GOSPEL READING Matthew 5:1-12
EPISTLE READING 1 Corinthians 1:18-31
SERMON "Called to Foolishness: Being Fools for Christ"
Worship Notes
Welcome to Worship at Westminster on this the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany. Like Westminster, many reformed congregations began to observe a season of Epiphany on January 2 and continue the Epiphany season until Transfiguration Sunday (March 6), which is the last Sunday before Ash Wednesday (March 9) and the start of the Lenten season. Because Easter is observed later in 2011 (April 24), the Epiphany season is a longer liturgical season than it has been in recent years. The liturgical color for the season of Epiphany is white.
In worship today, and throughout the Epiphany season, we will reflect on what it means to be called by God. The scriptural basis for our consideration of God's call on our lives is the text of 1 Corinthians. In today's passage, we recognize the wisdom of God and consider what it means to be "foolish" for the cross of Christ.
The music through which we worship today is chosen to illumine the wisdom of God and emphasize our humility. Our opening hymn, "Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise" sings of God whose ways are not always known to us, but whose wisdom is infinite. Our closing hymn today is "God of Grace, God of Glory," which is based on the Welsh tune CWM Rhondda, and through its text we pray that God might grant us wisdom and courage for the facing of every task set before us.
We affirm our faith today through the text of the Belhar Confession, which was written in 1982 and first adopted as a statement of faith by the Dutch Reformed Mission Church in South Africa in 1986. In 2010, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, USA (PCUSA) voted to incorporate this confession, which expresses unity as both a gift and an obligation of the church, into its Book of Confessions and has asked each presbytery to cast an affirmative or negative vote by June 2011. A comprehensive study resource about the Belhar Confession is available at www.pcusa.org/get/resources/resource/1843.
