August 2010 Archives

THE FIRST LESSON Hebrews 13:1-8,15-16

THE SECOND LESSON Luke 14:1, 7-14

SERMON "Invitation to the Kingdom of the Lame"

Worship Notes

The central text for this morning comes from the gospel of Luke where Jesus admonishes his followers to not seek places of honor at the wedding banquet, but instead walk a path of humility. He tells the disciples to invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind to banquet of God's love. We reflect in our prayers, liturgy, and music this invitation to us.

The Call to Worship comes from the Psalm of the day and highlights the blessing of God for those who are a generous and forgiving; those who act justly; and those who are a light in the darkness. All these images evoke a sense of our humble task of following Jesus commandment to invite those previously excluded. The Opening Hymn certainly captures this sense of welcome as we sing the words: "Gather us in -- the lost and forsaken, gather us in the blind and the lame." The hymn following the sermon is our affirmation of faith that we shall "eat at the welcome table." Our final hymn sends us out into the world to be "In haunts of wretchedness and need, On shadowed thresholds of fraught and fear, From paths where hide the lures of greed, We catch the vision of Thy tears."

This is the lesson and sermon from Sunday, August 22, 2010.

MP3 Download (7.12 MB)

RealAudio Download (4.30 MB)

THE FIRST LESSON Jeremiah 1:4-10

THE SECOND LESSON Luke 13:10-17

SERMON "Grace and Sanity: Being Bent"

Worship Notes

Welcome to worship at Westminster on this the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost. During these summer weeks, and throughout the Pentecost season, we sustain a purposeful focus on God's gift of the Holy Spirit and on its presence at work within and through us.

In worship today, we focus on God's call on our lives and God's healing presence among us. In the gospel lesson, we read of Jesus' actions to heal the woman on the Sabbath and the reaction of church leaders to this "rule-breaking" decision.

The music through which we worship this morning is chosen to reflect these themes of healing and call. We join in prayers of thanksgiving for the leadership of our Summer Sing participants in the worship service this morning.

In the spiritual life, freedom is for nothing other than love.

Human beings exist because of love,

and the meaning and goal of our lives is love.

In Christian understanding, every-thing that is authentic in the spiritual life points toward the increasing fulfillment of the two great commandments:

To love God and

other people

in a completely unfettered way.

Liberation from attachment is only a means to this end.

Gerald May

This is the lesson and sermon from Sunday, August 15, 2010.

MP3 Download (6.10 MB)

RealAudio Download (3.68 MB)

THE FIRST LESSON Isaiah 5:1-7

THE SECOND LESSON Luke 12:49-56

SERMON "Fire in the Hole: Passion for the Kingdom!"

Worship Notes

Welcome to worship at Westminster on this the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost. During these summer weeks, and throughout the Pentecost season, we sustain a purposeful focus on God's gift of the Holy Spirit and on its presence at work within and through us.

In worship today, we attempt to open our eyes to the divisions and separations that exist between God's people. We reflect on our role in perpetuating those divisions and consider whether, in exercising our responsibilities as faithful disciples of Christ, we are called to societal conflict and separation.

The music through which we worship today reflects our struggle to live in a world in which the fullness of God's kingdom has not yet been realized. The prelude and postlude are settings of hymn texts that describe Christ as the one rock or foundation on which we are called to build our lives and our church. The opening hymn, "The Church's One Foundation," describes a unity that does not yet exist within the Christian community but is one for which we still work, hope, and pray. In response to God's word, we sing about the costs of discipleship that we encounter when we are willing to "take up our cross" and follow Christ. As our service ends, we sing Hymn 434, which reminds us of all that is involved in our call to follow Christ and serve as disciples.

In worship today, we also hear from our youth who participated in the mission trip to St. Paul, Minnesota earlier this month. The youth will be sharing music, "affirming their faith" by describing their experiences serving others, and leading our prayers

"Consequential faith has risks. The love of Christ is love worth dying for. Congregations are far more reluctant to ask this kind of faith of teenagers than teenagers are to respond to it. Churches help young people develop consequential faith best when they focus on who Christ is calling young people to become as his envoys in the world." Kendra Creasy Dean

This is the lesson and sermon from Sunday, August 8, 2010.

MP3 Download (7.19 MB)

RealAudio Download (4.33 MB)

THE FIRST LESSON Isaiah 1:1, 10-20

THE SECOND LESSON Luke 12:32-40

SERMON "Lets Get Ready to Rumble: The Problem of the Kingdom of God"

Worship Notes

Welcome to worship at Westminster on this the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost. During these summer weeks, and throughout the Pentecost season, we sustain a purposeful focus on God's gift of the Holy Spirit and on its presence at work within and through us.

Today we wrestle with the question of the kingdom of God.

Is the kingdom something in the future or is it available now?

Do we prepare ourselves for the kingdom?

Our central story this morning is Jesus' encouragement to be ready for God's kingdom. The image of light plays a central role in the text. This is reflected in our hymn choices and responses this morning.