The Holy Eucharist: The Liturgy of the Word
11th Sunday After Pentecost (Proper 15, Year A) August 16, 2020
Watch the Livestream at www.Facebook.com/StMattSav/Live/
Sunday at 9:30 a.m. (or anytime afterward)
Preface
I am posting this worship service online because we at St. Matthew's Church in Savannah are unable to gather together in person this week. Due to the COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) outbreak, public health officials recommend avoiding large gatherings of people to avoid spreading the illness to more vulnerable people. Therefore, under the guidance of the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia, the Vestry has decided to keep our church building closed to all in-person gatherings.
At 9:30 a.m. on Sunday morning, I will broadcast the following worship service using Facebook Live at www.Facebook.com/StMattSav. After the service concludes, you can re-watch it at any time.
Today's service is the Liturgy of the Word (or the first part of the Holy Eucharist service we use on normal Sundays). This is for use at home while watching the live stream or reading the prayers when you cannot physically attend worship. Lay people may read the entirety of this service as printed.
May God protect you from this virus and protect the most vulnerable among us. May we be God’s hands and feet of compassion and service to all in need during this time. Amen.
Yours in Christ,
Fr. Guillermo A. Arboleda
The Word of God
Hymn #542: Christ is the World's True Light
1 Christ is the world's true light, its captain of salvation,
the Day-star clear and bright of every race and nation;
new life, new hope awakes for all who own his sway:
freedom her bondage breaks, and night is turned to day.
2 In Christ all races meet, their ancient feuds forgetting,
the whole round world complete, from sunrise to its setting:
when Christ is throned as Lord all shall forsake their fear,
to ploughshare beat the sword, to pruning-hook the spear.
3 One Lord, in one great name unite us all who own thee;
cast out our pride and shame that hinder to enthrone thee;
the world has waited long, has travailed long in pain;
to heal its ancient wrong, come, Prince of Peace, and reign.
Words: George Wallace Briggs, © 1931, Oxford University Press
Music: St. Joan, Percy E. B. Coller © 1942, Church Publishing, Inc.
Opening Sentences
[BCP, p. 355]
Blessed be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
And blessed be his kingdom, now and forever. Amen.
The Collect for Purity
[BCP, p. 355]
Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Hymn S 280: Glory to God in the Highest
[BCP, p. 356]
Glory to God in the highest,
and peace to his people on earth.
Lord God, heavenly King,
Almighty God and Father,
we worship you, we give you thanks,
we praise you for your glory.
Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Father,
Lord God, Lamb of God,
you take away the sin of the world:
have mercy on us;
you are seated at the right hand of the Father:
receive our prayer.
For you alone are the Holy One,
you alone are the Lord,
you alone are the Most High,
Jesus Christ,
with the Holy Spirit,
in the glory of God the Father. Amen.
Words: Public Domain.
Music: Robert Powell, © 1985 Church Publishing, Inc.
Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE #77081. All rights reserved.
The Collect of the Day
[BCP, p. 357, 232]
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, you have given your only Son to be for us a sacrifice for sin, and also an example of godly life: Give us grace to receive thankfully the fruits of his redeeming work, and to follow daily in the blessed steps of his most holy life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
A Reading from Isaiah (56:1, 6-8)
Thus says the Lord: Maintain justice, and do what is right,
for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance be revealed. ...
And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants,
all who keep the sabbath, and do not profane it, and hold fast my covenant--
these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.
Thus says the Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel,
I will gather others to them besides those already gathered.
The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Psalm 67
[BCP, p. 675]
Read responsively by half-verse (at the asterisk).
1 May God be merciful to us and bless us, * show us the light of his countenance and come to us.
2 Let your ways be known upon earth, * your saving health among all nations.
3 Let the peoples praise you, O God; * let all the peoples praise you.
4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, * for you judge the peoples with equity and guide all the nations upon earth.
