A Service of Worship for
September 13, 2020

Let no one, however, be deceived. 
This society can tell the oppressed that they’re making it all up, 
that their conditions are the consequences of their own choices, 
that they don’t have it so bad, 
that they’re being divisive, 
that they should just shut up — and it may work. 
But God will always be hovering in the margins, listening.
 
God does not shut down those who cry out in protest.
God doesn’t tell them to be patient because change takes a while. 
Doesn’t tell them that they’ll attract more flies 
with honey than with vinegar — that they should be careful to not offend their oppressors 
as they express their pain, lest they “hurt their own cause.” 
God doesn’t tell them that all Egyptians aren’t bad.
 
God doesn’t accuse them of making excuses or blaming others for their problems. 
Doesn’t remind them of how generous Egypt was 
to grant their ancestors asylum in the first place. 
Doesn’t tell them how much worse 
they could have it someplace else. 
The text says that when God hears the margin-dwellers lament their social pain, that God hears and acts.
 
Whatever we say the real issue is in this story, 
it must take into account that 
​the scriptures consistently convey that God
is livid when the powerful dominate the powerless. 
God will always take up their cause. 
God will always advocate for them. 
God will always be found among them.
​
Andre Henry
Worship notes are included at the bottom of this page.
Full worship service video for September 13:
Adult Education - TODAY,  10AM
Ben Ball and Jackie Rundstein will lead a discussion on  “Thinking Theologically” respectively, led by Jackie Rundstein and Ben Ball. These are two lessons from the curriculum of Living the Questions: https://livingthequestions.com/. You will find it extremely helpful to have reviewed the Session Guide found HERE for the first class. 

We will start by viewing a 20-minute DVD by contributors including such luminaries as John Spong, Marcus Borg, John Dominic Crossan, and Helen Prejean. This will be followed by a guided conversation responding to their presentations.
​​
​Zoom links and materials are available on the Online Gatherings page on our website: https://www.covenanthouston.org/covenant-gatherings.html
With this link you can make a donation to Covenant through PayPal or a credit card. 
Prelude
“We Pray Now to the Holy Spirit” by Dietrich Buxtehude;  Patrick Parker, organ.

​Call to Worship

Opening Sentences
A journey requires not only an end, a goal, 
but also the ability to keep at it - constancy.  
Travelers, in the midst of the vicissitudes of the journey, 
learn to trust one another when the going is rough.
If we are to be true to the quest, 
to keep a demanding goal before ourselves, 
we must be people who are ready to be surprised.


​Scripture Lesson: Exodus 14:10-15:21

​Hymn
“Lift Every Voice and Sing” led by the Covenant Singers.

​Time for Children

​Call to Confession
Unison Confession
God of compassion,
we acknowledge the times
we have lived too long
with the words that others have put
into our mouths,
with the pain they have written
onto our bodies,
with the terror they have burned
into our hearts,
with the shame they have inscribed
onto our souls.
 
We know the times we have clung
to sackcloth not of our making,
when we have lived
clothed in weariness,
cloaked with anger,
and enshrouded by sorrow.
 
We grieve the occasions
when we have lived with alienation
rather than association,
when we have sought isolation
rather than consolation,
when our wounds within
have shut others out.
 
We confess our fear of the dark
and our uncertainty of the light.
Yet you have placed within us, God,
a longing for survival,
a hunger for your wholeness,
a yearning for your comfort,
and a hope for all our healing.
 
Bless our mouths
to name our wounds,
that we may not fear them;
our bodies,
that we may cherish them;
our hearts, that we may delight
in their longings,
and our souls, that we may trust
the wisdom of the stories they hold.

​Music
“From the End of the Earth,” Alan Hovaness; The Covenant Singers; David Lee conducting 2/1/2105.
Proclamation
​
​Prayer
Somehow, in your own way, you have been there. 
Making bricks without straw. Under a whip.
Your fruit— the fruit of your hands, 
or mind, or loins—threatened. 
Bound to labor for nothing. 
Trapped in a fruitlessness not of your choosing. 

