October 25, 2026

CHIMING OF THE HOUR

WELCOME            

PRAYER

Wild Spirit of God,
you move on the winds of creation,
through the breath in our bodies,
and in the connections we share.
Move in our churches,
in our neighborhoods,
and in our very lives,
that we might grow closer to one another,
to you, and to the world you imagine. Amen.

PRELUDE                                  

CALL TO WORSHIP

The mountains may shake,
but God is our God, and we are God’s people.

The waters may roar and rage,
but God’s love is unfailing.

The earth may crumble,
but God builds us up.

The waves may crash,
but we will dance with joy!

There may be times of great trouble,
but we have found grace in the wilderness.

*HYMN No. 23                  “God, You Spin the Whirling Planets”

1 God, you spin the whirling planets,
fill the seas and spread the plain,
mold the mountains, fashion blossoms,
call forth sunshine, wind, and rain.
We, created in your image,
would a true reflection be
of your justice, grace, and mercy
and the truth that makes us free.

2 You have called us to be faithful
in our life and ministry.
We respond in grateful worship
joined in one community.
When we blur your gracious image,
focus us and make us whole.
Healed and strengthened as your people,
we move onward toward your goal.

3 God, your word is still creating,
calling us to life made new.
Now reveal to us fresh vistas
where there’s work to dare and do.
Keep us clear of all distortion.
Polish us with loving care.
Thus, new creatures in your image,
we’ll proclaim Christ everywhere.

*CALL TO CONFESSION

Jesus says, If you continue in my word,
you are my disciples; and you will know my truth,
and the truth will make you free.
We try to live in Christ’s truth,
but we still fall short and find ourselves bound.
Let us pursue God’s word
through our confession.

*PRAYER OF CONFESSION

God of the ages,
you have been faithful to us,
but we have not been faithful to you.
You have established covenants with us,
but we have not upheld our part.
We have distorted your word for our own gain.
We have claimed you as exclusively ours.
We have focused on power more than discipleship.
We beg your forgiveness.
Reform us again and make us into the image
of your true church.

Silence is observed

*ASSURANCE OF PARDON

I will forgive their iniquity,
and remember their sin no more,
says the Lord.
The story continues. God is not done with us.
We are forgiven! Thanks be to God!

*RESPONSE NO. 4, v. 4             “Holy God, We Praise Your Name”

Holy Father, Holy Son,
Holy Spirit: three we name you,
while in essence only one;
undivided God we claim you,
and adoring, bend the knee
while we own the mystery.*

*PASSING OF THE PEACE OF CHRIST         

God has received us, pardoned us and loved us; let us forgive each other in love and share the peace of Christ.

Peace be with you.

And also with you.

Worshippers are invited to briefly “pass the peace” of Christ to those directly seated around them thus keeping our worship time “decent and in order” with a focus upon being part of God’s community.

ANTHEM     

THE CHILDREN’S MESSAGE & RECEPTION OF NEW MEMBERS

UNISON PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION

Sovereign God, let your Word rule in our hearts
and your Spirit govern our lives
until at last we see the fulfillment
of your realm of justice and peace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

SCRIPTURE           Matthew 22:34-46

³⁴When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, ³⁵and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ³⁶“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”³⁷He said to him, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸This is the greatest and first commandment. ³⁹And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

⁴¹Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question: ⁴²“What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” ⁴³He said to them, “How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying, ⁴⁴‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet”’? ⁴⁵If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?” ⁴⁶No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

Pause…

This is the Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God!!

SERMON

Focusing on rules and regulations

The weekend safety brief appears on social media every few weekends and in a funny way reminds folks about rules and regulations for time away from work.  This meme comes out of the military structure and probably is actually shared anytime service members get leave.  I have also seen the stress on rules and regulations coming from religious folks – specifically hyper-religious people. They seem mostly concerned about who’s “in” and who’s “out,” who’s saved and who’s not, who’ll make it to heaven and who won’t. It gets very complicated and sometimes very nasty.

