Opening response

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

Send your Holy Spirit upon us,
and clothe us with power from on high.

Prayer of thanksgiving

Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation,
to you be glory and praise forever.
Raised to your right hand on high
the ascended Christ shows the prints of love
and bestows on us the gifts of grace.
As your Spirit renews the face of the earth,
may we bring forth the fruit of the Spirit
and reveal your glory in all 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

Behold! I Come With Joy to Do

Charles Wesley

Behold! I come with joy to do
The Master’s blessed will;
My Lord in outward works pursue,
And serve his pleasure still.
Thus faithful to my Lord’s commands,
I choose the better part,
And serve with careful Martha’s hands,
But loving Mary’s heart.

Though careful, without care I am,
Nor feel my happy toil,
Preserved in peace by Jesus’ name,
Supported by his smile:
Rejoicing thus my faith to show,
His service my reward;
While every work I do below,
I do it to the Lord.

O! That the world the art might know
Of living thus to thee;
And find their heaven begun below,
And here thy glory see;
Walking in all the works prepared
To exercise their grace,
They gain at last their full reward,
And see thy glorious face.

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 36

𝙍: With You, O God, is the fountain of life.

An oracle is in my heart
regarding the transgression of the wicked man:
There is no fear of God
before his eyes.
For his eyes are too full of conceit
to detect or hate his own sin.
The words of his mouth are wicked and deceitful;
he has ceased to be wise and well-doing.
Even on his bed he plots wickedness;
he sets himself on a path that is not good;
he fails to reject evil. 𝙍

Your loving devotion, O LORD, reaches to the heavens,
Your faithfulness to the clouds.
Your righteousness is like the highest mountains;
Your judgments are like the deepest sea.
O LORD, You preserve man and beast.
How precious is Your loving devotion, O God,
that the children of men take refuge
in the shadow of Your wings!
They feast on the abundance of Your house,
and You give them drink from Your river of delights.
For with You is the fountain of life;
in Your light we see light. 𝙍

Extend Your loving devotion to those who know You,
and Your righteousness to the upright in heart.
Let not the foot of the proud come against me,
nor the hand of the wicked drive me away.
There the evildoers lie fallen,
thrown down and unable to rise.

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: With You, O God, is the fountain of life.

Psalm prayer

O God, the fountain of life,
make us bright with wisdom,
that we may be lightened with the knowledge of your glory
in the face of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Psalm 46

God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in times of trouble.
Therefore we will not fear,
though the earth is transformed
and the mountains are toppled
into the depths of the seas,
though their waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake in the surge.

There is a river whose streams delight the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
God is within her; she will not be moved.
God will help her when morning dawns.
Nations rage, kingdoms crumble;
the earth melts when He lifts His voice.
The LORD of Hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Come, see the works of the LORD,
who brings devastation upon the earth.
He makes wars to cease throughout the earth;
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
He burns the shields in the fire.

“Be still and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted over the earth.”

The LORD of Hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.

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.

Psalm prayer

God of Jacob,
when the earth shakes
and the nations are in uproar,
speak, and let the storm be still;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Psalm 139

𝙍: Search me, O God, and know my heart.

O LORD, You have searched me
and known me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
You understand my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down;
You are aware of all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
You know all about it, O LORD.
You hem me in behind and before;
You have laid Your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain. 𝙍

Where can I go to escape Your Spirit?
Where can I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend to the heavens, You are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, You are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle by the farthest sea,
even there Your hand will guide me;
Your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me,
and the light become night around me”—
even the darkness is not dark to You,
but the night shines like the day,
for darkness is as light to You. 𝙍

For You formed my inmost being;
You knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise You,
for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Marvelous are Your works,
and I know this very well.
My frame was not hidden from You
when I was made in secret,
when I was woven together
in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all my days were written in Your book
and ordained for me
before one of them came to be.

How precious to me are Your thoughts, O God,
how vast is their sum!
If I were to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand;
and when I awake,
I am still with You. 𝙍

O God, that You would slay the wicked—
away from me, you bloodthirsty men—
who speak of You deceitfully;
Your enemies take Your name in vain.
Do I not hate those who hate You, O LORD,
and detest those who rise against You?
I hate them with perfect hatred;
I count them as my enemies.

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my concerns.
See if there is any offensive way in me;
lead me in the way everlasting.

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: Search me, O God, and know my heart.

Psalm prayer

Creator God,
may every breath we take be for your glory,
may every footstep show you as our way,
that, trusting in your presence in this world,
we may, beyond this life, still be with you
where you are alive and reign
forever and ever.

