Order of Worship
Wednesday, February 24, 2021
Midweek Lenten Service at Noon
Opening Sentences:
Our help is in the name of the Lord,
maker of heaven and earth.
God covenanted with prophets and leaders of old,and this covenant lives in and through us today.
Christ’s life, death, and resurrectionfulfill this promise of grace and love. In Christ we place our hope and trust.
Praise the Lord.
The Lord’s name be praised.
Prayer of the Day:
God of the covenant,
you are ever faithful.
Your love never ends.
When the waves roar around us
and we feel we are surrounded by darkness,
remind us of your everlasting presence.
Teach us your ways,
and guide us in your paths of love and forgiveness,
that we may witness to your grace and salvation.
Amen.
Musical Meditation: John Johns
Homily: Hope in the Chaos, Mary Sellers Shaw
Prayers of the People
The Lord’s Prayer:
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors;
and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever.
Amen.
Reflective Reading:
Like Noah’s Raven, and the Dove
Andrea Skevington
Can I let hope fly, send out birds
to brood and hover
over the chaos,
like Noah, with the raven,
and the dove?
For too long, there
has been nothing
on the horizon,
no fixed point
on the Earth’s
endless circle.
How would you ever know
if the water was falling,
or rising?
So can I now find courage to
cup birds in unsteady hands –
raven-black,
dove-white –
and throw them upwards
one by one?
To let fly a dark hope
even though there is
nowhere for it to rest,
even though it returns
like a gift
that comes back unopened.
Can I try again
and again,
in case something
living and growing has
pierced this water,
until finally a gentle bird
does not return.
Until, at last,
there is somewhere
other than this poor boat
for it to land.
May I have such birds to release.
May I let them fly, like Noah,
with the raven, and the dove.
Musical Meditation: John Johns
Benediction
