Worship

Sunday, February 18, 2024 — BLACK HISTORY MONTH

Anthem Lift Every Voice and Sing AA-540
Opening Hymn Walk Together Children AA-541
Opening Prayer From “Black Liturgies” by Cole Arthur Riley

Celebrant: Breathe. In a position of rest, place the palm of your hand to your chest. If it feels safe to do so, close your eyes. Feel where you may be carrying tension in your body. Release what you. can. Silently name and hold the first phrase as you inhale. Silently name and hold the second phrase as you exhale. Breathe deeply and slowly to start and adjust to what feels possible and. right in your body
Inhale People: We honor this breath.
Exhale People: We behold the beauty.
Inhale People: I deserve more.
Exhale People: I claim more.
Inhale People: This flesh is sacred.
Exhale People: I contain the divine.

Collect Lectionary Insert
Hebrew Scriptures Judges (5:24-31)
Canticle Psalm (25:1-7)
New Testament Romans (12:14-21)
Gospel Hymn I Will Trust In the Lord AA-391
Gospel Mark (6:14-29)
Sermon Rev. Gayle Fisher-Stewart
Nicene Creed BCP pg. 358
Calvary’s Mission Statement (composed by Yvonne Lee)
We, the members of Calvary Episcopal Church, believe in taking the journey of God’s love and service to those who know Christ, and those who seek Christ.
Prayers of the People Lectionary Insert
Confession from “Black Liturgies”
People: Creator God, We confess every attempt to steal and grant dignity, as if it’s something we have dominion over. We have lost ourselves in a world of anti- Blackness, transphobia, homophobia, ableism, and misogyny. We have amplified the cool and the confident and alienated those who feel strange or awkward. In demeaning others, we mistakenly believe that our own self-worth may be magnified, but in doing so we only become less human. We have not become bigger, but smaller. Not safer but more afraid. Every effort to diminish the worth of another has only distanced us from the truth of our own dignity. Forgive us. And remind us of who we are, what we’re made of, that a collective image of God is dwelling in and through us. May we forgive ourselves and become faithful keepers of our cosmic birthright to beauty, justice and belonging.
Celebrant: Let your soul receive this rest: The God who became seamstress, the God who knelt in the garden to make clothes for Eve and Adam covers you now. As the divine meets your shame with tenderness, you are freed to stand before the earth, neighbor, your God, and yourself. Amen
Peace
The greenery on the main altar and the baptism altar is given to the glory of God and in loving memory of Margaret Livingston, by Michael and Ellen Livingston, Rick and Avery Gray, their grandchildren and great grandson.
Offertory. The Lord is Blessing Me AA- 506
If would like to make your offering electronically, you can do so at: www.calvarydc.net/donate
Doxology Praise God AA-650
The Eucharist Our eucharist prayer was composed by the Rev. Dr. Gayle Fisher-Stewart
Celebrant: We are the body of Christ.
People: His Spirit is with us.
Celebrant: Let us lift up our hearts.
People: We lift them to the Lord.
Celebrant: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
People: It is right to give God our thanks and praise.
Celebrant: Because you sent your beloved Son to redeem us from sin and death, and to make us heirs in him of everlasting life; that when he shall come again in power and great triumph to judge the world, we may without shame or fear rejoice to behold his appearing. Blessed are you, O God, who sets the table of creation and invites us to feast with you in a cosmic celebration of love and desire. As we again await, Immanuel, God with us, we thank you for Jesus, whose life, prayer, and ministry opened our eyes to the glory of life and fueled our hunger for your long anticipated reign of justice, mercy, and peace. You call all people to follow your paths of justice and peace, beating their swords into plow shares and their spears into pruning hooks. In the light of your holy Word we look for the day when nations shall not lift up sword against nations, or learn war any more. Therefore, with the entire company of heaven, and with your people on earth who live in this hope, we praise you and join in the never-ending hymn:
People: Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Celebrant: We thank you for Christ’s passionate solidarity with the suffering of all the earth; for as he bore in his own body the wounds of creation, he embraced us in our brokenness and gathered us into his wholeness so that we might know ourselves beloved and serve with him as priests forever in an all-embracing Eucharist. Blessed is our brother Jesus, bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh; who, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, blessed it and said:
People: “This is my body which is given for you. Do this to remember me.”
Celebrant: In the same way, Jesus took the cup after supper and said:
People: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this whenever you drink it, to remember me.”
Celebrant: So, as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim the mystery of our faith:
People: Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.
Celebrant: Here in this place, we celebrate the life that death could not hold, the life that Jesus has shared among his community through the centuries, and shares with us now. Made one with him, and thus, with each other, we lay before you these gifts of bread and wine, tokens of our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, for here we offer and present to you ourselves, our bodies, minds and spirits, to be a holy and continuous sacrifice to you,
People: Come, Holy Spirit, Come. Come, Holy Spirit Come.
Celebrant: Come and brood over these bodily things, this bread and this wine. May they be for us the body and blood of Christ; healing, renewing, and making us whole.
People: Come, Holy Spirit, Come. Come, Holy Spirit Come.
Celebrant: Come and embrace us with your life-giving power that as bread and wine are made one with us, we may become one with you; bone of your bone, flesh of your flesh.
People: Come, Holy Spirit, Come. Come, Holy Spirit Come.
Celebrant: Come and make your gathered people the real presence of Christ for the world, living our prayer and praying our life until heaven and earth are reconciled, and all are free as Christ is free.
People: Glory be to you, O God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit; one God and Mother of all creation; as in the beginning, so now, and forever. Amen!
Lord’s Prayer BCP pg. 364
Celebrant: Lamb of God
People: You take away the sins of the world.
Celebrant: Lamb of God
People: You take away the sins of the world
Celebrant: Lamb of God
People: Grant us your peace
Celebrant: These are the gifts of God for you, God’s people. This is the Lord’s table. Come, when you are fearful, to be made new in love. Come when you are doubtful, to be made strong in faith. Come, when you are regretful, and be made whole. Come, everyone; there is room for all!
Communion Hymn Just for Me AA-231
Benediction from the “Black Liturgies”
Celebrant: May the God who made all things and holds together all things remind you of your mak- ing. May you rest in the immanence of your own worth, knowing you have nothing to prove and everything to love. Constant as the moon, which is tethered to us by unseen forces, which is suspended above us in the dark and the light, let our dignity remain, be it visible or invisible to those below. And may we remember the same dignity that holds us, so too holds together every person and piece of the cosmos at once and evermore. Go, in honor, to claim all that you are worthy of. May it be so. Amen.
Announcements
Final Hymn I Don’t Feel No Ways Tired AA-414
We are blessed to have Ms. Susan Walls lead our music service today.

