Collect
We
beseech thee, Almighty God, look upon the hearty desires of thy humble
servants, and stretch forth the right hand of thy Majesty, to be our defence
against all our enemies; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
First
Reading
All
the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by
stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim; but
there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people found fault
with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do
you find fault with me? Why do you put the Lord to the proof?” But
the people thirsted there for water, and the people murmured against Moses, and
said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and
our cattle with thirst?” So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I
do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” And the
Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the
elders of Israel; and take in your hand the rod with which you struck the Nile,
and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb;
and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, that the people
may drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. And
he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the faultfinding
of the children of Israel, and because they put the Lord to the proof by
saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?” Exodus 17:
1-7 RSV
Second
Reading
So he came to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the field that
Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and so Jesus, wearied as
he was with his journey, sat down beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
There came a woman of Samaria 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 a drink of 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 with, and the well is deep; where do you get that living water? Are
you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it
himself, and his sons, and his cattle?” Jesus said to her, “Every
one who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks
of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall
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, that I may not thirst, nor come
here to draw.” Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come
here.” 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 he whom you now have is not your husband; this you said
truly.” The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a
prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain; and you say that
in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” Jesus said
to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain
nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you
do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But
the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the
Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks 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 (he who is called Christ);
when he comes, he will show us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I
who speak to you am he.” Just then his disciples came. They
marveled that he was talking with a woman, but none said, “What do you wish?”
or, “Why are you talking with her?” So the woman left her water
jar, and went away into the city, and said to the people, “Come,
see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” They
went out of the city and were coming to him. Meanwhile the
disciples besought him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” But he said to them,
“I have food to eat of which you do not know.” So the disciples
said to one another, “Has any one brought him food?” Jesus said to
them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his
work. Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the
harvest’? I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see how the fields are already
white for harvest. He who reaps receives wages, and gathers 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 all that I ever did.” 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 your words that we believe, for
we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the
world.”
John
4: 5-42 RSV
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