{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Perfect Love is Victorious - 3.8.26 The Rev. Andrew Walmisley, Ph.D.","description":"Third Sunday in Lent Old Testament: Exodus 17:1-7 1From 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. 2The people quarreled with Moses, and said, \u201cGive us water to drink.\u201d Moses said to them, \u201cWhy do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?\u201d 3But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, \u201cWhy did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?\u201d 4So Moses cried out to the Lord, \u201cWhat shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.\u201d 5The Lord said to Moses, \u201cGo 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. 6I 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.\u201d Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the Lord, saying, \u201cIs the Lord among us or not?\u201d Psalm: Psalm 95 1 Come, let us sing to the Lord; *        let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation. 2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving *        and raise a loud shout to him with psalms. 3 For the Lord is a great God, *        and a great King above all gods. 4 In his hand are the caverns of the earth, *        and the heights of the hills are his also. 5 The sea is his, for he made it, *        and his hands have molded the dry land. 6 Come, let us bow down, and bend the knee, *        and kneel before the Lord our Maker. 7 For he is our God,   and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. *        Oh, that today you would hearken to his voice! 8 Harden not your hearts,   as your forebears did in the wilderness, *        at Meribah, and on that day at Massah,        when they tempted me. 9 They put me to the test, *        though they had seen my works. 10 Forty years long I detested that generation and said, *       \u201cThis people are wayward in their hearts;        they do not know my ways.\u201d 11 So I swore in my wrath, *       \u201cThey shall not enter into my rest.\u201d Epistle: Romans 5:1-11 1Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5and hope does not disappoint us, because God\u2019s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. 6For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person\u2014though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. 8But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.9Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. 10For 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.11But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. Gospel: John 4:5-42 5So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob\u2019s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.7A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, \u201cGive me a drink.\u201d 8(His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9The Samaritan woman said to him, \u201cHow is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?\u201d (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) 10Jesus answered her, \u201cIf you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, \u2018Give me a drink,\u2019 you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.\u201d 11The woman said to him, \u201cSir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?\u201d 13Jesus said to her, \u201cEveryone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14but 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.\u201d 15The woman said to him, \u201cSir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.\u201d 16Jesus said to her, \u201cGo, call your husband, and come back.\u201d 17The woman answered him, \u201cI have no husband.\u201d Jesus said to her, \u201cYou are right in saying, \u2018I have no husband\u2019; 18for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!\u201d19The woman said to him, \u201cSir, I see that you are a prophet. 20Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.\u201d 21Jesus said to her, \u201cWoman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23But 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. 24God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.\u201d 25The woman said to him, \u201cI know that Messiah is coming\u201d (who is called Christ). \u201cWhen he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.\u201d26Jesus said to her, \u201cI am he, the one who is speaking to you.\u201d 27Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, \u201cWhat do you want?\u201d or, \u201cWhy are you speaking with her?\u201d 28Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 29\u201cCome and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?\u201d 30They left the city and were on their way to him. 31Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, \u201cRabbi, eat something.\u201d 32But he said to them, \u201cI have food to eat that you do not know about.\u201d 33So the disciples said to one another, \u201cSurely no one has brought him something to eat?\u201d 34Jesus said to them, \u201cMy food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. 35Do you not say, \u2018Four months more, then comes the harvest\u2019? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. 36The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37For here the saying holds true, \u2018One sows and another reaps.\u2019 38I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.\u201d 39Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman\u2019s testimony, \u201cHe told me everything I have ever done.\u201d 40So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. 41And many more believed because of his word. 42They said to the woman, \u201cIt 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.\u201d ","author_name":"St. Columba's Episcopal Church Sermons","author_url":"http:\/\/stcolumbasinverness.libsyn.com\/website","html":"