​Prelude
Welcome and Announcements
 
*Call to Worship
Happy are those whose way is blameless,
who walk in the way of the Lord.
Happy are those who keep the Lord’s decrees,
who seek the Lord with their whole heart.
 
*Hymn 366        Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
 
Prayer of Confession
Almighty God, you gave the law to guide our lives.
May we never shrink from your commandments,
but, as we are taught by your Son, Jesus,
strive to fulfill the law in perfect love, aware of our occasions of hard-heartedness and sin.
Forgive us and set us free to live in the fullness of your love.  Amen.
 
*Hymn  698         Take, O Take Me As I Am
 
Assurance of Forgiveness
God is love.
Those who abide in love abide in God
and God abides in them.
Friends, God’s word is true and completely reliable.
We are loved, forgiven, and freed. Alleluia! Amen.
 
First Reading   Psalm 119:1-8
 
Time With Our Young Disciples
 
Gospel Reading    1 Corinthians 13:1-13  
 
Morning Message
 
“I like steak, but, I love chocolate!” We’ll come back to that.
 
On this Sunday closest to Valentine’s Day, our thoughts turn to love. You have probably heard many times that there are a number of meanings for our word “love.”
 
In the Greek, the New Testament’s original language, we find these descriptions:
Philia refers to the love between close friends, or literally, brothers. It shows a personal attachment, it engages our emotions. This is Super Bowl Sunday, ironically played by the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles. There will be a lot of love-the philia type-on display today, plus a bunch of other emotions, depending on how the game goes for your team.
 
Another word for love is eros, or romantic love, the love of passion and intimacy. One of my favorite stories about this kind of love was shared with me by a church member years ago. He had grown up in a different generation, with different expectations. So, he went to college, earned a degree, served our country during the Second World War, and eventually returned home. He was a person who acted deliberately. He didn’t wait for life to happen to him. He would set his face toward a goal and work toward it. So, one day when we were talking about our families, he said when it came time for him to be married, he approached it with great care. He made a list of all the potential candidates and proceeded to get to know each of them, one at a time, so as not to rush into things or miss something important. His method was successful and he and his wife enjoyed many years together, his profession taking them to many parts of the US, being active in church and good to their neighbors, and raising two fine sons.  All the result of eros.
 
Another word for love is storge. It refers to the love between family members. It is the love that calls us together at Thanksgiving. It points toward love that can withstand hardships and trials.The love that testifies to length of years and devotion.
 
And then there is agape-probably the word with which we are most familiar. It means unconditional, sacrificial love. It is the word that describes God in scripture-God is essentially love and God demonstrates love toward his creation. Agape is a love of choice, a love that serves others, and does it with humility.
 
Back to that comment about liking steak but loving chocolate. It was made by one of my seminary professors at the beginning of a class on church growth. His theory was that we should endeavor to learn the favorite activities, hobbies, interests, and foods church members really loved, and build a ministry around those things. Then people would flock to the churches and witness to their friends and neighbors that they loved the church.
 
I admit, I resisted that model, but, the professor did have a point. People who are actively engaged in their churches often say, “I love my church!” in the way someone may say, “I love chocolate!”
 
I’ve spent some time this week considering just what it is the prompts our love for the church. That is as individual as we are.  Recently a member shared with me that he loved sitting by one of our stained glass windows, reading scripture, and meditating. In those moments, he draws closer to God.
 
Closer to God. That is what I hope you love about your church. That being here each week and the dozens of other occasions you find yourself about the Lord’s work, wherever it may be, you grow closer to God. That in this fellowship of faith, you find meaning and purpose.  That is what I hope to leave with you when I retire in a few months. That you have grown closer to God and that process is eternal.
 
We have walked through the valley of the shadow here with Covid, with the passing of beloved members, with life-changing events here and around this vast world. Many of those things cause us grief for a time, but, they don’t steal our joy or diminish our love.
 
Why is this so?
 
The letter of First John says, “We love because God first loved us.” What we do as a congregation, what we focus our attention on may change with time and circumstances, but the origin of our life of faith is birthed in God’s love for us.
 
I am one of those people who has always known that God loves me, Jesus loves me. One of my earliest memories is of Sunday School when I was just four or five. We were Enslow Park Presbyterians back then. I remember the room, the curtains at the windows. I remember the way the room smelled. It smelled like spring. The teacher led us in a little game. It went like this: “There’s someone in this room that Jesus loves, and that person….”and then she named something that would identify one of the children.
 
