Opening response

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

Prayer of thanksgiving

Blessed are you, Lord God, creator of day and night:
to you be praise and glory for ever.
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

Out of the Iron Furnace, Lord

Charles Wesley

Out of the iron furnace, Lord,
To thee for help I cry,
I listen to thy warning word,
And would from Egypt fly.

Long have I bowed to sin’s command,
But now I would be free,
Escape from the dire oppressor’s land,
And live, O God, to thee.

Hast thou not surely seen my grief?
Hast thou not heard me groan?
O hasten then to my relief,
In pitying love come down.

From Pharaoh, and the Egyptian’s power
Redeem a wretched slave;
Thou canst redeem me in this hour,
Thou wilt the sinner save.

Now, Lord, relieve my misery,
Stretch out thy mighty hand,
Drown all my sins in the Red Sea,
And bring me safe to land.

Strength in the Lord my righteousness,
And pardon I receive,
And holy joy, and quiet peace
The moment I believe.

Confession of sin

The LORD is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion.
He has not dealt with us according to our sins
or repaid us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his loving devotion for those who fear him.

Silence is kept for reflection.

Holy God,
Holy and strong,
Holy and immortal,
have mercy upon us.

As far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him.

Bless the LORD, O my soul;
all that is within me, bless his holy name.

Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and do not forget all his kind deeds.

Psalm 130

𝙍: My soul waits for the Lord.

Out of the depths
I cry to You, O LORD!
O Lord, hear my voice;
let Your ears be attentive to my plea for mercy.

If You, O LORD, kept track of iniquities,
then who, O Lord, could stand?
But with You there is forgiveness,
so that You may be feared. 𝙍

I wait for the LORD; my soul does wait,
and in His word I put my hope.
My soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning—
more than watchmen wait for the morning. 𝙍

O Israel, put your hope in the LORD,
for with the LORD is loving devotion,
and with Him is redemption in abundance.
And He will redeem Israel
from all iniquity.

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: My soul waits for the Lord.

Psalm prayer

Father, we commend to your faithful love
those who are crying from the depths;
help them to watch and pray
through their time of darkness,
in sure hope of the dawn of your
forgiveness and redemption;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Psalm 131

𝙍: O Israel, put your hope in the LORD.

My heart is not proud, O LORD,
my eyes are not haughty.
I do not aspire to great things
or matters too lofty for me.
Surely I have stilled and quieted my soul;
like a weaned child with his mother,
like a weaned child is my soul within me.

O Israel, put your hope in the LORD,
both now and forevermore.

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 Israel, put your hope in the LORD.

Psalm prayer

Eternal God,
calm and quiet our souls;
keep us humble and full of wonder
and trusting as we live in your love;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Psalm 137

𝙍: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion.
There on the willows
we hung our harps,
for there our captors requested a song;
our tormentors demanded songs of joy:

“Sing us a song of Zion.” 𝙍

How can we sing a song of the LORD
in a foreign land?
If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
may my right hand cease to function.
May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth
if I do not remember you,
if I do not exalt Jerusalem
as my greatest joy! 𝙍

Remember, O LORD,
the sons of Edom on the day Jerusalem fell:
“Destroy it,” they said,
“tear it down to its foundations!”

O Daughter of Babylon,
doomed to destruction,
blessed is he who repays you
as you have done to us.
Blessed is he who seizes your infants
and dashes them against the rocks.

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: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

Psalm prayer

God of our pilgrimage,
you sent your Son to our strange land
to bring us home to you;
give us your songs to sing,
that even in our exile
we may be filled with the breath of the Spirit
of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Old Testament reading

Ezekiel 8

In the sixth year, on the fifth day of the sixth month, I was sitting in my house, and the elders of Judah were sitting before me; and there the hand of the Lord GOD fell upon me.

Then I looked and saw a figure like that of a man. From His waist down His appearance was like fire, and from His waist up He was as bright as the gleam of amber. He stretched out what looked like a hand and took me by the hair of my head. Then the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and carried me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate of the inner court, where the idol that provokes jealousy was seated.

And there I saw the glory of the God of Israel, like the vision I had seen in the plain. “Son of man,” He said to me, “now lift up your eyes to the north.”

So I lifted up my eyes to the north, and in the entrance north of the Altar Gate I saw this idol of jealousy.

“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see what they are doing—the great abominations that the house of Israel is committing—to drive Me far from My sanctuary? Yet you will see even greater abominations.”

Then He brought me to the entrance to the court, and I looked and saw a hole in the wall.

“Son of man,” He told me, “dig through the wall.”

So I dug through the wall and discovered a doorway.

Then He said to me, “Go in and see the wicked abominations they are committing here.”

So I went in and looked, and engraved all around the wall was every kind of crawling creature and detestable beast, along with all the idols of the house of Israel. Before them stood seventy elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan standing among them. Each had a censer in his hand, and a fragrant cloud of incense was rising.

“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol? For they are saying, ‘The LORD does not see us; the LORD has forsaken the land.’ ”

Again, He told me, “You will see them committing even greater abominations.”

Then He brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the LORD, and I saw women sitting there, weeping for Tammuz.

“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see this? Yet you will see even greater abominations than these.”

So He brought me to the inner court of the house of the LORD, and there at the entrance to the temple of the LORD, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east; and they were bowing to the east in worship of the sun.

“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see this? Is it not enough for the house of Judah to commit the abominations they are practicing here, that they must also fill the land with violence and continually provoke Me to anger? Look, they are even putting the branch to their nose! Therefore I will respond with wrath. I will not look on them with pity, nor will I spare them. Although they shout loudly in My ears, I will not listen to them.”

Silence may be kept.

New Testament reading

2 Corinthians 4

Therefore, since God in His mercy has given us this ministry, we do not lose heart. Instead, we have renounced secret and shameful ways. We do not practice deceit, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by open proclamation of the truth, we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.

The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not proclaim ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Now we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this surpassingly great power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on all sides, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.

We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always consigned to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

And in keeping with what is written: “I believed, therefore I have spoken,” we who have the same spirit of faith also believe and therefore speak, knowing that the One who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in His presence. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is extending to more and more people may overflow in thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, yet our inner self is being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory that is far beyond comparison. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Silence may be kept.

The Magnificat (The Song of Mary)

Luke 1:46-55

𝙍: Come, let us return to the Lord, for our God will freely pardon.

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: Come, let us return to the Lord, for our God will freely pardon.

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.

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:

National leaders, public officials and the armed forces
Peace and justice in the world
Those who work for reconciliation
All whose lives are devastated by war and civil strife
Prisoners, refugees and homeless people

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 and everlasting God,
by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church
is governed and sanctified:
hear our prayer which we offer for all your faithful people,
that in their vocation and ministry
they may serve you in holiness and truth
to the glory of your name;
through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
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, 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

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.