5 Let the peoples praise you, O God; * let all the peoples praise you.
6 The earth has brought forth her increase; * may God, our own God, give us his blessing.
7 May God give us his blessing, * and may all the ends of the earth stand in awe of him.
A Reading from the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans (11:1-2a, 29-32)
I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. ...
For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy. For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.
The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Hymn #470: There's a Wideness in God's Mercy
1 There’s a wideness in God’s mercy
like the wideness of the sea;
there’s a kindness in his justice,
which is more than liberty.
There is welcome for the sinner,
and more graces for the good;
there is mercy with the Savior;
there is healing in his blood.
2 There is no place where earth's sorrows
are more felt than up in heaven;
there is no place where earth's failings
have such kindly judgment given.
There is plentiful redemption
in the blood that has been shed;
there is joy for all the members
in the sorrows of the Head.
3 For the love of God is broader
than the measure of the mind;
and the heart of the Eternal
is most wonderfully kind.
If our love were but more faithful,
we should take him at his word;
and our life would be thanksgiving
for the goodness of the Lord.
Words: Frederick William Faber, Public Domain.
Music: Beecher, John Zundel, Public Domain.
Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE #113994. All rights reserved.
The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ According to St. Matthew (15:21-28)
Glory to you, Lord Christ.
Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly.
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Christ.
The Sermon
“God Loves Everyone... Right?” by the Rev. Guillermo A. Arboleda
“God loves everyone.” We can all agree on that. And since we’re all on the same page, we might as well just wrap things up now.
But it’s not really that simple, is it? Because we can all agree that God loves everyone. It’s a pretty easy principle to agree to conceptually, in our heads. But it’s much more difficult to live. It’s much more difficult to internalize and to believe all the time that every single person you ever meet or see is loved by God. We can think the right thing consciously, but we subconsciously think less of others. We might speak about or act upon others as if they are not equally loved because of something or another.
Sometimes, to help us get past this mental and moral block, we need to move away from universal language and get specific. Sometimes, it isn’t that helpful to say, “God loves everyone,” or “All lives matter.” Sometimes, the circumstances around our own prejudice, our institutions, our societal structures, mandate that we speak about the needs of particular groups. We might need to say that God loves homeless people or LGBTQ people or that Black lives matter and Indigenous lives matter. Because if “all” actually means “all”, then it will include people who the majority culture doesn’t really want to include.
That’s what we see in this beautiful passage from Isaiah. In it, God calls us to “Maintain justice, and do what is right, for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance be revealed” (56:1). God wants us to do right by people interpersonally, socially, politically, and religiously. Why? Because God’s salvation is coming soon and God’s justice and deliverance will be revealed. Do we want our standards of justice to be out of sync with God’s standards? I don’t think so.
And if it was enough to speak in broad generalizations, then the passage could stop right there. We got our marching orders. Follow them. Maintain justice. Do what is right. Check. But again, that’s not how people actually work.
So Isaiah spends the next several verses getting specific about what it will mean for his audience to “do what is right.” In the extended version of this passage, from verses 1-8, God highlights two groups who will be welcomed into the Temple: eunuchs and foreigners.
We know what a foreigner is. In this case, foreigners were non-Israelites, often from neighboring clans and kingdoms, but also from the domineering empires that had conquered Judah (in Isaiah’s time, Babylon). In either case, ancient Israel, like most people groups throughout history, suffered from pretty bad xenophobia. They didn’t like foreign people and didn’t generally allow them to assimilate into ordinary or religious life.
“Eunuchs” might be an unfamiliar word; they were people (most often men) with deformed or damaged genitals. In modern terms, they were sexual minorities. They might have fit into one or more of the categories contained in the acronym LGBTQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer or Questioning, plus other communities). And they also constituted a social class that was discriminated against in the ancient world. They were relegated to certain kinds of jobs in society. And they were also excluded from access to the Temple in Jerusalem.
