You have come today, as most of you regularly do, to worship God. You’ve come to pray, to hear the reading of Scripture, to sing songs of praise, and to be reassured by the presence of your neighbor. But there may be an additional reason many of you have come today, one that you may or may not be aware of: curiosity. What hymns will we sing today? Will they be the old standards the church has been singing for a thousand years or will the preacher or the choir director try to make us learn one that was written AFTER World War II?

Maybe more than that you will wonder, "What will the sermon be about today? How have the events of the past week colored the preacher’s interpretation of the scripture selected for today? But more importantly, what can the preacher say that will make a difference …