A Service of Worship for
Epiphany Sunday
January 10, 2021

 This “New Year” thing is a curious fiction, isn’t it? 
The hoopla we make at midnight on Dec. 31st is a tad over the top 
for what is actually just one more tick of the clock.
But this annual ritual allows us to imagine that maybe, just maybe, 
we’re on the threshold of something new and better. 
And some of our imaginings might come true, depending on what we do.
As Anne Hillman says, “we look with uncertainty” to the future. 
But rightly held, uncertainty can generate creativity instead of anxiety. 
To that end, here are five questions that Hillman’s words evoke in me--
five questions for crossing the threshold that, 
if we took them seriously, might be life-giving for us and our world:
• How can I let go of my need for fixed answers in favor of aliveness?
• What is my next challenge in "daring to be human" in personal, relational, and political terms?
• How can I open myself more fully to the beauty of nature and human nature?
• Who or what do I need to learn to love next? And next? And next?
• What is the new creation that wants to be born in and through me?
Nobody knows what this new year will hold. 
But if we wrap our lives around good questions--
and try to live our way into good answers every day--
the better world we want and need is more likely to come into being.
HAPPY NEW YEAR, everyone! 
May this year be a year of Light and Life for you and yours. 
And may we help make it a good year for others 
with whom we share this brief but beautiful ride around the sun.

Parker Palmer
Adult Education - TODAY,  9AM
​This Sunday Ben Ball will lead us in an exercise of using our own life experience in thinking theologically.

​​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. 
Worship notes are included at the bottom of this page and in the Worship Order located at the link below.
With this link you can make a donation to Covenant through PayPal or a credit card. 
Prelude
Sonata on "How Brightly Beams the Morning Star" by Carl Reinecke; Patrick Parker, organ. 

​Call to Worship

Opening Sentences
We look with uncertainty
beyond the old choices for
clear-cut answers
to a softer, more permeable aliveness
which is every moment
at the brink of death;
for something new is being born in us
if we but let it.
We stand at a new doorway,
awaiting that which comes.
daring to be human creatures,
vulnerable to the beauty of existence.
Learning to love.

​Scripture Lesson: Matthew 2:1-12

​Time for Children

Confession
Unison Confession
Where do we go from here?
We left our country,
Bore gifts,
Followed a star.
We were questioned.
We answered.
We reached our objective.
We enjoyed the trip.
Then we came back by a different way.
And now the people are demonstrating in the streets.
They say they don’t need the Kings any more.
They did very well in our absence.
Everything was all right without us.
They are out on the streets with placards:
Wise Men?  What’s wise about them?
There are plenty of Wise Men,
And who needs them? – and so on.
 
Perhaps they will be better off without us,
But where do we go from here?

Words of Assurance

​Music
"There Shall a Star from Jacob Come Forth" by Felix Mendelssohn; The Covenant Singers, David Lee Conducting; Carl McAliley, piano. 
​Proclamation
​
​Prayer
I’ll just follow Jesus.
The God-who-became-man from Galilee who
spoke truth to power,
loved the unlovable,
touched those who were outcast,
healed the sick,
raised the dead,
cried at gravesides,
called a Samaritan a neighbor,
affirmed the humanity of children and a woman accused of sin,
expelled demons,
called for me to Love God, my neighbor, myself,
and set an example for me in death and in resurrection.
-Moses Mason​

​Invitation
​
​Prayer of Dedication
We, beloved, of whom the Magi were the first fruits, 
we are the inheritance of Christ even to the ends of the earth.
Let us so proclaim him on this earth, 
in this our mortal life, 
that we may not
return the way we have come, 
nor retrace the footsteps 
of our former way of life. 
This is why, too, the Magi did not return 
the way by which they had come. 
A change of way meant a change of life.
Doxology

Affirmation of Faith
We may ignore, 
but we can nowhere evade, 
the presence of God. 
 
The world is crowded with God. 
 
God walks everywhere incognito. 
And the incognito is not always hard to penetrate. 
The real labor is to remember, to attend. 
In fact, to come awake. 
 
Still more, to remain awake.

Benediction

Postlude
No. 2 from "Three Pieces for Organ" by Ottorino Respighi; Patrick Parker, organ.
Worship Notes

The worship leader is Nancy Preston.

The prelude is played by Patrick Parker, organ.

The Call to Worship is “Blessed are you who bear the light” by Jan Richardson.

The Opening Sentences are by By Anne Hillman.

The Unison Confession is “The Three Kings” by Muriel Spark.

“There Shall a Star from Jacob Come Forth” is sung by The Covenant Singers, David Lee, directing; Carl McAliley, organ.

The Prayer of Dedication is by Augustine of Hippo (354-430).

The Affirmation of Faith is by C. S. Lewis.

The postlude is played by Patrick Parker, organ.

Today’s organ pieces come from a 2017 recital at St. George Episcopal Church, Germantown, Tennessee on their incredible new Goulding & Wood organ. Ottorino Respighi is mostly known for his orchestral works, but he wrote Three Pieces for Organ which are immensely difficult and rarely played.

The second in the set is based on a Bach cantata which loosely translates to a hopeful prayer:In you I have hoped, Lord, help that I should not be ashamed nor mocked. I ask you,keep me faithful in your will, Lord God! Your gracious ear hears my supplication, hurry soon to save me. You are my strength, my rock, my shield, my strength; Take me into your hands, and meet all needs. Amen.

Although Carl Reinecke is little known today, he was a major composer in nineteenth-century Leipzig and taught many composers we remember today. His sonata on the Epiphany chorale “How Brightly Beams the Morning Star”is also rarely played because of its length and difficulty, but the end of the sonata, which clearly states the hymn, is presented here. The text is:

How brightly beams the Morning Star! What sudden radiance from afar Doth glad us with its shining, Brightness of God that breaks our night And fills the darken'd souls with light Who long for truth were pining! Thy Word, Jesu, only feeds us, Rightly leads us, Life bestowing; Praise, oh praise such love o'erflowing.

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

Copyright (c) 2020, Covenant Church