Tuesday evening November 29

Wednesday evening
Monday evening

Preparation

Opening response

Favor us, Lord, and deliver us.
Lord, come quickly and help us.

Reveal among us the light of your presence
that we may behold your power and glory.

Prayer of thanksgiving

Blessed are you, Sovereign God,
creator of light and darkness,
to you be glory and praise forever.
As evening falls, you renew your promise
to reveal among us the light of your presence.
May your word be a lantern to our feet
and a light upon our path
that we may behold your coming among us.
Strengthen us in our stumbling weakness
and free our tongues to sing your praise.
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

Hearken to the Solemn Voice

Charles Wesley
          
Hearken to the solemn voice,
the awful midnight cry;
Waiting souls, rejoice, rejoice,
and see the Bridegroom nigh;
Lo! He comes to keep His word,
light and joy his looks impart;
Go ye forth to meet your Lord,
and meet him in your heart.

Ye who faint beneath the load
of sin, your heads lift up;
See your great redeeming God,
He comes, and bids you hope:
In the midnight of your grief,
Jesus doth his mourners cheer;
Lo! He brings you sure relief;
believe, and feel him here.

Ye whose loins are girt, stand forth!
Whose lamps are burning bright,
Worthy, in your Savior’s worth,
to walk with him in white:
Jesus bids your hearts be clean,
bids you all his promise prove;
Jesus comes to cast out sin,
and perfect you in love.

Wait we all in patient hope,
till Christ, the judge, shall come,
We shall soon be all caught up
to meet the general doom:
In an hour to us unknown,
as a thief in deepest night,
Christ shall suddenly come down,
with all His saints in light.

Happy he whom Christ shall find
watching to see him come;
Him the judge of all mankind
shall bear triumphant home:
Who can answer to his Word?
Which of you dares meet his day?
Rise, and come to judgment!—Lord,
we rise, and come away.

Confession of sin

Let us admit to God the sin which always confronts us.

A time of silence and self-examination may be kept.

Almighty God,
patient and of great goodness:
I confess to you,
I confess with my whole heart
my neglect and forgetfulness of your commandments,
my wrong doing, thinking, and speaking;
the hurts I have done to others,
and the good I have left undone.
O God, forgive me, for I have sinned against you;
and raise me to newness of life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

May the God of love and power
forgive us and free us from our sins,
heal and strengthen us by his Spirit,
and raise us to new life in Christ our Lord.
Amen.

The Word of God

Psalm 74

God, why have you abandoned us forever?
    Why does your anger smolder
    at the sheep of your own pasture?
Remember your congregation
    that you took as your own long ago,
    that you redeemed to be the tribe of your own possession—
    remember Mount Zion, where you dwell.
March to the unending ruins,
    to all that the enemy destroyed in the sanctuary.
Your enemies roared in your own meeting place;
    they set up their own signs there!
It looked like axes raised
    against a thicket of trees.
And then all its carvings
    they hacked down with hatchet and pick.
They set fire to your sanctuary, burned it to the ground;
    they defiled the dwelling place of your name.
They said in their hearts, We’ll kill all of them together!
    They burned all of God’s meeting places in the land.
We don’t see our own signs anymore.
    No prophet is left.
        And none of us know how long it will last.
How long, God, will foes insult you?
    Are enemies going to abuse your name forever?
Why do you pull your hand back?
    Why do you hold your strong hand close to your chest?
Yet God has been my king from ancient days—
    God, who makes salvation happen in the heart of the earth!
        You split the sea with your power.
        You shattered the heads of the sea monsters on the water.
        You crushed Leviathan’s heads.
        You gave it to the desert dwellers for food!
        You split open springs and streams;
        you made strong-flowing rivers dry right up.
        The day belongs to you! The night too!
        You established both the moon and the sun.
        You set all the boundaries of the earth in place.
        Summer and winter? You made them!
So remember this, Lord:
    how enemies have insulted you,
    how unbelieving fools have abused your name.
Don’t deliver the life of your dove to wild animals!
    Don’t forget the lives of your afflicted people forever!
Consider the covenant!
    Because the land’s dark places are full of violence.
Don’t let the oppressed live in shame.
    No, let the poor and needy praise your name!
God, rise up! Make your case!
    Remember how unbelieving fools insult you all day long.
Don’t forget the voices of your enemies,
    the racket of your adversaries that never quits.

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.

Psalm prayer

Redeeming God,
renew your broken people
with your Holy Spirit,
that they may walk your narrow way,
and greet your coming dawn
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Psalm 75

Refrain:
It is God who is the judge.