Isaiah 56 is part of a larger biblical debate about inclusion and what it means to be God’s chosen people. It turns out that the people who wrote the Bible were just like us. They disagreed about how to follow God and had their own subgroups or “denominations.” In different books of the Old Testament, you see different opinions about including and welcoming people who are different.
Does being faithful mean that you focus on ethnic and sexual purity, if so then you can turn to Deuteronomy 23:1-6, which explicitly “denied access to ‘the assembly of the LORD’ to Ammonites, Moabites, and men with damaged genitals” (Couey). If you thought being faithful meant inviting foreigners in, you might focus on Genesis 12:2 in which God tells Abraham, “ I will make of you a great nation [Israel], and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing” (emphasis added). If you’re in the exclusionary camp, you could point to Ezra 10 -- when the Babylonian exiles returned to rebuild and re-inhabit Jerusalem, they divorced all their foreign-born wives and sent them away into the wilderness with their children. The inclusionary camp would highlight the book of Ruth, which tells the story of the Moabite Ruth marrying the Israelite Boaz, and they become the grandparents to King David.
We could go back and forth with other examples. But the point is that this Isaiah passage is trying to respond to these different streams of thought within the Bible and the community of Israel. And in order to state more clearly what it meant when God said “maintain justice” and “do what is right,” God gives examples.
In the case of the eunuch and the foreigner, these were groups that did not just face interpersonal prejudice. It wasn’t just that people didn’t like them or said mean things to them (and I’m sure that happened). But it was also that there were structural barriers to their equality. Because Deuteronomy said they could not worship together with native-born Israelites or those with different private parts, these people were kept away from God. They might have been told that God loved them, but their society’s actions said otherwise.
So God doesn’t just pat them on the head and say, I love you. God commands the Temple institution to change.
Not only will eunuchs be welcomed and their worship become acceptable in God’s eyes, God promises to make it up to them. “To the eunuchs … I will give, in my house and within my walls, a monument and a name better than sons and daughters” (56:4-5). Eunuchs feared rejection and isolation because they were excluded from nuclear families and could not have children to carry on their legacy. So God promises a permanent memorial to honor their faithfulness. It’s a way of putting them on more equal footing with their neighbors in traditional marriages.
Foreigners will now be invited into the Temple, but God will also act to bring Israel’s blessings to the nations. Professor J. Blake Couey writes, “God doesn’t wait for devout foreigners to find their way to the temple (the ‘if you build it, they will come’ approach). Rather, God ‘will bring [them] to my holy mountain’ [56:7].” God’s house will truly become a “house of prayer for all peoples” (56:7). But we can only talk about that universal truth because we addressed the specific wrongs and injustices of the past.
Isaiah’s prophecy is teaching us the importance of particularity in our ethics and morals. We can’t just rely on platitudes and nice sayings. We need to be willing to confront our histories with moral clarity and, at times, brutal honesty. We can’t speak about how things are for “everybody” until we address historically marginalized and oppressed groups. So we don’t get to say, “God loves everyone” until we say with our chest that “God loves eunuchs” and “God loves foreigners.” We don’t get to say, “All lives matter” until we live in a society that believes that “Black lives matter” and “Queer lives matter” and “Undocumented lives matter.”
Thankfully, we’re not alone in the struggle. Isaiah reminds us that God is on the side of the marginalized. God is on the side of the downtrodden. God is with those whom people reject. “Thus says the Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, I will gather others to them besides those already gathered” (56:8).
So we have hope that we can “maintain justice and do what is right” (56:1) because God is working toward that same salvific goal for all. God loves everyone because God loves the unloved and rejected, the eunuch and the foreigner, the Black, Indigenous, and People of all Colors. May God help us be that specific in our love for everyone. Amen.
Bibliography
Couey, J. Blake. “Commentary on Isaiah 56:1, 6-8.” Working Preacher. Accessed 12 August 2020. Published 9 August 2020. https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=4559.
