Opening response

Make haste, O God, to deliver us.
Hurry, O LORD, to help us.

From the rising of the sun to its setting
your glory is proclaimed in all the world.

Prayer of thanksgiving

Blessed are you, Sovereign God,
our light and our salvation,
to you be glory and praise forever.
You gave your Christ as a light to the nations,
and through the anointing of the Spirit
you established us as a royal priesthood.
As you call us into your marvelous light,
may our lives bear witness to your truth
and our lips never cease to proclaim your praise.
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

The Universal King

Charles Wesley

The universal King
Let all the world proclaim;
Let every creature sing
His attributes and name!
Him Three in One and One in Three,
Extol to all eternity.

In his great name alone
All excellencies meet,
Who sits upon the throne,
And shall forever sit;
Him Three in One and One in Three,
Extol to all eternity.

Glory to God belongs;
Glory to God be given,
Above the noblest songs
Of all in earth or heaven!
Him Three in One and One in Three,
Extol to all eternity.

Confession of sin

Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake their own ways
and the unrighteous their own thoughts.
Let them return to the LORD so that he may have compassion,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

cf Isaiah 55

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

Lord God,
we have sinned against you;
we have done what is evil in your sight.
We are sorry and repent.
Have mercy on us according to your loving devotion.
Wash us clean of our iniquity and cleanse us from our sin.
Renew a right spirit within us,
and restore to us the joy of your salvation
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

cf Psalm 51

May the Father of all mercies
cleanse us from our sins,
and restore us in his image
to the praise and glory of his name,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Bless be the LORD,
for he has heard our cry for mercy.
Therefore our hearts rejoice
and we give thanks to him with our song.

cf Psalm 28:7, 9

Psalm 61

𝙍: You are my refuge, O Lord, a tower of strength against the enemy.

Hear my cry, O God;
attend to my prayer.
From the ends of the earth I call out to You
whenever my heart is faint.
Lead me to the rock
that is higher than I.
For You have been my refuge,
a tower of strength against the enemy.
Let me dwell in Your tent forever
and take refuge in the shelter of Your wings. 𝙍

For You have heard my vows, O God;
You have given me the inheritance
reserved for those who fear Your name.

Increase the days of the king’s life;
may his years span many generations.
May he sit enthroned in God’s presence forever;
appoint Your loving devotion
and Your faithfulness to guard him.
Then I will ever sing praise to Your name
and fulfill my vows day by day.

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: You are my refuge, O Lord, a tower of strength against the enemy.

Psalm prayer

Risen Christ,
as you knew the discipline of suffering
and the victory that brings us salvation,
so grant us your presence in our weakness
and a place in your unending kingdom
now and forevermore.

Psalm 66

𝙍: All the earth bows down to You, O Lord.

Make a joyful noise to God,
all the earth!
Sing the glory of His name;
make His praise glorious.
Say to God, “How awesome are Your deeds!
So great is Your power
that Your enemies cower before You.
All the earth bows down to You;
they sing praise to You;
they sing praise to Your name.” 𝙍

Come and see the works of God;
how awesome are His deeds toward mankind.
He turned the sea into dry land;
they passed through the waters on foot;
there we rejoiced in Him.
He rules forever by His power;
His eyes watch the nations.
Do not let the rebellious exalt themselves. 𝙍

Bless our God, O peoples;
let the sound of His praise be heard.
He preserves our lives
and keeps our feet from slipping.

For You, O God, have tested us;
You have refined us like silver.
You led us into the net;
You laid burdens on our backs.
You let men ride over our heads;
we went through fire and water,
but You brought us into abundance. 𝙍

I will enter Your house with burnt offerings;
I will fulfill my vows to You—
the vows that my lips promised
and my mouth spoke in my distress.
I will offer You fatlings as burnt offerings,
with the fragrant smoke of rams;
I will offer bulls and goats. 𝙍

Come and listen, all you who fear God,
and I will declare what He has done for me.
I cried out to Him with my mouth
and praised Him with my tongue.
If I had cherished iniquity in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened.
But God has surely heard;
He has attended to the sound of my prayer.

