Saturday evening October 22
Preparation
Opening response
O God, make speed to save us.
O Lord, make haste to help us.
Prayer of thanksgiving
Blessed are you, Lord God, creator of day and night:
to you be praise and glory forever.
As darkness falls you renew your promise
to reveal among us the light of your presence.
By the light of Christ, your living Word,
dispel the darkness of our hearts
that we may walk as children of light
and sing your praise throughout the world.
Blessed be God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit:
Blessed be God forever.
That this evening may be holy, good and peaceful,
let us pray with one heart and mind.
Silence is kept.
As our evening prayer rises before you, O God,
so may your mercy come down upon us
to cleanse our hearts
and set us free to sing your praise
now and forever.
Amen.
Hymn
Out of the Iron Furnace, Lord
Charles Wesley
Out of the iron furnace, Lord,
To thee for help I cry,
I listen to thy warning word,
And would from Egypt fly.
Long have I bowed to sin’s command,
But now I would be free,
Escape from the dire oppressor’s land,
And live, O God, to thee.
Hast thou not surely seen my grief?
Hast thou not heard me groan?
O hasten then to my relief,
In pitying love come down.
From Pharaoh, and the Egyptian’s power
Redeem a wretched slave;
Thou canst redeem me in this hour,
Thou wilt the sinner save.
Now, Lord, relieve my misery,
Stretch out thy mighty hand,
Drown all my sins in the Red Sea,
And bring me safe to land.
Strength in the Lord my righteousness,
And pardon I receive,
And holy joy, and quiet peace
The moment I believe.
Confession of sin
When we cry out to the Lord in our distress,
he will save us from our desperate circumstances.
God will bring us out of darkness
and out of the shadow of death.
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
A time of silence and self-examination may be kept.
May the Father forgive us
by the death of his Son
and strengthen us
to live in the power of the Spirit
all our days.
Amen.
Let us thank the Lord for his faithful love,
and his wondrous works for all people.
Let us offer thanksgiving sacrifices
and declare what God has done in songs of joy.
cf Psalm 107
The Word of God
Psalm 24
Refrain:
The Lord of heavenly forces — he is the glorious king!
The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it,
the world and its inhabitants too.
Because God is the one who established it on the seas;
God set it firmly on the waters.
Who can ascend the Lord’s mountain?
Who can stand in his holy sanctuary?
Only the one with clean hands and a pure heart;
the one who hasn’t made false promises,
the one who hasn’t sworn dishonestly.
That kind of person receives blessings from the Lord
and righteousness from the God who saves.
And that’s how things are
with the generation that seeks him—
that seeks the face of Jacob’s God.
Mighty gates: lift up your heads!
Ancient doors: rise up high!
So the glorious king can enter!
Who is this glorious king?
The Lord—strong and powerful!
The Lord—powerful in battle!
Mighty gates: lift up your heads!
Ancient doors: rise up high!
So the glorious king can enter!
Who is this glorious king?
The Lord of heavenly forces—
he is the glorious king!
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.
Refrain:
The Lord of heavenly forces — he is the glorious king!
Psalm prayer
O Lord of heavenly forces,
purify our hearts
that the glorious king may come in,
your Son, Jesus our redeemer.
Psalm 25
Refrain:
Make your ways known to me, Lord; teach me your paths.
I offer my life to you, Lord.
My God, I trust you.
Please don’t let me be put to shame!
Don’t let my enemies rejoice over me!
For that matter,
don’t let anyone who hopes in you
be put to shame;
instead, let those who are treacherous without excuse be put to shame.
Make your ways known to me, Lord;
teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth—teach it to me—
because you are the God who saves me.
I put my hope in you all day long.
Lord, remember your compassion and faithful love—
they are forever!
But don’t remember the sins of my youth or my wrongdoing.
Remember me only according to your faithful love
for the sake of your goodness, Lord.
The Lord is good and does the right thing;
he teaches sinners which way they should go.
God guides the weak to justice,
teaching them his way.
All the Lord’s paths are loving and faithful
for those who keep his covenant and laws.
Please, for the sake of your good name, Lord, forgive my sins, which are many! Where are the ones who honor the Lord?
God will teach them which path to take.
They will live a good life,
and their descendants will possess the land.
The Lord counsels those who honor him;
he makes his covenant known to them.
My eyes are always looking to the Lord
because he will free my feet from the net.
Turn to me, God, and have mercy on me
because I’m alone and suffering.
My heart’s troubles keep getting bigger—
set me free from my distress!
Look at my suffering and trouble—
forgive all my sins!
Look at how many enemies I have
and how violently they hate me!
Please protect my life! Deliver me!
Don’t let me be put to shame
because I take refuge in you.
Let integrity and virtue guard me
because I hope in you.
Please, God, save Israel from all its troubles!
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.
Refrain:
Make your ways known to me, Lord; teach me your paths.
Psalm prayer
Free us, God of mercy,
from all that keeps us from you;
relieve the misery of the anxious and the ashamed
and fill us with the hope of peace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Old Testament reading
Micah 6
Hear what the Lord is saying:
Arise, lay out the lawsuit before the mountains;
let the hills hear your voice!
