A Service of Worship for
The Fourth Sunday of Advent
December 20, 2020

Painting by He Qi
This Advent season
we confess our need
to slow down
to watch
to wait
to listen
for the holy
born within
and among
here and now.
 
Jeremy Rutledge

Worship notes are included at the bottom of this page and in the Worship Order located at the link below.
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Adult Education - TODAY,  9AM
​The Adult Education session for Sunday, December 20, will feature John Dominic Crosson talking about the birth of Jesus, helping as in recent classes to understand the gospel stories in the light of the historical and theological situation at the time, drawing on The First Christmas, a 2009 book he co-wrote with Marcus Borg. ​
​
​Zoom link is available on the Online Gatherings page on our website: https://www.covenanthouston.org/covenant-gatherings.html
Full worship service video:
COFFEE TIME Gathering on Zoom
Today, 11AM
We will begin as a large group and discuss the elements of worship we find particularly meaningful. After that, we will transition into “rooms" for coffee time. 
​Log in details on the Online Gatherings page. 
Prelude
 “Sleepers Wake, A Voice Is Calling” by J.S. Bach; Patrick Parker, organ. 

​Call to Worship

Lighting the Advent Candle
Natalie Rodgers and Jerrell Jones light the fourth candle of Advent 2020 - Love.
Opening Sentences
When the mystery. 
When the shadows.
When the questions.
​When the unknown.

May we find what stills us.
May we find what rests us.
May we find the courage to enter
the cave of the heart.
May we light a candle
to the mystery.

May it become in us
a pathway.
May it become in us
a passage.
May it become in us
a map
by which we know
this step
and this step
​and this.

​Scripture Lesson: Luke 2:9-14

​Time for Children
Christmas pageant script and background cards by Illustrated Ministry.

Confession
Unison Confession
O God, we offer you our repentance.
We replace holy days with holidays.
We hurry past opportunities to give the
            gifts of kindness and honesty.
We do not prepare the place
            for your birth in our lives.
We do not listen to the angels in our dreams,
            forgive those dearest to us,
            or welcome into our hearts and homes,
            the poor and the stranger.
Accept our humility and guide us to your grace.  Amen.

Music
“Gloria in excelsis” from Gloria by Antonio Vivaldi; The Covenant Singers, led by Fran Avera. ​
Picture
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​Proclamation
​Hymn
“Angels We Have Heard on High” by French Carol, Trans. James Chadwick, Arr. Edward Shippen Barnes; The Covenant Singers led by Carl McAliley, organ. 
​
​Prayer
Help us, Holy one, to see the holy, the divine that surrounds us. Help us to see and hear the angels that minister and guide often in the voice and face of a friend. Help us to notice that which inspires and connects, to notice your divine luring toward love and wholeness, peace and justice.
​
We are grateful for vaccines, for doctors and nurses and scientists and technicians and transportation employees, for everyone involved in the work toward vaccines that give us such hope. And while we celebrate, we also pray for the thousands of families who lose a loved one to COVID each day and the thousands who are sick.

The pandemic has starkly revealed the economic, racial, and social inequalities of the status quo. We know a vaccine will not solve these problems. We pray for change. We pray we will be compelled to act, to do the work we can each do for healing and justice. We have seen that people of color and the poor have borne the brunt of this crisis: much higher rates of virus infection and morbidity as well as greater economic devastation. Help us to be part of changes that must be made, help us to know that we cannot go back to the way it has been. We cannot continue to accept injustice.

We are grateful this day, Holy one, for members of this church willing to clean up water from a leak in our sanctuary building. We are grateful for each person who has been involved in cleaning, in making calls and meeting plumbers. We are grateful for our church, for the buildings and especially for the people.

In this silence we offer our personal celebrations and concerns. 

​Your divine love surrounds. There are angels everywhere if we will only notice. Help us to notice.
Amen
- Laura Mayo

​Invitation
​
​Prayer of Dedication
O Great Spirit.
Roll away from me the weight
            of dead and frozen thoughts.
Clear away from me the fogs
            of falsely sweet illusions.
Ignite in my heart
            the warmth of true love
That with new eyes of new love
And my angel at my back
I may see the Truth of the World.
I may feel the Beauty of the World.
And I may act with courage for the good.
O Great Spirit.

Doxology
​
Affirmation of Faith
Our God is the One who comes to us
    in a burning bush,
        in an angel's song,
            in a newborn child.
Our God is the One who cannot be found
    locked in the church,
        not even in the sanctuary.
Our God will be where God will be
    with no constraints,
        no predictability.
Our God lives where our God lives,
    and destruction has no power
        and even death cannot stop
            the living.
Our God will be born where God will be born,
    but there is no place to look for the One who comes to us.
When God is ready
    God will come
        even to a godforsaken place 
            like a stable in Bethlehem.
 
Watch
    for you know not when
        God comes.
Watch, that you might be found
    whenever
        wherever
            God comes.
Our God is the One who comes to us
    in a burning bush,
        in an angel's song,
            in a newborn child.
Our God is the One who cannot be found
    locked in the church,
        not even in the sanctuary.
Our God will be where God will be
    with no constraints,
        no predictability.
Our God lives where our God lives,
    and destruction has no power
        and even death cannot stop
            the living.
Our God will be born where God will be born,
    but there is no place to look for the One who comes to us.
When God is ready
    God will come
        even to a godforsaken place 
            like a stable in Bethlehem.
 
Watch
    for you know not when
        God comes.
Watch, that you might be found
    whenever
        wherever
            God comes.

Benediction

Postlude
“Joseph, Hear Me” by Jean-François Dandrieu; Patrick Parker, organ. 
Worship Notes

The worship leader is Joyce Courtois.

The prelude is played by Patrick Parker, organ.

The Call to Worship is from An Improbable Gift of Blessing: Prayers and Affirmations to Nurture the Spirit by Maren C. Tirabassi and Joan Jordan Grant.

The Opening Sentences are “Blessing” by Jan Richardson.

The Unison Confession is from An Improbable Gift of Blessing: Prayers and Affirmations to Nurture the Spirit by Maren C. Tirabassi and Joan Jordan Grant.

“Gloria in excelsis” from Gloria, Fran Avera, directing from 12/13/15 video.

The Prayer of Dedication is a prayer of David Tresemer, psychologist and playwright from Prayers for a Thousand Years, edited by Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon.

The Affirmation of Faith is from Kneeling in Bethlehem by Ann Weems.
​
The postlude is played by Patrick Parker, organ. 
​
Sunday schedule for today: 
9:00 - Adult Education with Zoom
10:00 - Worship via videos on the Worship Page
11:00 - Transition from worship to coffee time with Zoom

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