Old Testament reading

Deuteronomy 32:15-47

But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked—
becoming fat, bloated, and gorged.
He abandoned the God who made him
and scorned the Rock of his salvation.
They provoked His jealousy with foreign gods;
they enraged Him with abominations.
They sacrificed to demons, not to God,
to gods they had not known,
to newly arrived gods,
which your fathers did not fear.
You ignored the Rock who brought you forth;
you forgot the God who gave you birth.

When the LORD saw this, He rejected them,
provoked to anger by His sons and daughters.
He said: “I will hide My face from them;
I will see what will be their end.
For they are a perverse generation—
children of unfaithfulness.
They have provoked My jealousy by that which is not God;
they have enraged Me with their worthless idols.
So I will make them jealous by those who are not a people;
I will make them angry by a nation without understanding.
For a fire has been kindled by My anger,
and it burns to the depths of Sheol;
it consumes the earth and its produce,
and scorches the foundations of the mountains.

I will heap disasters upon them;
I will spend My arrows against them.
They will be wasted from hunger
and ravaged by pestilence and bitter plague;
I will send the fangs of wild beasts against them,
with the venom of vipers that slither in the dust.
Outside, the sword will take their children,
and inside, terror will strike
the young man and the young woman,
the infant and the gray-haired man.
I would have said that I would cut them to pieces
and blot out their memory from mankind,
if I had not dreaded the taunt of the enemy,
lest their adversaries misunderstand and say:
‘Our own hand has prevailed;
it was not the LORD who did all this.’ ”

Israel is a nation devoid of counsel,
with no understanding among them.
If only they were wise, they would understand it;
they would comprehend their fate.
How could one man pursue a thousand,
or two put ten thousand to flight,
unless their Rock had sold them,
unless the LORD had given them up?
For their rock is not like our Rock,
even our enemies concede.
But their vine is from the vine of Sodom
and from the fields of Gomorrah.
Their grapes are poisonous;
their clusters are bitter.
Their wine is the venom of serpents,
the deadly poison of cobras.

“Have I not stored up these things,
sealed up within My vaults?
Vengeance is Mine; I will repay.
In due time their foot will slip;
for their day of disaster is near,
and their doom is coming quickly.”

For the LORD will vindicate His people
and have compassion on His servants
when He sees that their strength is gone
and no one remains, slave or free.
He will say: “Where are their gods,
the rock in which they took refuge,
which ate the fat of their sacrifices
and drank the wine of their drink offerings?
Let them rise up and help you;
let them give you shelter!

See now that I am He;
there is no God besides Me.
I bring death and I give life;
I wound and I heal,
and there is no one
who can deliver from My hand.
For I lift up My hand to heaven and declare:
As surely as I live forever,
when I sharpen My flashing sword,
and My hand grasps it in judgment,
I will take vengeance on My adversaries
and repay those who hate Me.
I will make My arrows drunk with blood,
while My sword devours flesh—
the blood of the slain and captives,
the heads of the enemy leaders.”

Rejoice, O heavens, with Him,
and let all God’s angels worship Him.
Rejoice, O nations, with His people;
for He will avenge the blood of His children.
He will take vengeance on His adversaries
and repay those who hate Him;
He will cleanse His land
and His people.

Then Moses came with Joshua son of Nun and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people. When Moses had finished reciting all these words to all Israel, he said to them, “Take to heart all these words I testify among you today, so that you may command your children to carefully follow all the words of this law. For they are not idle words to you, because they are your life, and by them you will live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”

Silence may be kept.

New Testament reading

1 John 4:1-6

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you will know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and which is already in the world at this time.

You, little children, are from God and have overcome them, because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. They are of the world. That is why they speak from the world’s perspective, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. That is how we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.

Silence may be kept.

The Magnificat (The Song of Mary)

Luke 1:46-55

𝙍: How excellent is your name in all the world, you have set your glory above the heavens. Alleluia.

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: How excellent is your name in all the world, you have set your glory above the heavens. 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.
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:

God’s royal priesthood, for empowerment by the Spirit
Those who wait on God, that they may find renewal
All people, that they may acknowledge the kingdom of the ascended Christ
The earth, for productivity and for fruitful harvests
All who are struggling with broken relationships

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

O God the King of glory,
you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ
with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven:
we beseech you, leave us not comfortless,
but send your Holy Spirit to strengthen us
and exalt us to the place where our Savior Christ is gone before,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever.
Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer

Being made one by the power of the Spirit, 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

May the Spirit kindle in us the fire of God’s love.
Amen.