Friday evening July 7

Saturday evening
Thursday 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.

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

Rejoice and Sing, the Lord is King

Charles Wesley
           
Rejoice and sing, the Lord is King,
And make a cheerful noise,
To God your ceaseless praises bring,
Again, I say, rejoice!

The great I Am, from heaven he came,
To make that heaven our own,
Bow every knee to Jesus’ name,
And kiss the incarnate Son.

The Son of God poured out his blood
And soul in sacrifice;
Plunge all in that mysterious flood,
That bears you to the skies.

The Victim slain arose again,
Returning from the dead:
Ye saints, essay your choicest strain,
And shout your living Head.

His glorious reign he shall maintain—
Your crowns from him receive;
And live, redeemed from death and pain,
As long as God shall live.

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 69

Refrain:
God, in your great and faithful love, answer me with your certain salvation!

Save me, God,
    because the waters have reached my neck!
I have sunk into deep mud.
    My feet can’t touch the bottom!
I have entered deep water;
    the flood has swept me up.
I am tired of crying.
    My throat is hoarse.
    My eyes are exhausted with waiting for my God.

More numerous than the hairs on my head
    are those who hate me for no reason.
My treacherous enemies,
    those who would destroy me, are countless.
    Must I now give back
    what I didn’t steal in the first place?
God, you know my foolishness;
    my wrongdoings aren’t hidden from you.

Lord God of heavenly forces!—
    don’t let those who hope in you
        be put to shame because of me.
God of Israel!—
    don’t let those who seek you
    be disgraced because of me.
I am insulted because of you.
    Shame covers my face.
I have become a stranger to my own brothers,
    an immigrant to my mother’s children.
Because passion for your house has consumed me,
    the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me!
I wept while I fasted—
    even for that I was insulted.
When I wore funeral clothes,
    people made fun of me.
Those who sit at the city gate muttered things about me;
    drunkards made up rude songs.

But me? My prayer reaches you, Lord,
    at just the right time.
God, in your great and faithful love,
    answer me with your certain salvation!
Save me from the mud!
    Don’t let me drown!
    Let me be saved from those who hate me
    and from these watery depths!
Don’t let me be swept away by the floodwaters!
    Don’t let the abyss swallow me up!
    Don’t let the pit close its mouth over me!
Answer me, Lord, for your faithful love is good!
    Turn to me in your great compassion!
Don’t hide your face from me, your servant,
    because I’m in deep trouble.
    Answer me quickly!
Come close to me!
    Redeem me!
    Save me because of my enemies!

You know full well the insults I’ve received;
    you know my shame and my disgrace.
    All my adversaries are right there in front of you.
Insults have broken my heart.
    I’m sick about it.
I hoped for sympathy,
    but there wasn’t any;
    I hoped for comforters,
    but couldn’t find any.
They gave me poison for food.
    To quench my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

Let the table before them become a trap,
    their offerings a snare.
Let their eyes grow too dim to see;
    make their insides tremble constantly.
Pour out your anger on them—
    let your burning fury catch them.
Let their camp be devastated;
    let no one dwell in their tents.
Because they go after those you’ve already struck;
    they talk about the pain of those you’ve already pierced.
Pile guilt on top of their guilt!
    Don’t let them come into your righteousness!
Let them be wiped out of the scroll of life!
    Let them not be recorded along with the righteous!
And me? I’m afflicted.
    I’m full of pain.
    Let your salvation keep me safe, God!

I will praise God’s name with song;
    I will magnify him with thanks
    because that is more pleasing to the Lord than an ox,
    more pleasing than a young bull with full horns and hooves.
Let the afflicted see it and be glad!
    You who seek God—
    let your hearts beat strong again
    because the Lord listens to the needy
        and doesn’t despise his captives.

Let heaven and earth praise God,
    the oceans too, and all that moves within them!
God will most certainly save Zion
    and will rebuild Judah’s cities
    so that God’s servants can live there and possess it.
The offspring of God’s servants will inherit Zion,
    and those who love God’s name will dwell there.

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, in your great and faithful love, answer me with your certain salvation!

Psalm prayer

Thirsting on the cross,
your Son shared the reproach of the oppressed
and carried the sins of all;
in him, O God, may the despairing find you,
the afflicted gain life
and the whole creation know its true king,
Jesus Christ our Lord.

Old Testament reading
Judges 11:29-40

Then the Lord’s spirit came on Jephthah. He passed through Gilead and Manasseh, then through Mizpah in Gilead, and from there he crossed over to the Ammonites. Jephthah made a solemn promise to the Lord: “If you will decisively hand over the Ammonites to me, then whatever comes out the doors of my house to meet me when I return victorious from the Ammonites will be given over to the Lord. I will sacrifice it as an entirely burned offering.” Jephthah crossed over to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord handed them over to him. It was an exceptionally great defeat; he defeated twenty towns from Aroer to the area of Minnith, and on as far as Abel-keramim. So the Ammonites were brought down before the Israelites.

But when Jephthah came to his house in Mizpah, it was his daughter who came out to meet him with tambourines and dancing! She was an only child; he had no other son or daughter except her. When he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “Oh no! My daughter! You have brought me to my knees! You are my agony! For I opened my mouth to the Lord, and I can’t take it back.”

But she replied to him, “My father, you’ve opened your mouth to the Lord, so you should do to me just what you’ve promised. After all, the Lord has carried out just punishment for you on your enemies the Ammonites.” Then she said to her father, “Let this one thing be done for me: hold off for two months and let me and my friends wander the hills in sadness, crying over the fact that I never had children.”

“Go,” he responded, and he sent her away for two months. She and her friends walked on the hills and cried because she would never have children.

When two months had passed, she returned to her father, and he did to her what he had promised. She had not known a man intimately. But she gave rise to a tradition in Israel where for four days every year Israelite daughters would go away to recount the story of the Gileadite Jephthah’s daughter.

Silence may be kept.

New Testament reading
Luke 17:1-10

Jesus said to his disciples, “Things that cause people to trip and fall into sin must happen, but how terrible it is for the person through whom they happen. It would be better for them to be thrown into a lake with a large stone hung around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to trip and fall into sin. Watch yourselves! If your brother or sister sins, warn them to stop. If they change their hearts and lives, forgive them. Even if someone sins against you seven times in one day and returns to you seven times and says, ‘I am changing my ways,’ you must forgive that person.”

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”

The Lord replied, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.

“Would any of you say to your servant, who had just come in from the field after plowing or tending sheep, ‘Come! Sit down for dinner’? Wouldn’t you say instead, ‘Fix my dinner. Put on the clothes of a table servant and wait on me while I eat and drink. After that, you can eat and drink’? You won’t thank the servant because the servant did what you asked, will you? In the same way, when you have done everything required of you, you should say, ‘We servants deserve no special praise. We have only done our duty.’”

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:

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, in your mercy
hear our prayer.

Silence may be kept.

Collect of the day

Almighty God,
you have broken the tyranny of sin
and have sent the Spirit of your Son into our hearts
      whereby we call you Father:
give us grace to dedicate our freedom to your service,
that we and all creation may be brought
      to the glorious liberty of the children of God;
through Jesus Christ your Son 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

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.