Sunday, February 18th, 2024 Scriptural Readings
Our scriptural translations today are from. “A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church, Year B,” by Dr. Wil Gafney

Collect Today’s collect was composed by Phyllis Harris
Lord, we sometimes lose our way, but are thankful for your promise to be our daily guide, instilling trust and calm when our paths are not immediately clear. Fill us further with humility, to help us to be more accepting of others and to move towards greater peace in our daily lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord , to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and forever. Amen.

A Reading from the Book of Judges (5:24–31) I
Deborah sang: “Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, of tent-dwelling women most blessed. He asked for water and she gave him milk, in a princely bowl she brought him curds. She put her hand to the tent peg and her right hand to the laborer’s hammer; she struck Sisera a blow, she de- stroyed his head, she shattered and pierced his temple. Between her legs he collapsed, he fell, he lay still; between her legs he col- lapsed; where he collapsed, there he fell utterly destroyed. “Out of the window she peered, the mother of Sisera cried through the lattice: ‘Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why so late the hoofbeats of his chariots?’ The wisest of her royal women her answer, indeed, she turns and speaks to herself: ‘Are they not finding and dividing the spoil?— Woman-flesh, one or two for each soldier; spoil of dyed cloth for Sisera, spoil of dyed cloth embroidered, two pieces of dyed work embroidered for my neck as spoil.’ Thus may they be eradicated, all your enemies, DREAD GOD! But may those who love you be like the sun as it rises in its might. And the land was quieted for forty years.”
The Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God

Psalm 25:1–7
To you, RIGHTEOUS ONE,
I lift up my soul.
My God, in you I trust;
let me not be put to shame, let not my enemies exult over me.
Even more, let not those who hope in you be put to shame;
let them be ashamed who are treacherous and empty.
Make known to me your ways, AGELESS GOD;
teach me your paths.
Guide me in your truth, and teach me,
for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day long.
Remember your maternal love,
O WOMB OF LIFE,
and your faithful love,
for they have been from of old.
The sins of my youth and my transgressions remember not;
according to your faithful love remember me,
for the sake of your goodness,
GRACIOUS ONE.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever. Amen.

