Thursday evening June 2

Friday evening
Wednesday evening

Preparation

Opening response

Favor us, Lord, and deliver us.
Lord, come quickly and 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 when he can still be found;
call him while he is yet near.
Let the wicked abandon their ways
and the sinful their schemes.
Let them return to the Lord so that he may have mercy on them,
to our God, because he is generous with forgiveness.

cf Isaiah 55

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

Lord God,
we have sinned against you;
we have committed evil in your sight.
We are sorry and repent.
Have mercy on us according to your faithful love.
Wash us completely clean of our guilt; purify us from our sin.
Put a new, faithful spirit deep inside us,
and return the joy of your salvation to us
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 the Lord,
because he has listened to our request for mercy.
Therefore our hearts will rejoice
and we will thank him with our song.

cf Psalm 28:7,9

The Word of God

Psalm 36

Refrain: 
Your loyal love, Lord, extends to the skies; your faithfulness reaches the clouds.

I know the sinful utterance of the wicked:
    No fear of God confronts their own eyes,
    because in their own eyes they are slick with talk
    about their guilt ever being found out and despised.
The words of their mouths are evil and dishonest.
    They have stopped being wise and stopped doing good.
They plot evil even while resting in bed!
    They commit themselves to a path that is no good.
    They don’t reject what is evil.
But your loyal love, Lord, extends to the skies;
    your faithfulness reaches the clouds.
Your righteousness is like the strongest mountains;
    your justice is like the deepest sea.
        Lord, you save both humans and animals.
Your faithful love is priceless, God!
    Humanity finds refuge in the shadow of your wings.
They feast on the bounty of your house;
    you let them drink from your river of pure joy.
Within you is the spring of life.
    In your light, we see light.
Extend your faithful love to those who know you;
    extend your righteousness to those whose heart is right.
Don’t let the feet of arrogant people walk all over me;
    don’t let the hands of the wicked drive me off.
Look—right there is where the evildoers have fallen,
    pushed down, unable to get up!

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: 
Your loyal love, Lord, extends to the skies; your faithfulness reaches the clouds.

Psalm prayer

O God, the well 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

Refrain: 
The Lord of heavenly forces is with us! The God of Jacob is our place of safety.

God is our refuge and strength,
    a help always near in times of great trouble.
That’s why we won’t be afraid when the world falls apart,
    when the mountains crumble into the center of the sea,
    when its waters roar and rage,
    when the mountains shake because of its surging waves.
There is a river whose streams gladden God’s city,
    the holiest dwelling of the Most High.
God is in that city. It will never crumble.
    God will help it when morning dawns.
Nations roar; kingdoms crumble.
    God utters his voice; the earth melts.
The Lord of heavenly forces is with us!
    The God of Jacob is our place of safety.
Come, see the Lord’s deeds,
    what devastation he has imposed on the earth—
    bringing wars to an end in every corner of the world,
    breaking the bow and shattering the spear,
        burning chariots with fire.
“That’s enough! Now know that I am God!
    I am exalted among all nations; I am exalted throughout the world!”
The Lord of heavenly forces is with us!
    The God of Jacob is our place of safety.

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 of heavenly forces is with us! The God of Jacob is our place of safety.

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

Refrain: 
Examine me, God! Look at my heart!

Lord, you have examined me.
    You know me.
You know when I sit down and when I stand up.
    Even from far away, you comprehend my plans.
You study my traveling and resting.
    You are thoroughly familiar with all my ways.
There isn’t a word on my tongue, Lord,
    that you don’t already know completely.
You surround me—front and back.
    You put your hand on me.
That kind of knowledge is too much for me;
    it’s so high above me that I can’t fathom it.
Where could I go to get away from your spirit?
    Where could I go to escape your presence?
If I went up to heaven, you would be there.
    If I went down to the grave, you would be there too!
If I could fly on the wings of dawn,
    stopping to rest only on the far side of the ocean—
        even there your hand would guide me;
        even there your strong hand would hold me tight!
If I said, “The darkness will definitely hide me;
        the light will become night around me,”
    even then the darkness isn’t too dark for you!
        Nighttime would shine bright as day,
        because darkness is the same as light to you!
You are the one who created my innermost parts;
    you knit me together while I was still in my mother’s womb.
I give thanks to you that I was marvelously set apart.
    Your works are wonderful—I know that very well.
My bones weren’t hidden from you
    when I was being put together in a secret place,
    when I was being woven together in the deep parts of the earth.
Your eyes saw my embryo,
    and on your scroll every day was written that was being formed for me,
    before any one of them had yet happened.
God, your plans are incomprehensible to me!
    Their total number is countless!
If I tried to count them—they outnumber grains of sand!
    If I came to the very end—I’d still be with you.
If only, God, you would kill the wicked!
    If only murderers would get away from me—
    the people who talk about you, but only for wicked schemes;
        the people who are your enemies,
        who use your name as if it were of no significance.
Don’t I hate everyone who hates you?
    Don’t I despise those who attack you?
Yes, I hate them—through and through!
    They’ve become my enemies too.
Examine me, God! Look at my heart!
    Put me to the test! Know my anxious thoughts!
Look to see if there is any idolatrous way in me,
    then lead me on the eternal path!

