Lent 3A-March 8

March 8, 2026
Lent 3A
John 4:5-42 | “Ripe for Harvesting”

Call to Worship
Leader 1: In our bones, there are lineages;
we carry the seeds of division and the seeds of connection.
Leader 2: Look around you and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting.
Assembly: We are called to prayer
that reaps with honesty and awareness
what our ancestors have sown.

Leader 1: In our cells, there are lineages;
we carry the genes of harm and the genes of flourishing.
Leader 2: Look around you and see how we are part of one another.
Assembly: We are called to devotion
that holds with tenderness and justice
what our ancestors have enfleshed.

Leader 1: In our sanctuaries, there are lineages;
we carry the kernels of domination and the kernels of interdependence.
Leader 2: Look around you and see how roots run deep.
Assembly: We are called to praise
that tills with care and clarity
what our ancestors have composted.

Leader 1: In our nation, there are lineages;
we carry the marrow of chains and the marrow of freedom.
Leader 2: Look around you and see how beneath us the water of life flows.
Assembly: We are called to worship
that thirsts with passion and courage
for what our ancestors have dreamed.

Invocation
Into the stream of those who have labored before us, Spirit, let us flow.
Into the river that rolls down with justice, Spirit, let us step.
Into the well that is deeper than our divisions, Spirit, let us draw.
In this moment, in every moment, we pray:
give us this water, Jesus, so we will never be thirsty again. Amen.

Seeking Transformation and New Life
Call to Transformation
Leader:
When Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well,
long histories and deep lineages of animosity and pain and oppression
swirled under their feet.
Deep and ancient divisions trained them to see each other only as “enemy.”
But in their dance of testing and trust-building,
openness and truth-telling,
vulnerability and transparency,
something new came into being between them.

In this moment, as we week transformation and new life,
as we practice repentance or turning around,
let us enter this dance and see how honesty and humility
can bridge what separates us from each other and God.

Time of silent reflection
[As a way to embody this moment of reflection, you might invite people to place their hand in front of their eyes and try to look at someone near them or an image in your sanctuary of Jesus (or the cross or the communion table) as they reflect on the things that create divides between them and others or God.]
[If you wanted to foster deeper engagement, instead of silent reflection, you could invite folks to turn to their neighbor and share briefly about a divide they recognize in their community or themselves and its impacts.]

Prayer for New Life
Leader: For the divisions we’ve created between
“citizen” and “undocumented,”
“American” and “illegal”
and all the violence those divisions create:
Assembly: God, have mercy.
Leader: For the segregation we’ve inhabited between
“ghetto” and “good schools,”
for every border and wall and fence and redline
and all the injustice that segregation creates:
Assembly: Christ, have mercy.
Leader: For each time we say “us” and mean, “not them.”
For every “those people” and “you people”
and all the fear and distaste that lives under our breaths:
Assembly: God, have mercy.
Leader: Heal us from the ways we deny our kinship
and disregard the dignity and belovedness of each and all of us.
Assembly: Turn us around, Holy One. Amen.

Words of Grace
Leader: When Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well,
ancient prophetic visions and age-old dreams of one human family
swirled under their feet.
Old promises of love and liberation became the living water of new life.
Assembly: Praise God who forgives us and frees us
inviting us, as siblings in Christ, to make our lives
liturgies of Spirit and truth.

Song of Commitment “Love Has Broken Down the Wall” by Mark A. Miller

Ripe for the Harvest: A Ritual of Noticing
Materials Needed: bowls, seeds (of any kind, just one that are big enough to hold easily like sunflower seeds), pieces of cut up fruit

Introduction
In the sacred story we are encountering today, after Jesus and the unnamed Samaritan woman’s transformative conversation, Jesus is inspired to invite his disciples into a moment of reflection about what has been sown in the land they are standing on and what they are now reaping. Seeds of relationships and dreams had been sown there at Jacob’s well. Seeds of hostility and division had been sown there too. But Jesus invited them to look around and see what possibilities were ripening in their midst, possibilities like the truth-telling, life-changing conversation he and the woman at the well had just had.

And so we, too, are invited by this story to take some time to notice what seeds have been sown in this place, both the helpful ones and the harmful ones, and how these seeds are ripening into new possibilities. In a moment, we are going to pass around some bowls of seeds and invite you to take one and hold it in your hands. As you do, see what you notice about the seeds that have been sown in this place.

After a few minutes of quiet reflection, we will pass around another bowl with pieces of fruit in it. When the bowl comes to you, you are invited to take a piece of fruit and briefly share your noticing with the community, using the prompt “I notice how the seeds of _ are ripening into a harvest of __.”

Let us take up Jesus’ invitation to notice together what has been sown and what might be ripening in this place.

Ritual
Passing of the seeds
Time of silence or musical accompaniment
Passing of the fruit and sharing
I notice how the seeds of _
are ripening into a harvest of __.

Prayer

Creating God, Sower of Love and Justice, with sweetness on our lips we savor the new possibilities that are ripening in our midst. Keep us accountable to all the seeds that have been sown here. For those that have ripened into hurt and harm, lead us toward streams of repair and restoration. For those that have ripened into unfulfilled dreams and unrealized promises, teach us the persistence of the river that always finds its way to the sea. For those that have ripened into new connections across divides and new possibilities beyond the present, empower us draw deep from these sustaining wells. For this harvest of gifts and commitments, we offer our thanks and praise. Amen.

Invitation to Generosity
In today’s gospel, Jesus says to his disciples, “others have labored and you have entered into their labor.” How might God be inviting you to enter into the labor of those who have gone before you in this community of faith? How might our offerings be both gratitude for and participation in the visions of our ancestors and the dreams they couldn’t even imagine?
Through our offerings, let us enter into their labor.

Prayer of Thanksgiving and Dedication
Let these offerings become seeds taking root in love and justice.
Let these seeds become harvests of liberation for all of us.
Let these harvests become offerings toward the slow work of healing and transformation.
Amen.

Benediction
Beloveds,
Look around you and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting.
As you go from this place,
how will you tend lineages of division?
How will you grow lineages of healing?
What will be the seeds you sow?
What will be the fruit you harvest?

May the God who Creates, Redeems and Sustains us
touch your life with tenderness
hold your hope with fierceness
and guide your heart with courage
as you become living water in a thirsty world.
Amen.

“Ripe for Harvesting”: Service Prayers for Lent 3A was written by Dr. Sharon R. Fennema who serves as a free-range facilitator, ritualist, activist, teacher, and writer whose work lives at the intersections of race, gender, sexuality and embodied spiritual practices. She is a founding member of the Liberating Lineages Collective.