A Sacred Story

Would you grab a Bible and open to John chapter 4, please?

John 4 · chapter mention

We'll read it John chapter 4 a few verses and then I'll I'll

John 4 · chapter mention

pray for us. John chapter 4 starting in verse

John 4 · chapter mention

6 so we can hear this text again.

John chapter 4, verse 6. Jacob's well was there, so

John 4:6

Jesus, we read as he was from his journey, was sitting beside

the well. It was about the 6th hour.

A woman from Samaria came to draw water.

Jesus said to her, give me a drink, for his disciples had

gone away into the city to buy food.

The Samaritan woman said to him, How is it that you, a Jew, ask

for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?

For Jews have no dealings 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 nothing to draw water with,

and the well is deep, where do you get that living water?

Are you greater than our father Jacob?

He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons

and his livestock. Jesus said to her, Everyone who

drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever

drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty

again. The water that I will give him

will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal

life. The woman said to him, Sir, give

me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here

to draw water. These are the words of God.

Would you pray with me? Father, we are in need of you to

draw near to us in the name of your Son Jesus, and to speak

through your spirit that you would take up your word, Lord,

and that you would allow there to be a much greater sermon than

the one I can give. Lord, we ask you this morning as

only you can do, Lord Jesus, that you the great shepherd of

the sheep, that you would speak to your sheep this morning, that

you would remind us of your great love for us, that you

would remind us of just who you have been to us.

By your grace and mercy. Would you take up your word,

Lord, and would you build up your people?

We ask it in Jesus name, Amen. So as Christians, we must have

theological distinctions in the same way that every country that

exists has to have a border. This is not a overtly political

sermon about securing the border.

I just want you to know there, there has to be within the

faith, there has to be theological distinctions that

that demarcate US versus them. What do we believe and what do

they believe? This is why every Sunday we have

an elder that will stand before you and say, Christian, what do

you believe? And we recite the Apostles Creed

because that's our truth. Those are our theological

distinctions that show us that we have been marked by Christ.

And so theological distinctions are like borders to countries.

You you have to have them. But but borders are never to be

lived on. Live near them for sure.

I mean, living near a border is totally fine, but you're not

supposed to live on the border. You, you can.

It's in the same way that a fence that that separates 1

field from another. You never build your garden on

your fence. You build it within your fence.

The fence is there to say my property, your property.

But once that line is drawn, we come onto my property and we

build a home that we feel full of song and babies and food and

all of the good things. So fences separate 1 field from

another. Gardens are built inside the

fences. And this morning we have a text

that is a, a garden text. Yes, there's tons of theological

wonders in this text of distinctions of of God's grace,

his mercy, his sovereignty, his goodness, all of these things

that are doctrinally derived from this text.

But that's not how John wrote it.

That's not how it comes to us in sacred Scripture.

It comes as a story that is a day in the life of Christ that I

believe is a high point. It's one of those, it's one of

those stories about the person of Christ that just cause us

ought to cause us to wonder at how good he has been to sinners.

And so it's a we need to think rightly about this story.

We need to think rightly about Christ.

But today this text is after your heart more than it's after

your mind. You can't have your heart

without your mind. You're to love God with all your

heart, soul, mind, and strength and body.

But this is a glorious, glorious story about God's love coming

first from him to us through the person of his Son, so that we

might be made glad indeed. And so let's dig into this

story. Before we do, I need to ask you

a question that I ask you often. What happens in Holy Scripture?

What happens when a man meets a woman at a well, Lucy, they get

married. That's right.

This text is not about Jesus practicing personal evangelism.

This text is about the type of woman that Jesus marries, the

type of people he covenants to himself.

That's the mega theme. And so John tells this story in

just so carefully, and he fills it full of all of these

mysteries and wonders. This is one of my very favorite

texts in all of Scripture. And so we need to be thinking

wedding when we come to this, when we come to this story.

So the first thing I want to show you is that this lady has

got to be the wrong woman. It's a it's a wedding text for

sure, but this lady is all wrong according to sacred Scripture.

OK, First off, she's from the wrong tribe.

You know the story. Jesus comes to this well, He's

wearied talking about the humanity of Christ.

He is thirsty. He's a real man He comes.

He was sitting beside the well about the 6th hour.

