The Biblical writers were very interested in the nature of wisdom and the ways in which people lived it. This study series for Lent will survey the different ways Biblical authors wrote about wisdom and the ways in which they expected it to influence daily life.
This series takes place on Wednesday evenings at 6:30 pm in the Pastor’s Study.
It follows the regular weekly Bible study which considers the readings for the upcoming Sunday. Those sessions begin at 5:00 pm.
The best drink of water I’ve ever had in my life came from Thoreau Spring, a little pool of fresh water about 4600 feet up the slopes of Mount Katahdin, the highest mountain in Maine. I was fifteen, taking part in a week long hiking trip in Baxter State Park with our church youth group. We’d had a rough day. We’d taken the wrong trail early in the day, and although we would end up where we intended to go, we were taking the long way across one of the shoulders of the mountain, which we hadn’t meant to do. We’d also misplaced one of our adult advisors, who we caught up with at our destination.
So there I was with a few other young people at the front of the pack as the afternoon was waning. We spotted the sign for the spring and turned off to it, even though we all had plenty of water in our water bottles. We fetched out our cups, dipped them into the water, and sipped.
It was heavenly.
We couldn’t stay long, because our other adult advisor called to us to keep going so we wouldn’t be hiking in the dark. It was a near thing. The sun had just set when the last of us arrived at camp. I’ve never regretted that stop or that sip, though. I’ve been thirstier. I’ve been hungrier. I can’t remember ever being more refreshed.
Jesus asked for a drink of water.
He asked it of a Samaritan woman, who was quite surprised to be asked. That might have been in part because of her gender, but it was in great part because he was Jewish and she was Samaritan. Samaritans and Jews shared a common heritage. Jews were descended from the citizens of the nation of Judah, with its capital at Jerusalem, ruled over by the descendants of King David until the Babylonian invasion about 580 years before Jesus’ birth. Samaritans were descended from the citizens of the nation of Israel, with its capital at Samaria, north of Jerusalem. Israel broke away from Judah after the death of Solomon and endured until the Assyrian invasion about 740 years before Jesus’ birth. Though the nation vanished, the people remained. Jews and Samaritans shared a belief in God; reliance on the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy; and even a belief in a coming Messiah.
As Sherri Brown writes at Working Preacher, “Although sharing the same founding history, they currently shared nothing else, including food, drink, or utensils..” I’d add one thing. They shared a deep resentment of the other.
Jesus asked for a drink. He asked to be refreshed by a person who, by usual expectation, couldn’t be expected to refresh him.
Jesus and this woman – John didn’t record her name, but she’s listed as a saint by the Eastern Orthodox church with the name “Photini,” which means “Enlightened One” – then had the longest conversation recorded between Jesus and any person in the four Gospels. It’s longer than the one Jesus had with Nicodemus in the previous chapter, one which, you might recall, leaves you wondering whether Nicodemus managed to catch up with Jesus or not. Personally, I think he did, but I think John left it vague on purpose.
In this conversation, however, Jesus got as clear as he ever got. This chapter includes the first of Jesus’ “I am” statements in John. You probably remember the others: “I am the bread of life.” “I am the light of the world.” “I am the good shepherd.” “I am the resurrection and the life.”
The “I am” statement here came in reply to Photini’s statement, “I know that Messiah is coming.” Jesus said, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”
In the rest of the Gospel of John people argued about whether Jesus was the Messiah. Here in chapter four, Jesus told a Samaritan woman that he was. It’s a stunning moment, and so easy to miss.
Debie Thomas writes at JourneyWithJesus.net, “As theologian Barbara Brown Taylor points out, Jesus’s dialogue with the woman at the well is his longest recorded conversation in the New Testament. He talks to the Samaritan woman longer than he talks to his twelve disciples, or to his accusers, or even to his own family members. Moreover, she is the first person (and the first ethnic/religious outsider) to whom Jesus reveals his identity in John’s Gospel. And — this might be the most compelling fact of all — she is the first believer in any of the Gospels to straightaway become an evangelist, and bring her entire city to a saving knowledge of Jesus.”
Jesus asked for refreshment of the body.
The woman – I’ll keep calling her Photini, why not? – asked for something else pretty early in their conversation. She immediately brought up the religious significance of the well, which was attributed to Jacob, grandson of Abraham. When Jesus’ knowledge of her background revealed his power as a prophet, she immediately began to question him about theology. Yes, theology. She was less concerned with literal flowing water to ease her daily burden than she was about the appropriate worship of God.