Eventually she said, “There’s someone in this room that Jesus loves and she is wearing new black shoes.” I remember we all looked at our feet. I suddenly realized I was wearing new black shoes. It was me! Jesus loved me!
 
Being assured of God’s love has been the blessing of my life. My deep desire is that you know that Jesus loves you. And that you find security in his love.
 
Rachel Held Evans is one of  most significant Christian minds of our day. Rachel was an author, preacher, church organizer, wife, and mother. She kept a busy schedule. Rachel returned to her home in Tennessee from a conference at which she was a keynote speaker and leader.  She was not feeling well, quickly ending up in the hospital. Her health declined rapidly and Rachel died a few days later, leaving a husband and two young children, the youngest not even a year old.
 
Rachel struggled with her relationship to the church. She grew up in a fundamentalist church, her father was a pastor and professor in a church-related college. She and her sister attended a private Christian school from kindergarten to the twelfth grade. She went to the college where her father taught.
 
As Rachel entered adulthood, moving out of the family nest, she found herself wanting to leave the church of her childhood and look for another type of faith community. It caused a life crisis for her, but, as a result, she wrote about her experience and the joys and repercussions of that change.
 
Rachel left us with many gifts through her books and blogs.. She wrote these words:
“If  I’ve learned anything in this journey, it’s that Sunday morning sneaks up on us-like dawn, like resurrection, like the sun that rises a ribbon at a time. We expect a trumpet and a triumphant entry, but as always, God surprises us by showing up in ordinary things: in bread, in wine, in water, in words, in sickness, in healing, in death, in a manger of hay, in a mother’s womb, in an empty tomb. Church isn’t some community you join or some place you arrive. Church is what happens when someone taps you on the shoulder and whispers in your ear, Pay attention, this is holy ground; God is here.
 
May it be so for all of you.
 
 
*Hymn  693      Though I May Speak
 
*Affirmation of Faith                 Apostles’ Creed p. 35
*Hymn  581 Gloria Patri
 
 
Sharing Our Joys and Concerns
Pastoral Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer
 
Presenting Our Tithes and Offerings
*Hymn 606      Doxology
*Prayer of Dedication
 
*Hymn  692     Spirit, Open My Heart
 
*Blessing
Go now, with your trust in the Lord.
Do not be influenced by the ways of cynics and scoffers,
but delight in the Lord’s company, day and night.
And may God raise you to new life with Christ.
May Christ Jesus heal you of all that troubles you.
And may the Holy Spirit nourish you from the deep well
and keep you faithful and fruitful in all you do.  Amen.
 
*Postlude

Prelude
Welcome and Announcements                                                         
*Call to Worship                    Psalm 147
How good it is to sing praises to our God.
For God is gracious, and a song of praise is fitting.
God heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds.
God is our Lord, and abundant in power.
God’s understanding is beyond measure.
 
*Hymn   164   He Lives
 
Call to Confession
Isaiah exclaims, “Have you not seen? Have you not heard? “The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. God does not faint or grow weary,” but comes to us to renew our strength and restore us to right relationship with God and others.
 
Prayer
O God, our creator, redeemer, and sustainer, we confess our feelings of anxiety and uncertainty, doubt and fear, brought on by winter illnesses, extreme weather events, acts of senseless violence, and other threats. We mourn our losses, thinking of what might have been. We look for help, but, sometimes it seems you are far away. Remind us that you are present to us, and to all your vulnerable children, to comfort and to bless in times of suffering and need. Renew our strength and restore our joy that we might mount up with wings like eagles to carry out each day’s purpose.  Amen.
 
*Hymn  698              Take, O Take Me As I Am
Assurance of Pardon
The God who fashioned the stars and the moon has come close to each of us with mercy and love. Hear the good news of the gospel: We are forgiven and freed to run and not be weary, to walk and not faint. Know you are forgiven and be at peace.
 
Old Testament Reading                Isaiah 58:1-12
 
Time With Our Young Disciples
 
Gospel Reading      Matthew 5:13-20
The Morning Message
 
Today we take a look at the Sermon on the Mount, according to the Gospel of Matthew. The words are beautiful and familiar and we may know certain phrases by heart. The hazard of that can be that they are so familiar we barely hear them anymore. But, sometimes we will hear or experience them in a new way which adds to our understanding.
 
