22And Samuel said, “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obedience to the voice of the LORD? Surely, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. 23For rebellion is no less a sin than divination, and stubbornness is like iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the…

10The word of the LORD came to Samuel: 11I regret that I made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me, and has not carried out my commands. Samuel was angry; and he cried out to the LORD all night. 12Samuel rose early in the morning to meet Saul, and Samuel was told, “Saul went to Carmel, where he set…

1Sing aloud to God our strength; shout for joy to the God of Jacob. 2Raise a song, sound the tambourine, the sweet lyre with the harp. 3Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon, on our festal day. 4For it is a statute for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob. 5He made it a decree in Joseph,…

1Then Jacob went on his journey, and came to the land of the people of the east. 2As he looked, he saw a well in the field and three flocks of sheep lying there beside it; for out of that well the flocks were watered. The stone on the well’s mouth was large, 3and when all the flocks were gathered there, the…

​Third Sunday in Lent 5So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. 7A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”…

​1Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard, “Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John” 2— although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized — 3he left Judea and started back to Galilee. 4But he had to go through Samaria. 5So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob…

​ITASCA — The Conference of Bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) met Feb. 28–March 4 at the Eaglewood Resort in Itasca, Ill. The conference, an advisory body of the ELCA, comprises 65 synod bishops, the presiding bishop and the secretary. The Rev. Tracie L. Bartholomew, bishop of the ELCA New Jersey Synod and chair of the conference, opened the meeting…

9Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the Israelites, ‘Draw near to the LORD, for he has heard your complaining.’” 10And as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the Israelites, they looked toward the wilderness, and the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud. 11The LORD spoke to Moses and said, 12“I have heard the complaining…