South West Norfolk Pastoral Charge

     Come to  Coffee & Conversation:)  

Join Pastor:   Rev. Ted Smith   WEDNESDAY'S at 10:00am , bring your coffee for great conversations on ZOOM

Click on the ZOOM MEETING Link Above

ANNOUNCEMENTS

COURTLAND SMORGASBORD:     Saturday, March 7, 2026         at  Courtland Community Center           4:30pm to ??                                                $25.00 per person TICKETS AT THE DOOR    TAKE-OUT AVAILABLE

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CULTUS ROAST BEEF SUPPER:     Saturday, March 21, 2026         at  Port Rowan Community Center           4:30pm to ??                                                $25.00 per person TICKETS AT THE DOOR    TAKE-OUT AVAILABLE

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A WELCOME INVITATION TO ALL WOMEN OF THE CHURCH to U.C.W. Meetings

Meeting Dates for 2026:   Meeting the 1st Wednesday at 1:00pm at Courtland United Church 

MARCH 11, 2026 (changed to the 2nd Wed. because of church supper)

APRIL 1, 2026

MAY 6, 2026

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     Join us for an enlightening Lenten Study of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

              All sessions will be on Zoom. Each session will be 90 minutes or less.

              Participants will receive reading materials prior to each session

                                                                        The Living Water.......... Drink and Never Thirst Again

As a tired Jesus, who took a shortcut home through Samaria, found himself sitting and resting beside a well at high noon, a Samaritan woman came to the well and he asked her if she could draw him a drink of water. A conversation ensued; he asked her if she would draw some water so he might have a drink…

"The Samaritan woman, taken aback, asked, ' How come you, a Jew, are asking me, a Samaritan woman for a drink?’ ( Jews in those days wouldn’t be caught dead talking to Samaritans.)

Jesus answered, 'If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water.' "

Jews and Samaritans didn’t mix. The self- righteous Pharisees and religious elites of the day believed them to be unclean, thus unwanted, unloved, left out and away from God's love. The woman recognizing Jesus as a Jew wondered why he would even approach and strike up a conversation, let alone let's have a drink of water together. Well, an interesting conversation it was, as it unfolded it seemed that Jesus knew this woman and what she was about even though they had never met. He knew that she struggled through life, and what her struggles were and offered himself as the living water to her that she would never thirst again.

            “Jesus said, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again.

            Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst—not ever. The water I give

            will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life.’ “

I’m always amazed at how Jesus seems to find himself in the right place at the right time for those who hunger and thirst for something more. It seems the things that feed us and attempt to quench our thirst always run out or run dry when they are of this world. Jesus tells the woman that once you partake of the living water, the eternal water you will become an endless source of it as well. “An artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life”.

And the drinking of the living water Christ describes is metaphor for entering into relationship with him, allowing Jesus to become a part of you and to dwell within you as the source of life, and the way to be. Then things change, priorities change, selfishness becomes selflessness, takers become givers. Those who were guarding the door suddenly feel an urgency to open it for a stranger and say,

 “Welcome. Welcome friend to this place of wholeness, caring, and sharing.”

Jesus, of course was so right. Drink deeply from the well of living waters and then find it so easy to make a Christ shaped offering of all the nourishment you have received. And he promises it to everyone and with the voice of a prophet proclaims and invites,

“But the time is coming – it has, in fact, come – when what you’re called will not matter and where you worship will not matter.”

Amen sisters and brothers! The invitation is out there, and the living waters are flowing. It matters not what you’re called or where you worship.... Drink deeply, so deeply of the endless cup that Jesus offers and then worship everywhere by being the loving, caring, giving being that brings God joy as you never go thirsty again.

May the ‘high noon’ thirst-quenching Peace of Christ be with you always............... PT.