That's the hour of noon. It's the the hottest part of the

day. More on that in a moment.

When a woman from Samaria came to draw water, Jesus said to

her, give me a dream. She's from the wrong tribe in

the Old Testament. Think about how much ink was

spilled on Abraham finding a wife for his son from the right

kind of people. He made us.

He made him take a solemn oath. Oh yeah, made him take a solemn

oath. Sent him to the other side of

the globe saying do not take a wife for my son from the

Canaanites, go to my people, go to the right tribe, the right

kind of people, and find the right kind of woman.

So. So Isaac marries his own kin,

Jacob does the same thing, goes to the other side of the globe

to find a bride. And you think as comparison,

Esau and Ishmael, who just married whatever girl was at

hand, and among the Canaanites the wrong tribe, and they are

roundly condemned for that. The patriarchs are roundly

praised for going and finding the right sort of woman from the

right sort of tribe. And so if we knew our Bibles, we

would be absolutely scandalized by this lady.

It's clearly a wedding text. And here comes this Samaritan

half breed woman, Christ by a well.

And so we should be looking, this is the hero.

This is the hero, as it were, in exile.

This is this is Moses running from Pharaoh, meeting Sephora.

This is Jacob running from Esau meeting Rachel.

This is Abraham's servant going to find Rebecca.

And so we're watching Christ by a well and our head is on a

swivel. We're looking for the matriarch,

the next great babe in sacred history, and it's a Samaritan

woman scandal half breed Samaritan woman, and she's

coming at the wrong time of day. This is something that we might

not know anything about, but John tells us that it was about

the 6th hour. That's the hottest part of the

day. You don't come to a well at the

hardest part of the hottest part of the day.

You come in the morning when it's cool or in the evening when

it's cool to get your water. Why is she coming when nobody

else is coming? Well, not to give too much away,

but I'll go ahead and give it away.

This lady is the town tart. She's she's a scarlet woman.

She's had five husbands and she's shacked up with a guy

she's not married to now. OK, she is coming at the wrong

time of day in order to avoid the shame of being a famous,

famous Sinner seen by other self-righteous sinners, Right.

There's a a great story about a very famous preacher who was at

a youth sort of camp and this guy was preaching about the

importance of sexual purity. Now listen, sexual purity is

important. If you're not married, don't

have sex. It's important.

And so this guy is railing against the evils of sexual

promiscuity, and he gives his illustration.

He takes this beautiful red rose that smell, and he smells.

It smells glorious. And he's like, I just want you

guys to smell this rose. Just pass it around every hand,

take it up and smell the Rose. And he passes it around to a

room full of 100 grubby teenagers who grab the Rose,

stick it in their nose, smell it and then pass it on.

By the time it gets back around to the preacher, the, the, the

stem is broken. All of the leaves are off.

Every petal is on the ground. It's lost any of its beauty.

It's lost all of its preciousness, all of its smell.

And this guy holds up this broken, used thing and says, who

wants this rose now? And you know, the, the

application. This is what happens when you

give yourself away. And this guy who was telling the

story, famous gospel preacher was sitting in the audience and

he yelled out, Christ wants the Rose.

That's the gospel. Jesus wants that rose.

He came to save that rose. This is that rose.

Christ wants this woman, even though she is knee deep, chin

deep in her shame. She is the wrong tribe.

She's the wrong time. She's the wrong type of woman.

This is marvelous. Again, the Old Testament anti

type or pre type is Abraham's servant going and it's it's the

most it's the most detailed story in all the book of

Genesis. I challenge you to find one

that's told in greater detail. Abraham's servant going to find

Isaac a wife and you get internal dialogue and you get a

play by play of this guy. It's so bizarre, but it's

preparing us for this text. And in that pretext, in the Old

Testament, you see Abraham's servant seated by a well,

waiting for the women to come draw water.

And he doesn't know who he's looking for.

And so he does this marvelous thing.

He asks the God of Abraham for direction.

And we're told he's praying, not out loud, but in his heart and

he's, he's praying And he says, Lord, let the let the young maid

that you have selected for my master's son, when let her be

the one that when I ask for a drink of water, that's all I'm

going to do. I'm just going to say, would you

give me a drink of water? That she would be the type of

godly, caring, hard working, virtuous woman who would say,

yes, take some water and I'll and I'll water your camels also.