Author’s Note:
I did not speak today about the Gospel story (Matthew 15:21-28), but if you’re curious about it, please read my sermon on that text from three years ago, delivered in the wake of the infamous White Supremacist rally in Charlottesville, VA.
Arboleda, Guillermo A. “Grace vs. White Supremacy: The Canaanite Woman is our Mother (11th Pentecost / Proper 15A).” St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, Savannah, GA. Accessed 11 August 2020. Published 20 August 2017. https://www.stmattsav.org/post/2017/08/20/grace-vs-white-supremacy-the-canaanite-woman-is-our-mother-11th-pentecost-proper-15a
The Nicene Creed
[BCP, p. 358]
We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
The Prayers of the People & Confession of Sin
[Adapted from Form VI, BCP, p. 392]
In peace, we pray to you, Lord God.
Silence, about 5 seconds.
For all people in their daily life and work;
For our families, friends, and neighbors, and for those who are alone.
For Donald, our president; Brian, our governor; Van, our mayor; Al, the chair of our County Commission; Ann, the Superintendent of our Public Schools, and all other civic officials; For this community, the nation, and the world;
For all who work for justice, freedom, and peace.
For the just and proper use of your creation;
For the victims of hunger, fear, injustice, and oppression.
For all who are in danger, sorrow, or any kind of trouble;
For those who minister to the sick, the friendless, and the needy.
For all the churches in Savannah, that we may be one as you are one with the Son, and the Holy Spirit; For the peace and unity of the Church of God;
For all who proclaim the Gospel, and all who seek the Truth.
For Justin, Archbishop of Canterbury; Michael, our Presiding Bishop; Frank, our Bishop; Guillermo our Priest; and for all bishops and other ministers;
For all who serve God in his Church.
For the special needs and concerns of this congregation, especially for our Day Care’s staff, students, and families, and for those on our Parish Prayer List: Martha Avery, Zavier Bradley, Raleigh Bryant, Christine Brown, Mark Case, Genella Chamberlain, Annie Colbert, Lazola Cope, Alice Dailey, Mark Dashiell, Brittany Dawson, Imani Ferguson, Ruby Fernandez, Harry Frazier, Gary Gordon, Loretta Harmond, Marva Harris, Enoch Henderson, Charles E. Hines, Kenneth Howard, Terri Howard, Dale Hundley, Jared Hundley, Tracy Hundley, Milinda James, Alvin Jenkins, Dana Jenkins, Frances T. Jones, Lori Jones, Robert L. Jones, Sr., Ronald Jones, Tonya Jones, Whitney Kennedy, Leonard Law, Jr., Ryan Lovett, Tammie Lovett, Joan Maty, Craig Maxwell, Sada Maxwell, Carmelita Maynard, Viola Maynard, Bette Milledge, Hollie Moultrie, Patricia Murry, Russell Nails, Dorothy Neal, Glenzy Payne, Robert Payne, Dison Washington Slaughter, James Small, Gwendolyn Smith, Willie Stephens, Gisele Walton, Lori Ward, Gertrude Washington, Noel Wheeler, and Dean Williams; and those we remember now…
Silence. The People may add their own petitions.
Hear us, Lord;
For your mercy is great.
We thank you, Lord, for all the blessings of this life, especially for Claudine Lee (8/17), Quentin Scott (8/19), Keshia Cope (8/24), Jordan Jones Green (8/24), Charles Tennerson (8/28), and Shaina Berksteiner (8/28) on their birthdays; for Anthony and Kathleen Carington (8/26) on their wedding anniversary; and other blessings we remember now.
Silence. The People may add their own thanksgivings.
We will exalt you, O God our King;
And praise your Name for ever and ever.
We pray for all who have died, [especially _____,] that they may have a place in your eternal kingdom, and those we remember now.
Silence. The People may add their own petitions.
Lord, let your loving-kindness be upon them;
Who put their trust in you.
