This is the lesson and sermon from Sunday, September 28th, 2008
James 1:22-27
September 2008 Archives
THE FIRST LESSON Matthew 21:28-32
THE SECOND LESSON James 1:22-27
SERMON "Responding to the Word: Who it is We Worship?"
Worship Notes
Today we continue our series exploring various aspects of corporate worship, which is the most important activity we do together as the body of Christ gathered as Westminster Presbyterian Church. This series is an outgrowth of the recent worship survey of the congregation. Over the past three weeks, we have reflected on "why" we worship, "how" we worship, and affirmed God's Word as the foundation for our corporate worship. This morning, we consider how we, as individuals and as a body, respond to God's Word.
Just like the music through which we worship, our response to God can be described as praise, prayer, and proclamation. Our first hymn, "Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee," is a hymn of praise that likens our response to God's to that of flowers opening to the sun above. In the section of the worship service titled, "Responding to the Word", we respond with a prayerful hymn that God might help us to hear the Word and enable us to be "doers" of it. That prayerful spirit of response is sustained as we sing "Lord, I Want to Be a Christian."
The anthem "Go Out With Joy" and the benediction response "Trees of the Field" are each derived from Isaiah 55 and proclaim a praise-filled response to God's Word as we seek to "do" it in our daily lives. Our worship concludes by singing the hymn "O Jesus, I Have Promised," which speaks directly of our response to God's call on our lives. The postlude is a jazz setting of the gospel hymn, "Blessed Assurance." The text of this great hymn of faith reflects our response to God's word in its chorus: "This is my story, this is my song, praising my Saviour all the day long!" Through corporate worship, may our faith grow to enable us to respond to God's Word with our praise, prayer, and proclamation.
This is the lesson and sermon from Sunday, September 21st, 2008
John 1: 1 - 18
THE FIRST LESSON Ephesians 5:17-20
THE SECOND LESSON John 1: 1-18
SERMON "Encountering the Word: What We Worship?"
Worship Notes
Today we continue our series exploring various aspects of corporate worship, which is the most important activity we do together as the body of Christ gathered as Westminster Presbyterian Church. This series is an outgrowth of the recent worship survey of the congregation. Over the past two weeks, we have reflected on "why" we worship and "how" we worship. This morning, we consider "what" we worship as we examine the Word of God as the foundation for corporate worship.
Scripture drives every decision we make about the shape and content of worship at Westminster. In today's service, we also identify the connection between the scriptures and the music through which we worship. Music in worship performs three general functions: praise, proclamation, and prayer.
Our first hymn, "Blessed Jesus, At Your Word" is a hymn of praise offered to illumine the role of scripture in our lives. The songs of the early church were exclusively derived from settings of the Psalms, which are collectively referred to as "the Psalter." Hymns 158 to 258 represent the Psalter settings in our hymnal. In worship today, we hear God's word proclaimed through music as we sing together Hymn 226, which is a Psalter setting of Psalm 113 and is one of the oldest Psalter settings. This setting was included by John Calvin in the Genevan Psalter published in1539. Calvin wrote:
"...it is a thing most expedient for the edification of the church to sing some psalms in the form of public prayers by which one prays to God or sings His praises so that the hearts of all may be roused and stimulated to make similar prayers and to render similar praises and thanks to God with a common love."
As we sing, we do so with the understanding that our voices join with the cloud of witnesses that have proclaimed God's Word in this way for over 400 years.
Music also functions as a vehicle for prayer in worship. Both the choral prayer for illumination and the congregational prayer response use texts that call us to pray that God's Word might be made clear to us as we worship together. Our worship concludes with another hymn of praise "How Firm a Foundation," which identifies and thanks God for the foundation of our faith established in his "excellent word."
This is the lesson and sermon from Sunday, September 14th, 2008
1 Corinthians 14: 26 - 33, 36 - 40
THE FIRST LESSON Matthew 5:21-24
THE SECOND LESSON 1 Corinthians 14:26-33, 37-40
SERMON "The First Worship Wars: How Do We Worship?"
Worship Notes
Today we continue our series exploring various aspects of corporate worship, which is the most important activity we do together as the body of Christ gathered as Westminster Presbyterian Church. This series is an outgrowth of the recent worship survey of the congregation. Last week, we reflected on "why" we worship and considered the role the sacrament of communion plays in our corporate worship. This morning, we consider "how" we gather around the Word of God.
The service begins with a choral prelude, which speaks of the specific nature of the space in which we gather for worship and experience the presence of God. The opening hymn, "Come, Christians, Join to Sing" is a call to unite our voices in praise of God who is our creator and our salvation. The prayer response hymn and the offertory are settings of the familiar "Kum ba yah." Kum ba yah is believed to be derived from Gullah, which was a Creole dialect spoken by slaves and former slaves living on the sea islands of South Carolina and Georgia. In Gullah, Kum ba yah means "come by here." Therefore, this hymn is a prayer that asks God to be with us in worship. As we prepare to depart the sanctuary and continue our worship of God as individuals journeying out in the world, we sing together with confidence: "in bold accord, come celebrate the journey now and praise the Lord!" The postlude setting of the familar psalm of praise was composed by German organist Sigfrid Karg-Elert (1877-1933).
THE GOSPEL LESSON "Water into Wine" John 2:1-11, Adapted
SERMON "Why We Worship? Duty, Desire, and Delight"
Worship Notes
Today we start our five week series on worship in the life of the congregation that will culminate on World Communion Sunday. This series springs out of the recent worship survey of the congregation and how all things we do as Westminster grows from our corporate worship. We focus today on the question of why we worship at all. Does God need to be worshipped? Is worship about us? Why would it be important to come together to worship as the body of Christ?
The central text this morning is the story of Jesus turning water into wine at a wedding in Cana. At the heart of this miracle is an affirmation of how God creates joy in the simple everyday things of life. The opening sentences of scripture are taken from Paul's letter to the church in Corinth where he reminds the Christians of the new creation they have become and their responsibility in embodying reconciliation in their daily lives. Our youth ministry (SPirituality, Arts, and Mission) gives us an interpretation of the water into wine story during the children's message.
It is appropriate we take communion this morning as we celebrate in ordinary things the presence of God. In the Presbyterian Church we understand communion to be an open table where all are welcome no matter their denomination to share in God's joyful fellowship. The form of the Great Prayer of Thanksgiving we say today has its historic roots in the fourth century. It is also fitting we end with the resounding words of our final hymn -
"Together met, together bound, We'll go our different ways, And as His people in the world, We'll live and speak His praise, We'll live and speak His praise."
