WORSHIP WITH US on Sunday, August 17, at 10:15 a.m.
WE LIVE STREAM OUR WORSHIP SERVICES AT 10:15 ON SUNDAY MORNING. You can join us online in real time at https://vimeo.com/event/1424751. This streaming address is the same each week.
The video of Sunday’s worship service will be posted after worship at https://vimeo.com/channels/1547852.
You can view and download the bulletin here.
During these summer months I’m preaching from the Psalms. As I starting point, I’m using Paul Simon’s album from a couple of years ago, Seven Psalms.
This fourth Sunday of the series is where it begins to get difficult—and that’s usually where it begins to get interesting as well.
The fourth of Simon’s seven psalms is titled simply “Your Forgiveness.” In it he sings;
In sorrow, a beautiful song
Lives in the heart and sings for all
Your forgiveness
Inside the digital mind
A homeless soul ponders the code
Of forgiveness
Those are beautiful, evocative words, expressing the search for and the hope of forgiveness. This search and this hope are a central part of entire Bible, not just the Psalms. We’ll listen this morning as Isaiah speaks of the entire nation of ancient Israel standing in dire need of forgiveness and of God’s promise of the same. We’ll listen as Jesus tells of two people praying, one of whom receives the mercy sought for, hoped for.
But Simon also sings: “I, I have my reasons to doubt”—an expression of the difficulty that forgiveness, or even the idea of forgiveness, presents.
Many people do not want to think about forgiveness in these days.
Revenge? Revenge is popular.
Forgiveness, not so much.
I, I have my reasons to doubt. We all do.
Forgiveness has always been difficult.
Scripture Lessons: Isaiah 1:10-20; Luke 18:9-14
Sermon: Seven Psalms #4: “The Code of Forgiveness”
The Rev. Bill Lovin preaching
Duet “The Gift of Love” arr. Hal Hopson
Andrew Knapp, Marie Von Behren
No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here.