Tessera Materials

Opening Prayer

Artist of souls,
you sculpted us for yourself
out of the rocks of wilderness.
Help us as we take up your invitation to prayer,
that the season upon us
may sharpen our hunger for the feast of your holy friendship,
and wet our thirst for the living water you offer
through Jesus Christ. Amen.

Scripture

*If children are present with you you might consider 'Water from a Rock' on page 42 of God's Big Picture Storybook Bible as a good story to read and discuss with the children. More than anything, we don't want to read our experiences of lack back onto God's character. He is with us! He loves us! He'll provide for us if we're willing to patiently trust him even in the darkest of circumstances.

Exodus 17:1-7 NIV

The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”

Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?”

3 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”

4 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”

5 The Lord answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Psalm 95:6-10 The Message

So come, let us worship: bow before him,
on your knees before God, who made us!
Oh yes, he’s our God,
and we’re the people he pastures, the flock he feeds.
Drop everything and listen, listen as he speaks:
“Don’t turn a deaf ear as in the Bitter Uprising,
As on the day of the Wilderness Test,
when your ancestors turned and put me to the test.
For forty years they watched me at work among them,
as over and over they tried my patience.
And I was provoked—oh, was I provoked!
‘Can’t they keep their minds on God for five minutes?
Do they simply refuse to walk down my road?’

Reflection & Discussion

Is the Lord among us or not? It’s a question we all carry at times.

During Lent, Jesus gently calls us to take up our cross and follow him. On the cross, he entered his “passion” — from passio (latin), meaning to suffer or to endure. In that place, he was not acting or doing but receiving, absorbing what was done to him. He knows what it is to stand in the space where there is nothing left to do but trust his Father and love each of his neighbors.

There are stretches in our own journeys like that — roads where we can’t fix or change what’s happening, only endure it. Is the Lord among us then? Yes. Jesus is no stranger to that space. He meets us there and offers us living water to sustain us step by step.

As you gather, consider:

• How is/has the question “Is the Lord among us or not?” surfacing/surfaced in your life?
• Jesus is no stranger to this experience. He is present with you in your experience. How can remembering this open doors of possibility?
• What might it look like to receive the living water Jesus offers you in this season? Or, what did it look like to receive the living water Jesus had for you in in that time?

In times of suffering and hardship, when we cannot act or do, we are invited to receive — from Jesus and from one another. This is the gift of the Church: we allow others to carry us, and we carry others in love. Even here, especially here, the Lord is among us.

Closing Prayer

Enduring Presence,
goal and guide,
you go before and await our coming.
Only our thirst compels us
beyond complaint to conversation,
beyond rejection to relationship.
Pour your love into our hearts,
that, refreshed and renewed,
we may invite others to the living water
given to us in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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