July 15, 2007

15^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Preparation for Worship

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

Our love of God is experienced in two ways: emotional and active, affective and effective. By the first we conceive. With the second we give birth. One places God in our heart, working in us. The other lets God use our arms, working through us.

Francis De Sales, Treatise on the Love of God

The central scripture text for today is taken from the 10^th Chapter of Luke in which we find the parable Jesus told of the Good Samaritan. In verses 25-28, a lawyer challenges Jesus regarding what is necessary to inherit eternal life. Jesus turns the question back to the lawyer who falls back on the "Great Commandment," a variation of Deuteronomy 6:5, "You shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might." This passage is part of a larger prayer called "The Shema," which is considered to be the most important prayer in Judaism. In the Jewish faith, recitation of the Shema in both morning and evening prayer is a religious commandment. In our worship today, we recall that the love we show in our interactions with one another is an extension of the love we offer God with all our hearts, souls, strength, and minds.

     The themes of the Great Commandment message are expressed both in word and song this morning. The solo, "Thee Will I Love," and the prayer response, "Love the Lord Your God' both represent the spirit of this text. In the gathering hymn, "Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee," we sing of hearts that unfold like flowers before God to offer Him our love. The sending hymn, "Lord, Whose Love in Humble Service' connects the Great Commandment to action in our lives with a text describing the manner in which Christ served humanity in response to his own love of God.

     The sermon hymn, "The Slimmons," is a composition of John Bell for the lona Community, which was founded in Scotland in 1938 by the Reverend George MacLeod as an ecumenical community committed to seeking new ways of living the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Its members have a strong devotion to the pursuit of peace and justice in the world and, therein, perform acts of service that demonstrate their love for others as a well as their love for God.

     We extend a warm Westminster welcome to Kathleen Cook Owens who shares God's word with us today as our guest preacher. In May 2007, Kathleen graduated from McCormick Seminary in Chicago and is working now to complete her remaining requirements before seeking ordination as Minister of the Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Kathleen is a Candidate for Ordination under care of the Presbytery of the Cascades and a member of First Presbyterian Church of Corvallis, Oregon. Kathleen and her husband Bill have been part of the Westminster community since 2005 and are anxiously anticipating the arrival of their first child this fall.