Photini asked for refreshment of the spirit.
Oddly enough, it’s not clear whether Jesus got his requested refreshment of the body. It’s abundantly clear that Photini got her refreshment of the spirit.
“God is spirit,” Jesus told her, “and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
She left her water jar and went to fetch her neighbors.
As several commentators have noted, Jesus made no judgements about her. He simply spoke with her. He answered her questions, rapidly steering the conversation from day-to-day matters to spiritual topics. She followed him there, and I’d have to say she did it eagerly. The Orthodox have it right. She earned the name Photini, Enlightened One.
Jesus refreshed her spirit.
At the same time, Photini refreshed Jesus’ spirit. That eagerness, that engagement, that enlightenment nourished Jesus even more than the water. He told his disciples so when they urged him to eat something: “I have food to eat that you do not know about.”
She refreshed Jesus’ spirit.
That drink of water from Thoreau Spring high on a mountain decades ago refreshed me body and soul. That’s why I’ve never forgotten it. Photini refreshed Jesus in body and soul as well – I think I’ve got to assume she gave him a drink of water. That’s why we’ve never forgotten her. She went on to refresh her friends and family and neighbors. She invited them to seek even more refreshment in Jesus – and they found it.
As they did, they refreshed Jesus as well.
Refreshment sounds… trivial, doesn’t it? What do we get at refreshment stands? Ice cream. Candy. Snacks. The nourishment that some would tell us we don’t need.
The word “refreshment” is bigger than that, however, and the reality of refreshment is more necessary than that. Our bodies and our souls cry out for refreshment when they need something. Our stomachs rumble with hunger. Our mouths gasp for air with exertion. Our tongues dry up with thirst. Our spirits falter when there’s confusion, or deception, or abuse. When we meet our needs, we feel refreshed.
I think that makes refreshment a basic activity of the Christian life. It starts by making sure that I am refreshed in my body and in my soul. It starts by satisfying my actual needs for food and drink and shelter. It continues by meeting my actual spiritual needs through prayer and study and reflection and companionship in the journey. The first task of any Christian is to seek refreshment themselves.
Further, though, and it’s not much further because it’s the next thing, Christians refresh others. We refresh those who are near and dear, and we refresh those who are far and feared. A Samaritan woman refreshed Jesus, and he refreshed her and lots of other Samaritans. “Love your enemies,” Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. What is love for another but the willingness and the commitment to keep them refreshed?
The notion that Jesus, of all people, would ever summon his followers to holy war has always been the vilest of heresies. It’s false. It slanders Christ. Those who proclaim it may believe it, but they lie.
Refreshment is the way of Jesus. Refreshment for those around, and refreshment for those who seem like the other or the enemy. Refreshment for a world thirsting for compassion and renewal. Refreshment for our bodies and souls, for yours and for mine.
Refreshment with Jesus himself.
Amen.
by Eric Anderson
Watch the Recorded Sermon
Pastor Eric makes changes as he preaches, so the prepared text does not precisely match the sermon as delivered.
Thank you for joining us for this live stream (or recording, as the case may be) of Sunday worship. May it bless you! You may need to click “Play” to launch the stream, which will be live around 9:50 AM.
Welcome to the live stream of worship from Church of the Holy Cross for Sunday, February 15, 2026. You will find the service outline below, and you may download and print the PDF to follow more easily.
Service of Worship March 8, 2026 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: Beneath the Cross Kayleen Yuda
Lighting of the Candles
Ringing of the Bell
Welcome: Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Call to Worship (based on Psalm 95) Ming Peng
Leader: O come, let us sing to the LORD! People: Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Leader: The LORD is our God, People: We are the sheep of God’s pasture.
Leader: Let us listen for the sound of God’s voice! People: Though some have turned their heads aside, we will listen for the LORD.
All: Let us worship God!
* Hymn #326: Crashing Waters at Creation (v. 1-4)
* Invocation (based on Romans 5:1-11) Ming Peng
God, you have made peace with us through Jesus. You have given us the consolation of faith and the promise of grace. May we hold to you in the midst of afflictions, even to accept them when they rise from our faithfulness to you and your ways. May our endurance produce character, and may our character reinforce our hope, and may your love pour into us and your Holy Spirit through us in the time of worship. Amen.