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: 
Examine me, God! Look at 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

Jacob ate until he was stuffed;
    Jeshurun got fat, then rebellious.
It was you who got fat, thick, stubborn!
Jeshurun gave up on the God who made him,
    thought the rock of his salvation was worthless.
They made God jealous with strange gods,
    aggravated him with detestable things.
They sacrificed to demons, not to God,
    to deities of which they had no knowledge—
        new gods only recently on the scene,
        ones about which your ancestors had never heard.
You deserted the rock that sired you;
    you forgot the God who gave birth to you!
The Lord saw this and rejected
    out of aggravation his sons and his daughters.
He said: I will hide my face from them—
    I will see what becomes of them—
        because they are a confused generation;
        they are children lacking loyalty.
They provoked me with “no-gods,”
    aggravated me with their pieces of junk.
So I am going to provoke them with “No-People,”
    aggravate them with a nation of fools.
A fire burns in me—
    it will blaze to the depths of the grave;
    it will destroy the land and its crops;
    it will blacken the base of the mountains.
I’ll throw on them disaster after disaster;
    I’ll destroy them with my arrows:
    devastating hunger, consuming plague, bitter sickness.
I’ll send animal fangs after them,
    venom from dust crawlers too.
Outside, in the streets, the sword will bereave!
    Inside, in the safest room, there will be terror
        for young men and women,
        nursing baby and senior citizen.
I thought about it: I could have struck them down,
    erased them from human memory,
        but their enemies’ rage concerned me;
        their opponents might misunderstand.
They might say, “Our strong hands,
    not the Lord’s, did all this,”
        because they are not a thoughtful nation;
        they lack any insight.
If they had any wisdom, they would understand this;
    they would discern what will become of them.
How could one person chase off a thousand in battle?
    How could two people make ten thousand flee for their lives?
Only because their rock sold them off,
    only because the Lord handed them over!
But, no, their rocks can’t compare to our rock!
    Our enemies are completely stupid.
Their roots run straight from Sodom—
    from the fields of Gomorrah!
Their grapes are pure poison;
    their grape clusters, nothing but bitter;
    their wine is snake poison,
    venom from a cruel cobra.
Don’t I have this stored up,
    sealed in my vaults?
Revenge is my domain, so is punishment-in-kind,
    at the exact moment their step slips up,
    because the day of their destruction is just around the corner;
    their final destiny is speeding on its way!
But the Lord will acquit his people,
    will have compassion on those who serve him,
        once he sees that their strength is all gone,
        that both prisoners and free people are wiped out.
The Lord will ask, “Where are their gods—
    the rocks they trusted in—
        who ate up the fat of their sacrifices,
        who drank their sacred wine?
They should stand up and help you!
    They should protect you now!
Now, look here: I myself, I’m the one;
            there are no other gods with me.
    I’m the one who deals death and gives life;
    I’m the one who wounded, but now I will heal.
        There’s no escaping my hand.
But now I’m lifting my hand to heaven—
    I swear by my own eternity:
        when I sharpen my blazing sword
            and my hand grabs hold of justice,
    I’ll pay my enemies back;
    I’ll punish in kind everyone who hates me.
I’ll make my arrows drink much blood,
    while my sword devours flesh,
    the blood of the dead and captured,
        flowing from the heads of enemy generals.”
Heavens: Rejoice with God!
    All you gods: bow down to the Lord!
    Because he will avenge his children’s blood;
        he will pay back his enemies;
        he will punish in kind those who hate him;
        he will cleanse his people’s land.

So Moses came and recited all the words of this poem in everyone’s hearing; Joshua, Nun’s son, joined him. When Moses finished speaking all these words to all Israel, he told them: Set your mind on all these words I’m testifying against you right now, because you must command your children to perform carefully all the words of this Instruction. This is no trivial matter for you—this is your very life! It is by this means alone that you will prolong your life on the fertile land you are crossing the Jordan River to possess.

Silence may be kept.

New Testament reading
1 John 4:1-6

Dear friends, don’t believe every spirit. Test the spirits to see if they are from God because many false prophets have gone into the world. This is how you know if a spirit comes from God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come as a human is from God, and every spirit that doesn’t confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and is now already in the world. You are from God, little children, and you have defeated these people because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world. So they speak from the world’s point of view and the world listens to them. We are from God. The person who knows God listens to us. Whoever is not from God doesn’t listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Silence may be kept.

Gospel canticle
The Magnificat (The Song of Mary)

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

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

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:

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