And you know the story, Mother Rebecca comes and here's the

question. Give me a drink of water.

She says absolutely and let me water your camels.

The guy that the text says while he was still speaking in his

heart, here comes Rebecca and she fits the mold man.

She's the perfect, she's the perfect wife.

It is no stretch to assume because of other details I'm

going to share with you in this text that Christ, who is seated

by the well weary, is praying. Lord, who's the girl?

Where's the girl? Who?

Who do you? Who do you want me to?

Who do you want me to pursue today?

And here comes this woman and Christ asks her the exact same

question that Abraham's servant asks Rebecca.

Can I have a drink of water? And so we should be expecting

the Samaritan woman to say, yes, Sir, here's my jar.

Where are your disciples? I would love to give them a

drink. Also, watch what she does,

demonstrating she's the wrong sort of woman for our Christ,

The Samaritan woman said, How is it that you, a Jew, asked for a

drink from me, a woman of Samaria?

For Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.

She's rude, she's off putting, she doesn't offer to help, she

doesn't offer him a drink. There's nothing pleasing about

this woman. She demonstrates herself to be

the exact opposite type of woman from the virtuous matriarchs

that we would be expecting from our reading of the Old

Testament. She does not fit the motif.

And Christ stays and he gets this woman because that's what

he's like. And lastly, she gives the wrong

response. Watch this.

I I love that that she says, how are you and you asking a drink

from me? Jesus says if you knew the gift

of God and who it is that is saying to you, give me the

drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you

living water. So Jesus hints at I'm not

wanting anything from you. I want to give you everything.

When I ask you for a drink, it's 'cause I want to give you

everything. Just ask me for it.

Her response is, Sir, you have nothing to draw water with.

You are insufficient for my needs.

You don't have the jar. She goes on.

The well is deep. Where do you get that living

water? Well, What's the answer,

Christian? Where does he get that living

water? It's him.

He's, he's the water. And then she asks this great

question. Are you greater than our father

Jacob? Jacob, the patriarch, he gave us

this well. He drank from it himself, as did

his sons and his livestock. Imagine for a moment if we had a

well that Jacob dug, right? You, you have forebears that dug

wells. And it's like, man, my, my

grant, my great grand pappy dug this well.

That's amazing. Think about Jacob.

Think about all of the 12 tribes of Israel drinking from this

well. She says, are you greater?

Are you greater than Jacob? So she gives the wrong response.

She doesn't see the glory of Christ as she looks at this

wearied and thirsty man by the well.

She sees a boaster. She sees a scoundrel and a man

who cannot deliver upon his word.

So let me just pause for a moment and invite all of us to

take a long moment to see ourselves in the right person in

the story. You are not Christ.

You are not the disciples. You're the Samaritan woman.

How did you respond when Christ first came to you?

When he first came and he was news to you, did you fittingly

fall on your face in adoration of the Lamb of God?

Or did you dismiss him as a kook, as an absurdity, as a

complete non player in the importance of your life?

How many of us wasted years of ignoring Christ?

Me too, me too. How glad we ought to be that

Christ never takes the takeable. He never loves the lovable.

He takes and he loves the people that his Father gives to him.

And he is made more glorious by making kings and Queens out of

St. Urchins and Scarlet Ladies.

And all of God's people said, God be praised, Amen.

Amen. So what happens when a man meets

a woman at a well? They get married.

What happens when the only begotten Son of God meets a poor

and broken and abused and neglected and unloved woman?

He saves her and covenants himself to her.

It's marvelous. OK, so she's the wrong kind of

guy, but he is the greater kind of man.

I want you to sit in this moment for a second, this question, Are

you greater than Jacob? Listen, in the Old Testament,

Jacob, in the book of Genesis, Jacob is the one patriarch that

we are told was blameless. He has the highest praise of all

the patriarchs. He sometimes the story is read

incorrectly and we think that Jacob is a scoundrel.

He's not. We're told at the beginning and

at the end of his life, this was a man who was blameless before

God. Jacob is one of the greatest men

who have ever lived. And she said, are you greater?

Jesus's response, are you greater than than Jacob?

Listen to what he said. He said everyone who drinks of

this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the

water that I will give him, we'll never be thirsty again.