Please be seated
WE SHARE THE WORD OF GOD
Anthem: Rock of Ages Kayleen Yuda
Time with the Children Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Scripture: Ming Peng
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 for 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 worshiped 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 youwill worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. Youworship what youdo 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 worshipers 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 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 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: Refreshment 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. Amen.
* Hymn #485: O Love That Will Not Let Me Go (v. 1-4)
Call to Offering Ming Peng
We rejoice in water’s beauty. We revel in water’s refreshment. Water sustains our lives, and like water, refreshment of mind and spirit sustain us as well. Let us share that sustenance and refreshment with others near and far. 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: Offertory in A Flat 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 Ming Peng
Thank you for the waters of the world, O God, and thank you for the spiritual waters that flow from your Spirit to nurture our souls. May these gifts flow unfettered so that the thirsty may always find refreshment. Amen.
* Hymn #18: Guide Me, O My Great Redeemer (v. 1 -3)
Rock of Ages based on GETHSEMANE by Thomas Hastings Arr. by Hugh S. Livingston, Jr. Lorenz Publishing Company (Admin. by Music Services) Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890
O Love That Will Not Let Me Go Text by George Matheson, 1862 Tune ST. MARGARET by Albert L. Peace, 1885 Public Domain
Guide Me, O My Great Redeemer Text by William Williams, 1745 Trans. Peter Williams, 1771, William Williams, 1772 Tune CWM RHONDDA by John Hughes, 1907 Public Domain
Sunday, March 8 – Council meeting after Worship Service
Help is needed with the altar decorations for Easter Sunday service. The pick-up of the lilies and placing them on the altar is generally done on the day before the Sunday morning service. If you are able to help out please contact Cindy Debus at 808-895-4011. Easter Lilies are $13.50. Sign-up sheet is on the bulletin board next to J’s cafe. Last day to sign-up is Sunday March 15; you may take your lily home after the Easter Service. Checks, cash or VENMO (@Cynthia-Debus) to Cynthia Debus.
Sundays, 8:30 AM – Holy Cross Singers Rehearsal in the Lounge
Mondays, 11:30 AM — Pickleball lessons; contact Connie 808-936-7534 or Ruth at rnduponte07@gmail.com to sign up.
Wednesdays, 11:00 AM– One Song from Church of the Holy Cross streamed live
Wednesdays, 5 PM – Bible Study in Pastor’s Study and via Zoom (The meeting link and Bible references will be in the Weekly Chime); Lenten “Wisdom in the Scriptures” Bible Study for five weeks beginning February 25 at 6:30 PM
Fridays, 10 AM – Hand Bell Choir Rehearsal in Building of Faith’s meeting room
Other Faith Groups that meet at Church of the Holy Cross The United Church of Christ, Pohnpei – Sanctuary, 12 noon Rev. Bensis Henry Congregational Christian Church of American Samoa – Sanctuary, 2:00 p.m. Rev. Sitau Ofoia, Jr. The Bedesta Church – Sanctuary, 4 p.m. Rev. Edmes Edwin
Pastor Rev. Eric S. Anderson Moderator Stefan Tanouye Vice Moderator Lorraine Davis Lay Reader Ming Peng Chapel Decorations Genie Phillips, in memory of Jim Phillips Organist / Pianist Kayleen Yuda Guest Soloist Landon Scott Music Director-Accompanist Bob Grove Hand Bell Director Anna Kennedy IYAA Choir Director Stuart Mori Projected Imagery Sue Smith Live Stream Director Ruth Niino-DuPonte. Bob Smith Videographers Eric Tanouye, Bob Smith, Woody Kita, Mace Peng, Cindy Debus Sound Engineer Ben Yamaki Sunday School Teacher Gloria Kobayashi Sunday School Aide Johanna Narruhn
We welcome you to worship this day. Church of the Holy Cross seeks to help its members, friends, and visitors follow the guidance of God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit, encouraging all people to love one another according to the teachings of Jesus. We live and teach the faith, speak good news, minister to people near and far, and work with other households of faith and helping agencies to improve our community and our world. To support our ministries, please visit our Donate Page.
When Jesus met a woman at a well in Samaria, it turned out that they both had something to offer to one another: Refreshment.
Here’s a transcript:
I’m thinking about the fourth chapter of John’s Gospel (John 4:5-42): the conversation between Jesus and a woman he met at a well in Samaria.
The conversation started with Jesus’ simple request that she share some of the water she was drawing so that he could have a drink. It went from there to matters much deeper — deeper even than the well, if you like. It went to spiritual matters. It went even to the identity of the Messiah, the Deliverer, the one who was coming.