We pray to you also for the forgiveness of our sins.
Silence may be kept.
Leader and People:
Have mercy upon us, most merciful Father; in your compassion forgive us our sins, known and unknown, things done and left undone; and so uphold us by your Spirit that we may live and serve you in newness of life, to the honor and glory of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Celebrant concludes with an absolution or a suitable Collect.
Almighty God have mercy on you, forgive you all your sins through our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen you in all goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep you in eternal life. Amen.
The Peace
[BCP, p. 360]
The peace of the Lord be always with you.
And also with you.
Announcements
A. Worship with the Diocese of 8/23/2020: Fr. Arboleda is going on vacation from August 14 - 23. The St. Matthew's Facebook page will feature our own home-made worship video today (August 16), but we will not have our own parish worship video on August 23. Instead, on Sunday, August 23, you are invited to join the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia's worship service, featuring Bishop Frank Logue at 10:00 AM on their Facebook Live page.
B. Bookkeeper to Resign: Mrs. Donna Garrison, who has served as our Parish Bookkeeper for over two years, will resign from her post effective in mid-September (Date TBD). Her husband, the Rev. Jeff Garrison, has accepted a new call to two yoked Presbyterian churches in southwestern Virginia. (He has been the pastor of Skidaway Presbyterian for several years.) The Garrisons will move in mid-September.
The Rector and Vestry will release a job description for a replacement bookkeeper soon. If you know someone (who is not a member of St. Matthew's) who you think will be a good fit for this part-time job, please share her/his name with Fr. Arboleda.
In the meantime, you may send a note of thanks to Mrs. Garrison by email (since they are moving homes over the next few weeks). Her address is donnalgarrison@gmail.com, which is linked below in the blue box.
C. League of Women Votes Centennial Parade 8/22: Join the League of Women Voters Coastal Georgia on Saturday, August 22, 2020, as we ride through the streets of Savannah in an automobile procession celebrating the 100 anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.
Participants in this socially distant auto-parade will gather between 9:30 and 9:55 a.m. at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church (1401 MLK at the corner of Anderson Street) and at 10 a.m. will festively process through town, circling Forsyth Park and Daffin Park before dispersing in Daffin Park.
We welcome decorated cars, vintage and historic vehicles, and drivers and riders wearing costumes representing eras throughout the past century
Please visit LWVCGA.org or the Facebook event for more information. Registration is free.
D. Voter Education Webinar on 9/2: The Georgia Office of Secretary of State and St. Matthew's Episcopal Church invite you to an online Voter Education Webinar on Wednesday, September 2, at 6:00 PM. The meeting will be held via Zoom (link info forthcoming) and be simulcast to Facebook Live. This event is open to the public, so please invite your friends! https://www.facebook.com/events/216118126505548/
In this webinar, we will:
Learn about requesting and completing absentee ballots during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Receive instructions on in-person voting with new voting machines
Be invited to apply for part-time jobs as poll workers.
Hold a live Q&A with Sharyl Sutton, Voter Education Coordinator for the Georgia Office of Secretary of State.
In this webinar, we will not:
Express partisan support for any candidate
Be discouraged from exercising our right to vote.
"For freedom Christ has set us free"
~ Galatians 5:1 ~
E. Weekly Worship Schedule: St. Matthew's Church building remains closed to in-person worship and all non-essential activities due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. The Vestry will monitor the public health data to determine when is the appropriate time to begin the Diocesan Phase 1 Re-Gathering Plan. We will maintain online worship options for the foreseeable future on Facebook Live video and in writing on our Blog. Many other updates are available via the Facebook page.
With the exception of the week of August 23, the worship schedule is as follows:
Sundays - 9:30 Worship (You can find all of the upcoming Sunday and Holiday readings at http://www.lectionarypage.net.)
