Opening response

O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.

Prayer of thanksgiving

Blessed are you, Sovereign God, creator of all,
to you be glory and praise forever.
You founded the earth in the beginning
and the heavens are the work of your hands.
In the fullness of time you made us in your image,
and in these last days you have spoken to us
in your Son Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh.
As we rejoice in the gift of your presence among us
let the light of your love always shine in our hearts,
your Spirit ever renew our lives
and your praises ever be on our lips.
Blessed be God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Blessed be God forever.

The night has passed, and the day lies open before us;
let us pray with one heart and mind.

Silence is kept.

As we rejoice in the gift of this new day,
so may the light of your presence, O God,
set our hearts on fire with love for you;
now and forever.
Amen.

Hymn

The Mighty Conqueror Leaves the Dead

Charles Wesley

The mighty conqueror leaves the dead,
Jesus the Lord ascends on high;
The powers of hell are captive led,
Dragged to the portals of the sky.

There his triumphal chariot waits,
And angels chant the solemn lay:
“Lift up your heads, ye heavenly gates;
Ye everlasting doors, give way.

Loose all your bars of massy light,
And wide unfold the radiant scene;
He claims these mansions as his right,
Receive the King of Glory in.”

“Who is the King of Glory, who?”
“The Lord, that all our foes overcame;
The world, sin, death, and hell overthrew,
Jesus is the conqueror’s name.”

Lo! His triumphal chariot waits,
And angels chant the solemn lay:
“Lift up your heads, ye heavenly gates;
Ye everlasting doors, give way.”

“Who is the King of Glory, who?”
“The Lord, of boundless power possessed,
The King of saints and angels too,
God over all, forever blessed.”

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:
‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your mind
and with all your strength.’

The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
No other commandment is greater than these.
All the Law and the Prophets hang 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 mist,
like the early dew that vanishes.
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.

Psalm 106

𝙍: The LORD remembered his covenant.

Hallelujah!

Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good;
His loving devotion endures forever.
Who can describe the mighty acts of the LORD
or fully proclaim His praise?
Blessed are those who uphold justice,
who practice righteousness at all times.

Remember me, O LORD, in Your favor to Your people;
visit me with Your salvation,
that I may see the prosperity of Your chosen ones,
and rejoice in the gladness of Your nation,
and give glory with Your inheritance. 𝙍

We have sinned like our fathers;
we have done wrong and acted wickedly.
Our fathers in Egypt did not grasp Your wonders
or remember Your abundant kindness;
but they rebelled by the sea,
there at the Red Sea.
Yet He saved them for the sake of His name,
to make His power known.
He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up;
He led them through the depths as through a desert.
He saved them from the hand that hated them;
He redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.
The waters covered their foes;
not one of them remained.
Then they believed His promises
and sang His praise. 𝙍

Yet they soon forgot His works
and failed to wait for His counsel.
They craved intensely in the wilderness
and tested God in the desert.
So He granted their request,
but sent a wasting disease upon them.

In the camp they envied Moses,
as well as Aaron, the holy one of the LORD.
The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan;
it covered the assembly of Abiram.
Then fire blazed through their company;
flames consumed the wicked. 𝙍

At Horeb they made a calf
and worshiped a molten image.
They exchanged their Glory
for the image of a grass-eating ox.
They forgot God their Savior,
who did great things in Egypt,
wondrous works in the land of Ham,
and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.
So He said He would destroy them—
had not Moses His chosen one
stood before Him in the breach
to divert His wrath from destroying them. 𝙍

They despised the pleasant land;
they did not believe His promise.
They grumbled in their tents
and did not listen to the voice of the LORD.
So He raised His hand and swore
to cast them down in the wilderness,
to disperse their offspring among the nations
and scatter them throughout the lands. 𝙍

They yoked themselves to Baal of Peor
and ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods.
So they provoked the LORD to anger with their deeds,
and a plague broke out among them.
But Phinehas stood and intervened,
and the plague was restrained.
It was credited to him as righteousness
for endless generations to come.

At the waters of Meribah they angered the LORD,
and trouble came to Moses because of them.
For they rebelled against His Spirit,
and Moses spoke rashly with his lips. 𝙍

They did not destroy the peoples
as the LORD had commanded them,
but they mingled with the nations
and adopted their customs.
They worshiped their idols,
which became a snare to them.
They sacrificed their sons
and their daughters to demons.
They shed innocent blood—
the blood of their sons and daughters,
whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan,
and the land was polluted with blood.
They defiled themselves by their actions
and prostituted themselves by their deeds. 𝙍

So the anger of the LORD burned against His people,
and He abhorred His own inheritance.
He delivered them into the hand of the nations,
and those who hated them ruled over them.
Their enemies oppressed them,
and subdued them under their hand.
Many times He rescued them,
but they were bent on rebellion
and sank down in their iniquity.