Unlike lots of other conversations, Jesus actually acknowledged to the woman that he was the Messiah.
The conversation was persuasive enough that she went back to the town and invited her neighbors to meet him. She said, “Come and meet a man who told me everything I’ve ever done. He couldn’t be the Messiah — or could he? Come and see.”
It occurs to me that this story is about refreshment. It started with Jesus asking to be refreshed with the literal water to be drawn from the well. It continued with the refreshment that Jesus offered to this woman and to her neighbors: refreshment of the spirit.
He offered and delivered not just an acceptance, but also real valuing for her and for those around her, despite the fact that she was a Samaritan, despite the fact that she was a woman, despite the fact that there were a number of things that should have kept them distant from one another.
Yet they refreshed one another.
I think refreshment is a central activity, a central calling, a central obligation, if you like, of the life of faith. We are not simply here to be ourselves. We are here to support one another, to be a community, to be a family, if you like. In that family we refresh one another. We provide refreshment such as water, food, shelter. We provide refreshment emotionally and relationally. And when and how we can, we offer refreshment for the spirit: that living water of which Jesus spoke that flows through our very souls and renews our lives.
Refreshment.
That’s what I’m thinking. I’m curious to hear what you’re thinking. Leave me your thoughts in the comment section below. I’d love to hear from you.
As he sat down to write his letter to the church in Rome – or perhaps as he stood to dictate it to the scribe, Tertius, who offers greetings at the end of the letter – the Apostle Paul had an agenda. He planned a trip to Spain. He had travelled a lot in the years since the risen Jesus summoned him to proclaim this good news. He hoped to go even further, to the place Clement of Rome, writing at the end of the first century, called “the farthest west.”
Along the way, said Paul, he wanted to visit the Christian community in Rome.
Unlike his other letters in the New Testament, Paul wrote this letter to people he didn’t know. He hoped for their assistance, I’m sure: a place to stay during his visit. He said he looked forward to preaching the gospel, so I’m sure he planned to do the same things he’d done in cities and towns across modern Israel, Syria, Turkey, and Greece. He wanted to meet people he’d heard good things of, names that had reached his ears across the Mediterranean Sea.
The Letter to the Romans was Paul on his best behavior, writing to strangers, trying to make a good impression.
Paul knew, and the Romans knew, that their church had had problems. A major one was that there’d been fights in the streets. The Emperor Claudius had banished Jews from the city of Rome on because of “disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus,” which most scholars interpret as dissension between Jews and Jews leaning into the new understandings of Jesus. The chances are very good that most if not all of the members of the Roman church had been shut out of the city, though it’s unknown for how long.
That probably wasn’t the Roman church’s only problem. Romans has sixteen chapters. The last chapter is a long set of greetings. Chapters twelve through fifteen contain a typically Pauline set of advice including, “Let love be genuine,” and “Owe no one anything, except to love one another.” Except for his opening introduction, he gave the rest of the letter: his time, his consideration, and his considerable focused attention, to one question: What difference is there, if any, between God’s relationship with Christians of a Jewish background and God’s relationship with Christians of a Gentile background?
It was a knotty problem. As Dan Clendenin writes at JourneyWithJesus.net, “In Romans 3:29 Paul asked a provocative question: is God the God of Jews only? Or is he not also the God of Gentiles? In contrast to every attempt to claim God as ours, and ours alone, Paul says that in Abraham God loves all people equally. In the famous words of this week’s gospel, God so loves all the world (John 3:16). Our tendency is to fear the other, to marginalize the strange, to dismiss all that is different from who and what we know.”
That’s true now, and it was true in the first century. Jews had long regarded their relationship with God as unique. God might have created the world, but had only entered into covenant with one group of people. On the other hand, Romans – especially those dwelling in the city of Rome – regarded themselves as the greatest people ever. Most people living in the Empire were not Roman citizens and lived under different laws. Roman citizens, for example, could be executed for treason but they could not be crucified.
The Roman church included both Jews and Romans. Some of the latter would have been citizens and some non-citizens, adding another layer of class distinction to an uncomfortable mix, with everyone wondering: How does God really feel about that person on the other side of the room?
