Sunday evening December 15

Monday evening
Saturday 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

O Come, Thou Radiant Morning Star

Charles Wesley
          
O come, thou radiant Morning Star,
Again in human darkness shine!
Arise resplendent from afar!
Assert thy royalty divine!
Thy sway over all the earth maintain,
And now begin thy glorious reign.

Thy kingdom, Lord, we long to see:
Thy scepter over the nations shake!
Erect that final monarchy,
Edom for thy possession take;
Take, for thou didst their ransom find
The purchased souls of all mankind.

Now let thy chosen ones appear,
And valiantly the truth maintain!
Proclaim thy gracious kingdom here,
To all the rebel sons of men,
Seize them with faith divinely bold,
And bring the wanderers to thy fold.

Confession of sin

Let us confess our sins to God.

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

My God, for love of you
I desire to hate and forsake all sins
by which I have ever displeased you;
and I resolve by the help of your grace
to commit them no more;
and to avoid all opportunities of sin.
Help me to do this,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

The Lord enrich us with his grace,
and nourish us with his blessing;
the Lord defend us in trouble and keep us from all evil;
the Lord accept our prayers,
and absolve us from our offenses,
for the sake of Jesus Christ, our Savior.
Amen.

The Word of God

Psalm 12

Refrain:
You, Lord, will keep us, protecting us from this generation forever.

Help, Lord, because the godly are all gone;
    the faithful have completely disappeared
    from the human race!
Everyone tells lies to everyone else;
    they talk with slick speech and divided hearts.
Let the Lord cut off all slick-talking lips
    and every tongue that brags and brags,
    that says, “We’re unbeatable with our tongues!
    Who could get the best of us with lips like ours?”
But the Lord says,
    “Because the poor are oppressed,
    because of the groans of the needy,
    I’m now standing up.
    I will provide the help they are gasping for.”
The Lord’s promises are pure,
    like silver that’s been refined in an oven,
    purified seven times over!
You, Lord, will keep us,
    protecting us from this generation forever.
The wicked roam all over the place,
    while depravity is praised by human beings.

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:
You, Lord, will keep us, protecting us from this generation forever.

Psalm prayer

Lord, when faith is faint
and speech veils our intentions,
restore us by your word of power and purity,
both now and forever.

Psalm 14

Refrain:
The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.

Fools say in their hearts, There is no God.
    They are corrupt and do evil things;
    not one of them does anything good.
The Lord looks down from heaven on humans
    to see if anyone is wise,
    to see if anyone seeks God,
        but all of them have turned bad.
        Everyone is corrupt.
        No one does good—
        not even one person!
Are they dumb, all these evildoers,
    devouring my people
    like they are eating bread
        but never calling on the Lord?
Count on it: they will be in utter panic
    because God is with the righteous generation.
You evildoers may humiliate
    the plans of those who suffer,
        but the Lord is their refuge.
Let Israel’s salvation come out of Zion!
        When the Lord changes
        his people’s circumstances for the better,
        Jacob will rejoice;
        Israel will celebrate!

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 beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.

Psalm prayer

God of heaven,
look with mercy on all who are consumed
by ignorance and greed,
and let the children of earth know
that you are God forever.

Old Testament reading
Isaiah 5:8-30

Doom to those who acquire house after house,
    who annex field to field until there is no more space left
    and only you live alone in the land.
I heard the Lord of heavenly forces say this:
Many houses will become total ruins,
    large, fine houses, with no one living in them.
Ten acres of vineyard
    will produce just one bath,
    and a homer of seed
        will produce only an ephah.

Doom to those who wake up early in the morning to run after beer,
    to those who stay up late, lit up by wine.
They party with lyre and harp, tambourine, flute, and wine;
    but they ignore the Lord’s work;
        they can’t see what God is doing.

Therefore, my people go into exile since they didn’t understand—
    their officials are dying of hunger;
    so many of them are dried up with thirst.
Therefore, the grave opens wide its jaws,
    opens its mouth beyond all bounds,
    and the splendid multitudes will go down, with all their uproar and cheering.
Humanity will be humiliated;
    each person laid low,
    the eyes of the exalted laid low.
But the Lord of heavenly forces will be exalted in justice,
    and the holy God will show himself holy in righteousness.
Lambs will graze as if in their pasture;
    young goats will feed among the ruins of the rich.

Doom to those who drag guilt along with cords of fraud,
    and haul sin as if with cart ropes,
    who say, “God should hurry and work faster so we can see;
    let the plan of Israel’s holy one come quickly, so we can understand it.”

