Prepare

Each year in the Easter season, we venture into Acts, a book of the Bible I like to talk about as “Jesus is risen, now what?” And what we learn through Acts, about what it means to be people of faith, is much different than what the world often tells us marks a faithful life. So often we hear on the news or from others in the world that Christians act, dress, and talk a certain way, or in more recent weeks we’ve been told that Christians need a war to follow God. But we don’t find any of those things in Acts. In Acts, we find a community that is desperate for survival, at odds with empire, and who have no idea how they are going to survive.

When this text tells us that everyone gave what they had and nobody was in need, we see them acting much more like a family than how we often think about churches. The people of this early church relied on one another to survive, not because of who they were or where they came from. Rather, because following Christ required it. We know from later on in Acts that this type of community didn’t last very long. However, for a brief time, their gathering as people who believed in the resurrection of Christ allowed them to overcome the challenges that come with being a Christian community. 

We’re talking about Awe today. The text says it was the awe and reverence that the early followers had for Jesus and the signs and wonders the apostles were still performing, that built that community. Which is to say, Christ’s presence built the community, not human strength, kindness, or pleasantries. We don’t know exactly what these signs and wonders were that were spreading the gospel, yet I have to imagine they were a continuation of Jesus’ ministry: sitting with people, loving them despite their failings, calling out cultural wrongs, performing miracles. All signs and wonders that many churches continue to do today, though not often the ones that make the news. 

Opening Exercise

Awe is a feeling of wonder, respect, and admiration mixed with joy and fear in response to something vast and

powerful.

Share about a time you remember experiencing awe. Find a photo that attempts to capture either what gave you awe (the mountains) or the feeling (celebrating a sports victory). 

• What commonalities do you find between your photos? 

Note: Nowadays, I ask our youth to use their phones to find a photo, with a device or two on standby in case someone doesn’t have one. In the past, I would have printed a set of “awe” photos for students to pick from.

Read the Text

Acts 2:42-47

Awe and Belonging

When I think about the book of Acts, the first thing I think of is a community that shared everything so that no one was in need.  This verse has stuck with me in a way that many Bible verses don’t. I suspect it’s because it’s so incomprehensible to me. I’ve known incredibly generous people who give their time and money to help others in need. I have even given money and time on my own, but I have never been a part of a community where everybody had their needs filled. I mean that in a physical sense, but this verse could just as easily apply to emotional safety, friendship, hobbies, academic support, and love.

A community where nobody is in need would certainly be awe-inspiring to me. What’s striking is that, for this community in Acts, Awe comes first. We read that the people were filled with awe after Jesus’ resurrection and before a community formed where everyone had what they needed. Awe came first. Awe at what? At the presence of God. 

While Jesus was in heaven, his followers continued his ministry. People were perceptive enough to notice the Jesus-like work in their midst. Then they were bold enough to claim it. This community existed because people were dwelling together with God. Today, we often talk about God, but this wasn’t about opinions, education, or even the Bible. This was a community of people who had experienced God’s grace and trusted one another when they shared their experiences. It was holy in a really simple way.

Awe and Belonging

If we were to continue reading Acts, we know that this community without need does not last. It makes me wonder if it’s the Awe fading away into the background that leads to the dissolution of the community. Being in awe of Jesus, or God’s power, or the Holy Spirit’s guidance, changes what it means to be a person of faith in our world. We are not starting each day looking for a way to serve. We’re simply starting each day asking God to show us awe. We no longer have a to-do list so much as we are tasked with looking for where God shows up in mysterious and powerful ways. Perhaps being a follower of Christ starts with the expectation that God is already doing something wonderful. Our role is to notice it.

Reflection Questions

• What does the text say caused the awe the community experienced? What do we think those wonders and signs were?

• Do you know any extremely generous people? Have you ever asked them why they give so much?

• When you have experienced awe, what did you want to do next?

• Where do we look to find God doing something wonderful out in the world?

Closing Activity 

• Make a list of things, or types of things, that inspire awe. (Ex. Nature, someone sharing something deep, a good dessert)
• Send your group to find something that deserves awe and wonder and bring it back to your space.
• Share with a partner what was awe inspiring about what you brought back.

Closing Prayer

Holy One, you created a world more marvelous than we can even know. Lead us into awe this week, spark wonder in our minds and reverence in our hearts. Guide us into community through a deep appreciation of your majesty. Amen.

Bio

Lindsay Batesmith is the pastor of Rejoice Lutheran Church in Erie, CO. She is consistently in awe of the power of vulnerability to connect us to each other and invite the Holy Spirit to transform lives. When not at Church or her favorite coffee shop, Lindsay is usually playing with her dog, Echo, or watching the Great British Bakeoff with her wife, Tillie.

 Prepare 

In John 4:5–42, Jesus travels through Samaria and stops at Jacob’s well. The location is important because Jews and Samaritans shared ancestral roots, but had centuries of religious and ethnic conflict. They worshiped the same God but disagreed about the proper place of worship and the authority of certain Scriptures. Many Jews would have avoided traveling through Samaria altogether.

At the well, Jesus speaks with a Samaritan woman – crossing multiple social boundaries at once. In the first century, Jewish men did not typically initiate public conversation with women who were not family. Add to that the deep hostility between Jews and Samaritans, and this interaction becomes even more surprising.

The time of day is also significant. Wells were communal gathering places, usually visited during cooler hours. Her arrival at noon suggests isolation, though the text does not explicitly explain why. Be cautious not to speculate beyond what Scripture says, but notice how the detail invites reflection.