That’s why Paul got so excited about a revolutionary idea: that a relationship with God could be established not by living in the right place, not by divine selection, not through ritual observance, but through faith. Anyone could make the decision to trust in God. Anyone. “For this reason the promise depends on faith, in order that it may rest on grace, so that it may be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (who is the father of all of us)…”
Not only for me. Also for them. Not only for us. Also for them. Not only for the select of Rome. Also for Spaniards. Not only for the Jews. Also for the Greeks. Not only for the men. Also for the women. Not only for today’s believers. Also for tomorrow’s believers. Not only for people of the “Christian” nations. Also for the people of the non-Christian nations. Not only for the rich. Also for the poor. Not only for the powerful. Also for the marginalized. Not only for the respectable. Also for the discounted. Not only for the Americans. Also for the Iranians. Not only for the Republicans. Also for the Democrats, and the Independents, and the Greens, and the Libertarians, and so on. Not only for the people who agree with me. Also for the ones who don’t.
Let’s face it. God gets along better, with more people, than I do.
As Lucy Lind Hogan writes at Working Preacher, “Paul had experienced God’s amazing, unbelievable, overflowing love and forgiveness. How could God, in Jesus Christ, have forgiven him for all the evil that he had done? How could God accept the one who had sought to murder the disciples of Jesus? Because that is who our God is. For Paul, justification by grace was a theological concept only after it had been a life changing, throw-you-to-the-ground, awe-filled experience. God had offered him new life, and he had believed.”
These are anxious days. Hold on to that core of trust and faith: God loves you just as much as Paul or anyone. God loves you.
God also loves us. And God loves them. No matter who “we” are. No matter who “they” are.
Not only for us. Also for everyone.
Amen.
by Eric Anderson
Watch the Recorded Sermon
Pastor Eric makes changes from his prepared text while preaching, so the sermon prepared does not precisely match the sermon as delivered.
Thank you for joining us for this live stream (or recording, as the case may be) of Sunday worship. May it bless you! You may need to click “Play” to launch the stream, which will be live around 9:50 AM.
This service includes the celebration of Holy Communion. If you will be worshiping from home, please prepare and have ready some bread or other staple food and grape juice or another beverage for that portion of the service.
Welcome to the live stream of worship from Church of the Holy Cross for Sunday, March 1, 2026. You will find the service outline below, and you may download and print the PDF to follow more easily.
Service of Worship March 1, 2026 Second 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: For The Bread Which You Have Broken Kayleen Yuda
Lighting of the Candles
Ringing of the Bell
Welcome Rev. Eric S. Anderson
* Call to Worship (based on Psalm 121) Gloria Kobayashi
Leader: Lift up your eyes to the hills: from where will your help come? People: Our help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
Leader: God will not let you lose your footing. God does not sleep when you need care. People: The One who holds the world does not slumber or sleep.
Leader: May the LORD keep you from all evil. May the LORD keep your life. People: May the LORD keep your going out and your coming in forevermore.
All: Let us worship God!
* Hymn #427: God Made from One Blood (v. 1-4)
* Invocation (based on Genesis 12:1-4) Gloria Kobayashi
Abraham set out from the places he knew and journeyed to a new home at your invitation, O God. He trusted you. He counted on you. May we accept the invitations you extend to us, and receive the blessing of your confident companionship. Bless us in this time of worship, O God, and may all the families of the earth be blessed through us. Amen.
Please be seated
WE SHARE THE WORD OF GOD
Anthem Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Time with the Children Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Scripture Gloria Kobayashi Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.’ Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness.
For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation. For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, as it is written, ‘I have made you the father of many nations’)—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.
John 3:1-17
Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.’ Jesus answered him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above. Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, “You must be born from above.” The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’ Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can these things be?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?
‘Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. ‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Sermon: Not Only 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
Call to Offering Gloria Kobayashi
The gift of God’s grace is expansive and overwhelming. It is an invitation to each of us to likewise share with great love and mercy. 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: Sancta Maria 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 Gloria Kobayashi
Your love is greater than the universe you made, O God, and your grace is beyond our comprehension. We cannot match your love or grace with these gifts, but we offer them in thanksgiving, in celebration, and in sharing with your people. Amen.
* Hymn #345: Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence (v. 1-3)
Please be seated
Sacrament of Holy Communion
Invitation
Consecrating the Bread and Cup
Prayer of Thanksgiving
* Hymn #24: The God of Abraham Praise (v. 1-4)
Announcements Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Benediction Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Postlude: Psalm XIX Kayleen Yuda
* Please stand if you are able.