In Matthew 22:34-40, Jesus was surrounded by exactly the same kind of religious arguments. The folks around him were arguing about whether or not it is right for religious people to pay taxes to the government, and who’s going to be married to whom in the resurrection. Then one of the religious men, in an effort to pin Jesus to the wall, asked him what may have been the toughest question of all: “What is the most important of all the commandments in our religious laws?”

Jesus never hesitated. Perhaps he was relieved that someone had finally asked a question that had some substance to it. This was his immediate reply: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

According to Jesus in Matthew 22:34-40, what’s absolutely essential is loving God, and loving our neighbors as we love ourselves. Those three relationships — with God, with our neighbors, and with ourselves — sum up everything that’s ever been said or written about God’s will for the world.

So, what does it mean to love God as we are commanded to do in Matthew 22:34-40?

What does it mean to love anyone?

One of the most important things I’ve learned in the many years I’ve lived is that love is not an emotion. There are, of course, emotions, very strong emotions, connected with loving, but, at its core, love is not an emotion. If love were based on emotions, what would happen when we find ourselves, as we often do, vexed or even angry with our husbands or wives or kids, the ones we have promised to love, the ones whom we keep saying we do love?

Our way of treating them would then go up and down like the ocean’s tides.  There would be no dependability to our relationships.  How we treat those whom we love would depend on our mood at any given moment.  But love is not primarily an emotion. Love is a decision we make and have to re-make again and again. Love is a choice we make about whom and what we will allow to be important to us. Based on those decisions, our love then becomes something we do.

What does it mean to love?

Psychiatrist Scott Peck, the author of the massively popular book The Road Less Traveled, says that the first rule of love is to give attention. To love is to choose to pay attention to those whom we love, allowing who they are and what they think and say, to be important to us. Peck goes on to say that the most important part of paying attention is to listen.

Maybe you know that. You’ve probably noticed when people really listen to you. They listen intently, so it registers with you that who you are and what you think are important. You know when you experience it: To be paid attention to, to be listened to, is to be loved.

What if we used that understanding of love to guide us in what it means to love God?

What if loving God with all our hearts and souls and minds were to mean giving careful and personal attention to what is important to God, to listen to him?

What if we allowed God’s thoughts to be the important truths as we seek to understand life and how we should live it, even on the days when we’re feeling lousy or sad?

On that foundation, our decision to love God would then become an action: doing what God calls us to do. Jesus says we show our love for God by loving our neighbors.

I believe that if I did that, I’d be loving God with all my heart, soul, and mind — letting his revealed truth be more important to me than anything else, more than the latest fads or the prevailing political correctness or my own changing emotional dispositions. Loving God means choosing to listen to what he says and then doing it: loving my fellow human beings.

Loving our neighbor

Jesus says that the second of the greatest commandments is like the first. We are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. That’s the heart of what God wants. That’s why God put his creation together. That’s why we’re here. God wants a world in which all of his human creatures receive and trust his love — and then share that love with one another.

Oddly enough, I think this is a commandment that most of us do obey, often unwittingly, and often destructively; and yet, surprising as it may seem, I think we do obey it. Most of the time, most of us DO love our neighbors as we love ourselves. The problem is that much of the time we don’t love ourselves all that much — or as we should. Just think about it.

Think about those times when you’ve been ugly or unkind to the people around you, even people in your own family; how were you feeling about yourself at that moment?

When we’re cutting and cruel to others, we are usually trying to prove to the world and to ourselves how smart or tough we are. We try to prove it because we don’t believe it.

The people who mistreat others may have a bold and confident exterior, but they almost always have a secret rage boiling on the inside—a rage against themselves.

So we have to go back to the beginning: the first step in loving God is to listen to him, to trust what he says; and Jesus’ central message is that GOD LOVES US! And not just the religious people. “For God so loved the world.”