We give thanks to you, God. Yes, we give thanks!
    Your name is near. Your marvelous deeds are declared.
God says, “When I decide the time is right,
    I will establish justice just so.
    The earth and all its inhabitants will melt,
    but I will keep its pillars steady.”
I said to the arrogant,
    “Don’t be arrogant!”
To the wicked I said,
    “Don’t exalt your strength!
        Don’t exalt your strength so highly.
        Don’t speak so arrogantly against the rock.”
Because what exalts someone
    doesn’t come from the east or west;
    it’s not from the south either.
Rather it is God who is the judge.
    He brings this person down,
        but that person he lifts up.
Indeed, there’s a cup in the Lord’s hand
    full of foaming wine, mixed with spice.
    He will pour it out,
    and all of the earth’s wicked people
    must drink it;
    they must drink every last drop!
But I will rejoice always;
    I will sing praises to Jacob’s God!
God says:
“I will demolish every bit of the wicked’s power,
    but the strength of the righteous will be lifted up.”

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:
It is God who is the judge.

Psalm prayer

Judge of all the earth,
restrain the ambition of the proud
and establish among us the reign of the Messiah,
who drained for us the cup of judgment
and is alive with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever.

Old Testament reading
Isaiah 26:1-13

On that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
Ours is a strong city!
    God makes salvation its walls and ramparts.
Open the gates and let a righteous nation enter,
    a nation that keeps faith.
Those with sound thoughts you will keep in peace,
    in peace because they trust in you.
Trust in the Lord forever,
    for the Lord is a rock for all ages.
He has thrown down those living on high,
    and he will level the lofty town,
    leveling it down to the earth;
    he will bring it down to dust.
The feet trample it,
    the feet of the poor,
    the steps of the needy.

The way of the righteous is level;
    you clear a path for the righteous.
In the path of your justice, Lord, we wait for you;
with all our being, we long for your name and your acclaim.
    At night I long for you with my whole being;
    my spirit within me watches for you.
When your judgments are at work in the earth,
    those living in the world learn righteousness.
When the wicked are favored, they don’t learn righteousness;
    even among those who do right they do wrong,
    and they fail to see the Lord’s majesty.
Lord, your hand is lifted up,
    but they don’t see.
    Let them see and shrink back because of your zeal for your people;
    your burning anger that consumes your enemies.

Lord, grant us peace,
    because all that we have done has been your doing.
Lord our God, other masters besides you have ruled us,
    but we will profess your name alone.

Silence may be kept.

New Testament reading
Matthew 12:22-37

They brought to Jesus a demon-possessed man who was blind and unable to speak. Jesus healed him so that he could both speak and see. All the crowds were amazed and said, “This man couldn’t be the Son of David, could he?”

When the Pharisees heard, they said, “This man throws out demons only by the authority of Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.”

Because Jesus knew what they were thinking, he replied, “Every kingdom involved in civil war becomes a wasteland. Every city or house torn apart by divisions will collapse. If Satan throws out Satan, he is at war with himself. How then can his kingdom endure? And if I throw out demons by the authority of Beelzebul, then by whose authority do your followers throw them out? Therefore, they will be your judges. But if I throw out demons by the power of God’s Spirit, then God’s kingdom has already overtaken you. Can people go into a house that belongs to a strong man and steal his possessions, unless they first tie up the strong man? Then they can rob his house. Whoever isn’t with me is against me, and whoever doesn’t gather with me scatters.

“Therefore, I tell you that people will be forgiven for every sin and insult to God. But insulting the Holy Spirit won’t be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Human One will be forgiven. But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit won’t be forgiven, not in this age or in the age that is coming.

“Either consider the tree good and its fruit good, or consider the tree rotten and its fruit rotten. A tree is known by its fruit. Children of snakes! How can you speak good things while you are evil? What fills the heart comes out of the mouth. Good people bring out good things from their good treasure. But evil people bring out evil things from their evil treasure. I tell you that people will have to answer on Judgment Day for every useless word they speak. By your words you will be either judged innocent or condemned as guilty.”

Silence may be kept.

Gospel canticle
The Magnificat (The Song of Mary)

Refrain:
Lord Jesus, you are the one who is to come, the one whom we await with longing hearts.

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:
Lord Jesus, you are the one who is to come, the one whom we await with longing hearts.

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

God of grace,
hear our prayer.

Silence may be kept.

Collect of the day

Almighty God,
give us grace to cast away the works of darkness
and to put on the armor of light,
now in the time of this mortal life,
in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility;
that on the last day,
when he shall come again in his glorious majesty
      to judge the living and the dead,
we may rise to the life immortal;
through him who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever.              
Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer

Awaiting his coming in glory,
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

May the Lord, when he comes, find us watching and waiting.
Amen.