Permissions
For The Bread Which You Have Broken Contributors: Robert Lau Tune: CTC, Bethany Lorenz Publishing Company, a division of The Lorenz Corporation (Admin. by Music Services) Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890
Sancta Maria Contributors: Oliver Ditson & Meyerbeer Arranged by: William H Clarke Co., Boston Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890
Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence Text 4th century; trans. by Gerard Moultrie, 1864 Tune PICARDY 17th century French carol Harmony by Ralph Vaughn Williams, 1906 Public Domain
The God of Abraham Praise Text by Moses Maimonides, 12th cent. Trans. by Max Landsberg & Newton Mann, 1884 Tune LEONI, trad. Yigdal melody Public Domain
Psalm XIX Type: Music; First Line: Psalm XIX 97-5989 Contributors: Benedetto Marcello Arranged by: Walter E. Buszin Concordia Publishing House Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890
Important Dates and Announcements
Sundays, 8:30 a.m. Hilo Cross Singers’ Rehearsal in the Lounge.
Mondays, 11:30 a.m. –Pickleball lessons; contact Connie 808-936-7534 or Ruth (rnduponte07@gmail.com) to sign up.
Wednesdays, 5:00 p.m. Bible Study in person and via Zoom in the Pastor’s Study (see the Weekly Chime for Zoom meeting link); Lenten “Wisdom in the Scriptures” Bible Study for 5 weeks beginning February 25 at 6:30 pm (same Zoom meeting link as 5 pm Bible Study).
Chapel Decorations for 2026 – Please contact Cindy Debus at 808-895-4011 if you are able to grace our Sunday services with a donated floral arrangement for the chancel area. Easter lily plants are available for purchase to decorate the sanctuary for Easter Sunday (sign up on bulletin board; $13.50 per plant; last day to sign up is Sunday, March 15; take home your lily after Easter morning service).
Other Faith Groups that meet at Church of the Holy Cross The United Church of Christ, Pohnpei – Sanctuary, 12 noon Rev. Bensis Henry Congregational Christian Church of American Samoa – Sanctuary, 2:00 p.m. Rev. Sitau Ofoia, Jr. The Bedesta Church – Sanctuary, 4 p.m. Rev. Edmes Edwin
Pastor Rev. Eric S. Anderson Moderator Stefan Tanouye Lay Reader Gloria Kobayashi Chapel Decoration Irene Okada Organist Kayleen Yuda Music Director-Accompanist Bob Grove Hand Bell Choir Director Anna Kennedy IYAA Music Director Stuart Mori Projected Imagery Sue Smith Web Master Ruth Niino-DuPonte Videographers Eric Tanouye, Bob Smith, Mace Peng, Woody Kita, Cindy Debus Streaming Sound Director Ben Yamaki Sunday School Teacher Gloria Kobayashi Sunday School Aide Johanna Narruhn Office Manager Mercedes Gonzales
We welcome you to worship this day. Church of the Holy Cross seeks to help its members, friends, and visitors follow the guidance of God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit, encouraging all people to love one another according to the teachings of Jesus. We live and teach the faith, speak good news, minister to people near and far, and work with other households of faith and helping agencies to improve our community and our world. To support our ministries, please visit our Donate Page.
Who can receive grace? According to the Apostle Paul: anybody and everybody.
Here’s a transcript:
I’m thinking about the fourth chapter of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the church in Rome (Romans 4:1-5, 13-17).
Paul faced a real challenge. It was a challenge of theology. It was a challenge of thought. It was a challenge of relationship. He firmly believed that the salvation that God had offered through Jesus was urgent and important. He firmly believed that it needed to be extended to the entire population of the world.
The relationship with God, however, have been understood for centuries as mediated by a couple of limiting factors. They believed that the relationship with God was primarily for the descendants of Abraham. Other people could be added, but it took time and effort. Further, they believed — Paul believed —that through the gift of the Law offered through Moses, God had codified that relationship. Therefore people who followed the Law were those who could expect to receive any kind of grace from God.
The apostle Paul believed that that grace needed to be offered and expanded and extended as far and wide as possible.
So he went back the God’s relationship with Abraham. He went back and he found a critical aspect of that relationship. When God said to Abraham, “I will make you an ancestor,” even though that seems incredibly unlikely at Abraham’s advanced age, Abraham believed God. Abraham trusted God. There, said Paul, was the seed. There, said Paul, was the key to open the door.
Not the keeping of the Law, because as we know about law, law defines not “keeping” so much as it defines breaking. Not even kinship, ancestors sharing from Abraham, that was not where that original relationship had begun. It had begun in trust.
