Dream of A Church: Christ’s Representatives
Close your hand, making a tight fist. What do you need to give up during Lent to let justice roll down and prevail in your life, in your world?
· The more we keep our hands tightly clenched, the less we are able to connect with others as one body.
· What keeps you from making connections?
· Slowly open your hand, letting go of any sense of otherness.
· Open to taking a step toward creating the sanctuary you seek.
We come before you, Holy Trinity of Love,
knowing that we sometimes act as if we need no one,
unable to give of ourselves and reach out to others.
And yet you call us to break down the walls that divide us just as Jesus did.
Forgive us and open us to your refreshing water of life.
Help us to create a place that is a sanctuary,
a refuge from division–not adding to it.
Help us to foster the growth of hope and peace,
and move us closer to compassion and courage
to speak up and stand up for what is right and good.
Amen.
Offertory Beneath the Cross of Jesus Union Church Orchestra
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¨ Doxology Kyrie No. 7 Taize
The words “Kyrie Eleison” are Greek for “Lord, Have Mercy.” Often also paired with the words, “Christe Eleison” (“Christ, Have Mercy”), they are some of the oldest known Christian prayers and have been said or sung in worship services of every tradition for nearly 2000 years. There are many musical settings of the Kyrie. This one is from the community of Taizé, France.
Silent Prayer and Prayers of the Community
Creator God, deep well of compassion and justice, tend to us and all who are thirsty for your living water. Forged with authenticity and truth-telling, you call us into communities that resist division. Streams of mercy and justice unite in your presence and we long to worship in both spirit and truth.
For all who are isolated by truths hard to bear, open to them the heart of healing.
For all who have divided the world upon lesser grounds than your encompassing love, open our eyes to see the kinship of all. We are none very perfect. We are all very proud. With compassion and forgiveness, you choose love over division and make us family. Grant that we might take care of one another with equal insight and compassion, as your love demands.
This we pray in the name of our brother, Jesus, who taught us to reach to you as…
Our Lord’s Prayer
Our Maker, Our Mother, and Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; Thy kin-dom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: for thine is the kin-dom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.
¨ Hymn #196 When, Like the Woman at the Well Craven
1. When, like the woman at the well, I lived with broken dreams,
Christ came to me, good news to tell, of everliving streams.
2. Christ knew my heart, my wayward ways, yet gave me hope, not fear.
The God I once thought far away, I could approach, draw near.
3. I learned I could forever live and worship God aright,
Could trust the power the Spirit gives to guide me in truth’s light.
4. Each day I lift my cup above, and I again receive
The living water of God’s love, revealed for my belief.
5. Since now I am in grace immersed, set free, forgiven, whole,
I share with those who are athirst the wellsprings of my soul!
From Here to There
Community Connections
Announcements
We share opportunities for Beloved Community and ways to serve. Please see the listing of church & community events, prayers, and notices in the pages following the service.
Lighting the Justice Candle to Lead us Forth
Martha Layne Collins was the first and (so far) only woman to be elected as Kentucky’s governor, The Bagdad native was elected Kentucky’s Lieutenant Governor in 1979 and Governor in 1983. Her administration focused on education and economic development. After failing to secure increased funding for education failed in 1984, she conducted a statewide public awareness campaign, which helped secure passage of a modified program the next year.
Her signature achievement was in bringing a Toyota manufacturing plant to Georgetown, Kentucky, in 1986. After her political career she held several positions in higher education institutions in Kentucky. She passed away in November 2025.
¨ Benediction
¨ Benediction Response Hold On Heidi Wilson
Our Prayers for Others
¨ JoAnn Russell, Reda Hutton’s aunt, facing several medical challenges.
¨ All the people of Ukraine for their safety and sovereignty. Prayers also that the government of Russia will turn to reason & respect for their own peoples’ lives as well as for Ukrainian families.
¨ Those in mortal danger in the war newly started in Iraq. For the leaders of nations to set aside assassination and warfare in favor of just, diplomatic solutions to conflict.
¨ We pray for our country, and those who are directly affected by the actions and inaction of our government to address the needs of its people and the world.
¨ Our neighbors experiencing housing insecurity, homelessness and food insecurity.
¨ Our church family members in nursing homes or who are homebound: Dorie Hubbard, Susan Kramer, Hattie Parks, Alva Peloquin, Laura Robie, Theresa Scherf.
¨ Pam Chabora, recovering from a badly broken arm and other injuries.
¨ Bob Boyce recovering from intestinal surgery in Tennessee.
¨ The Thornton family, friends of Debbonnaire Kovacs, whose 22-year-old daughter/granddaughter was walking across a parking lot in Detroit on her way to a funeral when gun violence broke out nearby and she was shot and killed. She left a young baby.
¨ Curtis Hughes, Paula White’s brother, recovering from heart surgery.
¨ Brenda Chapman, recovering from surgery
¨ Randy Stone, recovering from surgery.
¨ Celebrations with Prayers of Joy!
Birthdays: March 11 – Terry Scherf, Melissa Sparks; 12 – David Shroyer; 16 – Peter Campbell, Peter Haik, Sarah Vaughn
If we haven’t got your important dates, let us know. We’ll help you get connected in FellowshipOne Go!
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