Wednesday evening April 26

Thursday evening
Tuesday evening

Preparation

Opening response

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

In your resurrection, O Christ,
let heaven and earth rejoice. Alleluia.

Prayer of thanksgiving

Blessed are you, Sovereign Lord,
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
to you be glory and praise forever.
From the deep waters of death
you brought your people to new birth
by raising your Son to life in triumph.
Through him dark death has been destroyed
and radiant life is everywhere restored.
As you call us out of darkness into his marvelous light
may our lives reflect his glory
and our lips repeat the endless song.
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

Open, Lord, My Inward Ear

Charles Wesley
           
Open, Lord, my inward ear,
and bid my heart rejoice;
Bid my quiet spirit hear
The comfort of thy voice;
Never in the whirlwind found,
or where earthquake rocks the place,
Still and silent is the sound,
The whisper of thy grace.

Show me, as my soul can bear,
the depth of inbred sin;
All my unbelief declare
the pride that lurks within:
Take me, whom thyself hast bought,
and bring into captivity
Every high aspiring thought
that would not stoop to Thee.

Lord, my time is in thy hand,
my soul to thee convert;
Thou canst make me understand,
though I am slow of heart;
Thine in whom I live and move,
Thine, Lord, the work, the praise is thine!
Thou art wisdom, power and love,
and all thou art is mine.

From the world of sin and noise
And hurry I withdraw;
For the small and inward voice
I wait with humble awe:
Silent am I now and still,
Dare not in thy presence move;
To my waiting soul reveal
The secret of thy love.

Confession of sin

Let us admit to God the sin which always confronts us.

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

Almighty God,
patient and of great goodness:
I confess to you,
I confess with my whole heart
my neglect and forgetfulness of your commandments,
my wrong doing, thinking, and speaking;
the hurts I have done to others,
and the good I have left undone.
O God, forgive me, for I have sinned against you;
and raise me to newness of life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
Amen.

May the God of love and power
forgive us and free us from our sins,
heal and strengthen us by his Spirit,
and raise us to new life in Christ our Lord.
Amen.

The Word of God

Psalm 33

Refrain:
The Lord’s faithful love fills the whole earth.

All you who are righteous,
    shout joyfully to the Lord!
    It’s right for those who do right to praise God.
Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre!
    Sing praises to him with the ten-stringed harp!
Sing to him a new song!
    Play your best with joyful shouts!
Because the Lord’s word is right,
    his every act is done in good faith.
He loves righteousness and justice;
    the Lord’s faithful love fills the whole earth.
The skies were made by the Lord’s word,
    all their starry multitude by the breath of his mouth.
He gathered the ocean waters into a heap;
    he put the deep seas into storerooms.
All the earth honors the Lord;
    all the earth’s inhabitants stand in awe of him.
Because when he spoke, it happened!
    When he commanded, there it was!
The Lord overrules what the nations plan;
    he frustrates what the peoples intend to do.
But the Lord’s plan stands forever;
    what he intends to do lasts from one generation to the next.
The nation whose God is the Lord,
    the people whom God has chosen as his possession,
    is truly happy!
The Lord looks down from heaven;
    he sees every human being.
From his dwelling place God observes
    all who live on earth.
God is the one who made all their hearts,
    the one who knows everything they do.
Kings aren’t saved by the strength of their armies;
    warriors aren’t rescued by how much power they have.
A warhorse is a bad bet for victory;
    it can’t save despite its great strength.
But look here: the Lord’s eyes watch all who honor him,
    all who wait for his faithful love,
    to deliver their lives from death
    and keep them alive during a famine.
We put our hope in the Lord.
    He is our help and our shield.
Our heart rejoices in God
    because we trust his holy name.
Lord, let your faithful love surround us
    because we wait for you.

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 Lord’s faithful love fills the whole earth.

Psalm prayer

Feed your people, Lord,
with your holy word
and free us from the emptiness of our
wrongful desires,
that we may sing the new song of salvation
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Old Testament reading
Exodus 16:11-36

The Lord spoke to Moses, “I’ve heard the complaints of the Israelites. Tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat. And in the morning you will have your fill of bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.’”