Earlier in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says specifically that God causes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good and causes his rain to fall on the righteous and the unrighteous. God doesn’t deal with us according to what we deserve but on the basis of who he is. God is love, and God loves us. To believe in Jesus of Nazareth is to trust that we are loved.

“Faith is never a habit; faith is a decision that must be made again and again.”

Very often, certainly in every crisis, we need to make that faith decision again, to trust the great mystery of the Gospel: “I am a loved, forgiven, and precious child of God.”

Trusting that we are loved, forgiven, and precious, we are much more likely to treat others as loved, forgiven, and precious children of God also. That’s how it works.

When we trust that we are loved, then it follows that loving our neighbors as we love ourselves will create the kind of world God wants. When that happens, we have a glimpse of what it means for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. This is the basic message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: what God wants is a world in which the people he loves go on to love each other, living together in communities of love.

We are to love our neighbors as ourselves, but you might ask, “Just who is my neighbor?” Well, in Luke 10:25-37, in the midst of another series of religious debates in which Jesus’ adversaries were trying to trap him, that very question was asked; and Jesus answered it by telling the parable of the Good Samaritan. The conclusion of that parable is that the “neighbor” is, by definition, the one who shows mercy. Being a neighbor has nothing to do with nationality, religion, color, or class. Being a neighbor means sharing the mercy God gives to us with whomever we happen to encounter who needs mercy.

Even more importantly, in today’s Scripture, Jesus says clearly that “all the law and the prophets,” everything that has ever been thought, written, or said about God’s purposes, is enclosed within these two greatest commandments: choosing to love God with all our hearts, souls, and minds, and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, showing mercy.

If God commands me to be a neighbor, to be merciful, to whoever needs mercy, surely that includes, those who we don’t consider neighbors in our society.

Throughout his ministry, Jesus consistently put his emphasis on listening to what God says and then doing it.

It’s not, finally, a question of who repeats the most religious cliches or recites the most correct creeds. We’re not called to spend our time arguing about who’s going to heaven and who isn’t.   We’re not called to keep the weekend safety brief.  We aren’t called to be the rule keepers for God.  All that strikes me as mostly a lot of rationalization to allow us to feel secure that we’ve got life’s mysteries all figured out and wrapped up in a neat little religious package, a package that proves that I and my beliefs are “in” and whoever disagrees with me is “out.”

I will never, in this world, understand all the mysteries of life. But what God calls me to do is very simple to understand, not at all simple to do, but simple to understand. What matters, finally, is that we hear what God is saying to us in Jesus Christ and do it. We are called to do something: to love God and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

That’s it. Jesus says that life’s not about rules; it’s about loving relationships.

*AFFIRMATION OF FAITH                    The Confession of 1967 – Jesus Christ

In Jesus of Nazareth, true humanity was realized once for all. Jesus, a Palestinian Jew, lived among his own people and shared their needs, temptations, joys, and sorrows. He expressed the love of God in word and deed and became a brother to all kinds of sinful men and women. But his complete obedience led him into conflict with his people. His life and teaching judged their goodness, religious aspirations, and national hopes. Many rejected him and demanded his death. In giving himself freely for them, he took upon himself the judgment under which everyone stands convicted. God raised him from the dead, vindicating him as Messiah and Lord. The victim of sin became victor, and won the victory over sin and death for all.  Amen.

*HYMN No. 726”              “Will You Come and Follow Me”

1 “Will you come and follow me if I but call your name?
Will you go where you don’t know and never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown; will you let my name be known;
will you let my life be grown in you and you in me?”

2 “Will you leave yourself behind if I but call your name?
Will you care for cruel and kind and never be the same?
Will you risk the hostile stare should your life attract or scare?
Will you let me answer prayer in you and you in me?”

3 “Will you let the blinded see if I but call your name?
Will you set the prisoners free and never be the same?
Will you kiss the leper clean, and do such as this unseen,
and admit to what I mean in you and you in me?”