The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of

water welling up to eternal life.

OK, so a clarification. First of all, that when Jesus

asked her for a drink, it was because He wanted to give her

something. How?

Just like Christ, listen to me if you don't know Jesus when you

first come and hear that when Christ calls a man, he bids him

come and die to lay down all allegiances to husband, to wife,

to children, to father, to mother, to wealth, to power, to

everything you've ever loved. He says die to it and come to me

and we think that's too hard. I I can't do that.

I can't give you what you're asking.

Listen to me. Christ is in the same way that

he asks her, give me a drink. It's not because he wants

anything from her. He wants to give her everything.

And you will find when you don't know Christ his, His invitation,

His call to die to yourself and to have eternal life in Him.

That call seems impossibly difficult until you meet this

man and you realize he never takes anything from you.

He wants to give everything to you.

When you know Christ, you know that the only thing he ever asks

you to lay down is something that he wants to give back to

you in greater measure, in a way that won't kill you.

He asks us to lay down good things because he wants to give

us all good things. And so he says things like the

one who seeks to gain his life will lose it, but the one who

loses his life for my sake will what will gain it.

He says things like don't store up.

Treasure on earth where governments steal and where

inflation robs. Store up treasures in heaven

where governments can't tax and where the stones on the dirt

roads are. Diamonds and gold pursue real

wealth, is what he's saying. So in asking her for water,

Christ wanted and took nothing from the Samaritan woman.

When asking you for everything, listen to me, brother and

sister. He asks you and me for

everything. Not some stuff, everything.

That is the call, that is the invitation.

But when He asks you for everything, it's because He

wants to take nothing from you but give you eternal life.

He who did not spare his own son, but freely gave him up for

us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all

things? He's not taking anything from

you or from me, but we do have to hear the call.

When Christ bids a man, he calls a man, he bids and come and die.

So clarification is Jesus, does he intend to take from this

woman? No, he intends to give her

everything. And then you have a confirmation

again, the question, are you greater than Jacob?

What's the answer? More than somewhat.

I'm the greatest man that's ever lived.

I'm so much greater than Jacob. You it's, it's blasphemy to even

compare or put him in the same category.

Jacob, Jesus says you, you keep coming to the well that Jacob

gave you. You're going to be thirsty.

You come to to where the water that I will give you, you'll

never be thirsty again. Yes, I'm greater than Jacob.

The water I give you will well up.

It will quench thirst forever. It will lead to eternal life.

And so yes, little one, I am much, much, much, much greater

than Jacob. And then you have this glorious

conundrum. Do you know the Riddle?

When is a door not a door? It's when it's a jar.

That's when a door is not a door.

When it's a jar. When is a well not a well?

Right. When is a well not a well?

He has nothing with which to draw water, because he is the

living water. She unbelievingly takes him up

on this invitation. The one who gives who drinks the

water. I will give him.

You'll never thirst again. And she, it's like the, it's, is

it QVC, the, the, the infomercials like, but wait,

there's more like order now and you'll get 3 times for, for half

the price. And all these things Jesus says,

I'll give you water, you'll never go thirsty again.

And she says, and I quote, Sir, give me this water so that I

will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water again.

Here's my credit card. I'll, I'll, I'll buy it.

I'm not expecting anything from you, but I'll buy it.

What is it? Where's the water?

And Jesus says, and we all make the mistake of thinking that

he's changing the subject. Jesus said to her, go call your

husband and come here. You want water?

You want living water, Go call your husband and come here.

When he tells her to call her husband, he is not changing the

subject. He is exposing the real well in

her life. Watch, the woman answered, I

have no husband. Half truth told us the whole

truth is a whole lie. It's true she doesn't have a

husband, but she's concealing quite a bit of of her shame of

her embarrassment. I have no husband, Jesus said.

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've said is true. You've you.

What is her? Well, where has she been coming

back to again and again and again to find a quench in her,

in her thirst? Jesus tells her to go call her

husband, exposing the real well in question. 5 husbands she's

living with 1/6. She has been coming to men like

wells again and again and again, looking to quench a thirst that

they cannot reach. And marvelously, Jesus will be

the 7th man in her life, the one true husband that she's ever

known. It's glorious, The final man.

