FOR REFLECTION & LAUGHS
I didn’t get my hair cut for two movies, and it got a little long. I’m going back to a… not a crew cut.
Back to, oh, about Presbyterian length.
— Lee Marvin
CALL TO WORSHIP Maya Angelou
We, unaccustomed to courage / Exiles from delight
Live coiled in shells of loneliness / Until love leaves its high holy temple
And comes into our sight / To liberate us into life. / To liberate us into life.
We are weaned from our timidity.… / We dare be brave
And suddenly we see / That love costs all we are
And will ever be. / Yet it is only love / Which sets us free.
OPENING HYMN For All the Saints (Sine Nomine) [Glory to God 326]
PASSING OF THE PEACE
Pastor Don: May the Peace of Christ be with you.
Congregation at Home: And also with you.
Pastor Don: Consider three ways that you can extend peace to one another this week through a phone call, text, or email.
CHRISTIAN READING 1 John 4:7-9; 11-12 – God Is Love
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
THEME VIDEO Presbyterian Church (USA) — Jesus Calls Us
PRESBYTERIAN CREED READING Confession of 1967, Section 2, 9.43
In each time and place, there are particular problems and crises through which God calls the church to act. The church, guided by the Spirit, humbled by its own complicity and instructed by all attainable knowledge, seeks to discern the will of God and learn how to obey in these concrete situations.
SERMON
“Why I am Presbyterian!”
Rev. Don Ludwig
If you prefer to read the sermon text, click here.
RESPONSIVE HYMN / ANTHEM For the Beauty of the Earth by John Rutter
PASTORAL PRAYER
“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear” (Psalms 46:1-2).
Spirit of life and of love, god of many names and no name at all, hear our prayers. Be with us, spirit, in these times that would trouble—that should trouble—us all. Call us to say no to hatred, to racism, to all that would hold some of us—and ultimately all of us—back.
May we see in our coming together a path forward, and may we see ourselves on this journey together. Grant us courage, grant us wisdom, grant us perseverance. When words are not enough, call us to act in love and compassion in all that we do, that we might build that Beloved Community right here at Southminster Presbyterian Church and that it might help all of us to find our way, together, to freedom—to justice—to equity—for all. A-men.
TIME FOR OFFERING
As we reflect on all of our blessings, individually and as a community, may we consider how we may give of ourselves so that the work of Christ’s love and peace may continue throughout our world. (Please contact staff@southmin.org, or one of our Trustees to discover simple ways you may give electronically or via mail. Thank you for supporting the staff and on-going ministries of Southminster Presbyterian Church).
CLOSING HYMN Amazing Grace
FINAL BLESSING & BENEDICTION
Now, as we enter a new week, have hope, good people of Southminster.
Take stock in our heritage as Presbyterians and in the many ways that Jesus calls us.
Know that we are not alone.
May you have hope in a world of equity and justice for all.
And may you live each day by grace—that amazing grace—this day and forever more. Amen.
