Opening response

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

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

Thee in the Watches of the Night

Charles Wesley

Thee in the watches of the night,
Do I not, Lord, remember still,
And meditate with calm delight,
On the dear counsels of thy will?

Thy will is my perfection here;
And sighs for this, my whole desire,
To attain the heavenly character,
And spotless in thy arms expire

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.

Blessed 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 78:40-72

𝙍: Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord.

How often they disobeyed Him in the wilderness
and grieved Him in the desert!
Again and again they tested God
and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
They did not remember His power —
the day He redeemed them from the adversary,
when He performed His signs in Egypt
and His wonders in the fields of Zoan. 𝙍

He turned their rivers to blood,
and from their streams they could not drink.
He sent swarms of flies that devoured them,
and frogs that devastated them.
He gave their crops to the grasshopper,
the fruit of their labor to the locust.
He killed their vines with hailstones
and their sycamore-figs with sleet. 𝙍

He abandoned their cattle to the hail
and their livestock to bolts of lightning.

He unleashed His fury against them,
wrath, indignation, and calamity—
a band of destroying angels.
He cleared a path for His anger;
He did not spare them from death
but delivered their lives to the plague.
He struck all the firstborn of Egypt,
the virility in the tents of Ham. 𝙍

He led out His people like sheep
and guided them like a flock in the wilderness.
He led them safely, so they did not fear,
but the sea engulfed their enemies.
He brought them to His holy land,
to the mountain His right hand had acquired.
He drove out nations before them
and apportioned their inheritance;
He settled the tribes of Israel in their tents. 𝙍

But they tested and disobeyed God Most High,
for they did not keep His decrees.
They turned back and were faithless like their fathers,
twisted like a faulty bow.
They enraged Him with their high places
and provoked His jealousy with their idols.

On hearing it, God was furious
and rejected Israel completely. 𝙍

He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh,
the tent He had pitched among men.
He delivered His strength to captivity,
and His splendor to the hand of the adversary.
He surrendered His people to the sword
because He was enraged by His heritage.
Fire consumed His young men,
and their maidens were left without wedding songs.
His priests fell by the sword,
but their widows could not lament. 𝙍

Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,
like a mighty warrior overcome by wine.
He beat back His foes;
He put them to everlasting shame.
He rejected the tent of Joseph
and refused the tribe of Ephraim.
But He chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, which He loved. 𝙍

He built His sanctuary like the heights,
like the earth He has established forever.

He chose David His servant
and took him from the sheepfolds;
from tending the ewes He brought him
to be shepherd of His people Jacob,
of Israel His inheritance.
So David shepherded them with integrity of heart
and guided them with skillful hands.

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: Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord.

Psalm prayer

God our shepherd,
in all our wanderings and temptations,
teach us to rest in your mercy
and trust in your defence;
through him who laid down his life for us,
Jesus Christ our Lord.

Old Testament reading

2 Kings 1:2-17

Now Ahaziah had fallen through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria and injured himself. So he sent messengers and instructed them: “Go inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I will recover from this injury.”

But the angel of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite, “Go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and ask them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are on your way to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron?’ Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘You will not get up from the bed on which you are lying. You will surely die.’ ”

So Elijah departed.

When the messengers returned to the king, he asked them, “Why have you returned?”

They replied, “A man came up to meet us and said, ‘Go back to the king who sent you and tell him that this is what the LORD says: Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending these men to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you will not get up from the bed on which you are lying. You will surely die.’ ”

The king asked them, “What sort of man came up to meet you and spoke these words to you?”

“He was a hairy man,” they answered, “with a leather belt around his waist.”

“It was Elijah the Tishbite,” said the king.

Then King Ahaziah sent to Elijah a captain with his company of fifty men. So the captain went up to Elijah, who was sitting on top of a hill, and said to him, “Man of God, the king declares, ‘Come down!’ ”

Elijah answered the captain, “If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men.”

And fire came down from heaven and consumed the captain and his fifty men.

So the king sent to Elijah another captain with his fifty men. And the captain said to Elijah, “Man of God, the king declares, ‘Come down at once!’ ”

Again Elijah replied, “If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men.”

And the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed the captain and his fifty men.

So the king sent a third captain with his fifty men. And the third captain went up, fell on his knees before Elijah, and begged him, “Man of God, may my life and the lives of these fifty servants please be precious in your sight. Behold, fire has come down from heaven and consumed the first two captains of fifty, with all their men. But now may my life be precious in your sight.”

Then the angel of the LORD said to Elijah, “Go down with him. Do not be afraid of him.”

So Elijah got up and went down with him to the king.

And Elijah said to King Ahaziah, “This is what the LORD says: Is there really no God in Israel for you to inquire of His word? Is that why you have sent messengers to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you will not get up from the bed on which you are lying. You will surely die.”

So Ahaziah died according to the word of the LORD that Elijah had spoken. And since he had no son, Jehoram succeeded him in the second year of the reign of Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat over Judah.

Silence may be kept.

New Testament reading

Acts 24:1-23

Five days later the high priest Ananias came down with some elders and a lawyer named Tertullus, who presented to the governor their case against Paul.

When Paul had been called in, Tertullus opened the prosecution: “Because of you, we have enjoyed a lasting peace, and your foresight has brought improvements to this nation. In every way and everywhere, most excellent Felix, we acknowledge this with all gratitude. But in order not to burden you any further, I beg your indulgence to hear us briefly.

We have found this man to be a pestilence, stirring up dissension among the Jews all over the world. He is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes, and he even tried to desecrate the temple; so we seized him. By examining him yourself, you will be able to learn the truth about all our charges against him.”

The Jews concurred, asserting that these charges were true.

When the governor motioned for Paul to speak, he began his response: “Knowing that you have been a judge over this nation for many years, I gladly make my defense. You can verify for yourself that no more than twelve days ago I went up to Jerusalem to worship. Yet my accusers did not find me debating with anyone in the temple or riling up a crowd in the synagogues or in the city. Nor can they prove to you any of their charges against me.

I do confess to you, however, that I worship the God of our fathers according to the Way, which they call a sect. I believe everything that is laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets, and I have the same hope in God that they themselves cherish, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked. In this hope, I strive always to maintain a clear conscience before God and man.

After several years, then, I returned to Jerusalem to bring alms to my people and to present offerings. At the time they found me in the temple, I was ceremonially clean and was not inciting a crowd or an uproar. But there are some Jews from the province of Asia who ought to appear before you and bring charges, if they have anything against me. Otherwise, let these men state for themselves any crime they found in me when I stood before the Sanhedrin, unless it was this one thing I called out as I stood in their presence: ‘It is concerning the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial before you today.’ ”

Then Felix, who was well informed about the Way, adjourned the hearing and said, “When Lysias the commander comes, I will decide your case.” He ordered the centurion to keep Paul under guard, but to allow him some freedom and permit his friends to minister to his needs.

Silence may be kept.

The Magnificat (The Song of Mary)

Luke 1:46-55

𝙍: You have done great things, O God, and holy is your name.

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: You have done great things, O God, 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.

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:

Local government, community leaders
All who provide local services
Those who work with young or elderly people
Schools, colleges and universities
Emergency and rescue organizations

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,
you have made us for yourself,
and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you:
pour your love into our hearts and draw us to yourself,
and so bring us at last to your heavenly city
where we shall see you face to face;
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.