Because he is real water. Because he is real lover,

Because he is real covenant head.

And then you have the fulfilled purpose of this whole

conversation. I want you to watch this.

What do you do when somebody knows your greatest shame and

brings it up in a conversation? What do you do?

Well, you probably do the same thing that this lady does.

Watch. Watch what she all the sudden

wants to talk about. He brings up her deepest shame.

Why? She's coming in the heat of the

day. She's had five husbands.

No marriage has been successful, so she's given up on it.

She's just shacked up with this guy.

What you said is true. The woman said to him, Sir, I

perceive that you're a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this

mountain. You say that in Jerusalem is a

place where people ought to worship, right?

She all of the sudden gets theologically concerned.

Her deepest shame was just laid bare by a perfect stranger, a

shame so deep that she would come to the well at the wrong

time to avoid shameful glances of her neighbors.

But when Christ turns the light on, she all of the sudden

becomes enamored with theological distinctions.

How to worship, where to worship?

Oh, you, you, you Jews, y'all worship in Jerusalem.

We we like to worship up here. It's as if Jesus looked at a

young man and said, I've seen your uncleared search history

online. To which the young man responds,

Well, I'm really put off by all the lifeless old style liturgy

and dead hemity. Let's talk worship Jesus.

Let's don't talk about me. Let's talk about, you know,

broad criticisms of the church, the illusion of guilt, like

she's eluding his, his kindness to her.

Remember, he offers her living water.

She says, I want that living water.

And so he meets her in her deepest point of shame, and she

doesn't want to go there. And in that, she's just like you

and she's just like me. We don't want to be known by

Christ. We don't want to be known by

other people because God help us.

We are convinced that if God really knew us, he would not

love us. That is the truth over every

human soul. You are convinced unless, until,

unless and until the Holy Spirit of God lays there the glory of

Christ in the gospel to you, you will be convinced that if God

really knew you, you would not be worthy of His love.

That's just the default of the human life.

But I've got great news. Jesus already knows everything.

She did not confess a single thing.

She used truth to hide shame. Yeah, I I don't, I don't have a

husband. Jesus says, yeah, you've spoken

true. She uses truth to hide.

Jesus knows all. And listen to me, brothers and

sisters, precious words he loves even still.

Now I'm going to share with you one of the greatest details in

all of sacred Scripture. It's maybe the most precious

words that you can find in the New Testament.

There. Glorious.

OK, we have met a very thirsty woman who has nothing charming

about her. OK, nothing charming.

Everything is broken. History is broken, soul is

broken, character is broken. There's nothing lovely about

her. We have watched her on her way

to get water by be sidetracked by the Carpenter Lord from

Nazareth who offered her living water that he promised would

quench her thirst to such a degree she'd never be thirsty

again. She'd never be thirsty again.

We've seen her shame exposed, her evasions outmaneuvered, her

very soul laid bare. Before every I think about this,

how would you like to to find yourself in sacred Scripture for

the history of the church to, to to read about you meeting the

Lord Jesus, to talk about your greatest shame?

That's this woman who we will spend in eternity with.

We've seen all of these things and now we get to see a soul

truly satisfied by the love of Christ.

Remember what was her well that she kept coming back to again

and again and again? Her well was men.

Her longing was to be loved. And so it is no accident that

John tells us in verse 28 that she left her water jar and went

away into the city to call people to come and worship

Christ. Why?

Because she's satisfied. She's no longer thirsty.

She's been loved and her thirst is quenched and so she can leave

her water jar and go look for other people to come to the

fountain to see and to drink and to be satisfied.

So brother, sister, what are you longing for?

Be longing for approval, for power, for money, for

significance, for revenge. God help us for intimacy, for

love. Whatever it is, you will find

what you truly seek when you meet the man Jesus, who often

introduces himself to you on the very Rd. you take to avoid him.

That's usually where he finds you and God be praised.

Now one other thing from this text that will prepare us for

the Lord's Table, the food of Christ.

Interestingly, there are two people that I love dearly, both

of which cannot help humming when they bite into great food.

OK, we call it passing the Hummer test in our home if Lydia

and a gentleman that shall remain unnamed, but he knows who

he is. When they taste food, they start

humming involuntarily, meaning not a choice.

