Author: Dennis Hacker

Philadelphia Lutheran Church
“Church of Brotherly Love”
March 8,2026
Third Sunday in lent
52 Pinewood Road
Granite Falls, NC 28630
Pastor Leonard Bolick
Kim Ledford, Music Director Judy Parker, Organist

We welcome you to worship today! May God richly bless you as we worship together. If you are visiting for the first time, please sign the guest register in the front entrance of the church.

Gathering music
P: welcome and announcements
Prelude “ah, holy jesus” handbells

(Remain seated during the prelude.).

GATHERING: We have been gathered by the Holy Spirit.
*(As the music begins, we are invited to stand, facing the procession of the cross.)
*Gathering Hymn “guide me ever, great redeemer” Elw #618
*confession and forgiveness
(All may make the sign of the cross, the sign marked at baptism, as the minister begins.)
P: Blessed be the holy Trinity, ☩ one God,
who forgives all our sin,
whose mercy endures forever.
Amen.
Let us confess our sin before God, who removes our guilt
and blots out all offenses.
(Silence is kept for reflection.)
Gracious God,
have mercy on us according to your steadfast love.
For seeking worldly delights that deceive us and dishonor you:
Gracious God,
have mercy on us according to your steadfast love.
For desiring self-reliance instead of hungering for your word:
Gracious God,
have mercy on us according to your steadfast love.

*greeting
P: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
And also with you.

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*(Denotes when congregation stands.)
(Bold italicized print denotes when congregation speaks.)

For failing to recognize your coming reign,
and for hindering the work of the Spirit: Gracious God,
have mercy on us according to your steadfast love.
For drawing from the well of self-serving ambition,
and for disdaining the living water Christ offers:
Gracious God,
have mercy on us according to your steadfast love.
For disregarding voices from the margin,
and for distrusting signs of your healing and hope in the world:
Gracious God,
have mercy on us according to your steadfast love.
For dwelling in tombs of self-pity and discontent,
and for disregarding Christ’s call to come forth to life:
Gracious God,
have mercy on us according to your steadfast love.
God’s steadfast love, grace, and forgiveness abound.
Through faith, the free gift of God,
you have been clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
In the name of ☩ Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven.
The Spirit of the One who raised Christ from the dead
dwells in you,
pours God’s love into your hearts,
and gives you life and peace.
Amen.

*Kyrie

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*Prayer of the Day
P: The Lord be with you.
And also with you.

(The congregation may be seated.)

Children’s message

first Reading exodus 17: 1-7
Because the thirsty Israelites quarreled with Moses and put God to the test, Moses cried out in desperation to God. God commanded Moses to strike the rock to provide water for the people. The doubt-filled question—“Is the Lord among us or not?”—received a very positive answer.
A reading from Exodus, the seventeenth chapter
1 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. 2 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?” 3 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?” 4 So Moses cried out to the Lord, “What shall I do

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for this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5 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. 6 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. 7 He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?
The word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Second Reading romans 5: 1-11
Though we often hear that God helps those who help themselves, here Paul tells us that through Jesus’ death God helps utterly helpless sinners. Since we who had been enemies are reconciled to God in the cross, we now live in hope for our final salvation.
A reading from Romans, the fifth chapter
1 Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. 6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. 8 But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. 9 Much more surely, therefore, since we have now been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. 11 But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
The word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

Cantor: psalm 95 (sung in unison)
1 Come, let us sing | to the Lord; let us shout for joy to the rock of | our salvation. 2 Let us come before God’s presence | with thanksgiving and raise a loud shout to the | Lord with psalms. 3 For you, Lord, | are a great God, and a great ruler a- | bove all gods. 4 In your hand are the caverns | of the earth; the heights of the hills are | also yours. 5 The sea is yours, | for you made it, and your hands have molded | the dry land. 6 Come, let us worship | and bow down, let us kneel before the | Lord our maker. 7 For the Lord is our God, and we are the people of God’s pasture and the sheep | of God’s hand. Oh, that today you would | hear God’s voice! 8 “Harden | not your hearts, as at Meribah, as on that day at Massah | in the desert. 9 There your ancestors | tested me, they put me to the test, though they had | seen my works. 10 Forty years I loathed that gener- | ation, saying, ‘The heart of this people goes astray; they do not | know my ways.’ 11 Indeed I swore | in my anger, ‘They shall never come | to my rest.’ ”