So, that’s where I hope to lead us this morning.
 
One of my favorite authors is Ruth Everhart. Ruth is a Presbyterian minister, my age in fact, who grew up in the Reformed Church, one of our Formula of Agreement Churches, in the Midwest. Her father was a pastor, too. Ruth went to a church-related college and was a good and happy student until the night a serial rapist broke into the home she shared with several other female students and brutally assaulted them. Ruth wrote a book about her recovery from that experience called, Ruined, which was named “book of the year” by Christianity Today.
 
That experience has led her to be an advocate for the rights of women and girls, particularly on issues involving sexual assault and its fallout. She participated in the Women’s March of 2017 in Washington, DC. She wrote a reflection of that day which I would like to share with you:
 
“During an election cycle we citizens become familiar with stump speeches. These are the points that candidates repeat at every campaign stop. If the speakers are particularly adept, the refrains they use will echo even after they have moved on to the next stop. Indeed, certain phrases  become associated with a particular face and voice and agenda, so that even fragments of the speech will call to mind the candidate’s entire platform.
 
The Sermon On the Mount is Jesus’ stump speech, if you will, and the Beatitudes are nine refrains that echo long after Jesus has moved on. Picture the “blessed are” statements on placards, borne aloft in the sea of faces around Jesus. These fragments form the context about salt and light-which seem simple enough to be campaign slogans, but are followed up with the confounding exhortation about righteousness: “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
 
Righteousness and blessing are the bookends to the Salt and Light passage.
 
“You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.”
Not, “You will be the salt of the earth or you will be the light of the world.”
You are now, and here, salt and light.
 
Who is Jesus addressing? Who is the salt of the earth? Those who are humble, those who mourn, those who are meek, and those who thirst after doing what is right.
 
Salt creates thirst, does it not? Our kids had a rabbit for over 10 years. It was grey and they named him Smokey. Smokey loved his salt wheel, but it made him thirsty. He would empty his water dispenser every day. Well, we’re not rabbits, but we do get thirsty.
 
Ruth Everhart says the righteous are blessed to thirst after doing what is right.
 
They are salty and so they thirst.
 
And who is Jesus calling the light of the world? Those who are merciful, those who are pure in heart, those who are peacemakers, and those who receive abuse for standing up for what is right.
Righteousness is a form of light, is it not? The righteous are blessed to show forth purity and peace as they stand up for what is right. They shed light through their actions.
 
Remember Ruth Everhart penned these words in 2017, but, they are still relevant, I think. She continues:

“Stump speeches may seem a sour topic right now, a far cry from the gospel and its good news. Our nation is in the midst of a particularly contentious political season, one shedding more heat than light. You might even say we’re embroiled in this season. Perhaps the word “embroiled” tickles my fancy because something embroiled begs for seasoning, it begs for salt. And surely it makes us thirsty to do what is right.
 
Perhaps the most difficult part of this passage is that it cycles us back to righteousness, which we understand in the abstract, but struggle within the particulars.
 
Any disciple worth her salt knows that righteousness is the goal. It forms our telos-that thing we drive toward, like a tool that has telescoping capability. But how will keeping the Pharisaic law drive us toward righteousness? Jesus does not elaborate.
 
The answer must be found in salt and light, these elemental things that are so multifaceted. Even though they are simple, there is nothing innocuous about either element.
 
Salt preserves. Salt flavors. But salt can also sting and burn and abrade.
Light dispels darkness. Light sheds illumination. But light can also blind, either temporarily or permanently.
 
Christians want to be salt and light, but we struggle to know how and when, and to what extent.
Take, for example, the political theatre which brought on the Women’s March in Washington, with sister marches around the country, and indeed the globe.
 
For some marchers, this was a way to be salt and light, while for others, the marchers were nothing but abrasive.
 
So, should we spend more time talking about being salt and light, or more time marching and clarifying the messages we carry? Which is easier for our churches to do? Which is a more direct response to the times we find ourselves in?
 
We don’t have to be marching in protest, or marching against something. Maybe we join a Walk for Alzheimers awareness, or the CROP walk for alleviating hunger, or a 5 K or a marathon to benefit our school or help for animals or some other organization or disease or school that needs the public’s attention.
 
What kind of march would Jesus have joined or led? We will re-visit this in a few weeks at the city gate of Jerusalem.
 
How does the gospel improve the flavor of our life together-as followers of Jesus, as congregations, as a nation? What if we weren’t afraid of the sting of salt?
 
