Thursday evening July 14

Friday evening
Wednesday evening

Preparation

Opening response

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

Hymn

Father, to Thee My Soul I Lift

Charles Wesley
           
Father, to thee my soul I lift;
My soul on thee depends,
Convinced that every perfect gift
From thee alone descends.

Mercy and grace are thine alone,
And power and wisdom too;
Without the Spirit of thy Son
We nothing good can do.

Thou all our works in us hast wrought,
Our good is all divine;
The praise of every virtuous thought
And righteous word is thine.

From thee, through Jesus, we receive
The power on thee to call,
In whom we are, and move and live:
Our God is all in all.

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 goes away 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.

The Word of God

Psalm 94

Refrain: 
Lord, you are righteous, and your rules are right.

Lord, avenging God—
    avenging God, show yourself!
Rise up, judge of the earth!
    Pay back the arrogant exactly what they deserve!
How long will the wicked—oh, Lord!—
    how long will the wicked win?
They spew arrogant words;
    all the evildoers are bragging.
They crush your own people, Lord!
    They abuse your very own possession.
They kill widows and immigrants;
    they murder orphans,
    saying all the while,
    “The Lord can’t see it;
        Jacob’s God doesn’t know
        what’s going on!”
You ignorant people better learn quickly.
    You fools—when will you get some sense?
The one who made the ear,
    can’t he hear?
The one who formed the eye,
    can’t he see?
The one who disciplines nations,
    can’t he punish?
The one who teaches humans,
    doesn’t he know?
The Lord does indeed know human thoughts,
    knows that they are nothing but a puff of air.
The people you discipline, Lord, are truly happy—
    the ones you teach from your Instruction—
    giving them relief from troubling times
        until a pit is dug for the wicked.
The Lord will not reject his people;
    he will not abandon his very own possession.
No, but justice will once again meet up with righteousness,
    and all whose heart is right will follow after.
Who will stand up for me against the wicked?
    Who will help me against evildoers?
If the Lord hadn’t helped me,
    I would live instantly in total silence.
Whenever I feel my foot slipping,
    your faithful love steadies me, Lord.
When my anxieties multiply,
    your comforting calms me down.
Can a wicked ruler be your ally;
    one who wreaks havoc by means of the law?
The wicked gang up against the lives of the righteous.
    They condemn innocent blood.
But the Lord is my fortress;
    my God is my rock of refuge.
He will repay them for their wickedness,
    completely destroy them because of their evil.
    Yes, the Lord our God will completely destroy them.

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, you are righteous, and your rules are right.

Psalm prayer

Lord God, judge of all,
before whom no secrets are hidden,
let your justice shine out
and your righteousness sweep wickedness from its throne,
that we may live free from fear and stumbling;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Old Testament reading
Job 40

The Lord continued to respond to Job:

Will the one who disputes with the Almighty correct him?
    God’s instructor must answer him.
Job responded to the Lord:
Look, I’m of little worth. What can I answer you?
    I’ll put my hand over my mouth.
I have spoken once, I won’t answer;
    twice, I won’t do it again.

The Lord answered Job from the whirlwind:
Prepare yourself like a man;
    I will interrogate you, and you will respond to me.
Would you question my justice,
    deem me guilty so you can be innocent?
Or do you have an arm like God;
    can you thunder with a voice like him?
Adorn yourself with splendor and majesty;
    clothe yourself with honor and esteem.
Unleash your raging anger;
    look on all the proud and humble them.
Look on all the proud and debase them;
    trample the wicked in their place.
Hide them together in the dust;
    bind their faces in a hidden place.
Then I, even I, will praise you,
    for your strong hand has delivered you.

Look at Behemoth, whom I made along with you;
    he eats grass like cattle.
Look, his strength is in his thighs,
    his power in stomach muscles.
He stiffens his tail like a cedar;
    the tendons in his thighs are tightly woven.
His bones are like bronze tubes,
    his limbs like iron bars.
He is the first of God’s acts;
    only his maker can come near him with a sword.
Indeed, the hills bring him tribute,
    places where all the wild animals play.
He lies under the lotuses,
    under the cover of reed and marsh.
The lotuses screen him with shade;
    poplars of the stream surround him.
If the river surges, he doesn’t hurry;
    he is confident even though the Jordan gushes into his mouth.
Can he be seized by his eyes?
    Can anyone pierce his nose by hooks?

Silence may be kept.

New Testament reading
Romans 15:22-33

That’s why I’ve been stopped so many times from coming to see you. But now, since I don’t have any place to work in these regions anymore, and since I’ve wanted to come to see you for many years, I’ll visit you when I go to Spain. I hope to see you while I’m passing through. And I hope you will send me on my way there, after I have first been reenergized by some time in your company.

But now I’m going to Jerusalem, to serve God’s people. Macedonia and Achaia have been happy to make a contribution for the poor among God’s people in Jerusalem. They were happy to do this, and they are actually in debt to God’s people in Jerusalem. If the Gentiles got a share of the Jewish people’s spiritual resources, they ought to minister to them with material resources. So then after I have finished this job and have safely delivered the final amount of the Gentiles’ offering to them, I will leave for Spain, visiting you on the way. And I know that when I come to you I will come with the fullest blessing of Christ.

Brothers and sisters, I urge you, through our Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggles in your prayers to God for me. Pray that I will be rescued from the people in Judea who don’t believe. Also, pray that my service for Jerusalem will be acceptable to God’s people there so that I can come to you with joy by God’s will and be reenergized with your company. May the God of peace be with you all. Amen.

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

Prayers may include the following concerns:

Local government, community leaders
All who provide local services
Those who work with young or elderly people
Schools, colleges and universities
Emergency and rescue organizations

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

O God, the protector of all who trust in you,
without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy:
increase and multiply upon us your mercy;
that with you as our ruler and guide
we may so pass through things temporal
that we lose not our hold on things eternal;
grant this, heavenly Father,
for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake,
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.