4 “Will you love the ‘you’ you hide if I but call your name?
Will you quell the fear inside and never be the same?
Will you use the faith you’ve found to reshape the world around,
through my sight and touch and sound in you and you in me?”

5 Lord, your summons echoes true when you but call my name.
Let me turn and follow you and never be the same.
In your company I’ll go where your love and footsteps show.
Thus I’ll move and live and grow in you and you in me.

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE & THE LORD’S PRAYER

Loving God, you unite us as the body of Christ by your love and through your Spirit. We pray for all of creation saying: Holy God, reform us by your love.

Creating God, we are connected to all of creation, and we recognize the many systems of which we are a part. We pray for people caught in unjust systems. For those who have suffered injustice, we pray for justice and restoration. For those who wield power with little care for your people, we pray for true repentance — a changing of hearts and actions. For all who are empowered or privileged within these systems, we ask for boldness in witness and action. Holy God, reform us by your love.

God of peace, there is so much war and strife — between nations, across lines of race, ethnicity, religion, and within communities and families. We pray for all who are experiencing strife.

We pray for true peace, reconciliation and healing. Help us not stand by idly when the blood of our neighbor is at stake. Enlarge our neighbor- hood, so we see our kinship with all of humanity. Move those who have the power to end wars to do so. For those of us who lack that power, give us the courage and voice to speak out, so we are not complicit. Holy God, reform us by your love.

God of community, Jesus showed us a new way of being the beloved community together. He reminded his contemporaries of the laws al- ready written on their hearts, and he continues to show us what those laws require. Draw us closer in love to you so that we may more fully love our neighbors as ourselves. Help us to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with you. Holy God, reform us by your love.

In love for you and for all of creation, we offer our joys and concerns. Hear the prayers of your people …

Holy God, reform us by your love.

God who knows our hearts, fill us with such love and care for each other that we become living testimonies to your love and grace. Help us always and only seek your will, as we pray using the words Jesus taught us, saying: “Our Father …”.

THE LORD’S PRAYER

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.  For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

PASSING OF FELLOWSHIP PADS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

TITHES & OFFERINGS

We are called to love God with all that we are, and all that we have. As God has given so generously to us, we are invited to return our gratitude by offering the gifts of our labor, lives and love.

OFFERTORY ANTHEM                            

*RESPONSE N0. 619, v. 4          “Praise, My Soul, the God of Heaven”

Angels, teach us adoration;
you behold God face to face.
Sun and moon and all creation,
dwellers all in time and space:
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Praise with us the God of grace! 

*PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING

Generous God, we bring our gifts to you. May these gifts yield the fruits of your Spirit, meeting scarcity with your abundance, and fear with your love. Use our offerings and our lives in love and service. We ask this in the name of Jesus, Amen.

*HYMN No. 373                “O Day of Peace”

1 O day of peace that dimly shines
through all our hopes and prayers and dreams,
guide us to justice, truth, and love,
delivered from our selfish schemes.
May swords of hate fall from our hands,
our hearts from envy find release,
till by God’s grace our warring world
shall see Christ’s promised reign of peace.

2 Then shall the wolf dwell with the lamb,
nor shall the fierce devour the small;
as beasts and cattle calmly graze,
a little child shall lead them all.
Then enemies shall learn to love,
all creatures find their true accord;
the hope of peace shall be fulfilled,
for all the earth shall know the Lord.

*BENEDICTION                Professor Carson Brisson’s Closing Blessing

“Belov’ed, oh may joy and nothing less, the peace of God, find you on the way.  Oh may she find you over, over, and over again. 

Belov’ed, may you be blessed, oh may you be now the blessing you are being called into becoming forever. 

And, belov’ed, may Light, Love’s own Crucified-Risen Light, guide you and me and countless others, out of every darkness, all the way home.”

*POSTLUDE