Liturgy for third week in Lent

The following liturgy was put together by Rev. Simone Sinn and Rev. Rolita Machila from Zambia. Both are currently working in the Lutheran World Federation's department of theology and studies.

Third week of Lent ~ Morning Prayer in the Ecumenical Centre on 25 February 2008
“Encountering God”

With the Ecumenical Prayer Cycle we pray for France and Germany
Bible Readings according to the Revised Common Lectionary

Welcome

Opening Responses
In the beginning when it was very dark, God said: Let there be light.
And there was light. (Gen 1:3) (The Candles are lit)

In the beginning when it was very quiet, the Word was with God.
And the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. (John 1:1-2) (The Bible on the Altar is lifted and opened)

When the time was right, God sent his Son.
Born of a woman, he came among us. He shared our human existence.
(Gal 4:4) (The Cross on the altar is lifted)
(As the congregation begin to sing the Bible and cross are carried into the congregation and placed amongst the people)

Hymn Praise to the Lord, the Almighty the King of Creation

Prayer
Our Father, who has set a restlessness in our hearts
and made us all seekers after that which we can never fully find,
forbid us to be satisfied with what we make of life.
Draw us from base content and set our eyes on far-off goals.
Keep us at tasks too hard for us that we may be driven to Thee for strength.
Deliver us from fretfulness and self-pitying;
make us sure of the good we cannot see and of the hidden good in the world.
Open our eyes to simple beauty all around us
and our hearts to the loveliness people hide from us
because we do not try to understand them.
Save us from ourselves and show us a vision of a world made new. Amen.
(Eleanor Roosevelt)

Epistle Reading: Romans 5:1-11
1 Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. 6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. 8 But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. 9 Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. 11 But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Taizé Chant: El Senyor es la meva Forca / Meine Hoffnung (first Portuguese, then German)

Gospel Reading: John 4:5-15 (please stand)
5 So Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. 7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." 8 (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9 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.) 10 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." 11 The woman said to him, "Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?" 13 Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 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." 15 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."

Taizé chant: El Senyor
In the Lord I’ll be ever thankful, in the Lord I will rejoice! Look to God, do not be
afraid, lift up your voices, the Lord is near; lift up your voices, the Lord is near

O ma joie et mon espérance, le Seigneur est mont chant. C’est de lui que vient le
Pardon. En lui j’espère, je ne crains rien. En lui j’espère, je ne crains rien.

Reflection

Christen und Heiden ~ Christians and Pagans ~ Poem by Dietrich Bonhoeffer 1944

Christen und Heiden Menschen gehen zu Gott in ihrer Not,
flehen um Hilfe, bitten um Glück und Brot,
um Errettung aus Krankheit, Schuld und Tod.
So tun sie alle, alle, Christen und Heiden.

Menschen gehen zu Gott in Seiner Not,
finden ihn arm, geschmäht, ohne Obdach und Brot,
sehn ihn verschlungen von Sünde, Schwachheit und Tod.
Christen stehen bei Gott in Seinem Leiden.

Gott geht zu allen Menschen in ihrer Not,
sättigt den Leib und die Seele mit Seinem Brot,
stirbt für Christen und Heiden den Kreuzestod,
und vergibt ihnen beiden.

Christians and Pagans[1]
People turn to God when they're in need,
plead for help, contentment, and for bread,
for rescue from their sickness, guilt, and death.
They all do so, both Christian and pagan.

People turn to God in God's own need,
and find God poor, degraded, without roof or bread,
see God devoured by sin, weakness, and death.
Christians stand with God to share God's pain.

God turns to all people in their need,
nourishes body and soul with God's own bread,
takes up the cross for Christians and pagans, both,
and in forgiving both, is slain.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, July 1944

Intercessions

at the phrase "We turn to you, O God” we will sing the Taizé chant Oculi nostri.

Gracious God, we come before you in our human need.
We pray for those women, men and children who lack basic material goods like bread, clean water, clothing and shelter.
We pray for those who are ill and whose body suffers.
We pray for those who feel left alone in their suffering.
We pray for those who lack basic social relations, those who miss father and mother, those who miss their children, those who miss close friends.
We pray for those who lack basic spiritual nourishment, whose soul cries out to you from the desert.
We pray for those who suffer from the burden of their guilt.
We turn to you, O God. -

Oculi nostri

We pray for those who have lost orientation in their lives and who have no sense of what really matters.
We pray for those who have lost hope and who need new encounters that spark new visions and renewed courage.
We pray for those who have lost the ability to share in the suffering and pain of others.
We pray for those who are overwhelmed by their workload and who are burnt out.
We turn to you, O God. -

Oculi nostri

We pray for pastors, teachers and all Christians who preach and teach your liberating and empowering Gospel message.
We pray for the ecumenical movement and the ecumenical organisations locally and internationally. We pray for the programs and projects planned in this house and for us as staff.
With the ecumenical prayer cycle we pray for the countries and churches of France and Germany.
We pray for the migrants in these countries,
we pray for the political and economic leaders,
we pray for the people engaged in social, political and environmental movements,
we pray for the churches and people of other faiths.
We turn to you, O God. -

Oculi nostri

We are drawn into your Gospel story, a story of healing and of suffering, a story of wholeness and of brokenness, a story of fullness and of need.
God, help us share your pain in this world, help us share your bread and your grace.
We turn to you, O God. -

Oculi nostri

Lord’s Prayer said by each in their own language

Hymn
Bless now, O God, the Journey
by Sylvia G. Dunstone
326 in the new ELCA book of worship With one Voice

Sending Forth

Let go of what you have.
Say goodbye and turn your face to what lies ahead.
You have a long way before you.
God says, “I will be with you.”
Let us encourage one another on our way together.

Let us go in the strength which God gives us.
We will go gently into the land that you, O God, will show us.
We will go together, looking out for signs of your presence.
Christ has gone before us.
Christ is waiting for us, there where we are.
(Ecumenical Prayer Cycle, In God's Hands p. 96)

Hymn:
1. Nita mwimbiya Bwana, kwa ku wa yeh yeh amenionah (3 times then repeat “amenionah” 8 times)
2. Nita mwimbiya Bwana, kwa ku wa yeh yeh ana ni penda (3 times then repeat “ana ni panda” 8 times)3. Nita mwimbiya Bwana, kwa ku wa yeh yeh ana ni juwa (3 times then repeat “ana ni juwa”

[1] As translated in "A Testament to Freedom: The Essential Writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer," ed. Geffrey B. Kelly & F. Burton Nelson (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1990), p. 549.