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Isaiah 55:1-9

The Lord's Invitation:

If you are thirsty, come and drink water! If you don't have any money, come, eat what you want! Drink wine and milk without paying a cent. Why waste your money on what really isn't food? Why work hard for something that doesn't satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and you will enjoy the very best foods. Pay close attention! Come to me and live. I will promise you the eternal love and loyalty that I promised David. I made him the leader and ruler of the nations; he was my witness to them. You will call out to nations you have never known. And they have never known you, becasue I am the Lord, the holy God of Isreal, and I have honored you.

Turn to the Lord! He can still be found. Call out to God! He is near. Give up your evil thoughts. Return to the Lord our God. He will be merciful and forgive your sins. The Lord says: "My thoughts and my ways are not like yours. Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, my thoughts and my ways are higher than yours."

Matthew 11:25-30

Come to Me and Rest:

Jesus said: My Father, Lord of heaven and earth, I am grateful that you hid all this from wise and educated people and showed it to ordinary people. Yes, Father, tht is what pleased you. My father has given me everything, and he is the only one who knows the Son. The only one who truly knows the Father is the Son. But the Son wants to tell others about the Father, so that they can know him too. If you are tired from carrying heavy burdens, come to me and I will give you rest. Take the youe I give you. Put it on your shoulders and learn from me. I am gentle and humble, and you will find rest. This yoke is easy to bear, and this burden is light.

John 4:1-30

Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard that he was winning and baptising more followers than John was. But Jesus' disciples were really the ones doing the baptizing, and not Jesus himself. Jesus left Judea and started for Galilee again. This time he had to go through Samaria, and on his way he came to the town of Sychar. It was near the field that Jacob had long ago given to his son Joseph. The well that Jacob had dug was still there, and Jesus sat down beside it beause he was tired from traveling. I was noon, and after Jesus' disciples had gone into town to buy some food, a Samaritan woman came to draw water from the well. Jesus asked her, "Would you please give me a drink of water?" "You are a Jew," she replied, "and I am a samaritan woman. How can you ask me fo a drink of water when Jews and Samaritans won't have anything to do with each other?"

Jesus answerd. "You don't know what God wants to give you, and you don't know who is asking you for a drink. If you did, you would ask me for the water that gives life" "Sir," the women said, "you don't even have a bucket, and the well is deep. Where are you going to get this life-giving water? Out ancestor Jacob dug this well for us, and his family and animals got water from it. Are you greater than Jacob?" Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again. But no one who drinks the water I give will ever be thirsty again. The water I give is like a flowing fountain that gives eternal life." The women replied, " Sir, please give me a drink of that water! Then I won't get thirsty and have to come to this well again."

Jesus told her, "Go and bring your husband." "That's right," Jesus replied, "you're telling the truth. You don't have a husband. You have already been married five times, and the man you are now living with isn't your husband." The women said. "Sir, I can see tat you are a prophet. My ancestors worshiped on this moutain, but you Jews say Jerusalem is the only place to worship." Jesus said to her: Believe me, the time is coming when you won't worship the Father either on this mountian or in Jerusalem. You Samaritans don't really know the one you worship. But we Jews do know the God we worship, and by using us, God will save the world. But a time is coming, and it is already here! Even now the true worshipers are being led by the Spirit to worship the Father according to the truth. These are the ones the Father is seeking to worship him. God is Spirit, and those who worship God must be led by the Spirit to worship him according to the truth. The women said, "I know that the Messiah will come. He is the one we call Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."
"I am that one," Jesus told her, "and I am speaking to you now." The disciples returned about this time and were surprised to find Jesus talking with a women. But non of them asked him what the wanted or why he was talking with her. The women left her water jar and ran back into town. She said to the people, "Come and see a man, who told me everything I have ever done! Could he be the Messiah?" Everyone in town went out to see Jesus.