This passage contains one of the longest recorded conversations Jesus has with anyone in the Gospel of John. It moves from physical thirst to spiritual thirst, from personal history to communal worship, and finally to public witness. Jesus reveals knowledge of the woman’s life without condemning her, and she becomes the first person in John’s Gospel to openly share news about him with her community.

As you guide discussion, pay attention to themes of belonging, truth, vulnerability, and invitation. Where do participants see barriers being crossed? What changes in the woman between the beginning and the end of the story?

Opening Exercise 

You know your context best – so choose based on your students (and even the vibe of the day).

Either have students split into pairs or small groups OR give them something to write on to reflect independently. 

Reflection: 

• Think of a time you felt like you didn’t belong or had to hide parts of yourself. 
• How did that feel:
  • Physically
  • Emotionally
  • Spiritually
• What was your reaction afterwards? (Close off, isolate, snap-back, try harder)

After a few minutes, invite volunteers to share themes they noticed – or even just answer the questions: What did that feel like? What was your reaction?

• Connect this / Transition to today’s scripture: Today, we’re hearing a story of someone who may have felt out of place, but finds themselves fully seen by Christ – and what that teaches us about belonging. 

Text Read Aloud 

Read John 4:5-42

• Invite participants to listen for anything that stands out to them or instances of transformation.
• Since this is a longer passage, you may want to just read it through in full once. The article focuses on verses 5-26 and 39-42

Belonging 

There are parts of Jesus’ world that feel distant from ours. In 2026, most of us aren’t walking into a new town at noon, tired and thirsty, with no gas station or coffee shop in sight.

But Jesus does. 

Fully human, weary from travel, he sits beside a well in the heat of the day. And a woman approaches alone.

Wells were typically social spaces. Women gathered in the cooler hours of the morning or evening. Coming alone at midday suggests she wanted to (or was forced to) be alone. Maybe she is avoiding whispers, tired of explaining herself, or she simply doesn’t feel like she belongs with the others.

If we’re honest, that feeling isn’t foreign to any of us. 

We all thirst for belonging. We want to know we fit somewhere – not because we’ve performed well or curated the right image, but because we are wanted. And yet, so much of our world teaches us that belonging must be earned. 

• Be impressive and successful, build that college application.
• Be agreeable, yet have opinions, but not too strong.
• Be fun, but not too fun. 
• Be someone your friends love, and their parents approve of.

It can feel like constantly editing yourself – showing certain parts and hiding others – just to fit the mold of who you’re “supposed” to be.

–

Jesus begins by asking the woman for water. But then he offers her living water, the gift that satisfies more than just physical thirst. She wants this. In fact, don’t we all want something that will cure our desire to BE what we feel we have to be?

Then things turn personal. Jesus names her story: her relationships, her complicated past, the parts she might prefer to stay hidden. This would be the moment she expects rejection. When someone knows too much about us, we brace for distance.

 But Jesus doesn’t name these to shame her. And he doesn’t withdraw. He stays. 

She is fully known, and he stays. 

Much to the woman’s credit, instead of hiding, she leans in. She asks questions, she learns, she feels the change. Then she leaves. 

After being fully known and not pushed away, she runs back to the very community she may have been avoiding and says, “Come and see.”

She doesn’t offer a polished testimony nor pretend her story is tidy. She simply tells the truth: he knew everything about me. And still, he stayed.

The woman who came to the well alone becomes the one who invites others in.

Belonging with God is not something we earn by fixing our stories. It is something we receive in the middle of them. In Christ, we do not audition for love. We are met in our thirst and told we already belong.

And when we begin to trust that, we stop chasing acceptance everywhere else and we become people who make room at the well. For our own messy stories and for the messy stories of others, all of whom belong to Jesus, the one who doesn’t turn away.

Reflection Questions 

1. What does Jesus notice about the woman at the well? How does he respond?
2. Why is it significant that Jesus crosses cultural and social boundaries to speak to her?
3. What does living water represent in this passage? What does living water look like to us?
4. How would our world be different if we didn’t feel like we needed to pretend or be better?
5. How might this story invite us to make room at the well (in our lives) for others – including those who are different, marginalized, or “messy”?

Closing Activity 

We all feel like we don’t belong sometimes – think of things you’ve been told or ways you’ve been treated that help you feel you belong. 

• On a sticky note, write one way you can invite someone into belonging this week: at school, home, online. This can be a phrase you may say to someone or something you do. 
• Place the slips somewhere in your room or in your Bible as a reminder. 

Examples: 

• “Invite someone I don’t know well to sit with me.”
• “Give a genuine compliment to someone.”
• “Thank a teacher or parent for something they do that usually goes unappreciated.”

Final Prayer or Blessing 

God, in our messiness, in our lowest days, when we feel like we don’t fit – we believe we belong with you. Help us to know ourselves as your beloved and to reflect that belonging and love into the world to show others they belong, too. 

Amen.

Bio of Author

Liz Dinkins (she/her) is the Director for Youth and Campus Ministries at Lutheran Church of the Epiphany in Winston-Salem, NC. She’s in her final semester of an MDiv and preparing for call as a Minister of Word and Sacrament (Pastor) in the ELCA. Liz is passionate about helping people discover their identity in God’s grace and live it out in whimsical, courageous, and hopeful ways. When she’s not working, she’s probably discovering new crafting hobbies or hanging out with her four cats, dog, and/or husband, Andrew.