The coming of a new year can bring both joy and sorrow: joy, because we look forward with anticipation to good things, and sorrow, because we might look back with heavy hearts over painful events which have transpired in the year gone by. But the turn of the calendar reminds us also of the grace of God, which guides us through all our months and years. With gratitude in our hearts, let us therefore, with confidence, worship the God who has brought us to yet another new year.

Our nation stands close to the eve of the legally-determined day for one of the most thoroughly studied and important elections in our history. Every registered voter has the invaluable opportunity and obligation to help direct the next two or four or six years, but only half of us will vote. The half who shall vote will do so with greatly varying degrees of enthusiasm for the various candidates whom they select. Let us worship the God who eagerly goes with us in this bi-annual victorious and vexing process.

Every day our faith is tested, though rarely do we perceive we are being tested. Each Sunday we gather in worship, and by do doing we implicitly implore God to renew and expand our faith. Worship is one of the primary means God uses to strength us in our commitment to Him and to His purposes. Therefore let us, with confidence, worship God.

Once again we personally have been spared the fury of a climate which seems to have gone mad, while thousands of others lost their homes, and still others their lives. In the midst of the enormous questions which confront us, we gather in praise of the God of creation. He may not answer all those questions, but He consoles and comforts us and those who currently are far more profoundly affected by life’s questions that we are. Therefore let us worship the God who seeks us, even as we seek Him.

On this national holiday weekend, we gather in thanks to God for our nation, and for all that it accomplished in the past, for its best traditions that it seeks to maintain in the present, and for the benefits it can bring to its citizens and to the world in the future. In worshiping God, we thank Him for His guidance of our nation, and petition Him to continue to be with us as we go forward. Therefore, let us as committed Christians and citizens of this great nation, worship God.

Sometimes when we worship, we do so with less than pure motives or righteous thoughts. We look around, and we say, Why is he here, and who let her in? I know him, I am familiar with her, and I know things about them which should keep them from ever darkening these sacred doors. But the same is true about us with respect to them; they know us, and they wonder about us. But all of us are children of God, created in His own image, and God welcomes all of us. Therefore let us, with chastened confidence, worship God.

In worship we see the glory and majesty of God --- in music, in scripture, and in spoken words. But we also perceive the power of God in a distinctly minor key: in brief silence, in minuscule snatches of fleeting words, in a still small voice which we recognize, often only in retrospect, as the voice of God Himself. God comes to us both in power and in weakness, and only the eyes of faith can recognize Him in both guises. Therefore let us, with all the faith and confidence we can muster, worship God!

A prophet from long ago and far away asks us who we are and whose we are. Do we know where we have been and where we are going? Americans are a people who live in both unity and diversity, seeking to live the ideals set forth by our founding fathers. Today we compare our times to those of the prophet Hosea, who lived in Israel in what outwardly seemed a period of prosperity and strength. Let us worship the God of Israel and the God of America, seeking His guidance and direction for our own times.

Every week all over the world, people gather in churches and synagogues, in mosques and temples, and they worship God, or what some consider “the gods.” They are consciously engaged in various forms of religion, many of which have existed for thousands of years. Each Sunday we too come together in a religious setting to participate in religious rituals. Does God need religion effectively to be our God? That is the question we are raising today. Therefore let us, with confidence, worship God.

The Book of Psalms is the Bible’s hymnal. Originally all of the Psalms were sung. They still are sung every day in every monastery and convent around the world. I chose Psalm 8 for today’s sermon theme specifically because it is a paean of praise to the human race. Presumably it was David who wrote it, or at least that’s what the superscription at the beginning says. In any case, this is the quintessential hymn to biblical humanism.

On a spring morning in Jerusalem almost 2000 years ago, the world changed in an instant, at least as far as a small group of followers of a man who had been crucified were concerned. From their conviction that Jesus had been raised from the dead the Church of Jesus Christ sprang into being. Today we gather as part of that long tradition of those who have been drawn into the presence of Almighty God by the Man from Nazareth. Therefore let us, with post-Easter confidence, worship God.

Seasons come and seasons go, winter turns to summer in less than a week, and we observe in nature an intricate, interconnected pattern by which we are all sustained. Each Sunday we come together to praise the God who created us, sustains us, and redeems us. He bids us to come, but it is up to us to accept the invitation. Let us therefore, with the confidence of Christians who know themselves to be numbered among all God’s people, worship God.

All of us have had individuals who have assisted us in our journey as Christians. Today we shall consider the patriarch Abraham, the first of the great historical figures to enter the pages of the Bible. In so doing, we shall briefly examine his influence on subsequent religious development throughout the western world. We praise God for His guidance of this great and good man. Let us, with grateful confidence in the God of Abraham, worship the God of Abraham.

The world is filled with uncertainties and anxieties, as we have observed in matters political and meteorological this past week. In the midst of it, we wonder where we are headed. Wherever it is, we trust that God goes with us on the journey. Therefore we gather to worship Him, to give Him thanks, and to praise Him for His care of us even when our care for one another seems limited or frazzled. Let us join together to praise God, who always is beside us, and never abandons us.