Hear, mountains, the lawsuit of the Lord!
Hear, eternal foundations of the earth!
The Lord has a lawsuit against his people;
with Israel he will argue.
“My people, what did I ever do to you?
How have I wearied you? Answer me!
I brought you up out of the land of Egypt;
I redeemed you from the house of slavery.
I sent Moses, Aaron, and Miriam before you.
My people, remember what Moab’s King Balak had planned,
and how Balaam, Beor’s son, answered him!
Remember everything from Shittim to Gilgal,
that you might learn to recognize the righteous acts of the Lord!”
With what should I approach the Lord
and bow down before God on high?
Should I come before him with entirely burned offerings,
with year-old calves?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with many torrents of oil?
Should I give my oldest child for my crime;
the fruit of my body for the sin of my spirit?
He has told you, human one, what is good and
what the Lord requires from you:
to do justice, embrace faithful love, and walk humbly with your God.
The voice of the Lord calls out to the city;
wisdom appears when one fears your name.
Hear, tribe, and who appointed her!
Are the treasures of wickedness still in the house of wickedness,
while the shorted basket is denounced?
Can I approve wicked scales and a bag of false weights
in a city whose wealthy are full of violence
and whose inhabitants speak falsehood
with lying tongues in their mouths?
So I have made you sick by striking you!
I have struck you because of your sins.
You devour, but you aren’t satisfied;
a gnawing emptiness is within you.
You put something aside,
but you don’t keep it safe.
That which you do try to keep safe,
I will give to the sword.
You sow, but you don’t gather.
You tread down olives, but you don’t anoint with oil;
you tread grapes, but don’t drink wine.
Yet you have kept the policies of Omri,
all the practices of the house of Ahab;
you have followed their counsels.
Therefore, I will make you a sign of destruction,
your inhabitants an object of hissing!
You must bear the reproach of my people.
Silence may be kept.
New Testament reading
John 18:28-40
The Jewish leaders led Jesus from Caiaphas to the Roman governor’s palace. It was early in the morning. So that they could eat the Passover, the Jewish leaders wouldn’t enter the palace; entering the palace would have made them ritually impure.
So Pilate went out to them and asked, “What charge do you bring against this man?”
They answered, “If he had done nothing wrong, we wouldn’t have handed him over to you.”
Pilate responded, “Take him yourselves and judge him according to your Law.”
The Jewish leaders replied, “The Law doesn’t allow us to kill anyone.” (This was so that Jesus’ word might be fulfilled when he indicated how he was going to die.)
Pilate went back into the palace. He summoned Jesus and asked, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
Jesus answered, “Do you say this on your own or have others spoken to you about me?”
Pilate responded, “I’m not a Jew, am I? Your nation and its chief priests handed you over to me. What have you done?”
Jesus replied, “My kingdom doesn’t originate from this world. If it did, my guards would fight so that I wouldn’t have been arrested by the Jewish leaders. My kingdom isn’t from here.”
“So you are a king?” Pilate said.
Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. I was born and came into the world for this reason: to testify to the truth. Whoever accepts the truth listens to my voice.”
“What is truth?” Pilate asked.
After Pilate said this, he returned to the Jewish leaders and said, “I find no grounds for any charge against him. You have a custom that I release one prisoner for you at Passover. Do you want me to release for you the king of the Jews?”
They shouted, “Not this man! Give us Barabbas!” (Barabbas was an outlaw.)
Silence may be kept.
Gospel canticle
The Magnificat (The Song of Mary)
Refrain:
God, you have done great things, and holy is your name.
With all my heart I glorify the Lord!
In the depths of who I am I rejoice in God my savior.
He has looked with favor on the low status of his servant.
Look! From now on, everyone will consider me highly favored
because the mighty one has done great things for me.
Holy is his name.
He shows mercy to everyone,
from one generation to the next,
who honors him as God.
He has shown strength with his arm.
He has scattered those with arrogant thoughts and proud inclinations.
He has pulled the powerful down from their thrones
and lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away empty-handed.
He has come to the aid of his servant Israel,
remembering his mercy,
just as he promised to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to Abraham’s descendants forever.
Luke 1:46-55
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.
Refrain:
God, you have done great things, and holy is your name.
Brief silence.
The Apostle’s Creed
Let us unite in this historic confession of the Christian faith:
I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.
Prayers
Thanksgiving and intercession
Thanksgiving may be made for the day.
Intercessions are offered
for peace
for individuals and their needs
Other intercessions and supplications may be offered as the Holy Spirit leads.
Response
In faith we pray
We pray to you, our God.
Silence may be kept.
Collect of the day
Blessed Lord,
who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning:
help us so to hear them,
to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them
that, through patience, and the comfort of your holy word,
we may embrace and forever hold fast
the hope of everlasting life,
which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever.
Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer
As our Savior taught us, so we pray
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power,
and the glory are yours
now and forever.
Amen.
Conclusion
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and the love of God,
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,
be with us all evermore.
Amen.