A Service of Worship for
July 19, 2020

Jacob's Ladder art print by Lesley Friedmann.
Worship notes are included at the bottom of this page.
Worship service elements in one video.
Adult Education - TODAY,  9AM
Adult Education will be showing the conclusion of the movie The Strange Demise of Jim Crow at 9AM on July 19 via Zoom. ​Zoom links are available on the Online Gatherings page on our website: https://www.covenanthouston.org/covenant-gatherings.html

​This movie was created by Thomas Cole and co-produced by Bill Howze: Not all the civil rights victories of the '60s were won at the cost of vicious beatings and mass arrests played-out in front of television cameras. The Strange Demise of Jim Crow reveals for the first time on film how many Southern cities were desegregated in a quieter, almost stealthy fashion with behind-the-scenes negotiations, secret deals and controversial news black-outs. It makes visible a fascinating case-study in Houston of how urban power is really wielded.

You can also see an introduction to the movie on our This Coming Sunday page on our website: https://www.covenanthouston.org/this-coming-sunday.html

Creator/Executive Producer: Thomas R. Cole, 
Director: David Berman
Co-producer/Editor: William Howze
With this link you can make a donation to Covenant through PayPal or a credit card. 
Prelude
“Goldberg Variations: Aria and Variation 1” J.S. Bach,  Parker Ward, piano.

​Call to Worship

Opening Sentences
To worship is to stand in awe
under a heaven of stars,
before a flower, a leaf in sunlight,
or a grain of sand.
 
To worship is to be silent, receptive,
before a tree astir with the wind,
or the passing shadow of a cloud.
 
To worship is to work with dedication and with skill;
it is to pause from work and listen to a strain of music.
 
To worship is to sing with the singing beauty of the earth;
it is to listen through a storm to the still small voice within.
 
Worship is a loneliness seeking communion;
it is a thirsty land crying out for rain.
 
Worship is a kindred fire within our hearts;
it moves through deeds of kindness and through acts of love.
 
Worship is the mystery within us
reaching out to the mystery beyond.
 
It is an inarticulate silence yearning to speak;
it is the window of the moment open to the sky of the eternal.


​Scripture Lesson: Genesis 28:10-19

​Time for Children

​Call to Confession
Unison Confession
So often we imagine that life’s depths are out there – 
or  in there – somewhere far away,
and that the distance is immeasurable.
Yet life is not out there;
that’s only where we’ve erected the altars.
Life is right here – as close as our breathing,
as close as the pulsing vein in our necks,
as close as our dreaming.
So let us open our eyes.
Open our ears.
Open our hearts.
And know that God.
is in this very place

​Music
 “Our God Is a Rock” – Katherine K. Davis – 10/31/17  The Covenant Singers. 
​​
​Proclamation
This statue that stands at Abilene Christian University, was was dedicated in 2006. It was created by Jack Maxwell, a professor of art and design at the university. The sculpture features four bronze angels climbing a ladder toward heaven, illustrating the biblical account of Jacob's dream. The artwork was commissioned and given in memory of Grace L. Woodward.
​Prayer

Our Father,
      You are our Mother, the Maker and Creator of this    
      World,
      Continuously forming us into your holy, loving,
      maternal image.  

Who art in heaven,
​      Don’t just stay there.  
​      While heaven may be a beautiful, peaceful place full
      of our kindred spirits with perfectly good streets and
​      mansions for all
​      ​You are needed down here 
​      ​ in the halls of power, 
​     ​  in our hospital rooms, 
​    ​   in our nursing and senior residential facilities, 
​     ​  on our broken, cracked streets.  

Hallowed be thy name. 
      Not hollowed when people 
​      Support evil while professing a belief in your name,
​      Harm others while reserving your name
​      for a select few,
​      Leave unchecked the isms of our society while ​      ​      
​      proclaiming your name,

Thy kingdom come. 
       Now. – As we are physically separated from people
​      we love.
​      Now. – As we grieve our communal losses and the
​      world grieves from coronavirus deaths.
​      Now. – As healthcare workers and scientists use all
​      their powers while working within the limitations of
​      nature and politics.  

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
​      Join these two spaces.
​      Usher in a society where Love will be the law and
​      spirit of the land.  

Give us this day our daily bread,
​      Feed the hungry bodies suffering from income
​      inequality, who have not eaten a proper meal since
​      the close of schools and the shutdown of society.

And forgive us our trespasses,
      Where we have thought or spoken harmful words to
​      those we live with and love.

As we forgive those who trespass against us,
​      Where we learn to appreciate and accept the
​      humanity of our significant others, spouses and
​      children with whom we may be cooped up with no
​      end in sight.  

And lead us not into temptation,
​      Some of us during this stressful time have been
​      tempted and imagined sentiments we have never
​      thought about before.  
​      Don’t take us to the brink of doing harm. 

But deliver us from evil.
      Move us into safe space where we 
​      gather our thoughts, 
​      reaffirm our faith, 
​      commit ourselves to peace and justice in 
​      our bodies, 
​      our homes, and
​      our world. 

For thine is the kingdom
            This world is yours. 
            This home is yours.
            This body is yours.      
​      ​      This soul is yours.

And the power, 
            of love
            of righteousness
            of hope

And the glory,
            All praise be unto you
            In this land where you abide.
            In our bodies which you lovingly wove together. 

Forever and ever.
            In unbroken time.
            In unbroken space.
Amen.
- Moses Mason
​
​Invitation

​Prayer of Dedication
God is our refuge and strength,
A very present help in trouble.
Therefore, we will not fear,
 
Though the earth should change,
Though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
Though its waters roar and foam,
Though the mountains tremble with its tumult.
 
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
The holy habitation of the Most High.
God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved.
God will help it when the morning dawns.
The nations are in an uproar, The dominions totter. 
God utters God's voice,
The earth melts.
The God of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob and Rachel and Leah is our refuge.

​Affirmation of Faith
We summon ourselves from the delights and demands of the daily round
     from the dirty dishes and unwaxed floors,
     from unmowed grass and untrimmed bushes,
     from all incompleteness and not-yet-startedness,
     from the unholy and the unresolved.
 
We summon ourselves to attend our vision
     of peace and justice,
     of happiness and health,
     of delight and devotion,
     of the lovely and the holy,
     of who we are and what we can do.
 
We would open our eyes,
     our ears,
     our minds,
     our hearts,
to the amplest dimensions of life.
 
We rejoice in the manifold possibilities.

​Benediction
And so we rest, we open ourselves, we attend and 
we create altars to the holy all around us. Amen

Postlude
“Sonatine: Mouvement de Menuet” Maurice Ravel, Carl McAlily, piano.
Worship Notes

The worship leader is Moses Mason.

​The prelude is played by Parker Ward, piano. 

The Call to Worship is from Ann Weems.

The Opening Sentences are by Jacob Trapp reprinted in Singing the Living Tradition, the 1993 Unitarian Universalist Association hymnal.

The Unison Confession is adapted from Simply Pray: A Modern Spiritual Practice to Deepen Your Life by Erik Walker Wikstrom.

“Our God Is a Rock” is sung by The Covenant Singers. 

The Prayer of Dedication is from Psalm 46.

The Affirmation of Faith is adapted from Gordon McKeeman in Rejoice Together: Prayers, Meditations, and Other Readings, edited by Helen Pickett.

The postlude is played by Carl McAlily, piano.
​
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