THE FIRST LESSON Mathew 9:35-10:8
THE SECOND LESSON Romans 5:1-8
MEDITATION "Suffering, Character, and Peace"
Worship Notes
Today we begin our Summer of the Spirit by integrating the practice of lectio divina into our worship. Lectio Divina is Latin for divine reading, spiritual reading, or "holy reading," and represents a traditional Christian practice of prayer and scriptural reading. It is a way of praying with Scripture that calls one to read (Lectio), study (Meditatio), pray (Oratio) and listen (Contemplatio) to a bible text. The systematization of spiritual reading into four steps dates back to the 12th century. Around 1150, Guigo II, a Carthusian monk, wrote a book titled "The Monk's Ladder" wherein he set out the theory of the four rungs: reading, meditation, prayer and contemplation.
We continue our series on Paul's letter to the churches in Rome by exploring the inspiring passage from the fifth chapter. Paul speaks of the new kind of people created by "God's love poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit." Paul, again, emphasizes how it is God who acts and we who are blessed with a peace that passes all understanding. In fact, this peace exists not only in good times but especially in times where our character is formed in the forge of suffering. The prayer of confession this morning is taken from the Book of Common Worship of the Presbyterian Church highlighting once again our dependence on God to bring us light and truth. Psalm 116 we read responsively this morning reminds us thus thousands of years ago, people experienced the compassion of God that rescues our life from death. The Affirmation of Faith is a prayer written by Howard Thurman (1899-1981), an African American theologian and Civil Rights leader. His most famous book was Jesus and the Disinherited (1949) which had a deep influence on Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders.
