Preparing for Worship - March 12, 2023

Most of our readings this week have mention of water and how important it is for us -in a physical and spiritual way. God knows, and He provides for us.

In the Old Testament lesson, Exodus 17:1-7, God’s people, on their way from captivity in Egypt to the Promised Land, came to a place where there seemed to be no water. God had just provided manna, bread from heaven, in a miraculous way, but they forgot about that and feared that Moses had brought them out in the wilderness to die. They were really questioning and “testing” God Himself, and Moses cried out to the Lord for help. God had Moses strike a rock with his staff, and water enough came out to provide what was needed for everyone.

The psalm is Psalm 95:1-9. The psalmist calls upon all of us to praise the Lord for His creation and preservation of all things. We are His sheep, and He cares for us as our great God and King above all. The psalmist mentions the story in our Old Testament lesson and calls upon us not to be hard-hearted and doubt God and try to test Him, as the people did then. The Lord is “the Rock of our salvation,” and we thank and praise Him with joy.

The Gospel lesson is another of several long readings we have this Lent from the Gospel of John. Last week we heard of being “born again” to a whole new life of faith in Jesus, through “water and the Spirit” in the gift of our baptism and the Word of God (John 3:1-21). Today we see in John 4:5-26 (27-30,39-42) Jesus helping a thirsty Samaritan woman at a well, who has many spiritual problems and needs. He shows her that He is the promised Messiah, the Christ, who has come into the world for her and for her fellow Samaritans and for Jews and for all people. He provides the “water” that brings eternal life, as people are brought to belief in Him. The woman becomes a witness for Jesus and tells the people of her town to come and see Him. Many Samaritans came and heard Him and came to believe in Him “because of His Word.” They said, “This is indeed the Savior of the world.”

In the Epistle lesson, Romans 5:1-8, Paul assures us that we, too, have been justified, counted right with God, through faith in Jesus. While we were “weak, ungodly sinners,” Christ died for us. Through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and His saving work for us, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, given to us” through our own baptism and the Word of God. We too “have peace with God” and “access to the grace in which we stand” and “hope of the glory of God,” and even our “sufferings” in this life can help us grow in “endurance” and Christian “character, as well as that “hope” in Christ.