3 March 2022 – Chapel – Drew Theo Chapel

GATHERING MUSIC

“Dust I Am” – Words: Lindy Thompson, Music: Mark Miller

Seminary Choir

CALL TO WORSHIP

Esther Inuwa

Leader: Who among you is seeking the wisdom of God?
All: We long to hear God’s Word spoken to our hearts.
Leader: Who among you is seeking God’s bright and holy truth?
All: We long to learn the ways of wisdom and righteousness.
Leader: Who among you is seeking a Spirit-filled life?
All: We long to live lives of holiness and light.
Leader: God grants God’s wisdom generously to all who ask.
Come near, people of God!
Let us worship in wisdom and truth.

SONG

“Victory In Jesus” – Dorothy Norwood

James Rufflin

LITANY ON DONKEY BRAYINGS, Part 1

Paola Márquez Leones

All: Eco-theology can have our sympathy
Leader: Until the donkey brays
All: Jesus could ride a Donkey, pregnant Mary too.
Leader: But don’t dare that donkey bray
All: Cocks can crow at the break of dawn
Leader: But the donkey should not bray
All: Donkeys can carry loads, groan.
Donkeys can be ridden, ride on.
Donkeys can be whipped, ouch!
Donkeys can be stubborn, Oh lord.
Leader: “But,” Donkey, “Don’t you bray!”
‘Cause when the Donkey brays
All: It shatters peace
Microbes might cower
The human eye rolls
Cacophony displaces Euphony
Bridle the donkey that brays, Please!
It is asinine theology to think that in all creation
A Donkey should bray.

SCRIPTURE – 1 Corinthians 1:18-25

David Gaitán

18For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” 20Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. 22For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, 23but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

MESSAGE

“When Donkeys Bray”

Dr. Althea Spencer-Miller

LITANY ON DONKEY BRAYINGS, PART II

Taylavor Fugate

Leader: Let the Donkey bray
All: Braying disrupts
Braying alarms
Braying alerts
Braying is Pentecost
Leader: Let the Donkey Bray
All: Braying makes you pause
Braying re-describes reality
Braying makes for Holy uncertainty
Leader: Let the Donkey bray.
All: Sense and nonsense
Who can discern
Wonder and question commingle
The wise is the fool is the wise is the fool is the wise
Altogether, inextricable, dislodging
Pointing to truths’ falsehoods.
Pointing to falsehoods’ truths.
Leader: It’s a raucous theology and turbulent living
Might that be when God’s foolishness resounds?
All: When the Donkey Brays, perhaps Jesus comes again.
Perhaps, where the Donkey brays, Life begins anew.

SACRAMENT OF HOLY COMMUNION

God be with you.
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them up to God.
Let us give God our thanks.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
It is right, and a good and joyful thing,
always and everywhere to give thanks to you,
Almighty God, creator of heaven and earth.
From the dust of the earth you formed us into your image
and breathed into us the breath of life.
When we turned away, and our love failed, your love remained steadfast.
And so, with your people on earth and all the company of heaven,
we praise your name and join their unending hymn:

Singing: Holy, Holy, Holy Lord

Holy are you, and blessed is your child Jesus Christ.
Your Spirit led him into the wilderness,
where he fasted forty days and forty nights to prepare for his ministry.
Now, as we your people prepare for the yearly feast of Easter,
you lead us to repentance and the cleansing of our hearts,
that during these forty days of Lent we may be gifted and graced
to reaffirm the covenant you made with us through Christ.

On the night in which he gave himself up for us, he took bread,
gave thanks to you, broke the bread, gave it to his disciples, and said:
“Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.”

When the supper was over he took the cup,
gave thanks to you, gave it to his disciples, and said:
“Drink from this, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant,
poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

And so, in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ,
we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving,
as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ’s offering for us,
as we proclaim the mystery of faith.

Singing: Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again.

Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here,
and on these gifts of bread and wine.
Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ,
that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by your love.

Singing: Amen.