Opening response

O God, make speed to save us.
O Lord, make haste to help us.

You laid the earth’s foundations in the beginning,
and the heavens are made by your hands.

Prayer of thanksgiving

Blessed are you, Sovereign God,
our light and our salvation,
to you be glory and praise forever.
To dispel the darkness of our night
you sent forth your Son, the firstborn of all creation,
to be the Christ, the light of the world.
Rejoicing in the mystery of the Word made flesh,
we acclaim him Emmanuel, as all creation sings to you:
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

In the Midst Do Thou Appear

Charles Wesley

In the midst do thou appear,
Lord, reveal thy presence here!
Sanctify us now, and bless;
Breathe thy Spirit, give thy peace.

While we walk with God in light,
God our hearts doth still unite,
Sweetly each with each combined
In the bonds of duty joined.

Father, still our faith increase:
Cleanse from all unrighteousness,
Thee the unholy cannot see;
Make, oh make us meet for thee!

Mutual love the token be,
Lord, that we belong to thee,
Only love to us be given,
Lord we ask no other heaven.

Confession of sin

When we cry out to the LORD in our trouble,
he will bring us out of our distress.

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 give thanks to the LORD for his loving devotion,
and his wonders to the sons of men.

Let us offer sacrifices of thanksgiving
and declare God’s works with rejoicing.

cf Psalm 107

Psalm 90

𝙍: O LORD my God, I take refuge in You.

Lord, You have been our dwelling place
through all generations.
Before the mountains were born
or You brought forth the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting
You are God.

You return man to dust,
saying, “Return, O sons of mortals.”
For in Your sight a thousand years
are but a day that passes,
or a watch of the night.
You whisk them away in their sleep;
they are like the new grass of the morning—
in the morning it springs up new,
but by evening it fades and withers. 𝙍

For we are consumed by Your anger
and terrified by Your wrath.
You have set our iniquities before You,
our secret sins in the light of Your presence.
For all our days decline in Your fury;
we finish our years with a sigh.
The length of our days is seventy years—
or eighty if we are strong—
yet their pride is but labor and sorrow,
for they quickly pass, and we fly away.

Who knows the power of Your anger?
Your wrath matches the fear You are due.
So teach us to number our days,
that we may present a heart of wisdom. 𝙍

Return, O LORD! How long will it be?
Have compassion on Your servants.
Satisfy us in the morning with Your loving devotion,
that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
Make us glad for as many days as You have afflicted us,
for as many years as we have seen evil.

May Your work be shown to Your servants,
and Your splendor to their children.
May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us;
establish for us the work of our hands—
yes, establish the work of our hands!

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.

𝙍: O LORD my God, I take refuge in You.

Psalm prayer

Almighty God,
our eternal refuge,
teach us to live with the knowledge of our death
and to rejoice in the promise of your glory,
revealed to us in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Psalm 148

𝙍: O praise the name of the LORD.

Hallelujah!

Praise the LORD from the heavens;
praise Him in the highest places.
Praise Him, all His angels;
praise Him, all His heavenly hosts.
Praise Him, O sun and moon;
praise Him, all you shining stars.
Praise Him, O highest heavens,
and you waters above the skies.
Let them praise the name of the LORD,
for He gave the command and they were created.
He established them forever and ever;
He issued a decree that will never pass away. 𝙍

Praise the LORD from the earth,
all great sea creatures and ocean depths,
lightning and hail, snow and clouds,
powerful wind fulfilling His word,
mountains and all hills,
fruit trees and all cedars,
wild animals and all cattle,
crawling creatures and flying birds,
kings of the earth and all peoples,
princes and all rulers of the earth,
young men and maidens,
old and young together.

Let them praise the name of the LORD,
for His name alone is exalted;
His splendor is above the earth and the heavens.
He has raised up a horn for His people,
the praise of all His saints,
of Israel, a people near to Him.

Hallelujah!

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.

𝙍: O praise the name of the LORD.

Psalm prayer

O glorious God,
your whole creation sings your marvelous work;
may heaven’s praise so echo in our hearts
that we may be good stewards of the earth;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Old Testament reading

Jonah 3-4

Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message that I give you.”

This time Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, in accordance with the word of the LORD.

Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, requiring a three-day journey. On the first day of his journey, Jonah set out into the city and proclaimed, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned!”

And the Ninevites believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least.

When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh:

“By the decree of the king and his nobles:

Let no man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink. Furthermore, let both man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and have everyone call out earnestly to God. Let each one turn from his evil ways and from the violence in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent; He may turn from His fierce anger, so that we will not perish.”

When God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways—He relented from the disaster He had threatened to bring upon them.

Jonah, however, was greatly displeased, and he became angry. So he prayed to the LORD, saying, “O LORD, is this not what I said while I was still in my own country? This is why I was so quick to flee toward Tarshish. I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion—One who relents from sending disaster. And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

But the LORD replied, “Have you any right to be angry?”

Then Jonah left the city and sat down east of it, where he made himself a shelter and sat in its shade to see what would happen to the city. So the LORD God appointed a vine, and it grew up to provide shade over Jonah’s head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was greatly pleased with the plant.

When dawn came the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered.

As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint and wished to die, saying, “It is better for me to die than to live.”

Then God asked Jonah, “Have you any right to be angry about the plant?”

“I do,” he replied. “I am angry enough to die!”

But the LORD said, “You cared about the plant, which you neither tended nor made grow. It sprang up in a night and perished in a night. So should I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well?”

Silence may be kept.

New Testament reading

Colossians 1:24-2:7

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions for the sake of His body, which is the church. I became its servant by the commission God gave me to fully proclaim to you the word of God, the mystery that was hidden for ages and generations but is now revealed to His saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

We proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I also labor, striving with all His energy working powerfully within me.

For I want you to know how much I am struggling for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me face to face, that they may be encouraged in heart, knit together in love, and filled with the full riches of complete understanding, so that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

I say this so that no one will deceive you by smooth rhetoric. For although I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit, and I delight to see your orderly condition and firm faith in Christ.

Therefore, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

Silence may be kept.

The Magnificat (The Song of Mary)

Luke 1:46-55

𝙍: When peaceful silence lay over all, and night was in the midst of her swift course: from your royal throne, O God, down from the heavens, leapt your almighty Word.

My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!
For He has looked with favor on the humble state of His servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed.
For the Mighty One has done great things for me.
Holy is His name.
His mercy extends to those who fear Him,
from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with His arm;
He has scattered those who are proud
in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones,
but has exalted the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped His servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful,
as He promised to our fathers,
to Abraham and his descendants forever.

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.

𝙍: When peaceful silence lay over all, and night was in the midst of her swift course: from your royal throne, O God, down from the heavens, leapt your almighty Word.

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.
He was conceived by the Holy Spirit
and born of the Virgin Mary.
He 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,
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He 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

Prayers may include the following concerns:

The church, especially in places of conflict
The Holy Land, for peace with justice, and reconciliation
Refugees and asylum seekers
Homeless people
Families with young children

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

Response

Lord, hear your people
and answer our prayers.

Silence may be kept.

Collect of the day

Almighty God,
whose blessed Son was circumcised
in obedience to the law for our sake
and given the Name that is above every name:
give us grace faithfully to bear his Name,
to worship him in the freedom of the Spirit,
and to proclaim him as the Savior of the world;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever.
Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer

Rejoicing in the presence of God here among us, as our Savior taught us, so we pray

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 trespasses,
as we forgive those
who trespass 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.

Conclusion

May God, who has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light, bless us and fill us with peace.
Amen.