Waves of Love

Good Morning and Welcome to Worship! Worship is often the first place that new people come into contact with this growing community of faith. And so, if you are joining us for the first time, I say to you what is said every Sunday: You are welcome here. Here is a place where all are welcome. For such is the love of God for God’s Very Good Creation.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow; praise God, all creatures here below; praise God above, ye Heav'nly host: praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

Steadfast God, you greet us as a loving parent and patiently love us beyond all measure. May we offer that same level of kindness and patience to all whom we encounter this day and this week. Knowing that it is the Risen Christ whom we greet as we welcome the strangers around us. Amen.

We pray for the health and welfare of all nations …

We live out your way of loving kindness,

And in your love our horn is filled.

We pray for the strength and wisdom to renovate and enlarge our thinking; that this community may become ever more vital and filled with your love …

We bask in your love,

And sing of your way of kindness.

We pray for all who suffer from sickness, hardship, or danger …

For you are the glory of our strength,

And abide with us in our times of adversity.

We pray for the goodness and well-being of your creation …

Your steadfast love is declared forever.

Your faithfulness can be seen recorded in the heavens.

We remember those who make their procession home to you this day …

And live eternally in your way of love.

Unite us in one unending song of praise to you, O Loving God. Amen.

Loving God, as we hear your word this day, may the Spirit that abides with us equip and inspire us to do more than hear your words of love, may we instead be empowered to bring your love out into the world. Amen.

¹² Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies, so that you obey their desires. ¹³ No longer present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. ¹⁴ For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. ¹⁵ What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶ Do you not know that, if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷ But thanks be to God that you who were slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted ¹⁸ and that you, having been set free from sin, have become enslaved to righteousness. ¹⁹ I am speaking in human terms because of your limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness, leading to even more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification. ²⁰ When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. ²¹ So what fruit did you then gain from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. ²² But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the fruit you have leads to sanctification, and the end is eternal life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

⁴⁰ “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. ⁴¹ Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous, ⁴² and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

Have you ever heard of the heart-brain? How have you turned your study of God inward to see where and how you are reflecting the love of God and amplifying it? Describe a moment when you were resonating as a person and a time in which you were resonating with those around you. How might you be more open to these electromagnetic cues in the future?

Jesus said, truly I tell you, those who offer a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple will not lose their reward. Let us then offer to God the gifts of our labor and love.

Loving God, we give thanks that you have entrusted us with the gifts of hospitality and generosity, and that you have set us free to be generous givers of the gifts you have so freely given to us. May these gifts that we bring draw us closer into your way of living love and may these gifts then be sent out to be shared with those in greater need. Amen.

May the one who has created all of creation and called it very good, redeem you from your self-doubt and empower you to reflect and extend the love of God further into the world around you. Amen.