How have you been enslaved? Addicted? Trapped? 

And then something set you free. 
Somehow Grace disrupted that scenario. 
A Glorious pillar of fire, a terrible plague of death, 
the persistent plea of a Moses--
forcefully God breaks the habits that bind us. 

How did grace defeat your Pharaoh? 

Then comes the hard work, the dangerous crossing, 
the opening of the deep, the choice to wade in. 
How could you have made that escape without help?   

How have you been set free?
What journey have you had to make?
What walls of water on either side have made you nervous? 
Even if it feels like wandering in the wilderness,
are you keeping on the journey?
How is it going?
What do you need?

Trust God wants you free. God is with you. 
This is not just your journey;
it is God's.
With the cloud at your shoulder,
and a heart full of thanks,
into that Mystery Red Sea
step with courage. Go on. 
-Steve Garnaas-Holmes

I invite you to go to the World in Prayer link (below) and read the prayer posted there. A new prayer is posted each Thursday. I find this Thursday’s prayer especially meaningful. - Laura
http://worldinprayer.org
​
​​Invitation

​Prayer of Dedication
Let us be artisans,
      artisans of hope,
      artisans of wonder,
            working with the clay of human longing--
            of our capacities for greed and indifference,
            for exclusion and fear,
                        as well as our capacities for generosity,
                        courage, forgiveness, and resilience.
 
As artisans, let us craft together
      flourishing communities
            of honesty, inclusion, self-critique, and hope.

​Affirmation of Faith
Theology is an “earthly” affair
in the best sense of that word:
it helps people to live rightly,
appropriately, on the earth,
in our home.
 
It is concerned with “right relations,”
relations with God, neighbor and self,
but now the context has broadened
to include what has dropped out
of the picture--
the oppressed neighbors,
the other creatures
and the earth that supports us all.
 
We now know that “all that is”
is vaster, more complex,
more awesome, more interdependent
than any other people has ever known.
 
The new theologies that emerge
have the opportunity
to view divine transcendence
in deeper and more intimate ways
than ever before.
 
They also have the obligation
to understand our special responsibility
for the planet’s well being.

​Benediction

Postlude
“Jesus, Priceless Treasure” by J. S. Bach; Patrick Parker, organ.
Worship Notes

The worship leader is ​Linda Phenix​.

The Call to Worship is by Andre Henry from “Exodus (pt. 4): This is How We’ll Do It.”

The Opening Sentences are by Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon.

“Lift Every Voice and Sing” is led by The Covenant Singers. 

The Unison Confession is “Prayer of Confession” by Jan Richardson, from In Wisdom’s Path.

“From the End of the Earth” is sung by The Covenant Singers; David Lee conducting; from 2/1/2105.

The Prayer of Dedication is from “Artisans of Hope, Artisans of Wonder” by Sharon Welch in Theology that Matters: Ecology, Economy, and God, edited by Darby Kathleen Ray.
​
The Affirmation of Faith is adapted from “An Earthly Theological Agenda” by Sallie McFague in Readings in Ecology and Feminist Theology, edited by Mary Heather MacKinnon and Moni McIntyre.
​
Announcements

Sundays, September 20 and 27, we will be conducting worship a little different on these days. Please log into Zoom at 10:00 AM those two Sundays to worship together. When worship ends we will transition directly to coffee time using Zoom. For coffee time will use Zoom breakout rooms for small group discussions. While we hope to see you in worship these two Sundays, you will still be able to access the worship website at any time to watch individual videos of each element of worship or the whole worship service video. We will not have facebook coffee time these two Sundays. Zoom details will be on the Online Gatherings page: https://www.covenanthouston.org/covenant-gatherings.html. This link will also be provided in the Sunday email and on the worship page. A password will be required. If you need help with your password, please email office@covenanthouston.org.
​
Sunday schedule for September 20 and 27: 
9:00 - Adult Education with Zoom
10:00 - Worship together with Zoom
11:00 - Transition from worship to coffee time with Zoom

Copyright (c) 2020, Covenant Church