Lent | Wednesday 11 Mar 2026
[Please note the time change to EDT]

+ In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen

Opening prayer:

Heavenly Father,
you have made us for yourself,
and our hearts are restless until they rest in you:
Look with compassion
upon the heartfelt desires of your servants,
and purify our disordered affections,
that we may behold your eternal glory
in the face of Christ Jesus;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

So Jesus told them,
“My message is not my own;
it comes from God who sent me.”
(John 7:16)

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From the Psalms: Psalm 81 –  Poor Bishop Hooper

sing aloud to god our strength
shout for joy to the god of jacob
raise a song sound the tambourine
with the lyre harp

blow the horn on the day of feasts
to the moon for it is a statute
this is israel’s decree
from the land of egypt

i hear a language that i had not known

i delivered your shoulder from the burden you were carrying
i answered your distress from the secret place of thundering
listen listen oh my people to my warning
listen listen oh my people to this warning

there will be no strange foreign gods among you
for i am the lord god

i would feed you with the finest of wheat
with honey from the rock so satisfying

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OT Reading: Jeremiah 2:4-13 (NLT)

2:4 Listen to the word of the Lord, people of Jacob—all you families of Israel! This is what the Lord says:

“What did your ancestors find wrong with me
that led them to stray so far from me?
They worshiped worthless idols,
only to become worthless themselves.
+ They did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord
who brought us safely out of Egypt
and led us through the barren wilderness—
a land of deserts and pits,
a land of drought and death,
where no one lives or even travels?’

2:7 “And when I brought you into a fruitful land
to enjoy its bounty and goodness,
you defiled my land and
corrupted the possession I had promised you.
+ The priests did not ask,
‘Where is the Lord?’
Those who taught my word ignored me,
the rulers turned against me,
and the prophets spoke in the name of Baal,
wasting their time on worthless idols.
+ Therefore, I will bring my case against you,”
says the Lord.
“I will even bring charges against your children’s children
in the years to come.

2:10 “Go west and look in the land of Cyprus;
go east and search through the land of Kedar.
Has anyone ever heard of anything
as strange as this?
+ Has any nation ever traded its gods for new ones,
even though they are not gods at all?
Yet my people have exchanged their glorious God
for worthless idols!
+ The heavens are shocked at such a thing
and shrink back in horror and dismay,”
says the Lord.
+ “For my people have done two evil things:
They have abandoned me—
the fountain of living water.
And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns
that can hold no water at all!

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Jesu, Lover of My Soul | St Michael’s Singers / Chet Valley Churches

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NT Reading: John 7:14-31, 37-39 (NLT)

7:14 Then, midway through the festival, Jesus went up to the Temple and began to teach. The people were surprised when they heard him. “How does he know so much when he hasn’t been trained?” they asked.

7:16 So Jesus told them, “My message is not my own; it comes from God who sent me. Anyone who wants to do the will of God will know whether my teaching is from God or is merely my own. Those who speak for themselves want glory only for themselves, but a person who seeks to honor the one who sent him speaks truth, not lies. Moses gave you the law, but none of you obeys it! In fact, you are trying to kill me.”

+ The crowd replied, “You’re demon possessed! Who’s trying to kill you?”

+ Jesus replied, “I did one miracle on the Sabbath, and you were amazed. But you work on the Sabbath, too, when you obey Moses’ law of circumcision. (Actually, this tradition of circumcision began with the patriarchs, long before the law of Moses.) For if the correct time for circumcising your son falls on the Sabbath, you go ahead and do it so as not to break the law of Moses. So why should you be angry with me for healing a man on the Sabbath? Look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly.”

Is Jesus the Messiah?

7:25 Some of the people who lived in Jerusalem started to ask each other, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? But here he is, speaking in public, and they say nothing to him. Could our leaders possibly believe that he is the Messiah? But how could he be? For we know where this man comes from. When the Messiah comes, he will simply appear; no one will know where he comes from.”

+ While Jesus was teaching in the Temple, he called out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I come from. But I’m not here on my own. The one who sent me is true, and you don’t know him. But I know him because I come from him, and he sent me to you.” Then the leaders tried to arrest him; but no one laid a hand on him, because his time had not yet come.

+ Many among the crowds at the Temple believed in him. “After all,” they said, “would you expect the Messiah to do more miraculous signs than this man has done?”

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Jesus Messiah – Chris Tomlin / Grace Bible Church – Adell

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Prayer: ACNA | BCP 2019 

O God, by whom the meek are guided in judgment, and light rises up in darkness for the godly: Grant us, in all our doubts and uncertainties, the grace to  ask what you would have us do, that the Spirit of wisdom may save us from all false choices; that in your light we may see light, and in your straight path we may not stumble; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

O God, our heavenly Father, you manifested your love by sending your only-begotten Son into the world, that all might live through him: Pour out your Spirit on your Church, that we may fulfill his command to preach the Gospel to all people. Send forth laborers into your harvest; defend them in all dangers and temptations; and hasten the time when the fullness of the Gentiles shall be gathered in, and faithful Israel shall be saved; through your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Our God, in whom we trust: Strengthen us not to regard overmuch who is for us or who is against us, but to see to it that we be with you in everything we do. Amen. | Thomas à Kempis

Closing: FaithandWorship.com | John Birch

May God our Redeemer show us compassion and love.

+ In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.