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 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.

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

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:
‘Hear, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’

The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’
No other commandment is greater than these.
The whole 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 disappears 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.

Psalm 102

𝙍: My help comes from the LORD.

Hear my prayer, O LORD;
let my cry for help come before You.
Do not hide Your face from me
in my day of distress.
Incline Your ear to me;
answer me quickly when I call. 𝙍

For my days vanish like smoke,
and my bones burn like glowing embers.
My heart is afflicted, and withered like grass;
I even forget to eat my bread.
Through my loud groaning
my flesh clings to my bones.
I am like a desert owl,
like an owl among the ruins.
I lie awake;
I am like a lone bird on a housetop.

All day long my enemies taunt me;
they ridicule me and curse me.
For I have eaten ashes like bread
and mixed my drink with tears
because of Your indignation and wrath,
for You have picked me up and cast me aside.
My days are like lengthening shadows,
and I wither away like grass. 𝙍

But You, O LORD, sit enthroned forever;
Your renown endures to all generations.
You will rise up and have compassion on Zion,
for it is time to show her favor—
the appointed time has come.
For Your servants delight in her stones
and take pity on her dust.

So the nations will fear the name of the LORD,
and all the kings of the earth will fear Your glory.
For the LORD will rebuild Zion;
He has appeared in His glory.
He will turn toward the prayer of the destitute;
He will not despise their prayer. 𝙍

Let this be written for the generation to come,
so that a people not yet created may praise the LORD.
For He looked down from the heights of His sanctuary;
the LORD gazed out from heaven to earth
to hear a prisoner’s groaning,
to release those condemned to death,
that they may proclaim the name of the LORD in Zion
and praise Him in Jerusalem,
when peoples and kingdoms assemble
to serve the LORD. 𝙍

He has broken my strength on the way;
He has cut short my days.
I say: “O my God, do not take me in the midst of my days!
Your years go on through all generations.
In the beginning You laid the foundations of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of Your hands.
They will perish, but You remain;
they will all wear out like a garment.
Like clothing You will change them,
and they will be passed on.
But You remain the same,
and Your years will never end.
The children of Your servants will dwell securely,
and their descendants will be established before 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.

𝙍: My help comes from the LORD.

Psalm prayer

Have pity on our frailty, God,
and in the hour of our death
cast us not away as clothing that is worn,
for you are our eternal refuge;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Old Testament reading

Judges 17

Now a man named Micah from the hill country of Ephraim said to his mother, “The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you and about which I heard you utter a curse—I have the silver here with me; I took it.”

Then his mother said, “Blessed be my son by the LORD!”

And when he had returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, she said, “I wholly dedicate the silver to the LORD for my son’s benefit, to make a graven image and a molten idol. Therefore I will now return it to you.”

So he returned the silver to his mother, and she took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to a silversmith, who made them into a graven image and a molten idol. And they were placed in the house of Micah.

Now this man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and some household idols, and ordained one of his sons as his priest. In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

And there was a young Levite from Bethlehem in Judah who had been residing within the clan of Judah. This man left the city of Bethlehem in Judah to settle where he could find a place. And as he traveled, he came to Micah’s house in the hill country of Ephraim.

“Where are you from?” Micah asked him.

“I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah,” he replied, “and I am on my way to settle wherever I can find a place.”

“Stay with me,” Micah said to him, “and be my father and priest, and I will give you ten shekels of silver per year, a suit of clothes, and your provisions.”

So the Levite went in and agreed to stay with him, and the young man became like a son to Micah.

Micah ordained the Levite, and the young man became his priest and lived in his house. Then Micah said, “Now I know that the LORD will be good to me, because a Levite has become my priest.”

Silence may be kept.

New Testament reading

Luke 19:1-10

Then Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. And there was a man named Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector, who was very wealthy. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but could not see over the crowd because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see Him, since Jesus was about to pass that way.

When Jesus came to that place, He looked up and said, “Zacchaeus, hurry down, for I must stay at your house today.”

So Zacchaeus hurried down and welcomed Him joyfully. And all who saw this began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinful man!”

But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, half of my possessions I give to the poor, and if I have cheated anyone, I will repay it fourfold.”

Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Silence may be kept.

The Magnificat (The Song of Mary)

Luke 1:46-55

𝙍: My spirit rejoices in you, O God, my soul proclaims your greatness.

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: My spirit rejoices in you, O God, my soul proclaims your greatness.

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.

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:

Political leaders 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, 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, 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.