KIDS TIME
kids music

GATHERING SONG
Way Maker
led by Leah & Dana

WAY MAKER
You are here moving in our midst
I worship You, I worship You
You are here working in this place
I worship You, I worship You

chorus
(You are) Way Maker, Miracle Worker, Promise Keeper
Light in the darkness, my God that is who You are

You are here touching ev’ry heart
I worship You, I worship You
You are here healing ev’ry heart
I worship You, I worship You

You are here turning lives around
I worship You, I worship You
You are here mending ev’ry heart
I worship You, yeah, I worship You Lord

tag
That is who You are
That is who You are
That is who You are
That is who You are

bridge
Even when I don’t see it, You’re working
Even when I don’t feel it, You’re working
You never stop, You never stop working
You never stop, You never stop working

CCLI Song # 7115744 CCLI License # 349090
Osinachi Kalu Okoro Egbu © 2016 Integrity Music Europe

WELCOME , COMMUNITY LIFE & GREETING

OLD TESTAMENT READING
Psalm 63

May God be gracious to us and bless us
    and make his face to shine upon us, (Selah)
that your way may be known upon earth,
    your saving power among all nations.
Let the peoples praise you, O God;
    let all the peoples praise you.

Let the nations be glad and sing for joy,
    for you judge the peoples with equity
    and guide the nations upon earth. (Selah)
Let the peoples praise you, O God;
    let all the peoples praise you.

The earth has yielded its increase;
    God, our God, has blessed us.
May God continue to bless us;
    let all the ends of the earth revere him.

RESPONSE & PREPARATION
Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
led by our friends from, AxiomBrass.
Trumpeter Dorival Puccini, Jr., Trumpeter and Bass-Baritone singer Michael Hawes, French Horn player Matthew Bronstein, Trombonist Corey Sansolo, Tuba player Kevin Harrison.

Come, thou Fount of ev’ry blessing,
Tune my heart to sing thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for song of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of thy redeeming love.

Here I raise to thee an altar,
Hither by thy help I’m come;
And I hope, by thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to reduce me from danger,
Interposed his precious blood.

O to grace, how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for thy courts above.

GOSPEL LESSON
Matthew 15:1-11

15 Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands before they eat.” He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.’ But you say that whoever tells father or mother, ‘Whatever support you might have had from me is given to God,’ then that person need not honor the father. So, for the sake of your tradition, you make void the word of God. You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said:

‘This people honors me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
    teaching human precepts as doctrines.’”

10 Then he called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand: 11 it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.”

Leader: The Word of the Lord
People: Thanks be to God

GLORY BE TO THE FATHER
led by Max & Janelle

Glory be to the Father
And to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost
As it was in the beginning
Is now and ever shall be
World with out end
Amen, Amen

REFLECTING ON THE WORD
Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!
Let’s Eat! It’s a big deal–just saying.

SPECIAL MUSIC
If My People
led by Cynthia & Janelle

PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH & THE LORD’S PRAYER
Folks We Are Praying For:

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 sins as we forgive those who sin against us.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.  For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.  Amen.

Church family who work in and around hospitals & nursing homes:
Alex A, Kyra A, Hannah A, Sam A, Linda C, Carl G, Katie G, Eric H, Rachel H, Chona I, Abby H, Dana J, Bryan J, Kari J, Neal J, Eric S, Don T.

(If we missed any people’s names above please let us know.)

We continue to pray for: Nikolas Arden, Katie Collier, Dan Erickson, Art and Rosa Hamilton, Shirley Nicholas, the Morales/Randall family.

Ministries & Mission
RC4 staff & teachers as they open back up
Bob & Grace Shim, serving in East Asia
Renee Nicholas, serving local graduate students & faculty with InterVarsity

A SONG FOR OUR TIME OF PRAYER
Come to the Table
led by Trevor & friends

GIVING OF OUR TITHES & OFFERINGS
& PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING
All Hail The Power of Jesus Name
led by Cynthia

PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING

SENDING HYMN
Breath on Me, Breath of God
Led by Cynthia & Bob & Deb

Breathe on me, breath of God,
Fill me with life anew
That I may love whate’r you love
And do what you would do.

Breathe on me, breath of God,
Until my heart is pure,
Until with you I will one will,
To do and to endure.

Breath on me, breath of God,
So that your will is mine,
Until this earthly part of me
Glows with your fire divine.

BENEDICTION                             

L: Go in peace to love and serve the Lord
P: Thanks be to God

POSTLUDE
A Hymn of Glory
led by Cynthia

INVITATION
We’ll be back here next Sunday
We hope you can join us. Information on ravenscov.org.

A SONG FOR THIS WEEK
As we go out to love and serve the Lord:
Lift Every Voice & Sing

led by our friends from AxiomBrass.
Trumpeter Dorival Puccini, Jr., Trumpeter and Bass-Baritone singer Michael Hawes, French Horn player Matthew Bronstein, Trombonist Corey Sansolo, Tuba player Kevin Harrison.

Music lessons
Cynthia Arden will offer piano and violin lessons to students of all ages on Wednesdays during farmers market hours. Thirty-minute lessons are available each week. Fees apply. Contact Cynthia at 847-912-0992 or email violincynthia@yahoo,com.

