Welcome to Safe Harbor Presbyterian Church 

Where the love of Christ builds a harbor of acceptance, inspiration, 

Fellowship, service and joy. 

You enrich our worship with your presence. 

"When we say welcome we mean it!"

Safe Harbor Presbyterian Church invites you to Live Home Church on Zoom, Time: Oct 25, 2020 02:00 PM Pacific: 

From Computer, Tablet or Smart Phone Click on this link:  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81437730063

Meeting ID: 814 3773 0063

For Phone Log In:  1-669-900-9128, #, 814 3773 0063#

If you need assistance, Call Monty Rice at 805-927-2215

It is not possible to pass the collection plate at our live home church.

  We do need your contributions.  Please sent your check, made out to Safe Harbor Presbyterian Church to:

Safe Harbor Presbyterian Church

c/o Monty Rice

1298 Warren Rd.

Cambria, CA 93428

If this is your first time here, WELCOME. 

If you have a prayer request, please send to:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

Safe Harbor Presbyterian Church-PCUSA 

2700 Eton Rd. • Cambria, CA 93428 

Call or text 805.395.1521 

Info: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. website: www.safeharborcambria.org 

The Gathering 

Prelude Deborah Farrand 

At the tolling of the bell, please quietly prepare your heart for worship. 

Meditation Music Deborah Farrand 

Welcome and Announcements 

 † Call to Worship (From the Westminster Catechism 1647)

Leader: What is the chief end of man?
People: Our chief end is to know God and enjoy Him forever.
Leader: What rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him?
People: The Word of God, which is contained in the Scripture of the Old and New
Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him.
Leader: What is God?
People: God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power,
holiness, justice, goodness and truth.
Unison: On this Reformation Sunday we come to worship the Eternal God and to
celebrate those who have handed the faith to us.

† Prayer of Preparation (From John Calvin’s prayers)
Unison: Most gracious God, in Whom alone dwelleth all fullness of light and wisdom: illuminate our minds, we beseech Thee, by Thine Holy Spirit, in the true understanding of  Thy Word. Give us grace that we may receive it with reverence and humility unfeigned. May it lead us to put our whole trust in Thee alone. Amen.

†Hymn of Adoration Amazing Grace (Instrumental with bagpipes)

Prayer of Confession (Reformer John Knox’s Liturgy, 1560 Confession)
Unison: Almighty God, we are unworthy to come into your presence, because of our many sins. We do not deserve any grace or mercy from you, if you dealt with us as we deserve. We have sinned against you, O Lord, and offended you. And yet, O Lord, as we acknowledge our sins and offenses, so also do we acknowledge you to be a merciful God, a love and favorable Father, to all who turn to you. And so we humbly ask you, for the sake of Christ your son, to show mercy to us, and forgive us all our offenses. Forgive the sins of our youth, and the sins of our old age. By your Spirit, O God, take possession of our hearts, so that, not only the actions of our lives, but also the words of our mouths, and the smallest thought of our minds, may be guided and governed by you. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be all honor and glory, now and forever.
Amen. 

Assurance of Pardon New Creations in Christ

†The Sharing of the Peace

A Scots Proclamation 1560 (In Unison)
“We acknowledge and confess that this most wondrous conjunction betwixt the Godhead and the manhood in Christ Jesus did proceed from the eternal and immutable decree of God, whence also our salvation springs and depends. For that same Eternal God and Father, who of mere grace elected us in Christ Jesus his Son, before the foundation of the world was laid, appointed him to be our Head, our Brother, our Pastor, and great Bishop of our souls.”

Special Music My Song is Love Unknown Soloist: Michael Green

The Word

Hymn of Preparation #452 Open the Eyes of My Heart

Leader: Listen for the Word of God.
People: Our ears are open and our hearts are ready to receive.

Scripture: Matthew 22: 34-40

Leader: The Word of the Lord.
People: Thanks be to God.

Sermon: Hinges Rev. Eugenia Gamble

Hymn of Response # 307 God of Grace and God of Glory

The Blessing of the Tartans Rev. Eugenia Gamble

Unison: Almighty God, who did command the tribes of ancient Israel to pitch their tents beneath the standards and ensign of their parents, and who set over your holy church the banner of the Cross of Christ: let your blessing rest upon all tartans and symbols set before you here today. Bless all families of the earth. Keep us faithful and grateful. May we always bring all of who we are and where we come from to you and your church for blessing, guidance and inspiration. In Jesus’ holy name we pray. Amen.

The Prayers

Call to Prayer: Hymn #466 Come and Fill Our Hearts with Your Peace
Prayers of the People
The Lord’s Prayer
Response to Prayer Hymn #710 We Are an Offering
Prayer of Dedication

The Parting
† Hymn of Parting # 708 We Give Thee But Thine Own

† Charge and Benediction 

 Postlude Scotland the Brave (Instrumental with bagpipes)

CURRENT PRAYER LIST 

Members of our community that are lonely, hungry and sick.

