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The greatest commandment(s)

by Kirstin Vander Giessen-Reitsma

The past couple of weeks have been spent attending a worship workshop and preparing to preach my very first sermon. ?Why not,? I thought, ?publish the service outline with this issue on ?Objects of Worship??? So here it is?

PRELUDE

RINGING OF THE BELL

PASSING OF THE PEACE

CALL TO WORSHIP

At the invitation of a loving God,
we gather as a community for worship.
We come that we may praise the Lord of the burning bush,
who assures us in our uncertainty.
We come that we may know the resurrected Christ,
who shows us the way through suffering to everlasting life.
We come that we may be renewed for work in the Spirit,
who breathes life into our efforts toward the Kingdom.
Glory be to the Triune One forever!
Praise be to the Unnamable God forever and ever! AMEN

HYMN: ?We?ve Got a Message?*

LITANY

Selections from Psalm 90
(adapted from the Hebrew by Stephen Mitchell)

Lord, through all generations
you have been our strength and our home.
Before the mountains were born or the oceans were brought to life,
for all eternity, you are.
A thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it passes.
You return our bodies to the dust and snuff out our lives like a candleflame.
You hurry us away;
we vanish as suddenly as the grass:
In the morning, it shoots up and flourishes, in the evening it wilts and dies.
For our life dissolves like a vision and fades into air like a cloud.
We live for seventy years, or eighty if we are strong?
Years filled with pain and suffering; they pass, and we fly away.
Teach us how short our time is;
Let us know it in the depth of our souls.
Fill us in the morning with your wisdom;
Shine through us all our lives.
Let our hearts soon grow transparent in the radiance of your love.
Show us how precious each day is; teach us to be fully here.
And let the work of our hands prosper, for our little while.

HYMN: ?O God, Our Help in Ages Past?

TIME WITH CHILDREN

PASTORAL PRAYER

THE LORD?S PRAYER

CONGREGATIONAL RESPONSE: ?Your Will Be Done on Earth? (A South African Hymn)

SCRIPTURE READINGS

Deuteronomy 34:1-12

1 Thessalonians 2:1-8

Matthew 22:34-46

THE MESSAGE: ?On Loving Well?

HYMN: ?There?s a Spirit in the Air?

OUR WORK IN GOD?S WORLD

TITHES & OFFERINGS

DOXOLOGY: ?Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow?

PRAYER OF DEDICATION

HYMN: Lord, Whose Love Through Humble Service?

BENEDICTION

CONGREGATIONAL RESPONSE: ?Alleluia? (?2003, Iona Community, GIA Publications, Inc., Chicago)

POSTLUDE

*This is a Sunday school song that the congregation is currently singing as a point of connection with the Sunday school classes.