In the evening a flock of quail flew down and covered the camp. And in the morning there was a layer of dew all around the camp. When the layer of dew lifted, there on the desert surface were thin flakes, as thin as frost on the ground. When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” They didn’t know what it was.

Moses said to them, “This is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Collect as much of it as each of you can eat, one omer per person. You may collect for the number of people in your household.’” The Israelites did as Moses said, some collecting more, some less. But when they measured it out by the omer, the ones who had collected more had nothing left over, and the ones who had collected less had no shortage. Everyone collected just as much as they could eat. Moses said to them, “Don’t keep any of it until morning.” But they didn’t listen to Moses. Some kept part of it until morning, but it became infested with worms and stank. Moses got angry with them. Every morning they gathered it, as much as each person could eat. But when the sun grew hot, it melted away.

On the sixth day the people collected twice as much food as usual, two omers per person. All the chiefs of the community came and told Moses. He said to them, “This is what the Lord has said, ‘Tomorrow is a day of rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil. But you can set aside and keep all the leftovers until the next morning.’” So they set the leftovers aside until morning, as Moses had commanded. They didn’t stink or become infested with worms. The next day Moses said, “Eat it today, because today is a Sabbath to the Lord. Today you won’t find it out in the field. Six days you will gather it. But on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be nothing to gather.”

On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather bread, but they found nothing. The Lord said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to obey my commandments and instructions? Look! The Lord has given you the Sabbath. Therefore, on the sixth day he gives you enough food for two days. Each of you should stay where you are and not leave your place on the seventh day.” So the people rested on the seventh day.

The Israelite people called it manna. It was like coriander seed, white, and tasted like honey wafers. Moses said, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Let an omer of it be kept safe for future generations so that they can see the food that I used to feed you in the desert when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’”

Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar, and put one full omer of manna in it. Then set it in the Lord’s presence, where it should be kept safe for future generations.” Aaron did as the Lord commanded Moses, and he put it in front of the covenant document for safekeeping. The Israelites ate manna for forty years, until they came to a livable land. They ate manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan. (An omer is one-tenth of an ephah.)

Silence may be kept.

New Testament reading
Colossians 2:1-15

I want you to know how much I struggle for you, for those in Laodicea, and for all who haven’t known me personally. My goal is that their hearts would be encouraged and united together in love so that they might have all the riches of assurance that come with understanding, so that they might have the knowledge of the secret plan of God, namely Christ. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in him. I’m telling you this so that no one deceives you with convincing arguments, because even though I am absent physically, I’m with you in spirit. I’m happy to see the discipline and stability of your faith in Christ.

So live in Christ Jesus the Lord in the same way as you received him. Be rooted and built up in him, be established in faith, and overflow with thanksgiving just as you were taught. See to it that nobody enslaves you with philosophy and foolish deception, which conform to human traditions and the way the world thinks and acts rather than Christ. All the fullness of deity lives in Christ’s body. And you have been filled by him, who is the head of every ruler and authority. You were also circumcised by him. This wasn’t performed by human hands—the whole body was removed through this circumcision by Christ. You were buried with him through baptism and raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. When you were dead because of the things you had done wrong and because your body wasn’t circumcised, God made you alive with Christ and forgave all the things you had done wrong. He destroyed the record of the debt we owed, with its requirements that worked against us. He canceled it by nailing it to the cross. When he disarmed the rulers and authorities, he exposed them to public disgrace by leading them in a triumphal parade.

Silence may be kept.

Gospel canticle
The Magnificat (The Song of Mary)

Refrain:
The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. Alleluia.

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:
The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. Alleluia.

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 people of God, that they may proclaim the risen Lord
God’s creation, that the peoples of the earth may meet their responsibility to care
Those in despair and darkness, that they may find the hope and light of Christ
Those in fear of death, that they may find faith through the resurrection
Prisoners and captives

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

Response

God of grace,
hear our prayer.

Silence may be kept.

Collect of the day

Almighty Father,
you have given your only Son to die for our sins
and to rise again for our justification:
grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness
that we may always serve you
in pureness of living and truth;
through the merits of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord,
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 God’s new creation, 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 risen Christ grant us the joys of eternal life.
Amen.