Tuesdays - 5:00 Evening Prayer
Wednesdays - 5:00 Evening Prayer
Thursdays - 5:00 Evening Prayer
F. Virtual Coffee Hour Today: We will hold a virtual "Coffee Hour" over Zoom today (August 16), and again on every other Sunday at 10:30 AM. (Thank you to Mrs. Rachael Blue-Jones who is donating a professional Zoom login to the church for our use.) Today’s Virtual Coffee Hour on August 16 will be hosted by the Senior Warden, Ms. C. Toni Blue. If you have any questions, please contact Ms. Blue (ctoniblue57@gmail.com) or another Vestry member.
Topic: St. Matthew's Virtual Coffee Hour
Time: August 2, 2020 10:30 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
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G. New Parish e-Newsletter: Check your email and read it if you haven't yet. If you did not receive it, then please go to our homepage (www.stmattsav.org) and scroll to the bottom of the page, where you can enter your email to sign up. The e-Newsletter includes our preliminary financial reports for the first two quarters of 2020 (January 1 - June 30). They are available via our new e-Newsletter.
H. Become a Video Reader or Singer: St. Matthew's is planning to pre-record Sunday services to ensure higher quality video and audio for our worshippers at home. This provides a new opportunity for church members to be a part of the service! Mrs. Pearson and I will reach out to parishioners about recording themselves reading Scripture lessons and/or the Prayers of the People for use in these Sunday videos. If you want to get involved, please email me about your interest at FrGAA@StMattSav.org.
I. Giving to St. Matthew's: Many people are feeling the economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis, including the church. We still need your support to pay our staff, pay our bills, and provide for these online live streams. If you pledged a donation in 2020 and are able, please continue making those contributions. If you have not pledged, please consider donating to St. Matthew’s now and in the future. There are several ways to give, but the simplest are these:
Mail us a check or money order at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, 1401 Martin Luther King, Jr., Blvd, Savannah, GA 31415; OR
Make a secure online gift to St. Matthew’s and/or automate future gifts at: https://onrealm.org/StMattSav/-/give/now; OR
Text “stmattsav” to 73256 to make a secure online donation through your phone.
The Offertory
[BCP, p. 377]
“Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God.” (Ephesians 5:2)
Give online at: https://onrealm.org/StMattSav/-/give/now
AAHH #367: Come Out the Wilderness
1 Tell me, how did you feel when you come out the wilderness,
come out the wilderness, come out the wilderness.
Tell me, how did you feel when you come out the wilderness, leaning on the Lord?
Refrain:
I am leaning on the Lord,
I am leaning on the Lord,
I am leaning on the Lord who died on Calvary.
2 Did you get baptized when you come out the wilderness,
come out the wilderness, come out the wilderness.
Did you get baptized when you come out the wilderness,
leaning on the Lord? [Refrain]
3 Did your soul feel happy when you come out the wilderness,
come out the wilderness, come out the wilderness.
Did your soul feel happy when you come out the wilderness,
leaning on the Lord? [Refrain]
Words: Negro Spiritual, Public Domain.
Music: Negro Spiritual; arr. Evelyn Simpson-Curenton © 2000 GIA Publications, Inc.
Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE #49232. All rights reserved.
The Lord’s Prayer
[BCP, p. 364]
And now, as our Savior Christ has taught us, we are bold to say,
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 trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.
The Blessing & Dismissal
[Enriching Our Worship 1, p. 71; BCP, p 366]
Live without fear: your Creator has made you holy, has always protected you, and loves you as a mother. Go in peace to follow the good road and may God’s blessing be with you always. Amen.
Let us bless the Lord!
Thanks be to God!
Permissions: This service is reproduced from The Book of Common Prayer 1979 (BCP), The Hymnal 1982 (Hymn), Lift Every Voice and Sing II: An African American Hymnal (LEV), African American Heritage Hymnal (AAHH) and other sources cited. Unless otherwise noted, the Scripture readings and quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible
Cover Image: http://www.pastorjoe.me/god-loves-you/