Sunday, October 14, 2018

My chosen one … in whom is all my delight

Worship on Sunday, October 14 …

 Our series – “Loving God, Loving Others” – comes to the crucial point:  it all begins with loving ourselves!




╬  “My chosen one … in whom is all my delight.” - Isaiah 42:1  We know these words.  We remember them from the prophets, speaking about God’s “anointed one.”  We remember them spoken by God over Jesus, at his baptism, at his transfiguration.  Yet we often balk at the idea of them being spoken over us.  The fact is, God does speak them over us, in our baptism, in claiming us as “God’s-own,” blessed and beloved.  The truth is, fulfilling God’s calling to love others begins there:  with accepting ourselves as God’s own, chosen, God’s delight!  Loving others begins with loving ourselves, or it really can’t begin at all.
Here is a bulletin cover image.  Below are the Prayer of the Day and Readings.  Sermon and Reflection Slides are attached.

 I love you, and God does, too!  What about you?

 - Pr. Brad Highum
bhighum@abidinglove.org
PRAYER OF THE DAY ------------------------

 God of all, you call us to love you by loving others with our whole selves.  And yet we cannot begin except from a place of love.  Help us to accept ourselves in love, that same love you pour over us in claiming us as your own. Amen.

 READINGS ---------------------------------

 First Reading:  Joel 2:12-1
12Yet even now, says the LORD, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; 13rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the LORD, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing. 14Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the LORD, your God.

 Psalm 16
1 Protect me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
2 I say to the LORD, "You are my LORD; I have no good apart from you."
3 As for the holy ones in the land, they are the noble, in whom is all my delight.
4 Those who choose another god multiply their sorrows; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names upon my lips.
5 The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.
6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; I have a goodly heritage.
7 I bless the LORD who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me.
8 I keep the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; my body also rests secure.
10 For you do not give me up to Sheol, or let your faithful one see the Pit.
11 You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

 Second Reading:  1 John 4:7-21
7Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.  13By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. 15God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. 16So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.  God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. 17Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. 18There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20Those who say, "I love God," and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. 21The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

 Gospel:  Matthew 22:34-40
34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" 37 He said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
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