THE GOSPEL LESSON Matthew 15:21-28
THE SECOND LESSON Romans 11:1-2, 29-32
MEDITATION "Our Common Humanity"
Worship Notes
Today is the twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time and we continue to integrate 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.
The central text for worship this morning is from Paul's letter to the Romans. As we worship today, we reflect on Paul's words, which describe the depth and breadth of God's loving mercy and acceptance. The music offered in worship this morning is chosen to illumine God's mercy and to express our praise to God for his love that is "broader than the measures of the mind." The prelude is a setting of the African American Spiritual, "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" and serves to remind us of God's embrace of all people. The hymn "There is a Wideness in God's Mercy" also proclaims this idea.
As we respond to the Word proclaimed by affirming our faith and dedicating our gifts to God, we offer praise to God through the text of a movement from Antonio Vivaldi's "Gloria." While Vivaldi (1678-1741) composed at least three settings of the Gloria text, only two survive. The excerpt sung as the Offertory today is from his most famous Gloria setting, which was sung in its entirety in a December 2000 worship service led by the Westminster Chancel Choir. The "Laudamus Te" movement is a very celebratory expression of praise set by Vivaldi for two soprano voices. As you worship, listen carefully for the jubilant interplay between the two voices as they call us to praise, bless, worship, and glorify God.
As we conclude our worship, we join our voices in a song of prayer that God would "Help Us Accept Each Other" we strive to model the example Christ set for us. The postlude "Salamanca," written by Swiss composer Guy Bovet in 1986, is based on a folk legend that tells of a woman of questionable repute who shocks everyone by dancing her way down the aisle at the Spanish Cathedral of Salamanca to pray for God's mercy and forgiveness. Just as we read in today's Gospel lesson, this postlude serves to remind us that no matter our circumstances or station in life, God is waiting to welcome us, heal us, and make us whole with his mercy and love.
