A Service of Worship for
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Bill and Laura lead education time. Worship notes are also included at the bottom of this page.
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Prelude
"Blessed Jesus, We Are Here" by J.S. Bach, Patrick Parker, organist. Call to Worship Opening Sentences Our task now is to mend our broken world; if religion cannot do that, it is worthless. And what our world needs now is not belief, not certainty, but compassionate action and practically expressed respect for the sacred value of all human beings, even our enemies. Scripture Lesson: Ezekiel 37:1-14 Time for Children Call to Confession Unison Confession
Belief in Jesus is most endangered when we are anxious to preserve it. When we are afraid of changes to established customs of thinking and living; we see reforms as destructive and thus would much prefer to hide Jesus in a golden shrine - untouchable and therefore also touching no one, unchangeable and therefore never changing anyone, eternally valid and therefore as far removed as possible from our reality. Special Music Dry Bones, by the men of the Covenant Choir, recorded in 2017. (click the link below to go to the page with the recording, it will open a new window. Then play the middle audio recording titled Choir.) https://www.covenanthouston.org/blog/march-26-2017-re-membered Proclamation Music "The Call" from the Five Mystical Songs by Ralph Vaughn Williams, sung by Ryan McKinny. |
Invitation
Prayer This day I will hallow today’s path. Today I will slow to press – between tennis shoe and asphalt – this accumulation, yesterday’s leavings of pine needles and cypress spurs – no insistence to move-on, speed-up, or refrain from loiter. I will agitate, with my foot, these findings, and wait for the essence to lift. This day I will allow a re-sounding of movement, last evening, the bird’s flight just above my head – at dusk, and my neighbor, too, turning to look – then near us the bird’s landing – a flat-faced small owl. Its song, a descending tonal flutter, as from this bird, a perfect transposition, this subtle horse-like neigh. I will stay, alone, to awe its flight, its nearness, its silhouetted feathered body, its quivering call, then finally walk out from under the trees for more sky, for the sunset’s smoothly hued tenacity of oranges and pink, holding on, till gray. Then turning back, and hearing, then seeing the other – an echo of sound, an echo of form – several trees removed from the first, another screech owl answering and calling. Today I will spread out the papers, call the task do-able and worthy. And while I work, pencil in hand, with the other palm I’ll stroke the oak table, stained burnt-orange and coated again and again, its hard clear finish, its perfectly worn luster, the flesh of palm and fingers to examine minuscule indentations, engravings borne into the hard finish – markings through paper – the daughter’s ciphers for school, their drawings, the father’s legal notations, and now, too, these fresh remnants from a young hand’s bearing down with pen and pencil – the newest generation, and from all of us, the scruffs of plate, fork, knife, serving dish and utensils. I will say to this day hum, sing of yourself as this sizzle, this papery crackle, these cicadas’ electric scraping through mid-day heat. If only for today, I will not forestall what might come as gift, nor will I dissuade what leaks into this day as winged flight or emanates from scarred wood. On this day, the path hallowed, I will notice breath breathed through me, and I will draw in – just today – what is of this day. - Jeannie Gambill Prayer of Dedication We shall have to develop a more dynamic understanding of God as one who accompanies creation in its evolving story like a pianist in a silent movie. We can choose the metaphor of the jazz session that constantly makes new music by listening to what’s happening around it and applying the best of the tradition to the current context. The genius of improvisation seems to be a metaphor for actual human experience. God invites us to join the music, to listen to one another, to keep the music flowing. Affirmation of Faith I do not think being a Christian is primarily about believing. It is not about believing in the Bible or the gospels or the Christian teachings about Jesus, but about a relationship to the One whom we see through the lens of Christian tradition as a whole. Our preoccupation with believing is because many of the central teachings of Christianity have come into question in the modern world. Thinking of the Christian life as being primarily about believing in God, the Bible, and Jesus, is thus a modern mistake, with profound consequences. One can believe all the right things and remain a jerk, or worse. Saints have been heretical, and people with correct beliefs have been cruel oppressors and brutal persecutors. Rather, the Christian life is about relationship to the God to whom tradition points. What matters is the relationship, for it can and does and will transform our lives. Benediction And so, be in peace. And as you are going connect and reconnect, remember and re-member, know you are loved, breathe in the breath of divine love and then breathe it back out into the world. Amen. Postlude "The Swan" by Camille Saint-Saens, Susan Wegner, cellist. |
Worship Notes
The worship leader is Bill Martin.
The prelude is "Blessed Jesus, We Are Here" by J.S. Bach.
The Call to Worship is from If God Does Not Die by Bernard Martin.
The Opening Sentences is from The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness by Karen Armstrong.
The Unison Confession is adapted from Dorothee Soelle and Luise Schottoroff.
Ryan McKinny is singing "The Call" from Ralph Vaughan Williams' Mystical Songs.
The Prayer of Dedication is adapted from Richard Holloway’s chapter, “Ethical Jazz,” in Godless Morality: Keeping Religion Out of Ethics.
The Affirmation of Faith is adapted from the chapter, “A Vision of the Christian Life,” in The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions by Marcus Borg and N.T. Wright.
The postlude is "The Swan" by Camille Saint-Saens, Susan Wegner, cellist.
The worship leader is Bill Martin.
The prelude is "Blessed Jesus, We Are Here" by J.S. Bach.
The Call to Worship is from If God Does Not Die by Bernard Martin.
The Opening Sentences is from The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness by Karen Armstrong.
The Unison Confession is adapted from Dorothee Soelle and Luise Schottoroff.
Ryan McKinny is singing "The Call" from Ralph Vaughan Williams' Mystical Songs.
The Prayer of Dedication is adapted from Richard Holloway’s chapter, “Ethical Jazz,” in Godless Morality: Keeping Religion Out of Ethics.
The Affirmation of Faith is adapted from the chapter, “A Vision of the Christian Life,” in The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions by Marcus Borg and N.T. Wright.
The postlude is "The Swan" by Camille Saint-Saens, Susan Wegner, cellist.
Copyright (c) 2020, Covenant Church
