This Week In Worship

Sunday, January 19, 2024

Liturgist: Shelley Regan, Director of Community Engagement
Preacher: Rev. Chris Shorow, Senior Minister
We Share Our Gifts

We Hear the Word Proclaimed CLICK HERE for today's Scripture

Reflection: The first reason we should love our enemies, central to Jesus’ thinking, is this: hate for hate only intensifies hate and evil. If I hit you and you hit me back, it goes on endlessly. Somebody must have sense—the strong person who cuts off the chain of hate. Hate doesn’t end itself; it only amplifies evil. Somebody must inject into the universe the strong, powerful element of love.

Another reason to love your enemies is that hate distorts the hater’s personality. We usually think of what hate does for the individual hated or the individuals hated or the groups hated. But it is even more tragic, it is even more ruinous and injurious to the individual who hates. Hate leads to irrational actions. You can’t see, walk, or stand upright. The beautiful becomes ugly, the good becomes bad, and the true becomes false. Hate destroys the the very structure of the hater’s personality.

Finally, I think Jesus says Love your enemies” because love has within it redemptive power. Hate tears down; love builds up and transforms. If you love your enemies, you will discover that at the very root of love is the power of redemption. By the power of your love they will break down under the load.

Excerpts paraphrased from “Loving Your Enemies,” sermon by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, November 17, 1957.

We Gather at the Lord’s Table

Jesus didn’t put any rules around coming to the table, so neither do we. All are loved and embraced here and all are welcome at this table of Love. Our communion bread is gluten free. We come forward to the table to receive bread and cup at 9AM, we pass the bread and cup at 11AM. Please place your empty cup in the rack on the pew back. If you are worshipping from home, we invite you to find bread and juice or other elements to use as we share this feast.

We Greet and Go Forth
Engage with your neighbor as you go out to serve and carry God’s love to the world.