Home Worship for the week of April 26 – 4th Sunday after Easter
Opening Hymn: #145 Morning Has Broken
- Morning has broken like the first morning; blackbird has spoken like the first bird.
Praise for the singing! Praise for the morning!
Praise for them, springing fresh from the Word!
- Sweet the rain’s new fall sunlit from heaven, like the first dewfall on the first grass.
Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden,
sprung in completeness where His feet pass.
- Mine is the sunlight! Mine is the morning born of the one light Eden saw play!
Praise with elation, praise every morning, God’s re-creation of the new day!
Old Testament Reading: Leviticus 19:9-18
9 When you harvest your land’s produce, you must not harvest all the way to the edge of your field; and don’t gather up every remaining bit of your harvest. 10 Also do not pick your vineyard clean or gather up all the grapes that have fallen there. Leave these items for the poor and the immigrant; I am the Lord your God.
11 You must not steal nor deceive nor lie to each other. 12 You must not swear falsely by my name, desecrating your God’s name in doing so; I am the Lord. 13 You must not oppress your neighbors or rob them. Do not withhold a hired laborer’s pay overnight. 14 You must not insult a deaf person or put some obstacle in front of a blind person that would cause them to trip. Instead, fear your God; I am the Lord.
15 You must not act unjustly in a legal case. Do not show favoritism to the poor or deference to the great; you must judge your fellow Israelites fairly. 16 Do not go around slandering your people. Do not stand by while your neighbor’s blood is shed; I am the Lord. 17 You must not hate your fellow Israelite in your heart. Rebuke your fellow Israelite strongly, so you don’t become responsible for his sin. 18 You must not take revenge nor hold a grudge against any of your people; instead, you must love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.
Prayers of Intercession: (CORE prayers, adapted) Let us quiet our hearts and focus our minds as we go to the Lord for the needs of the world and the Church.
Lord, grant us understanding in our relationships, that we may love with patience and discernment. Teach us to listen deeply, speak wisely, and respond with grace in all situations. Remove judgment, pride, and misunderstanding from our hearts, replacing them with clarity, empathy, and compassion. Help us embrace others as You do, seeing their hearts and intentions through Your eyes. May Your love guide our thoughts and actions, allowing us to nurture relationships that honor You, foster peace, and encourage connection, creating bonds that are rooted in faith, trust, and mutual respect.
Lord, we ask for Your healing touch upon the sick and suffering. Restore every weakened part and bring strength where there is pain. Let Your divine healing flow through those You have trained to heal us, bringing restoration and peace. Surround them with Your comfort and peace.
Lord God, You are the source of all true wisdom. We ask that You pour out Your wisdom generously upon every world leader — presidents, prime ministers, monarchs, and governors — that their decisions would reflect Your will and not merely their own ambition.
Gracious God, we lift before You the burdens and desires of our hearts. May they be heard and Your righteousness prevail. We come in the confidence of being Your children and as Your Son taught us, let us pray together …
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us, not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Offering spotlight: Looking forward to Miracle Sunday, May 17. Pastor Becky explained Sunday morning, there is little funding for training and educating pastors in Europe, Europe and The Philippines. A special offering will be dedicated on May 17 to support theological education.
Offering prayer: Gracious Commander of Love, You have taught us what love looks like, and You have commanded us to live it. In a world that rewards fear and self-interest, You call us to give boldly, to serve generously, and to risk loving with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. Receive these offerings as signs of our obedience and as seeds of a kingdom where welcome is wide, grace is abundant, and love never holds back. We give, not from obligation, but from the joy of being shaped by Your love. In Christ’s name, Amen. (Discipleship Ministries)
Hymn of Preparation: #334 Sweet, Sweet Spirit
There’s a sweet, sweet Spirit in this place, and I know that it’s the Spirit of the Lord;
there are sweet expressions on each face, and I know they feel the presence of the Lord.
Sweet Holy Spirit, sweet heavenly Dove, stay right here with us, filling us with Your love;
and for these blessings we life our hearts in praise;
without a doubt we’ll know that we have been revived when we shall leave this place.
Scripture: Mark 12:28-34
28 One of the legal experts heard their dispute and saw how well Jesus answered them. He came over and asked Him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?”
29 Jesus replied, “The most important one is Israel, listen! Our God is the one Lord, 30 and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your mind, and with all your strength. 31 The second is this, You will love your neighbor as yourself. No other commandment is greater than these.”
32 The legal expert said to Him, “Well said, Teacher. You have truthfully said that God is one and there is no other besides Him. 33 And to love God with all of the heart, a full understanding, and all of one’s strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself is much more important than all kinds of entirely burned offerings and sacrifices.”
34 When Jesus saw that he had answered with wisdom, He said to him, “You aren’t far from God’s kingdom.” After that, no one dared to ask Him any more questions.
Scripture: John 13:34-35
34 “I give you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, so you also must love each other. 35 This is how everyone will know that you are My disciples, when you love each other.”
Message: Love Boldly Pastor Becky
What is the greatest commandment? Finally, an easy one. We’ve learned this by heart. No, that’s not quite true. We’ve learned it by rote. We know the words; we can quote the scripture. It is like many things in our lives – the things we have memorized for example: the 23rd Psalm, our responses for communion, The Lord’s Prayer. But have we learned it by heart? Have we taken it in and wrestled with the implications? Have we done the faithful work of hearing and then internalizing what it means to love God and neighbor. Do we understand the risks involved in loving? That is what is behind the bishops’ vision statement, or so it seems. It is a call to risk loving. It is a call to understand the boldness of this way of being. Because that is what this call is, this commandment. It is not an action, per se.