If you would like to support the work of Safe Harbor Church financially: 

Tax deductible checks may be made to Safe Harbor Presbyterian Church. 

During our period of isolation, please mail checks to: 

Monty Rice 1298 Warren Road Cambria CA 93428 

WHEN WE SAY “ WELCOME! ”, WE MEAN IT! 

 The Chief Commandment….Matthew 22:34-40….10.25.20

22:34When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 37He said to him, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38This is the greatest and first commandment. 39And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Background: It was common in Jesus’ day for faithful Jews to argue about the law. How was it to be interpreted? How was life to be organized in order to faithfully keep it? Opinions abounded. In general there were two schools of thought. 1) The Pharisees believed that the law should be expanded and articulated to cover all possibilities. 2) Others, particularly followers of Rabbi Hillel believed that the law should be reduced or honed to its basic fundamental principles. Once when Rabbi Hillel was asked to state the whole of the law while standing on one foot, he stood on one foot and said “What you yourself hate, do not do to your neighbor. This is the whole law, the rest is commentary.” In today’s passage, Jesus picks up on that theme and turns it from a negative statement into a positive one.

He also links two dominant schools of thought together. Many argued about the relationship between love of God and love of neighbor. Did one detract from the intensity of the other? Jesus links these two great loves and in essence says, “loving God obligates us to love neighbor.”

The context is still confrontation and testing by the authorities. It is not entirely clear here whether the questioner presents the question in a neutral context. He does not address Jesus with the traditional title of respect, but at the same time he may genuinely want to hear what Jesus has to say.

Word study

Vs. 34 – Pharisees and Sadducees– These were members two of the most important religio-political parties in Judaism. They were highly respected and influential. They disagreed on a number of matters of scripture interpretation, notably on whether or not there was the possibility of an after life. The Pharisees said, “maybe.” The Sadducees said, “no way.” In the previous debate the Sadducees had tried to trap Jesus in what they saw as the illogic of a belief in the afterlife. His logic silenced them resoundingly.
They – the Pharisees
Lawyer – (nomikos) This word is only used here in Matthew. It refers to a professional theologian, a doctor of the Law.
Vs. 36 – Teacher – most scholars see this word as an insincere title.
Greatest - lit. chief. The question was one of priority. How does one begin to live out the law? It is possible that they were laying another trap for Jesus here. There was a wide school of thought that held that all commands of God were equal and equally binding. After all, who are human beings to decide and rank them? In all the rabbis counted 613 commands in total. It is also possible, though less likely, that the lawyer was really trying to understand how to place his priorities.
Vs. 37 – You shall love…. – This is the Shema from Deuteronomy 6:4. Pious Jews recited these words each morning and evening. To link the Shema to the chief commandment was a way of saying that people were to get their lives consistent with their worship.
love – agape – active benevolent giving to others without expectation of return, not rooted in emotion but in God’s love. It also carries the notion of commitment.
Heart – the inner life, the center of personality and will…to love with all the heart means to let God direct ones thinking, dreaming, desiring, and willing.
Soul – hb. Nephesh, a complex Hebrew concept rendered here in Greek. It means something like vital principle. The nephesh is what makes someone a living creature. Nephesh is what makes one unique, celebrates life, indeed is life itself. To love God with all the nephesh is to love God as life with life, self, celebration.
Mind – in Hebrew thought this concept of knowledge or intellect would have been understood in heart. Jesus probably adds this Greek concept to help his non-Hebrew audience understand that love of God includes the mind. A part of the call to love God with the mind is to be an honest thinker. We are not expected to check our brains at the door in order to love God.
Vs. 39 – like – this second commandment is like but not identical to the first.
neighbor – This second scripture comes from Leviticus 19:18. Unlike earlier Hebrew thought, neighbor does not just refer to ones immediate clan. Jesus uses this word to include all people, including ones enemies.
As – in the same way that….active seeking of the good of.
Vs. 40 – hang – the image is of a door on its hinges.

Questions for Reflection
1. Do you think that all of God’s commandments in the Bible are of equal weight? If so, how do you deal with those you ignore (tithing, dietary laws, not judging for example)? If not, how do you decide which ones you must obey and which are no longer relevant?
2. In this text Jesus does not do away with any of the Law. Rather he seems to give a relative weight to Love. At the same time, he says that Love is like an umbrella law. Everything else springs from it. In other words, if we love, all the rest of the Law takes its rightful place. How do you think that obedience relates to love?
3. It can be hard to talk about loving God when God is so mysterious, other and beyond us. How do you experience loving God? How do you act on that love?
4. What does it mean in your daily life for you to love your neighbor? How do you organize your life around daily loving?