* Gospel Acclamation

*Holy Gospel john 4: 5-42
Jesus defies convention to engage a Samaritan woman in conversation. Her testimony, in turn, leads many others to faith.
The Holy Gospel according to St. John, the fourth chapter
Glory to you, O Lord.
5 [Jesus] came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. 7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9 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.) 10 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.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 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.” 15 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.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” 17 The woman answered

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him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband,’ 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 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. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 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.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.” 27 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?” 28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 29 “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” 30 They left the city and were on their way to him. 31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. 35 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. 36 The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.” 39 Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 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.”
Praise to you, O Christ. (The assembly is seated.)

Sermon Pastor Leonard Bolick

*hymn of the day “I heard the voice of jesus say” elw#611

P: And now as we respond to God’s Word, we confess our faith through the words of the Nicene Creed:

*Nicene Creed
We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven;
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the virgin Mary, and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.

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with the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic c
hurch.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Prayers of Intercession
Assisting Minister ; Reconciled by God’s mercy and sustained by God’s presence, let us pray for the world and its needs.
(A brief silence.....we kneel or sit)
O God, when suffering arises, preserve your church. Give to pastors, deacons, bishops, and all servants of your gospel the endurance that produces character and the hope that will never disappoint. Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
When the waters run dry, sustain this earth. Send water to places languishing with drought, and bring relief to places damaged by floods. Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
When quarrels ensue, soften our hearts. Quell hostilities between nations and peoples, and reconcile all humans across the lines of race, class, nationality, moral conviction, religion, and all else that divides or oppresses. Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
When your people thirst, satisfy their needs. Send water and food to all who need nourishment. Grant welcome to all who are excluded. Show your mercy to any in need. Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.

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When we gather to worship, send us your Spirit. Renew our hearts through the joyful noise we make and bless the work of our church musicians and musical ensembles. Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
O God, when death draws near, we rejoice in the promise of life with you. We remember all who have entered eternal rest, and we pray that you bring us the hope of sharing in your glory. Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
P: Are there any prayer requests?
P: Receive our prayers, O God, through Jesus Christ, our strength and salvation.
Amen.

*Sharing of the Peace (We acknowledge one another with a bow or a nod...)
The peace of Christ be with you always.
And also with you.
Offering/noisy money (You may remain seated.)
(Giving to those in need, is a sign of the giving of our whole selves.in grateful response for all God’s gifts.)
Offertory “a contemplative prayer” lasky

*P: 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 trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
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. (Assembly may sit.)

P*Blessing
Receive the blessing of the holy Trinity:
God, who calls all things into existence,
Jesus Christ, who redeems us,
and the Holy Spirit, whose breath sustains creation,
X bless you now and always.
Amen.

hymn: “rock of ages, cleft for me” elw# 623

Lenten focus

Reflection pastor leonard bolick

Hymn “jesus, keep me near the cross” elw # 335

Dismissal-assisting minister
Go in peace. Believe the good news.
Thanks be to God.

Postlude “postludium und Fughetta in E Minor” fischer

The altar flowers are given to the Glory of God and in
memory of My Sister’s Birthday, Doris Pruitt, by Evelyn Phillips

The sanctuary lamp is given to the Glory of God and in memory of George & Rebecca Smith by Revonda Heavner

Sunday Servants march 8th
Assisting Minister..........................................................................................Leah Isley

The congregation will be going out to eat at The Copper Penny Grill after the service today. Everyone is invited to this meal.

This Week’s Opportunities
Sunday 9:00 a.m. Sunday School
10:00 a.m. Worship
Congregational Meal at The Copper Penny Grill after
the worship service.
Monday 10:00 a.m. Staff Meeting
Tuesday 5:00 p.m. Girl Scouts
Wednesday 6:00 PM WELCA Meeting
Thursday 6:00 p.m. Al-Afam
Friday 7:00 p.m. AA
*Please note that AA has changed their meeting start
time. They now meet from 7:00 –8:00 p.m.*
Saturday 10:00 a.m. Al-Anon

Merciful God, the fountain of living water, you quench our thirst and wash away our sin. Give us this water always. Bring us to drink from the well that flows with the beauty of your truth through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Amen.

After the Epiphany#

Sunday ##