It is a way of being. But let’s back up for a moment and examine the commandment. First of all, understanding love as something that can be commanded is something that swims against the tide of common understanding. Love, in popular culture, is a response or even a reaction to circumstance or an individual. Love just happens to us. We fall in love, we say, love at first sight is a cliché. It just happens. Yet here is Jesus—following a long-standing Hebrew tradition—saying that love is a commandment. Three of the four Gospels present this commandment as a response to a specific question: what is the greatest commandment. In Matthew and in Luke it comes across as a test, as a way of catching Jesus out as an inadequate teacher. But Mark’s story is a little bit different. Here the question seems more sincere. Yes, that is an interpretative statement, so look for yourself. What do you think is in the mind and heart of the scribe who asks Jesus this question in our text?
Mark writes that the scribe “seeing that He answered them well, asked Him…” (Mark 12:28 NRSV). There was something in the prior debate that struck this scribe as powerful. I’ve speculated that what he actually thought was, “Here is a man who argues like a scribe!” For him that was a great compliment. It was a resonance, He’s like me. So, it was out of the revelation that the scribe decides to interrupt the “get Jesus” session with an honest question. And Jesus responds with that same honesty. The exchange between the two is amazing to consider. The scribe is pleased with Jesus and Jesus is pleased with the scribe. It goes back and forth and culminates with the incredible statement from Jesus “You are not far from the kingdom.” (Mark 12:34 NRSV) Wow, what would we give to hear Jesus say that to us?
What made Jesus respond this way to the inquisitive scribe? Was it his enthusiasm about a commandment to love? By leaning into Jesus’s quoting of the law with a passion that embraced the possibilities, the scribe was expressing the boldness of such a command, the boldness of loving. Notice how the scribe reemphasizes the “all” words in the command. You can almost hear that emphasis is the recitation—“with ALL the heart, with ALL the understanding, and with ALL the strength.” ALL, ALL, ALL. Let the words rest on your ears. ALL, ALL, ALL. That is where the boldness begins. That is where the closeness to the kingdom comes from, that desire to give all. It is an invitation to live full out. To not hold back, to not keep a little in reserve. With all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. That’s the only thing Jesus wants from us—everything.
Jesus also goes above and beyond with the answer. He is asked for one commandment, and instead He gives two. Twice as much as requested. Or is it? Is a part of what Jesus is really saying that there is only one commandment. Granted in Mark’s gospel Jesus is recorded as saying “the second” from which we hear that there are two greatest commandments. But we can’t help but wonder if what He wanted us to hear is that this is an undivided pair. These are two sides of the same coin.
Jesus turns to Leviticus for His answer. Both commandments He quotes come from Torah, but they aren’t side by side. He most likely was not the first to put these two together; the scribe’s response does not include surprise or wonder at the pairing. But it does present an emphasis for us to contemplate. This is not a one off, but a carefully constructed ethos for the people of God, the standard by which we live in community with other people. It is a reminder that hospitality is at the core of their (and our) theological identity. Our first instinct is to be acting in love, a mutual caring for another’s well-being – caring for them with the same enthusiasm we employ with our family, friends. There is in this a concern for the local poor and for the immigrant or alien as named in the text. How could this kind of love be bolder in our current social and political reality? And, maybe – we must first ask the question are we even acting in love to begin with – when it is easier to name all the ways we differ than all the ways we share a common humanity.
“In a time of hate / Love is an act of resistance” is the opening line from a poem by Loryn Brantz. https://mapawoods.com/2025/02/16/act-of-resistance. It is a reminder of the risk we take when we decide to love like Jesus in our world today. Which has to bring us back to the question we posed at the beginning of these notes: can such a love be commanded?
John’s gospel doesn’t have a conversation on the greatest commandment like the others do. Instead, we have something a little different. During what we’ve come to call the Farewell Discourse Jesus presents the commandment as something new. “I give you a new commandment,” He says in our third text. (John 13:34 NRSV) It is presented not simply as a commandment, but as an identifier. By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, this love thing. This commanded love thing. It will make us stand out. Make us different from a world that has self-interest at its heart. Put us at risk.
That is the hard truth of this part of the bishops’ vision. There is risk here. We are called to love in a culture driven by fear. We are called to welcome in a moment of anxiety over difference. We are to embrace a multicultural representation of the kingdom of God that comes from every nation and containing every tribe and people, in a time of supremacy and domination. What adverb would you use other than boldly? This commanded love is not a reaction to situations or individuals. Instead, it is an act of will, a choice that we make about who we are and how we will live in our world day by day. We take our lead not from a culture or fear and suspicion, but from the Lord who commands us to love. We love because we choose to love. We love because we are empowered by the Spirit to Love, commanded by the Christ to love, created by God to love. We will love boldly.
Rev. Dr. Derek Weber, Director of Preaching Ministries, served churches in Indiana, Arkansas, and the British Methodist Church.
Closing Hymn: #577 God of Grace and God of Glory
- God of grace and God of glory, on Thy people pour Thy power;
Crown Thine ancient church’s story; bring her bud to glorious flower.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, for the facing of this hour, (of this hour)
For the facing of this hour.
- Lo! the hosts of evil round us scorn Thy Christ, assail His ways!
Fears and doubts too long have bound us; free our hearts to work and praise.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, for the living of these days, (of these days)
For the living of these days.
- Cure Thy children’s warring madness, bend our pride to Thy control;
Shame our wanton, selfish gladness, rich in things and poor in soul.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, lest we miss Thy kingdom’s goal,
(kingdom’s goal) lest we miss Thy kingdom’s goal.
- Save us from weak resignation to the evils we deplore;
Let the search for Thy salvation be our glory evermore.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, serving Thee who we adore, (we adore)
Serving Thee whom we adore.
The blessing: May the Lord bless you and keep you and make His face shine upon you this week.
