Dear friends,
HOW FITTING that on the weekend when we celebrate St. Valentine’s Day our readings turn to the state of the heart. Jeremiah with prophetic thundering states: 9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” Who can know it? Good question! … then answered by our Lord as he says: 10 I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.” It is a matter of the heart and yet we have a loving heavenly Father who knows and searches our hearts and loves us… in his love he makes provision for us that we will learn his ways… the Psalmist in Psalm 1 makes a contrast between the godly and the wicked. He states: 3 He (the godly one) shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, and Jeremiah uses this same imagery. As we turn to the Gospel. Jesus in his Sermon on the Plain (a shorter version of The Sermon on the Mount) draws the crowd to himself both because of the healing that he offers and his teaching about the Kingdom of God. Jesus teaches in terms of blessings and woes… blessed are we when our hearts and eyes turn to the things of God… woe to us when we turn aside to the things that this world offers. As Christians we are to be in the world, yet not of the world. We are to be light and salt to those around us that they may learn the mysteries of the kingdom of God. Luke simply says this about Jesus: “19 And the whole multitude sought to touch him, for power went out from him and healed them all.” Power went out from him and still does and when we receive his grace, we in turn touch others. Who can know it?
Order of Service
Prelude
Welcome
Call to Worship
Hymn 371: “Love divine, all loves excelling”
Prayer of Adoration
Prayer of Confession
Declaration of Grace
The Lord’s Prayer
Children’s Time
Hymn 267: “Rejoice the Lord is king” (vs 2, 4 en français)
Responsive Reading: Psalm 1
Gloria Patri
Jeremiah 17: 5-10
Luke 6: 17-26
Sermon: “It’s all about the heart”
Confession of Faith – The Apostles’ Creed
Hymn 420: “Je louerai l’Eternal” (vs 1 en français)
Offering and Offertory
Prayer of Thanksgiving and Intercession
Hymn 634: “Will you come and follow me?”
Benediction
Go now in peace
Postlude