Trust in God, said the Apostle Paul, and that relationship is yours. That offer of salvation can be accepted. That place next to Jesus can be yours.
Not only for Abraham, not only for the countless others who had followed Abraham, not only for them, but also for you.
As we continue our Lenten journey, it is worth remembering that it was the Apostle Paul who, for the vast majority of us, made it not only for them but also for us.
May it also be a part of our Lenten journey to see that we understand and share God’s grace as not only for us, but for everyone.
That’s what I’m thinking. I’m curious to hear what you’re thinking. Leave me your thoughts in the comment section below. I’d love to hear from you.
The Biblical writers were very interested in the nature of wisdom and the ways in which people lived it. This study series for Lent will survey the different ways Biblical authors wrote about wisdom and the ways in which they expected it to influence daily life.
This series will be held on Wednesday evenings at 6:30 pm in the Pastor’s Study beginning February 25.
It follows the regular weekly Bible study which considers the readings for the upcoming Sunday. Those sessions begin at 5:00 pm.
Because Eric Anderson has schedule conflicts on February 25 and March 4, there will be no Song from Church of the Holy Cross on those days. The Song will return on Wednesday, March 11.
I don’t remember the first time either of my children did something I had specifically told them not to do. I’m sure there was a first time. It’s been lost amidst all the other times. It’s one of the things my kids did as they grew – they knew that growing older meant shifting boundaries. Sometimes they’d test to see if the boundary had changed.
I remember that I didn’t do some things when they did something I had specifically told them not to do. I didn’t kick them out of the house, the way God sent Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden. Mind you, I did kick them out of the house eventually, when they’d graduated from college. But that wasn’t a consequence of misbehavior, that was just a consequence of growing up.
So what small wisdom can we take away from the story of Adam and Eve? It’s unwise to listen to talking snakes – which we don’t have to worry about on an island that doesn’t have land snakes. It’s unwise to do things you’ve specifically been told not to do by God – that’s certainly true, but you probably knew that already.
What happens after you do the thing God specifically told you not to do? You lose Paradise. You no longer live in a pristine world. The world is not a perfect place any more.
The world is not a perfect place.
It’s wise to know that the world is not a perfect place.
When Jesus confronted his temptations, he already knew that the world was not a perfect place. He’d just been baptized by John the Baptist, who washed people in the Jordan River so that their sins might be forgiven. You don’t need baptism in a perfect world.
But baptism doesn’t change the reality of temptation. That’s another small bit of wisdom. It’s astonishing how many people have lived their lives with the conviction that because of their baptism (or something else baptism-like) they, and only they, were right. I struggle with that one all the time. I like to be right, I work to be right, I have a professional obligation to be much more right than wrong. Right?
If I let myself grow accustomed to being right, I’m at risk of shortcutting the work, or relying upon prior rightness to get me through changing conditions, or mistaking “I was right given what I knew” for “I was absolutely right,” because I probably wasn’t.
God’s call. Baptism. Participation in the church. Success in work. Contributing to the harmony of a family. Leading in a community. None of that sets temptation aside. It’s always there, and it leaps out when you least expect it.
“However we think of the devil,” writes Warren Carter at Working Preacher, “the figure’s presence in the Gospel personifies the vulnerability of human life and life in relation to God. No one, not even God’s anointed agent, is free from having their identity and loyalty tested.”
Jesus didn’t escape temptation. You and I aren’t going to, either. It’s an imperfect world, and we are subject to temptation.
Temptation looks like good things. That’s another small wisdom. Temptation isn’t just shiny distraction. Temptation looks like blessing. In the case of Jesus, the temptations look like things he did later on. As Audrey West writes at Working Preacher:
Jesus refuses in the desert to turn stones into bread to assuage his own hunger, but before long he will feed thousands in the wilderness with just a few loaves and some fish (Matt 14:17-21; 15:33-38), and he will teach his disciples to pray to God for their “daily bread” (Matt 6:11).
He refuses to take advantage of his relationship to God by hurling himself down from the heights of the Temple, but at the end of his earthly ministry he endures the taunts of others (Matt 27:38-44) while trusting God’s power to the end upon the heights of a Roman cross (Matt 27:46).
He turns down the devil’s offer of political leadership over the kingdoms of the world, and instead offers the kingdom of the heavens to all those who follow him in the way of righteousness.
