Worship for March 12, 2023

The video will stream live beginning a few minutes before10:00 AM on Sunday, March 12, 2023. You may need to click Play to launch the stream. You can also watch the recorded video at this same place at any time afterward.

Welcome to Church of the Holy Cross’s live stream of its worship service for Sunday, March 12, 2023. Feel free to follow the service text by scrolling down. You are welcome to attend worship in person or to participate via live stream or recorded video.

Rev. Anderson is out sick today. We are very grateful to the Rev. Jihey Roach for leading worship.

Service of Worship, March 12, 2023
Third Sunday in Lent

Rev. Eric S. Anderson, Pastor      

WE GATHER TO WORSHIP GOD

Please note that audio and video of this service are being live streamed on the Internet and will be recorded. The right rear section of the sanctuary will not be captured by any cameras. Please be aware that in other sections you may be visible at times.

Prelude: He Hideth My Soul                                                                Kayleen Yuda

Lighting of the Candles

Ringing of the Bell

Welcome                                                                                                    Rev. Eric S. Anderson

*All who are able, please rise

* Call to Worship: (based on Psalm 95)                                         Carolyn Lum-Bellem

Leader: O come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
People: We come into God’s presence with thanksgiving to make our joyful noise with songs of praise.

Leader: For the LORD is a great God, a ruler over earthly and heavenly powers.
People: The LORD holds the depths of the earth and the heights of the mountains alike.

Leader: Come let us worship the Holy One, let us humbly come to God our Maker!
People: The LORD is our God; we are the sheep of God’s hand. Today we listen for God’s voice!

All: Let us worship God.

* Hymn #326: Crashing Waters at Creation (v. 1-4)

* Invocation: (based on Romans 5:1-11)                                       Carolyn Lum-Bellem

We come today, O God, because of our confidence in your love. We know we do not live as you would like. Sometimes we know how we have grieved you. Sometimes we do not know what direction to go. In Jesus Christ, you have shared the journey of our lives, remaining faithful even unto death. In that great gift we find our courage, O God, to approach you with our cares, and to sing to you our praise. Receive our worship, we pray, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Please be seated

Anthem: Grace Alone                                                                             CHC Singers
                                                                                                                        Kanako Okita, piano

Time with the Children

Scripture                                                                                                    Carolyn Lum-Bellem

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 with 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?’

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 yousay 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,^[d] 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 receivingwages 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: Give Me a Drink                                                                      Rev. Eric S. Anderson

WE RESPOND IN WORD AND DEED

Pastoral Prayer                                                                                       Rev. Eric S. Anderson

Please join me in the Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen

* Hymn #196: When, like the Woman at the Well (v. 1-4)

Call to Offering                                                                                        Carolyn Lum-Bellem

The woman at the well gave Jesus a gift of water. It refreshed him. Jesus gave the woman a gift of spirit. It renewed her. The two of them gave the people of her village a gift of hope. It revived them. In similar fashion, your gifts refresh, renew, and revive. Whether you share your gift here in the church today, through a gift online, or via an envelope in the mail, let the offering now be received.

Offertory: What Wondrous Love is This                                        Kayleen Yuda

* Doxology

Praise God from whom all blessings flow,
Praise Him all creatures here below
Praise Him above ye heavenly host
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost – Amen

* Offertory Prayer                                                                                  Carolyn Lum-Bellem

As with water that slakes the body’s thirst, O God, may these gifts bring living refreshment to our neighbors near and far. May body, mind, and spirit be satisfied by your grace communicated in these offerings. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

* Hymn #18: Guide Me, O My Great Redeemer (v. 1-3)

Please be seated

Announcements                                                                                     Rev. Eric S. Anderson

Benediction                                                                                               Rev. Eric S. Anderson

Postlude: Be Thou Exalted                                                                   Kayleen Yuda

* Please stand if you are able.

Permissions:

He Hideth My Soul
Contributor: Carolyn Gillespie Hamlin
© 2020 Lorenz Corporation (admin. by Music Services) All Rights Reserved. ASCAP Text: © 2020 Lorenz Corporation (admin. by Music Services) All Rights Reserved. ASCAP
Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890

Crashing Waters at Creation
Text by Sylvia G. Dustan, 1991
© 1991 GIA Publications, Inc.
Tune STUTTGART attrib. Christian F. Witt, 1715
Public Domain
Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890

Grace Alone
by Scott Wesley Brown & Jeff Nelson
© 1998 Universal Music – Brentwood Benson Publishing
(Admin. By Brentwood-Benson Music Publishing, Inc.)
Streamed by permission CCLI License #1595965

When, like the Woman at the Well.
Text by Edith Sinclair Downing, 1992
© 1998 Selah Publishing Co, Inc.
Tune CRAVEN by Celene Welch, 1992
© 1992 Hope Publishing Co.
Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890

What Wondrous Love is This
American Folk Hymn
Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890

Guide Me, O My Great Redeemer
Text by William Williams, 1745
Public Domain
Tune CWM RHONDDA by John Hughes, 1907
Public Domain

Be Thou Exalted
Contributor: Chester Nordman
Tune: © 1950 Lorenz Publishing Company, a division of The Lorenz Corporation (Admin. by Music Services
Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890

                                                                 Dates to Remember                    
Today, March 12 – Council Meeting after worship service
Sunday, March 19 – Deacons Meeting after worship
Sunday, March 19 – Dedication of One Great Hour of Sharing

Pastor          Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Guest Preacher Rev. Jihey Roach
Moderator             Stefan Tanouye
Lay Reader            Carolyn Lum-Bellem       
Choir Accompanist        Kanako Okita
Choir Director & Conductor Doug Albertson
Organist     Kayleen Yuda
Hand Bell Director        Anna Kennedy
Chapel Decorations       Genie Phillips
Childcare Coordinator            Evonne Shioshita
Movement Leader         Genie Phillips
Projected Imagery        Sue Smith
Web Master          Ruth Niino-DuPonte  
Videographers    Eric Tanouye, Bob Smith, Eli   
            Yamaki, Ruth Niino-DuPonte