Doom to those who call evil good and good evil,
    who present darkness as light and light as darkness,
    who make bitterness sweet and sweetness bitter.

Doom to those
who consider themselves wise,
    who think of themselves as clever.

Doom to the wine-swigging warriors,
    mighty at mixing drinks,
    who spare the guilty for bribes,
    and rob the innocent of their rights.
Therefore, as a tongue of fire devours stubble,
    and as hay shrivels in a flame,
        so their roots will rot,
        and their blossoms turn to dust,
    for they have rejected the teaching of the Lord of heavenly forces,
        and have despised the word of Israel’s holy one.

This is why the Lord’s anger burned against the people:
    he extended his hand to strike them,
    the mountains trembled,
    and their corpses lay in the middle of the streets like dung.
Even then God’s anger didn’t turn away;
    God’s hand was still extended.

God will raise a signal to a nation from far away
    and whistle to them from the end of the earth—
    now look—hurrying, swiftly they come!
Not one is tired; not one stumbles;
    they don’t rest or sleep;
    no belt is loose; no sandal broken;
    their arrows are sharp;
    all their bows drawn;
    their horses’ hooves are like flint;
    their wheels like the whirlwind.
    Their roaring is like the lion;
    they roar like young lions;
    they growl, seize their prey,
    and carry it off, with no one to rescue.
On that day, they will roar over it like the roaring of the sea.
And if one looks toward the land, there’s darkness.
    Tyre and the Nile will be darkened by the clouds.

Silence may be kept.

New Testament reading
Acts 13:13-41

Paul and his companions sailed from Paphos to Perga in Pamphylia. John deserted them there and returned to Jerusalem. They went on from Perga and arrived at Antioch in Pisidia. On the Sabbath, they entered and found seats in the synagogue there. After the reading of the Law and the Prophets, the synagogue leaders invited them, “Brothers, if one of you has a sermon for the people, please speak.”

Standing up, Paul gestured with his hand and said, “Fellow Israelites and Gentile God-worshippers, please listen to me. The God of this people Israel chose our ancestors. God made them a great people while they lived as strangers in the land of Egypt. With his great power, he led them out of that country. For about forty years, God put up with them in the wilderness. God conquered seven nations in the land of Canaan and gave the Israelites their land as an inheritance. This happened over a period of about four hundred fifty years.

“After this, he gave them judges until the time of the prophet Samuel. The Israelites requested a king, so God gave them Saul, Kish’s son, from the tribe of Benjamin, and he served as their king for forty years. After God removed him, he raised up David to be their king. God testified concerning him, ‘I have found David, Jesse’s son, a man who shares my desires. Whatever my will is, he will do.’ From this man’s descendants, God brought to Israel a savior, Jesus, just as he promised. Before Jesus’ appearance, John proclaimed to all the Israelites a baptism to show they were changing their hearts and lives. As John was completing his mission, he said, ‘Who do you think I am? I’m not the one you think I am, but he is coming after me. I’m not worthy to loosen his sandals.’

“Brothers, children of Abraham’s family, and you Gentile God-worshippers, the message about this salvation has been sent to us. The people in Jerusalem and their leaders didn’t recognize Jesus. By condemning him they fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath. Even though they didn’t find a single legal basis for the death penalty, they asked Pilate to have him executed. When they finished doing everything that had been written about him, they took him down from the cross and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead! He appeared over many days to those who had traveled with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to the people.

“We proclaim to you the good news. What God promised to our ancestors, he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus. As it was written in the second psalm, You are my son; today I have become your father.

“God raised Jesus from the dead, never again to be subjected to death’s decay. Therefore, God said, I will give to you the holy and firm promises I made to David. In another place it is said, You will not let your holy one experience death’s decay. David served God’s purpose in his own generation, then he died and was buried with his ancestors. He experienced death’s decay, but the one whom God has raised up didn’t experience death’s decay.

“Therefore, brothers and sisters, know this: Through Jesus we proclaim forgiveness of sins to you. From all those sins from which you couldn’t be put in right relationship with God through Moses’ Law, through Jesus everyone who believes is put in right relationship with God. Take care that the prophets’ words don’t apply to you:

Look, you scoffers,
    marvel and die.
I’m going to do work in your day —
    a work you won’t believe
    even if someone told you.”

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

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

Father, by your Spirit
Bring in your kingdom.

Silence may be kept.

Collect of the day

O Lord Jesus Christ,
who at your first coming sent your messenger
to prepare your way before you:
grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries
may likewise so prepare and make ready your way
by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just,
that at your second coming to judge the world
we may be found an acceptable people in your sight;
for you are alive and reign with the Father
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.