I’ve always found the last temptation, the realms of the earth, somewhat odd. The devil offered political power to someone he addressed as Son of God. Think about that for a minute. The Son of God already has power over the nations of the earth. The devil offered him what he already had.
Similar things happened in the other two temptations. Jesus had the power to create bread. He could have called the angels to him – and when the devil had gone away, they came without his call.
Temptation offers what we already have.
Another small wisdom. Temptation offers what we already have.
Sometimes, what’s tempting about it is a relief from labor or effort to achieve it.
Or, the temptation is to lift ourselves out of our humanity into some exalted condition.
As Debie Thomas writes at JourneyWithJesus.net, “These days, I read the story differently. The devil doesn’t come to make Jesus do something ‘bad.’ He comes to make Jesus do what seems entirely reasonable and good — but for all the wrong reasons. The test is a test of Jesus’s motivations. A test of his willingness to identify as fully human, even as he is fully God.”
Another small wisdom: Temptation urges us to be something other than fully human.
Temptation also invites us to raise others up to more than human. Jesus’ last response to the tempter is to quote Deuteronomy 8: “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.” The devil has offered himself for worship, to be raised up above humanity and above whatever kind of being he is.
In addition, the offer to rule the nations ignored the people of those nations. What did they want or need? The devil didn’t ask. Those people weren’t important.
There’s a pair of small wisdoms: It’s temptation when you’re invited to raise someone else higher than human, and it’s also temptation when you’re asked to treat other people as unhuman.
That’s why all the “isms” – racism, sexism, homophobia, cultural imperialism, and so on – are so destructive. Each of them invites us to raise ourselves above other people by denying their full humanity.
Is there any small wisdom about resisting temptation? There is, but it’s hard. I wish it was as simple as reading Scripture and holding onto its directions – and that’s not simple. Plenty of faithful people well steeped in the Bible have fallen into temptation, myself included. I think the wisdom is, as best you can, try to resist temptation in company with other faithful, supportive people. Jesus did it alone, it’s true, and at some point in the process there’s nobody who can make the your decision for you. But Jesus did rely upon the religious tradition in which he’d been raised. He relied upon their recorded words and their recorded examples. He relied upon his relationship with God. He may not have summoned angels to him, but he trusted in their presence.
Jesus managed to resist temptation with those supports. Those might be enough for you and me. But as for me, I’m going to ask for more help if I possibly can.
There’s another small wisdom here that’s really uncomfortable. It’s the wisdom to find power in weakness, security in vulnerability. In John Milton’s poem Paradise Lost, he introduced the Son of God as a terrifying figure casting lightning bolts at the rebellious angels. There’s no sign of such a force in the Gospel accounts of the Temptation. A human, hungry Jesus faces a self-confident, more-than-human granter of wishes. It’s also uncomfortable to note that these temptations foreshadow the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry: bread that would represent his broken body, the nations triumphant over the Son of God, the Temple that gazed upon his crucifixion. As Amy Frykolm writes at JourneyWithJesus.net, “True power is the mysterious path that Jesus walked. It comes with no guarantees. It is self-giving surrender, the strangest of paradoxes, and it leads to the cross.”
That’s a scary small wisdom.
It brings up one more small wisdom: that there really is resilience in the vulnerability, there really is strength in the weakness, there really is victory in the defeat. To quote an old hymn, there are angels hov’ring ‘round. As Debie Thomas writes at JourneyWithJesus.net, “Sometimes our journeys with God include dark places. Not because God takes pleasure in our pain, but because we live in a fragile, broken world that includes deserts, and because God’s modus operandi is to take the things of death, and wring from them resurrection.”
The world is not perfect. Temptation is real and we are vulnerable to it. Temptation looks like good things, not just shiny things. Temptation often offers what we already have. We may be tempted to lift ourselves above our humanity, or to set someone else as superhuman, or to regard others as subhuman. As best you can, find help to resist temptation. Find power in weakness. Remember that from death God brings resurrection.
Small wisdoms to bring us through temptation.
Amen.
by Eric Anderson
Watch the Recorded Sermon
Pastor Eric makes changes while preaching, sometimes on purpose, sometimes accidentally. The text as prepared does not exactly match the sermon as delivered.
The illustration is Mountain Landscape with the Temptation of Christ by Joos de Momper the Younger (btwn 1600 and 1650) / Sebastiaen Vrancx – Web Gallery of Art: Image Info about artwork, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15417048.