It's like they they just do it. It's amazing.

And so when they taste food and they start to hum, you know that

the food is high quality grub food to be lauded by the hums of

humans. It's glorious.

Now in this text, where wells are not wells, where water is

not water, it's eternal life, where strangers are not

Wanderers, they are God Incarnate pursuing sinners.

It should not shock us that food is not food either.

Listen to these words. Meanwhile, the disciples that

they, they come, they're shocked that Jesus is talking with a

Samaritan woman at a well. This is like standing in black

by a woman in white at the front of an altar and she's trash and

he's glory like you can't do this.

What are you doing? And so the disciples were urging

him, remember they had left him to go to go find bread and food.

They were urging him saying, Rabbi, eat verse 32.

He said to them, I have food to eat that you do not know about.

So the disciples said to one another, has anyone brought him

something to eat? It's the same thing.

Give me this water like they they, they have no clue what

he's talking about. Has somebody brought him

something to eat? And Jesus said to them, my food

is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his

work. The food of Christ is not food.

And now we begin to understand a verse that we didn't read, verse

where Jesus said verse 4 where Jesus said where the text says

that Jesus had to pass through Samaria.

But why would he have to pass through Samaria?

Jews never passed through Samaria.

They would go all the way around, but Jesus had to.

Why? Because His food is to do the

will of the Father who sent him. We we begin to to understand why

he set up shop by a well and to wait for a woman like when

Abraham was sent to find a wife for his beloved son Isaac.

Now we begin to piece together the real story within the story

and understand Christ's words when He tells the woman the hour

is coming and is now here when true worshippers will worship

the Father in spirit and in truth.

Listen to these words of Christ in this text to this woman, for

the Father is seeking such people to worship Him.

Question, Why in God's name is Christ talking to this woman?

Answer Because the Father is seeking her to be a bride for

His Son. How's that grab you?

And so, little one, why are you here?

You might give any old answer. The preaching is amazing, the

music is the best, the women are beautiful, the children well

behaved, and the men are slightly above average at

Trinity Reformed Church. Probably all of those things a

mix. But I invite you this morning to

look past all of those surface reasons that you might give.

Look past all the reasons you think you were here this morning

and ask through the lens of the story of this text, why exactly

are you here? You are here because the Father

is seeking people to worship in spirit and in truth.

And you are here because the Father sought you, because the

Son bought you, and because the Spirit and good time taught you.

That's why you're here. It's not your plan, it's his.

So what should we do now? Well, I'll tell you.

We should come to the bread that stays bread and yet is so much

more. We should come to the wine,

which remains wine but is so much more.

We should come to the table of God's manifest presence among

us. Come to the broken body in the

shed blood of Christ Himself. Bring your baptized children.

Bring your imperfections. Bring everything you have and

everything you are to the table. Just leave your water jars of

self salvation, for they will be of no avail to you here.

Come to receive from Christ what He longs to give you, and what

He promises to give you is Himself.

And so come and welcome to Jesus Christ.

Let me pray for us, Lord Jesus, you.

Your goodness to us is legendary.

No words suffice. No passion is acute enough.

No thoughts are high enough, No humility is low enough.

There is nothing fitting, no fitting way for us to respond to

You the way you have pursued us while we were yet sinners.

Christ died for us, demonstrating the love of God

for us. And so, Lord, all of us look at

our mother, this Samaritan woman, and we see family

resemblance. And so all of us take great hope

to know that she was not too broken for your love, for your

grace, for your healing, for your mercy.

And so all of us come to this table hungry.

All of us come to this table thirsty.

All of us come to this table sinful and broken and needy.

And we ask you to quench our thirst.

Lord Jesus, by your Spirit would you be for us living water this

morning, welling up in us to eternal life and that we having

tasted of God most high at the table that we like her, would

beat feet back into the crowd to tell people come see a man who

told me everything I've ever done and loved me even still.

This is the Christ. Would you come Lord, and would

you meet us at your table and would you establish us in the

faith? I pray Lord, as we eat and drink

in faith, that this bread and this cup would be the tokens of

your real mercy to us, that we get to take them up, eat them

and drink them in faith and know ourselves to be loved and to be

known. God, would you minister to us at

the table? We ask it in Jesus name and for

his sake. Amen.

Amen.