The Tew Benefice

HYMNS
A & M rev. (Note: No Gloria, no Alleluias in Lent)
291 Oft in danger, oft in woe
314 As pants the hart for cooling stream
192 How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
336 Forth in thy name, O Lord I go

Collect
Almighty God,
whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain,
and entered not into glory before he was crucified:
mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross,
may find it none other than the way of life and peace;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer
Merciful Lord,
grant your people grace to withstand the temptations
of the world, the flesh and the devil,
and with pure hearts and minds to follow you, the only God;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The book of Exodus is the story of God’s will and power to save. It can be seen as one of a series of what William Neil calls ‘acted parables’ because the importance of the event lies in the underlying truths it teaches: that the first requirement for God’s people is the need for a daily reliance on His providence. Later St. Paul would write about Israel’s experiences, seeing them as metaphors for the Christian story and Christ’s saving work: ‘They drank from the spiritual rock and that rock was Christ’.
First Reading
Exodus 17:1-7
And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink.
2Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the LORD?
3And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?
4And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me.
5And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go.
6Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.
7And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not?
No Alleluias.
Sentence: Thou Christ art the King of eternal glory
Following last week’s Gospel where Jesus meets with Nicodemus, St. John gives us another ‘theological’ conversation – but spot the difference; from strict orthodox Jew to outcast Samaritan woman! But, to both, His words appear bewildering. Note too how the evangelist is at pains to point out the human and divine nature of Jesus, movingly intertwined. Jesus uses the water springing up from Jacob’s well as a vivid metaphor of the abundant and vigorous life of God’s Spirit.

Gospel
John 4:5-15

When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John,

2(Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,)
3He left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee.
4And he must needs go through Samaria.
5Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
6Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour.
7There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.
8(For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)
9Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
10Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
11The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?
12Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?
13Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
14But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
15The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.