People's Prayers: Prayers of the People: Testimony ~ 17th Sunday after Pentecost WLWC* ‘25 Yr C

For Sunday, October 5, 2025; Readings: Isaiah 52:7-10, Psalm 118:14-26, 1 Peter 1:10-12,

John 4:27-30, 39-42

How beautiful upon the mountains for the feet of one who brings good news, proclaiming peace, proclaiming salvation…the Holy One of Old has comforted God’s people…all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. [Isaiah 52:7, 9b, 10b]

The Mighty God is my strength and my might and has become my salvation…The Merciful God has punished me severely, but to death did not hand me over. Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Fount of Justice. This is the gate of the Living God…This is the day that the Creator of All has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it…[Psalm 118:14, 18-20a, 24]

It was revealed to the women and men who prophesied that they were serving not themselves but you all, in regard to the things that have now been announced to you through those who brought you the good news—gospel—by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven… [1 Peter 1:12]

…The disciples of Jesus came while [he was speaking to the woman at the well…The woman left her water jar and went back to the city and she said… “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! Might he be the Messiah?” Many Samaritan women and men from that city believed…because of the woman’s testimony…and said, “no longer because of your report…we ourselves have heard and…this is truly the Savior of the world.” [John 4:27, 39, 42]

We begin this last week of using Dr. Gafney’s* Lectionary with her opening words in her section of “Preaching Prompts”: In the multifaceted tradition of the Black Church when one has survived difficult and or dangerous times, events, and circumstances, including death and disease, it is common to say, “She’s got a testimony.” The community of the prophet writing as Isaiah are the survivors of the Babylonian captivity. With God showing undiminished power in the restoration of these people and their return to Zion, their testimonies about God as Liberator remain as the bedrock of our faith, unchanged to this day.

The Psalm, then, is the liturgy of return. It, too, is a testimony of one who has been delivered as an individual, beyond the usual idea of the Israelite return as a corporate action.

The writer of 1 Peter’s testimony is reminding us that given the extraordinary length of time of the Israelite exile, liberation became merely a faint hope of an unfulfilled promise, but the promise was fulfilled and salvation was accomplished. And yet, in our times, we wonder, given all the oppression, real and being attempted, in our current life and world, can we hold our faith that our liberation and salvation will come?

So enters the Samaritan Woman at the Well. Last week we looked at the beginning encounter between her and Jesus. An amazing moment for Jesus to be speaking with a Samaritan let alone a Samaritan woman who held her own as the conversation began. Then Jesus recounted episodes of her life to her astonishment. When we left off last week, she said that she knew that the Messiah is coming and “he will proclaim all things to us. Jesus said to her, ‘I am, the one who is speaking to you.’” [John 4:25-26] In this week’s reading she has left her water jar to go into town and tell the people what he has said to her. Remember, this is a woman who has had 5 husbands and is currently living with a man who is not her husband. We do not know the details, we can surmise that her reputation may be at least slightly less than sterling given her relationships past and current, and, there’s the thing that she’s a woman, after all, which also lessens her credibility significantly. Yet her faith in him was so strong she went straight to her community and said, “He told me everything I have ever done” and with such conviction that “many Samaritan women and men believed” her. They themselves went to meet Jesus and asked him to stay with them, and he did for two days and many more believed in him. Her testimony brought the others to Jesus, and no doubt they brought others after their time with him. SHE became a preacher of the Gospel, an evangelist bringing the good news to her Samaritan neighbors. No doubt some weren’t impressed but many were. It is the way of the faith journey. God comes to us in many and various ways. We are told that God liberates and saves and perhaps we expect great miracles to happen when sometimes that transformation of life and circumstance becomes a quiet moment of a change in our attitude toward faith. The car still has issues, the rent is due, the kids are sick… yet there is a long slow deep breath in, through a moment of a “help me” prayer, that feels like rescue enough to go another day.

In the Revised Common Lectionary for this Sunday, we hear again the parable of the mustard seed. A tiny capsule of nature that grows into an enormous tree providing its fruit and shade and leaves and branches for humankind’s use with food and shelter for our Creator God’s other creatures.

As was the Woman at the Well, we each are tiny capsules of nature. We are also preachers of the Gospel by the testimony of our words and actions. Even the faintest hope of an as yet unfulfilled promise is faith enough to grow on, to share, and to hold onto, to celebrate in times of light and joy, and to curl up with in darkness and grief until the light returns. Every life is a testimony to the power of our Creator. What shall we do with it?

LET US, GOD’S PEOPLE, PRAY

Leader: ~ Living God, Fount of Justice, fill our hearts with the blessed comfort of your eternal Presence, and instill in us the courage to be a living testimony for you our Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, as the foundation and cornerstone of our very existence.

O Merciful God

RESPONSE: Our strength and our salvation

~ Living God, Fount of Justice, we pray to you for the removal of evildoers and perverted judgment from the chambers of all who govern on this Planet, in this Nation, and in this Community. Bestow upon all victims of violence, poverty, bigotry, and war crimes, the fullness of your righteousness, justice, and relief. We pray especially for: add your own petitions

O Merciful God