Blessed be God, who has not rejected my prayer
or withheld from me His loving devotion!

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: All the earth bows down to You, O Lord.

Psalm prayer

How generous is your goodness, God,
how great is your salvation,
how faithful is your love;
help us to trust you in trial
and praise you in deliverance;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Old Testament reading

Hosea 2:2-17

Rebuke your mother,
rebuke her,
for she is not My wife,
and I am not her husband.
Let her remove the adultery from her face
and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.
Otherwise, I will strip her naked
and expose her like the day of her birth.
I will make her like a desert
and turn her into a parched land,
and I will let her die of thirst.
I will have no compassion on her children,
because they are the children of adultery.
For their mother has played the harlot
and has conceived them in disgrace.
For she thought,
‘I will go after my lovers,
who give me bread and water,
wool and linen, oil and drink.’

Therefore, behold,
I will hedge up her path with thorns;
I will enclose her with a wall,
so she cannot find her way.
She will pursue her lovers but not catch them;
she will seek them but not find them.
Then she will say,
‘I will return to my first husband,
for then I was better off than now.’
For she does not acknowledge
that it was I who gave her grain,
new wine, and oil,
who lavished on her silver and gold—
which they crafted for Baal.

Therefore I will take back My grain in its time
and My new wine in its season;
I will take away My wool and linen,
which were given to cover her nakedness.
And then I will expose her lewdness
in the sight of her lovers,
and no one will deliver her
out of My hands.
I will put an end to all her exultation:
her feasts, New Moons, and Sabbaths—
all her appointed feasts.
I will destroy her vines and fig trees,
which she thinks are the wages paid by her lovers.
So I will make them into a thicket,
and the beasts of the field will devour them.
I will punish her for the days of the Baals
when she burned incense to them,
when she decked herself with rings and jewelry,
and went after her lovers.

But Me she forgot,”
declares the LORD.

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her
and lead her to the wilderness,
and speak to her tenderly.
There I will give back her vineyards
and make the Valley of Achor
into a gateway of hope.
There she will respond as she did
in the days of her youth,
as in the day she came up out of Egypt.
In that day,”
declares the LORD,
“you will call Me ‘my Husband,’
and no longer call Me ‘my Master.’
For I will remove from her lips the names of the Baals;
no longer will their names be invoked.

Silence may be kept.

New Testament reading

1 Corinthians 9:1-14

Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you yourselves not my workmanship in the Lord? Even if I am not an apostle to others, surely I am to you. For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

This is my defense to those who scrutinize me: Have we no right to food and to drink? Have we no right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas? Or are Barnabas and I the only apostles who must work for a living?

Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Who tends a flock and does not drink of its milk?

Do I say this from a human perspective? Doesn’t the Law say the same thing? For it is written in the Law of Moses: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” Is it about oxen that God is concerned? Isn’t He actually speaking on our behalf? Indeed, this was written for us, because when the plowman plows and the thresher threshes, they should also expect to share in the harvest.

If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much for us to reap a material harvest from you? If others have this right to your support, shouldn’t we have it all the more? But we did not exercise this right. Instead, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ.

Do you not know that those who work in the temple eat of its food, and those who serve at the altar partake of its offerings? In the same way, the Lord has prescribed that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.

Silence may be kept.

The Magnificat (The Song of Mary)

Luke 1:46-55

𝙍: Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; the anointed one on whom my Spirit rests.

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: Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; the anointed one on whom my Spirit rests.

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:
The unity of the church
The peace of the world
The healing of the sick
The revelation of Christ to those from whom his glory is hidden
All who travel

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

Response

Father, hear our prayer,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Silence may be kept.

Collect of the day

Almighty God,
whose Son revealed in signs and miracles
the wonder of your saving presence:
renew your people with your heavenly grace,
and in all our weakness
sustain us by your mighty power;
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

Believing the promises of God, 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 Christ, who sends us to the nations, give us the power of his Spirit.
Amen.