Calls to Worship | Living in Moments of Crisis

I was invited to co-create two calls to worship for this morning.

I am sharing both in the event that they are meaningful and grounding for anyone else at such a time as this.

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Call to Worship | Glencliff UMC | Palm Sunday | April 5, 2020

Call to Worship | AME Publishing House | Lent 2020 | Palm Sunday | April 5, 2020

Famed author Octavia Butler prepared for us at such a time as this these words:

“All that you touch

You Change.

All that you Change

Changes you.

The only lasting truth

is Change.

God

is Change.”[1]

In this time of deep uncertainty—of Lenten season, COVID-19, and physical distancing from those we dearly love

We hold that:

While God may not call upon us the change that we are experiencing

God is with us in it

God is with us through it

And God is greater

We are all God’s

God is in, and so with each and all of us

And so, wherever we each and all are

In gathering to God

We are gathered together

We pray and look forward to being together in one place again

And

We honor and we live the blessing that is God’s presence

And God’s presence through us

Everywhere that we are.

Together.

Amen.

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[1] Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower.

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Thank you to our Rev. Neelley Hicks, our co-pastor at Glencliff UMC (Nashville, TN) for specifically requesting I sing the call to worship. I do not sing in public, lol. And—my soul needed to express this. (The worship service this morning is an incredibly beautiful series of contemplative songs with an equally thoughtful sermon. You can watch here if you like.)

Thank you to Corwin Malcolm Davis for honoring me with the invitation to do the written call to worship for the AME Publishing House Lent/Palm Sunday 2020 materials.

Thank you to Beyonce for being and continually becoming her whole and gifted self.

And an eternal thanks to adrienne maree brown for introducing me not to Octavia Butler, but to the depth and soul of her work, and that in emergence:

We are continually shifting and transforming. And in every ending is also a beginning.