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Opening response

Lord, open our lips.
Our mouth will declare your praise.

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

Prayer of thanksgiving

Blessed are you, Sovereign God of all,
to you be praise and glory forever.
In your tender compassion
the dawn from on high is breaking upon us
to dispel the lingering shadows of night.
As we look for your coming among us this day,
open our eyes to behold your presence
and strengthen our hands to do your will,
that the world may rejoice and give you praise.
Blessed be God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Blessed be God forever.

The night has passed, and the day lies open before us;
let us pray with one heart and mind.

Silence is kept.

As we rejoice in the gift of this new day,
so may the light of your presence, O God,
set our hearts on fire with love for you;
now and forever.
Amen.

Hymn

The Great Archangel's Trump Shall Sound

Charles Wesley

The great archangel's trump shall sound,
While twice ten thousand thunders roar
Tear up the graves, and cleave the ground,
And make the greedy sea restore.

The greedy sea shall yield her dead,
The earth no more her slain conceal;
Sinners shall lift their guilty head,
And shrink to see a yawning hell.

But we, who now our Lord confess,
And faithful to the end endure,
Shall stand in Jesus’ righteousness,
Stand, as the Rock of ages, sure.

We, while the stars from heaven shall fall,
And mountains are on mountains hurled,
Shall stand unmoved amidst them all,
And smile to see a burning world.

The earth, and all the works therein,
Dissolve, by raging flames destroyed,
While we survey the awful scene,
And mount above the fiery void.

By faith we now transcend the skies,
And on that ruined world look down;
By love above all height we rise,
And share the everlasting throne.

Confession of sin

Come, Holy Spirit of God,
and search our hearts with the light of Christ.

Our Lord Jesus Christ said:
The first commandment is this:
‘Israel, listen! Our God is the one Lord,
and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your being, with all your mind,
and with all your strength.’

The second is this: ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself.’
No other commandment is greater than these.
All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commandments.

Amen. Lord, have mercy.

After a period of reflection

Come, let us return to the Lord and say:

Lord our God,
in our sin we have avoided your call.
Our love for you is like a morning cloud,
like the dew that disappears early.
Have mercy on us;
deliver us from judgment;
bind up our wounds and revive us;
in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

cf Hosea 6

May almighty God,
who sent his Son into the world to save sinners,
bring us his pardon and peace, now and forever.
Amen.

Psalm 144

Refrain:
Happy are the people whose God is Yahweh.

Blessed be Yahweh, my rock,
    who teaches my hands to war,
    and my fingers to battle:
my loving kindness, my fortress,
    my high tower, my deliverer,
    my shield, and he in whom I take refuge,
    who subdues my people under me.
Yahweh, what is man, that you care for him?
    Or the son of man, that you think of him?
Man is like a breath.
    His days are like a shadow that passes away.
Part your heavens, Yahweh, and come down.
    Touch the mountains, and they will smoke.
Throw out lightning, and scatter them.
    Send out your arrows, and rout them.
Stretch out your hand from above,
    rescue me, and deliver me out of great waters,
    out of the hands of foreigners,
    whose mouths speak deceit,
    whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
I will sing a new song to you, God.
    On a ten-stringed lyre, I will sing praises to you.
You are he who gives salvation to kings,
    who rescues David, his servant, from the deadly sword.
Rescue me, and deliver me out of the hands of foreigners,
    whose mouths speak deceit,
    whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.

Then our sons will be like well-nurtured plants,
    our daughters like pillars carved to adorn a palace.
Our barns are full, filled with all kinds of provision.
    Our sheep produce thousands and ten thousands in our fields.
Our oxen will pull heavy loads.
    There is no breaking in, and no going away,
    and no outcry in our streets.
Happy are the people who are in such a situation.
    Happy are the people whose God is Yahweh.

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:
Happy are the people whose God is Yahweh.

Psalm prayer

God our deliverer,
stir our weak wills,
revive our weary spirits,
and give us the courage
to strive for the freedom of all your children,
to the praise of your glorious name.

Psalm 146

Refrain:
Yahweh will reign forever.

Praise Yah!
    Praise Yahweh, my soul.
While I live, I will praise Yahweh.
    I will sing praises to my God as long as I exist.
Don’t put your trust in princes,
    in a son of man in whom there is no help.
His spirit departs, and he returns to the earth.
    In that very day, his thoughts perish.
Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help,
    whose hope is in Yahweh, his God:
who made heaven and earth,
    the sea, and all that is in them;
    who keeps truth forever;
who executes justice for the oppressed;
    who gives food to the hungry.
Yahweh frees the prisoners.
    Yahweh opens the eyes of the blind.
    Yahweh raises up those who are bowed down.
    Yahweh loves the righteous.
Yahweh preserves the foreigners.
    He upholds the fatherless and widow,
    but he turns the way of the wicked upside down.
Yahweh will reign forever;
    your God, O Zion, to all generations.
Praise Yah!