What if we spent less time arguing about the design of our lampstands- as really, so much Christian talk amounts to-and spent more time shedding light on the darkness that surrounds us?
If you intend to be salty, well-lit disciple, be advised to re-read Jesus’ stump speech. The waving placards of “Blessed are” might seem quite inspiring until you realize Jesus actually means business. This righteousness is not for the faint of heart. What Jesus has in mind might be stinging, blinding righteousness!
 
Remember a couple of years ago when I was getting ready for cataract surgery? I remember telling you that the doctor requires his patients to go without eye makeup for 48 hours before an exam or surgery.  I’ve admitted before that I’m vain. I don’t like this rule. So, after my eyes had been dilated and examined and dates set for surgery, I went out into the morning sunlight. It was not a particularly bright day, but, I could barely open my eyes without sunglasses. Never-the-less, because I had to run some errands before going home, I pulled out my make-up bag and applied some eyeliner and mascara to make myself more presentable. Or, I tried to anyway. Like I said, I could barely see when I took off my sunglasses.
 
I ran those errands and made it home a couple of hours later. When I walked into the bathroom, the face looking back at me from the mirror looked like someone had applied magic marker to my eyes then I had fallen asleep with my face in a pillow. Pretty frightful.
 
Light can be enormously revealing and it isn’t always pretty. In fact, light can reveal a world of pain and injustice. But, the only way to overcome what is unsightly, what is disturbing, what is not right, is to throw on the light.
 
And then there is the matter of salt. We bought a new set of knives awhile back. I was using one to slice an orange and underestimated how much pressure I had to exert. They are very sharp. I sliced my finger as well as the orange. And for a couple of days, it burned and stung whenever it came into contact with an abrasive substance, usually salt or something acidic like the orange. And again, the only way to avoid the pain, was to cover it up, prevent contact with offenders.
 
And I find I do a lot of that. I avoid those things which abrade. And that cuts both ways, right? Something hurts, gets under our skin, maybe even tears us apart, and we need to act, to do something to set it right. Maybe we march or run for office or intervene in an abusive situation. May be we support someone facing a frightful diagnosis. We are salt when we are moved to act.
 
Last night was cold and dark. But the sky was filled with stars. It reminded me of when our dog was just a puppy and we were potty-training. Puppies need to be walked frequently, cold and dark, or not. So, on one of our trips outside that winter, I was shivering and hoping Maeve would make it snappy. I wanted to go back inside
 
But, Maeve got distracted easily in those days. She suddenly plopped herself down on the cold, hard ground and started barking. She was looking up toward the mall, which means, she was looking to the north west and barking her head off at a single star overhead. It wasn’t a threatening “This is my yard. Go away” kind of bark. It was a “Wanna play?” kind of bark. Pretty fascinating to see her discover something about the universe in which she lives and moves and has her being.
 
I turned her around so that she would see a whole constellation behind her and the moon waxing full. She ignored my efforts and went back to her conversation with the single star, the solitary light that stood out in the inky sky.
 
I was a yogi for years. One of my favorite moments in a yoga session was at the end of the hour when we would clasp our hands in front of our hearts, lean slightly forward and say, “Namaste,” which may be interpreted as “The divine light in me salutes the divine light in you.”
 Maeve seemed to be saying that to her new friend, the star.
Namaste, friends. May you be salt. May you be light. May you live in God’s divine light. Today and always.
 
 *Hymn   221   Love Lifted Me
 
*Affirmation of Faith   Apostles’ Creed 
*Hymn   Gloria Patri
 
Sharing Our Joys and Concerns
Pastoral Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer                  
Presenting Our Tithes and Offerings
Offertory
*Hymn   Doxology
*Prayer of Dedication
Blessed are you, O God.
Through your goodness, we have been blessed with the gifts of time, talent, and treasure. Use us, and what we have gathered, to strengthen your kingdom on earth and benefit those who have need in body, mind, or circumstance.
We offer our gifts through Jesus Christ, who died that we might live. Amen.
 
*Hymn    430   Blest Be the Tie That Binds
 
*Blessing
Go now, and follow Christ wherever he leads you.
By the grace of God, be all you have been called to be,
and cast wide the net of God’s love.
Remind one another of the good news, and hold fast to your saving faith.
In peace, go out to love and serve the Lord, rejoicing in the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
 
*Postlude