Nevertheless He heard their cry;
He took note of their distress.
And He remembered His covenant with them,
and relented by the abundance of His loving devotion.
He made them objects of compassion
to all who held them captive. 𝙍

Save us, O LORD our God,
and gather us from the nations,
that we may give thanks to Your holy name,
that we may glory in Your praise.

Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.

Let all the people say, “Amen!”

Hallelujah!

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: The LORD remembered his covenant.

Psalm prayer

Holy God,
when our memories blot out your kindness
and we ignore your patient love,
remember us, remake us,
and give to us poor sinners
the rich inheritance of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Silence may be kept.

Old Testament reading

Ezekiel 33:1-20

Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Son of man, speak to your people and tell them: ‘Suppose I bring the sword against a land, and the people of that land choose a man from among them, appointing him as their watchman, and he sees the sword coming against that land and blows the ram’s horn to warn the people.

Then if anyone hears the sound of the horn but fails to heed the warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head. Since he heard the sound of the horn but failed to heed the warning, his blood will be on his own head. If he had heeded the warning, he would have saved his life.

But if the watchman sees the sword coming and fails to blow the horn to warn the people, and the sword comes and takes away a life, then that one will be taken away in his iniquity, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood.’

As for you, O son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word from My mouth and give them the warning from Me. If I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you will surely die,’ but you do not speak out to dissuade him from his way, then that wicked man will die in his iniquity, yet I will hold you accountable for his blood. But if you warn the wicked man to turn from his way, and he does not turn from it, he will die in his iniquity, but you will have saved your life.

Now as for you, son of man, tell the house of Israel that this is what they have said: ‘Our transgressions and our sins are heavy upon us, and we are wasting away because of them! How can we live?’

Say to them: ‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked should turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’

Therefore, son of man, say to your people: ‘The righteousness of the righteous man will not deliver him in the day of his transgression; neither will the wickedness of the wicked man cause him to stumble on the day he turns from his wickedness. Nor will the righteous man be able to survive by his righteousness on the day he sins.’

If I tell the righteous man that he will surely live, but he then trusts in his righteousness and commits iniquity, then none of his righteous works will be remembered; he will die because of the iniquity he has committed.

But if I tell the wicked man, ‘You will surely die,’ and he turns from his sin and does what is just and right— if he restores a pledge, makes restitution for what he has stolen, and walks in the statutes of life without practicing iniquity—then he will surely live; he will not die. None of the sins he has committed will be held against him. He has done what is just and right; he will surely live.

Yet your people say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ But it is their way that is not just. If a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, he will die for it. But if a wicked man turns from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he will live because of this.

Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ But I will judge each of you according to his ways, O house of Israel.”

Silence may be kept.

New Testament reading

John 13:12-20

When Jesus had washed their feet and put on His outer garments, He reclined with them again and asked, “Do you know what I have done for you? You call Me Teacher and Lord, and rightly so, because I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example so that you should do as I have done for you. Truly, truly, I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

I am not speaking about all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But this is to fulfill the Scripture: ‘The one who shares My bread has lifted up his heel against Me.’ I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it comes to pass, you will believe that I am He. Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever receives the one I send receives Me, and whoever receives Me receives the One who sent Me.”

Silence may be kept.

The Benedictus (The Song of Zechariah)

Luke 1:68-79

𝙍: You have raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of your servant David.

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
because He has visited and redeemed His people.
He has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of His servant David,
as He spoke through His holy prophets,
those of ages past,
salvation from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us,
to show mercy to our fathers
and to remember His holy covenant,
the oath He swore to our father Abraham,
to grant us deliverance from hostile hands,
that we may serve Him without fear,
in holiness and righteousness before Him
all the days of our lives.

And you, child, will be called
a prophet of the Most High;
for you will go on before the Lord
to prepare the way for Him,
to give to His people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the Dawn will visit us from on high,
to shine on those who live in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet
into the path of peace.”

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 raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of your servant David.

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.

Intercession and thanksgiving

Prayers may be offered for:

the day and its tasks
the world and its needs
the church and her life

Prayers may include the following concerns:

All who are sick in body, mind or spirit
Those in the midst of famine or disaster
Victims of abuse and violence, intolerance and prejudice
Those who are bereaved
All who work in the medical and healing professions

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

O God, forasmuch as without you
we are not able to please you;
mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit
may in all things direct and rule our hearts;
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 Lord bless us, preserve us from all evil, and keep us in eternal life.
Amen.