Westminster Worship Notes

November 18, 2007

33^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Preparation for Worship

Whoever has begun to pray the Psalter earnestly and regularly, will soon take leave of those other, easy, little prayers of their own and say: "Au, there is not the juice, the strength, the passion, the fire which I find in the Psalter."

Martin Luther

Psalms should be prayed in their entirety since they mirror life with all its ups and downs, its passions, and discouragements.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

On this Thanksgiving Sunday, we turn to the psalms which Dietrich Bonhoeffer called the prayer book of the Bible. Our worship today reflects the various themes found in the psalms from thanksgiving to confession to lamentation to joy. We begin with Psalm 100 that in all likelihood served as a Call to Worship for those entering the Temple for worship. Our Prayer of Confession comes from Psalm 51 expressing our brokenness and reliance upon God for a renewed spirit. Psalm 119 functions as our Prayer for Illumination affirming the power of God's Word to show us a way of life. Our first lesson is from Psalm 22, an evocative and startling complaint of forsakenness by God. The second lesson from Psalm 139 reminds us of God's continual presence in ways we may not understand. Psalm 23 serves as a comforting profession of faith in which we believe: "Though I may walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil."

     During the offering you are invited to bring forward your gifts of food to be shared with a local food pantry. In this act, we embody our promise to feed the hungry especially in this season of Thanksgiving for the bounty of the earth. The placement of the food around the communion table reminds us that the Lord's table always represents a future in which no one will go hungry.