The Regent community gathers for Chapel in person and online on Tuesdays at 11 am (Pacific Time). You can find Zoom login details in the Weekly Announcements email. If you don’t currently receive our Weekly Announcements email, you can subscribe by clicking the 'Subscribe’ button on this page.
If you are unable to join us at that time the recording of Chapel will be available on Moodle.
Welcome and Announcements
Introduction
Call to Worship
Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!
This is what the Sovreign LORD says to these bones:
I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life.
I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and
cover you with skin;
I will put my breath in you, and you will come to life.
Opening Prayer
Rev. Elizabeth Dilley
Compassionate God,
the wind of your Spirit is the very sign of life
for all who long for you.
One breath from you and we are rescued
from the arid valley of dry bones,
given muscles and sinews and joy with which to praise you,
and filled with the holy hope you grant to all your faithful children.
Let our whole lives be filled with the life-breath of the Spirit,
that what has lain dormant may burst into bloom,
and what looks to us to be death
may be revealed as but sleep
before the emergence of new life.
Give life to our eyes so we can fix them on Jesus.
Give life to our ears so we can hear what the Spirit is saying.
Give life to our tongues so we can proclaim your righteousness.
Give life to our hands so that we can extend them to those in need.
Give life to our feet so that we can bring good tidings.
Give us an undivided heart and put a new spirit in us.
Psalm 44
1 We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have | told us *
what you did in the days of | old:
2 How you drove out the nations with your hand, and planted our
fathers in the | land; *
how you destroyed the nations and cast them | out.
3 For they did not possess the land by their own | sword, *
neither was it their own arm that | helped them,
4 But by your right hand, and your arm, and the light
of your | countenance, *
because you favored | them.
...
10 But now you have cast us off and put us to | shame, *
and you do not go forth with our | armies.
11 You make us turn our backs upon our | enemies, *
so that those who hate us plunder our | goods.
12 You let us be eaten up like | sheep *
and have scattered us among the | nations.
13 You sell your people for | nothing *
and take no money for | them.
14 You make us the reproach of our | neighbors, *
to be laughed to scorn, and held in derision by those
who are round a | bout us.
15 You make us a byword among the | nations, *
so that the peoples shake their heads at | us.
16 My disgrace is daily be | fore me, *
and the shame of my face has | covered me,
17 Because of the voice of the slanderer and blas | phemer, *
because of the enemy and a | venger.
18 And though all this has come upon us, yet we do not
for | get you, *
nor have we been unfaithful to your | covenant.
19 Our heart has not turned | back, *
nor have our steps departed from your | way,
20 Though you have crushed us in the haunt of | jackals, *
and covered us with the shadow of | death.
21 If we have forgotten the Name of our | God,
and held up our hands to any strange | god, *
shall not God search it | out?
For he knows the very secrets of the heart.
22 For your sake we are killed all the day | long, *
and are counted as sheep appointed to be | slain.
23 Rise up, O Lord! Why are you | sleeping? *
Awake, and cast us not away for | ever.
24 Why do you hide your | face *
and forget our misery and | trouble?
25 For our soul is brought low, even to the | dust; *
our belly cleaves to the | ground.
(Repeat second half of chant)
26 Arise, O Lord, and | help us, *
and deliver us for your mercy’s | sake.
Glory be to the | Father,*
and to the Son, and to the Holy | Spirit;
As it was in the be | ginning,
is now, and ever shall be, ’ world without end. A | men.
Prayers of the People
Come Lift Up Your Sorrows
© 2006 Words and Music by Michael Card
If you are wounded,
If you’re alone,
If you are angry,
If your heart is cold as stone,
If you have fallen
And if you are weak,
Come find the worth of God
That only the suffering seek.
Come lift up your sorrows
And offer your pain;
Come make a sacrifice
Of all your shame;
There in your wilderness
He's waiting for you
To worship him with your wounds,
For he's wounded too.
He has not stuttered,
And he has not lied
When he said, "Come unto me,
You're not disqualified"
When you're heavy laden,
You may want to depart,
But those who know sorrow
They're closest to his heart.
In this most Holy Place
He's made a sacred space
For those who will enter in
And trust to cry out to him;
You'll find no curtain there,
No reason left for fear;
There's perfect freedom here
To weep every unwept tear.
Scripture | Ezekiel 37:1-14 (NRSVCE)
1 The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the
spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was
full of bones.
2 He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley,
and they were very dry.
3 He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered,
“O Lord God, you know.”
4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them:
O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.
5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter
you, and you shall live.
6 I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and
cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you
shall know that I am the Lord.”
7 So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied,
suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together,
bone to its bone.
8 I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon
them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them.
9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and
say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four
winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.”
10 I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into
them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.
11 Then he said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of
Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are
cut off completely.’
12 Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God:
I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves,
O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel.
13 And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves,
and bring you up from your graves, O my people.
14 I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place
you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have
spoken and will act, says the Lord.”
Homily | Prayer in the Valley of Dry Bones
Cindy Aalders | Library Director; Associate Professor of the History of ChristianityGreat Are You Lord
© 2012 Words and Music by Jason Ingram, Leslie Jordan, David Leonard
You give life, you are love, you bring light to the darkness
You give hope, you restore ev’ry heart that is broken
Great are you Lord
It’s your breath in our lungs
So we pour out our praise, we pour out our praise
It’s your breath in our lungs
So we pour out our praise to you only
All the earth will shout your praise
Our hearts will cry, these bones will sing,
“Great are you Lord”
Invitation to the Table
Communion
If you have been welcomed by your own church tradition to partake
of communion, you are invited to partake here at Regent College. If
you do not wish to partake today, you are welcome to come forward
and cross your arms to receive a blessing
Song of the Prophet
© 1990 Words by Michael Morgan | Music: Irish Traditional
In ages past the mighty Lord by prophets spoke the word,
And from their lips God’s great design throughout the earth was heard.
In revelation, parable, bold fantasy, and dream, they echoed God’s
eternal vow to ransom and redeem.
The faithful bound in tyrants’ chains shall find their hopes fulfilled,
And stony hearts become true flesh as God’s love is revealed.
Dry bones will dance and whirlwinds sing when joy supplants despair,
And ev’ry corner of the earth proclaim, the Lord is there!
Yet still in present, troubled days we seek to hear God’s voice, and
in the face of our distress, find reason to rejoice.
Grant us the wisdom to discern through faith who should be –
A fallen race, restored through grace, a captive world set free.
Benediction
Let's stand together in prayer during this Lenten season. After the service,
you are invited to join those who have gathered for prayer by the cross. For
those carrying particularly heavy burdens, prayer ministers will be in Room
231 (upstairs, to the right) immediately after chapel and willing to stand
with you for an extended time of prayer.