Festival of Homiletics – San Antonio 2017
Lose Worship Service
Friday, May 19, 2017 – 8:30 AM
Scottish Rite Theatre
Prelude
Joshua Sommerville, Scott Simmons and Steve Thompson
Welcome
One Voice:
Dawn M. Hand
Beloved siblings of God, let us
worship in this place.
Many Voices: Come, Lord, infuse us with your Holy Spirit.
We gather from the north,
south, east and west.
Come, Lord, connect us with your Holy Spirit.
We thirst for justice, compassion and peace.
Come, Lord, open up your glory and
rain down your living water.
Come, Holy Spirit, come!
Song
Wade in the water
Wade in the water, children,
Wade in the water
God's a-going to trouble the water
See that host all dressed in white
God's a-going to trouble the water
The leader looks like the Israelite
God's a-going to trouble the water
See that band all dressed in red
God's a-going to trouble the water
Looks like the band that Moses led
God's a-going to trouble the water
Wade in the water
Wade in the water, children,
Wade in the water
God's a-going to trouble the water
Look over yonder, what do you see?
God's a-going to trouble the water
“Wade in the Water”
The Holy Ghost a-coming on me
God's a-going to trouble the water
If you don't believe I've been redeemed
God's a-going to trouble the water
Just follow me down to the Jordan's stream
God's a-going to trouble the water
Wade in the water
Wade in the water, children,
Wade in the water
God's a-going to trouble the water
First Reading
Dawn M. Hand
Psalm 42
As a deer longs for flowing streams,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and behold
the face of God?
My tears have been my food
day and night,
while people say to me continually,
‘Where is your God?’
These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I went with the throng,
and led them in procession to the house of God,
with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving,
a multitude keeping festival.
Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my help and my God.
The Lord’s Prayer
Offered in a Variety of Versions by the People
As God’s living waters flows in and through us,
let us pray the Lord’s Prayer in our native tongue that’s closest to our hearts.
Gospel Reading
David Lose
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 worshipped 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 worshippers 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 for 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."
Sermon
“Interpretation Matters: Living Water, Living Story”
David Lose
Nicene Creed
We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God,
begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary
and became truly human.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again in accordance with the scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
Prayers of the People
We prepare our hearts and mind for a time of prayer. We will collectively pray the prayers of the people.
You are invited to lift up names in each category. After a time of silence, I will say, Lord in your mercy and
you will respond, receive our prayer. Let us be in an attitude of prayer.
Together let us pray for:
our family and other friends…
Lord in your mercy, receive our prayer.
Together let us pray for:
the people of our congregations…
Lord in your mercy, receive our prayer.
Together let us pray for:
the concerns of the Church universal…
Lord in your mercy, receive our prayer.
Together let us pray for:
the global world, its peoples, and its leaders…
Lord in your mercy, receive our prayer.
O God, gather up the prayers of your people
and hold them ever so close.
For the living water poured out of your servant,
Martin Luther, together we join our hearts
and pray the very words that he offered to you:
Behold, Lord, an empty vessel
that needs to be filled.
My Lord, fill it. I am weak in faith;
Strengthen thou me. I am cold in love;
Warm me and make me fervent
that my love may go out
to my neighbour.
I do not have a strong and firm faith;
at times I doubt and am unable
to trust thee altogether.
O Lord, help me. Strengthen
my faith and trust in thee.
In thee I have sealed the
treasures of all I have.
I am poor; thou art rich and didst
come to be merciful to the poor.
I am a sinner; thou art upright.
With me there is an abundance of sin;
in thee is the fullness of righteousness.
Therefore, I will remain with thee of who I can receive
but to whom I may not give.
Sending Song/Hymn of Affirmation
“Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”
1. Come, thou Fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing thy grace;
streams of mercy, never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it,
mount of thy redeeming love.
2. Here I raise mine Ebenezer;
hither by thy help I'm come;
and I hope, by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God;
he, to rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood.
3. O to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here's my heart, O take and seal it,
seal it for thy courts above.
Blessing/Thanksgiving of the Word
Dawn M. Hand
Benediction/Closing Prayer
David Lose
Dismissal
Postlude
Joshua Sommerville, Scott Simmons and Steve Thompson
Liturgist: Dawn M. Hand
Preacher: David Lose
Musicians: Joshua Sommerville, Scott Simmons & Steve Thompson
Music: All rights reserved. Reprinted under OneLicense: New license # E - 803626