A Reading from the Letter of Paul to the Romans (12:14–21)
Bless the ones who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with the ones who rejoice, weep with the ones who weep. With one another, be harmonious; be not arrogant, but associate with the humble. Do not make yourselves out to be wiser than you are. Evil for evil you shall not repay anyone; consider before time what is good in the sight of all. If possible from your ability, with every human person, live in peace. Do not avenge yourselves beloved; rather leave space for the wrath of God; for it is written, “To me belongs vengeance; I will repay, says the Holy One.” No, “If your enemy hungers, feed them; if they thirst, give them something to drink; for by so doing, burning coals shall you heap on their head.” Do not be overcome by evil rather, overcome evil with good.
The Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God

The Holy Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Mark (6:14–29)
Glory to you Lord Christ
Now King Herod heard of the teaching of Jesus, for Jesus’s name had become known and some were saying, “John the bap- tizer has been raised from the dead and that is why these powers work through him.” Yet others said, “It is Elijah” while others said, “It is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.” But when Herod heard of it, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.” For Herod himself had sent men who seized John and bound him in prison because of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, for Herod had married her. For John had told Herod, “It is not right for you to have your brother’s wife.” Now Herodias had a grudge against him and she wanted to kill him. But she could not. This was because Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous man and a holy man and he protected him and listened to him, though greatly perplexed; yet it pleased him to listen to him. Now an opportune time came on Herod’s birthday when he gave a banquet for his courtiers and commanders and for the leaders of Galilee. And Herod’s daughter Herodias came in and danced, pleasing Herod and his dinner guests. The king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you.” And he swore to her repeatedly, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, even half of my kingdom.” And she went out and said to her mother, “What should I ask?” She replied, “The head of John the baptizer.” Immediately she returned to the king with haste and asked, saying, “I want immediately for you to give me on a platter the head of John the baptizer.” The king was deeply sorry, yet because of his oaths and the guests, he did not want to refuse her. Immediately the king sent a soldier under orders to bring John’s head. And he went and beheaded him in the prison. And he brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl and the girl gave it to her mother. When John’s disciples heard, they came and took his body, and laid it in a tomb.
The Gospel of the Lord
Praise to you Lord Christ

Prayers of the People
Our prayers today are from the African American Heritage Hymnal.
Oh God, you have heard the anguished cries of our ancestors. Their sounds echo and penetrate time to remind us of our foreparents who were brutally captured and forcibly enslaved, as they left the peaceful womb of their African homeland.
Stony the road we trod.
Oh God, you have seen the millions of dark bodies buried beneath the tumultuous waves of the deep. Bodies of African men and wom- en who held the seeds of greatness. You have seen women’s dreams for a united family vanish as they were sold at auction blocks. You have seen the legacy of the African American family decimated and demeaned by those who have attempted to control our destiny.
Bitter the chastening rod, felt in the days when hope unborn had died.
Oh God, you have ignited the sparks within us into a blazing demand for freedom, equality and justice. This quest cost Harriet Tubman sleepless nights, as she led her people to freedom; it was an equality that Rosa Parks and civil rights activists fought for and gave their lives for; it was a justice that Martin Luther King, Jr. stood for, as thousands stood with him at the Lincoln Memorial.
Yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet, come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
Oh God, you have seen our tears. You have been pained by the evil of human hearts. Yet, you loved humanity enough that you sent your only Son to identify with the outcast, marginalized and rejected. As the cries of Jesus pierced your heart, so have the cries of your people, cries from different cultures and in different languages.
God of our weary years, God of our silent tears.
O God, you answered us during our exodus from Africa. You wiped every teardrop during our exile in captivity. Our foreparents dared to dream that one day, on these shores, we would become politicians, preachers, educators, doctors, writers, scientists, artists, and so much more.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee.
Our ancestors’ hard work, their courage, their convictions, and their belief in you paved the way for our emancipation and education. But it is clear, you have liberated us. You have set us free. “Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, I’m free at last!”
Lest our hearts drunk with the wine of the world we forget Thee.
Shadowed beneath Thy hand, may we forever stand.
True to our God and true to our native land. Amen.

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The Good News is in Us, … – 2/9/2020

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Bishop’s Visitation – 1/5/2020