November 4, 2012
This Sunday, our theme will focus on "Giving God our Worship." We will look first at Ruth 1:8-9, 14-18. Here, Ruth, a Moabite woman receives encouragement from Naomi, to go back to her people, her home, her land. Her husband is dead, her former life is over, reuniting with her homeland and family are now possible. There is nothing holding her, except her love for Naomi. Naomi needs her. Ruth, with everything to gain by leaving, declares her devotion to Naomi by staying. "Entreat me not to leave you, nor depart from following you. For where you will go, I will go. And where you will lodge, I will lodge. Your people will be my people, and your God, my God." What a powerful depth of devotion!
This depth of devotion is what we ideally bring to worship. Mark 12:28-34 reaches for the very core of why we worship … to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Worship, whether alone with a spiritual discipline or around the table with our church family, is how we express and renew our love of God and neighbor.