27 February 2024 – Chapel – Drew Theo Chapel

Gathering Song

“Wait For the Lord” – Jacques Berthier

Call to Worship

Francis Osuji

(Adapted from enfleshed)

Leader: How precious, how fragile, how short is life!
All: Our lives are but a breath.
Leader: God brings us into being.
All: God weaves our lives together.
Leader: God ushers us into eternal rest.
All: Blessed are the Sacred rhythms of life
Leader: and holy are these gifts:
All: to be alive,
Leader: to be free,
All: to be held in love’s eternal embrace.
Leader: Let everything that has breath praise God!

Opening Song

“Come and Find the Quiet Center” – Words: Shirley Erena Murray

Come and find the quiet centre
In the crowded life we lead
Find the room for hope to enter
Find the frame where we are freed
Clear the chaos and the clutter
Clear our eyes that we can see
All the things that really matter
Be at peace and simply be

Silence is a friend who claims us
Cools the heat and slows the pace
God it is who speaks and names us
Knows our being touches base
Making space within our thinking
Lifting shades to show the sun
Raising courage when we’re shrinking
Finding scope for faith begun

In the Spirit let us travel
Open to each other’s pain
Let our lives and fears unravel
Celebrate the space we gain
There’s a place for deepest dreaming
There’s a time for heart to care
In the Spirit’s lively scheming
There is always room to spare

Opening Prayer

Faith Gitonga

Adapted from M. Jade Kaiser, enfleshed

God,
You dwell in the core of our being.
In those places where our deepest pain and our greatest potential comingle,
you are there.
You whisper softly in the places we are most afraid,
gently calling forth our power.
Though voices old and new speak words of dominance,
attempting to build walls around our own possibility of becoming,
there is a strength that cannot be taken away from us.
No matter the lies, no matter the laws, no matter what has been done.
From our depths, you rise in us
with words of truth begging to be spoken to power
with fierce love ready to transform
with collective rage with the potential to set free
with hope
that together we can be healers.
Rise up, O God.
Let us settle no longer
for that which makes us too small,
for that which silences,
for that which destroys,
for that which wishes for us to believe
there is no other way.

Song of Lament

“There is a Balm in Gilead” – Negro Spiritual, arr. Mark A. Miller

Julian Wamble, soloist

Scripture “Remix” – Psalm 4

Beth Quick

Adapted from M. Jade Kaiser, enfleshed

God, The Advocate –
Make thy true self known!
How long will your name be used to prop up those in power?
As they lash out in insecure anguish,
feeling their thrones
cracking,
crumbling,
decaying,
with scripture they suppress!
Through these words of kings past,
they hear their own pain,
rebuking those who protest their rule.
Individualizing struggles,
fearing collective power,
they encourage us to pray through our problems –
alone and in silence.
Too many of them say:
“Oh that things might never change!
May God protect the powers and principalities.”
Meanwhile, they call their harvests blessed,
feasting off of others’ famine;
with wine and grain they bury their shame,
and call it a peaceful night’s rest.
O God, our Advocate!
For all our sake,
make thy self known.

Songs of Lament

Prof. Mark Miller

“We Sit In Shambles We Have Built” – Words: David Bjorlin, Music: Mark A. Miller

“Thirsty We Wander The Desert” – Words: David Bjorlin, Music: Mark A. Miller

Poem

“Dream Variations” by Langston Hughes

Read by Janice Marie Beauchamp

To fling my arms wide
In some place of the sun,
To whirl and to dance
Till the white day is done.
Then rest at cool evening
Beneath a tall tree
While night comes on gently,
Dark like me—
That is my dream!
To fling my arms wide
In the face of the sun,
Dance! Whirl! Whirl!
Till the quick day is done.
Rest at pale evening . . .
A tall, slim tree . . .
Night coming tenderly
Black like me.

Song

“Dream Variations” – Words: Langston Hughes, Music: Mark A. Miller

Julian Wamble, soloist

Poem

“As I Grew Older” – by Langston Hughes

Read by Dr. Art Pressley

It was a long time ago.
I have almost forgotten my dream.
But it was there then,
In front of me,
Bright like a sun,—
My dream.

And then the wall rose,
Rose slowly,
Slowly,
Between me and my dream.
Rose slowly, slowly,
Dimming,
Hiding,
The light of my dream.
Rose until it touched the sky,—
The wall.

Shadow.
I am black.

I lie down in the shadow.
No longer the light of my dream before me,
Above me.
Only the thick wall.
Only the shadow.

My hands!
My dark hands!
Break through the wall!
Find my dream!
Help me to shatter this darkness,
To smash this night,
To break this shadow
Into a thousand lights of sun,
Into a thousand whirling dreams
Of sun!