Words of Welcome

  Psalm 1 Picture yourself traveling down a road. You come to a fork in the road, so which fork do you choose? Which is the wise choice? What resources do you need to choose wisely? What do you need to know? When it comes to choosing wisely, one of my favorite scenes in the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade has to do with choosing wisely. There is a group of people who have reached the room containing the Holy Grail. The room is filled with cups and chalices, but only one is the cup of Christ, which holds the promise of life. The knight guarding the grail tells the seekers: “But choose wisely, for while the true Grail will bring you life, the false Grail will take it from you.” If you’ve seen the movie, you know the villain goes first and chooses a beautiful jewel-encrusted chalice that was fit for a king. Unfortunately, when he drinks from the cup, instead of gaining life, he loses it in typical Spielberg fashion. Now, Indiana has to choose a cup that can provide life-rest

  Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23 Give thanks because God is good! Let us also give thanks because God’s “steadfast love endures forever.” When it comes to the love of God, we’re not just talking about feelings. When Scripture speaks of God’s steadfast love, that love is rooted in the covenant that God first made with Abraham and then reaffirmed at Sinai and in Jesus’ institution of the Lord’s Supper. While we might not always be faithful to that covenant, God’s commitment to this covenant is permanent.      While God remains faithful to the covenant, the Psalmist speaks for all of us when he confesses that “we and our ancestors have sinned.” Yes, we’ve been known to exhibit quite a bit of faithlessness. While the Psalmist begins by giving thanks for God’s steadfast love, the Psalm also provides a lengthy accounting of Israel’s many failures after God delivered them from Egypt. One of those moments of faithlessness came at Mount Horeb while Moses was up on the mountain, meeting with God, and

Psalm 19 Today is World Communion Sunday, and in my theology of the Table, Jesus, the Word of God incarnate, encounters us in this meal. Psalm 19 speaks of other encounters with God, both in the silent voices of the heavens and in the words of Scripture. Together the heavens, Scripture, and the Table proclaim the glory of God. So, what word from God are you hearing in these voices?   The Psalmist declares that “the heavens are telling the glory of God.” Or as Michael Morgan’s version announces:  The heav’ns unfold your glory, Lord/ In every realm of space/ The outmost bounds of all that is/ Resound your wondrous grace [ The Psalter for Christian Worship , p. 29].  The Psalmist also declares that the “Law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.” Or, in the words of Michael Morgan: “Your Word is sure and perfect still, a source of light and life.” The lectionary’s Old Testament reading for today comes from Exodus 20, which reveals the commandments of God, which the Psalmist