Book discussion
This Tuesday, August 18, at 7 pm we will be discussing chapters 1-3 of The Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby on Zoom. Tisby focuses on the history of the American church to present day in regards to race relations. If you don’t have the book and happen to have Amazon Prime, there is a video series where the author Jemar Tisby talks through each chapter. The videos are about 20 minutes each. Contact Pastor Denise if you have any questions. 

Topic: Color of Compromise Book Discussion
Time: Aug 18, 2020 07:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 832 3841 6534
Passcode: 061407
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Bulletin board
The church’s bulletin board in the C.E. lobby is a place where cards and letters greeting the people of Ravenswood Covenant are posted for all to read. During this time of isolation, in which most of us are not setting foot in the church building, this element of our common life has been disrupted. With that in mind, we will post these cards and letters as they arrive right here in the Sunday bulletin under the heading “Bulletin board” until we can once more read them in person on the bulletin board itself.

Our first item is from Becky Kallem, who was a part of our congregation for several years in the last decade. This message was on a card she sent to the church that was delivered this past week:

A warm hello from Sequin, WA! I continue to keep up with prayers for all of you at dear Ravenswood. Memories of our worship together.

I am blessed to be staying at Marianne [Dunlap]’s “2nd home” here in Washington. An anointed time with Ryan, also! Jenee moved to Colorado …

May you enjoy this card and know how all of you bless so many by keeping faithful! Prayers for your family — and all the saints.

In Christ alone,

Becky Kallem

Zoom Bible Study
Our Thursday night Bible study has resumed meeting. For the next few weeks we will be going through the book of Ruth. The Bible study meets every Thursday at 6:30 pm via Zoom, and if you are not conversant with Zoom, don’t let that stop you! We can teach you how to activate Zoom so that you can take part. There are also a limited number of spaces available for those who wish to attend the Bible study in person in the lounge using social-distancing protocols. If you’re interested, please contact Gregory Sager in the church office at office@ravenscov.org or at 773-784-7091. A Zoom link to the Bible study will be provided in Thursday’s prayer email, or directly to you if you contact the church office and request it.

Farmers market update
Our farmers market continues to meet every Wednesday afternoon in our church’s parking lot. Although the city’s social-distancing and food-handling restrictions during the pandemic are limiting what the market can offer in terms of crowd size, vendors, and programming, we nevertheless continue to welcome our community back into our space for what has become a tradition for many of our neighbors. Right now, our object is to continue re-establishing our presence as a farmers market and to welcome people back into the routine of frequenting our vendors every Wednesday afternoon and early evening. The turnout is improving from week to week, and we have re-introduced food trucks as part of our market for the first time this summer. It’s good to welcome our neighbors and vendors back for another summer, restrictions or not!

Thursday night dinners
Chef Bobby, Hannah, and Marlene will be taking a break for the next few weeks from preparing and coordinating the dinners for our Thursday night community dinner program. The community dinners will resume sometime in the middle of September. Watch this space and the prayer email for further details.

Prayer requests
A group of women in our church are meeting every night at 7 pm via phone calls and texts in order to keep our various needs before God in prayer. They are asking the congregation to bring their needs to them to be lifted up in prayer as part of this evening prayer time. If you have any needs that you would like to have added to their prayer list, please contact the church office.

Free masks available
The church is offering free masks to anyone in the congregation who is in need of one. If you would like, you may make a donation to our benevolence fund when you come to the church building to pick yours up. Please contact the church office at office@ravenscov.org or 773-396-6175 for more information.

We need your (in worship) videos and pictures
As part of our ongoing efforts to stay connected with each other during this time of physical separation, we’re asking members and friends of the church to send us pictures of themselves as they take part in online worship. You can, if you choose, accompany the picture with a short (one or two sentences) greeting, or a brief video of no more than ten seconds, so that we can share them as a part of Sunday morning worship. Please be aware that they may have to be edited for space reasons. You can send them as downloadable files to office@ravenscov.org.

Our response to the current health crisis
As a community of faith we continue to pray for the health and welfare of our church and community as we resist the temptation to fall prey to fear. We do, however, want to continue to look out for the welfare of our friends and neighbors. We are doing our best to stay current with best practices for this unique time — please stay tuned as these may change. Our primary place for timely communication will be our website, ravenscov.org. We will also offer reminders and notes on our Facebook page and by email. We are livestreaming our Sunday morning worship on Facebook Live so that you may continue to be a part of our worship. Do not, however, become isolated. If you need any help there are folks in our church who can do so. Call the office (773-784-7091) or email the office (office@ravenscov.org).

General fund giving:
August 2: $895

General fund giving:
August 9: $3,230

Scripture for Sunday, August 23
Psalm 138
Matthew 16:13-20

Art Used in this Bulletin: Steve Erspamer, SM
Clip Art for Year A © 1992, Archdiocese of Chicago.

Our church exists to love and worship God, and love and care for others. By God’s grace, we commit to help people find and follow Jesus Christ through the guidance of his Spirit and his word.

"With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade." (Mark 4:30-32 NRS)