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:
Yahweh will reign forever.

Psalm prayer

Lord of all,
our breath and being come from you,
yet our earthly end is dust;
as you loose the bound and feed the hungry,
so bring us in your mercy through the grave and gate of death
to the feast of eternal life,
where you reign forevermore.

Old Testament reading

Isaiah 52:13-53:12

Behold, my servant will deal wisely.
    He will be exalted and lifted up,
    and will be very high.
Just as many were astonished at you—
    his appearance was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men—
so he will cleanse many nations.
    Kings will shut their mouths at him;
    for they will see that which had not been told them,
    and they will understand that which they had not heard.

Who has believed our message?
    To whom has Yahweh’s arm been revealed?
For he grew up before him as a tender plant,
    and as a root out of dry ground.
He has no good looks or majesty.
    When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
He was despised
    and rejected by men,
a man of suffering
    and acquainted with disease.
He was despised as one from whom men hide their face;
    and we didn’t respect him.

Surely he has borne our sickness
    and carried our suffering;
yet we considered him plagued,
    struck by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions.
    He was crushed for our iniquities.
The punishment that brought our peace was on him;
    and by his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray.
    Everyone has turned to his own way;
    and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed,
    yet when he was afflicted he didn’t open his mouth.
As a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
    and as a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
    so he didn’t open his mouth.
He was taken away by oppression and judgment.
    As for his generation,
    who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living
    and stricken for the disobedience of my people?
They made his grave with the wicked,
    and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
    nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him.
    He has caused him to suffer.
When you make his soul an offering for sin,
    he will see his offspring.
He will prolong his days
    and Yahweh’s pleasure will prosper in his hand.
After the suffering of his soul,
    he will see the light and be satisfied.
My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself;
    and he will bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will give him a portion with the great.
    He will divide the plunder with the strong;
because he poured out his soul to death
    and was counted with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sins of many
    and made intercession for the transgressors.

Silence may be kept.

New Testament reading

2 Peter 1:1-15

Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a like precious faith with us in the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, seeing that his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and virtue, by which he has granted to us his precious and exceedingly great promises; that through these you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust. Yes, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence; and in moral excellence, knowledge; and in knowledge, self-control; and in self-control perseverance; and in perseverance godliness; and in godliness brotherly affection; and in brotherly affection, love. For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to not be idle or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is blind, seeing only what is near, having forgotten the cleansing from his old sins. Therefore, brothers, be more diligent to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble. For thus you will be richly supplied with the entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Therefore I will not be negligent to remind you of these things, though you know them, and are established in the present truth. I think it right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you, knowing that the putting off of my tent comes swiftly, even as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. Yes, I will make every effort that you may always be able to remember these things even after my departure.

Silence may be kept.

The Benedictus (The Song of Zechariah)

Luke 1:68-79

Refrain:
Like the sun in the morning sky,
the Savior of the world will dawn;
like rain upon the meadows,
the Christ will come down upon us.

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
for he has visited and redeemed his people;
and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David
(as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets who have been from of old),
salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us;
to show mercy toward our fathers,
to remember his holy covenant,
the oath which he swore to Abraham our father,
to grant to us that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies,
should serve him without fear,
in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life.
And you, child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways,
to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the remission of their sins,
because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the dawn from on high will visit us,
to shine on those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death;
to guide our feet into the way of peace.

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:
Like the sun in the morning sky,
the Savior of the world will dawn;
like rain upon the meadows,
the Christ will come down upon us.

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.

Intercession and thanksgiving

Prayers may be offered for:

the day and its tasks
the world and its needs
the church and her life

Prayers may include the following concerns:

The church, that she may be ready for the coming of Christ
The leaders of the church
The nations, that they may be subject to the rule of God
Those who are working for justice in the world
The broken, that they may find God’s healing

Other intercessions and supplications may be offered as the Holy Spirit leads.

Response

Lord, in your mercy
hear our prayer.

Silence may be kept.

Collect of the day

God our redeemer,
who prepared the Blessed Virgin Mary
to be the mother of your Son:
grant that, as she looked for his coming as our savior,
so we may be ready to greet him
when he comes again as our judge;
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.