Opening response

Lord, open our lips
and our mouth shall proclaim 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

Great Is Our Redeeming Lord

Music by The Hymnodist: Spotify, Apple, Amazon, iHeart, YouTube Music, Pandora, Boomplay, Deezer
Lyrics by Charles Wesley

Chorus
Great is our redeeming Lord
In power, and truth, and grace
Him, by highest heaven adored
His church on earth shall praise
In the city of our God
In his holy mount below
Publish, spread his name abroad
And all his greatness show

Verse 1
For your loving kindness, Lord
We in your temple stay
Here your faithful love record
Your saving power display
With your name your praise is known
Glorious your perfections shine
Earth’s remotest bounds shall own
Your works are all divine

Chorus

Verse 2
Built by his almighty hands
The towers of Salem rise
Fair, and firm the city stands
Adjoining to the skies
Joy to all the Earth she brings
Stored with blessings from above
Kept by the great King of Kings
Her Guardian God of Love

Chorus

Verse 3
See the gospel church secure
And founded on a rock
All her promises are sure
Her bulwarks, who can shock
Count her every precious shrine
Tell, to after ages tell
Fortified by power divine
The church can never fail

Chorus

Verse 4
Zion’s God is all our own
Who on his love rely
We his pardoning love have known
And live to Christ and die
To the new Jerusalem
He, our faithful guide, shall be
Him we claim, and rest in him
Through all eternity

Chorus (2x)

Confession of sin

Let us confess our sins against God and our neighbor.

Silence may be kept.

Most merciful God,
we confess that we have sinned against you
in thought, word, and deed,
by what we have done,
and by what we have left undone.
We have not loved you with our whole heart;
we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.
For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ,
have mercy on us and forgive us;
that we may delight in your will,
and walk in your ways,
to the glory of your name. Amen.

Almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us all our sins
through our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen us in all
goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep us in
eternal life.
Amen.

Psalm 41

𝙍: O LORD, be gracious to me and raise me up.

Blessed is the one who cares for the poor;
the LORD will deliver him in the day of trouble.
The LORD will protect and preserve him;
He will bless him in the land
and refuse to surrender him
to the will of his foes.
The LORD will sustain him on his bed of illness
and restore him from his bed of sickness.

I said, “O LORD, be gracious to me;
heal me, for I have sinned against You.”

𝙍: O LORD, be gracious to me and raise me up.

My enemies say with malice:
“When will he die and be forgotten?”
My visitor speaks falsehood;
he gathers slander in his heart;
he goes out and spreads it abroad.
All who hate me whisper against me;
they imagine the worst for me:
“A vile disease has been poured into him;
he will never get up from where he lies!”
Even my close friend whom I trusted,
the one who shared my bread,
has lifted up his heel against me.

𝙍: O LORD, be gracious to me and raise me up.

But You, O LORD, be gracious to me and raise me up,
that I may repay them.
By this I know that You delight in me,
for my enemy does not triumph over me.
In my integrity You uphold me
and set me in Your presence forever.

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

Amen and Amen.

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: O LORD, be gracious to me and raise me up.

Psalm prayer

God our deliverer,
raise up the poor and comfort the betrayed,
through the one who for our sakes became poor
and whose betrayal brought our salvation,
Jesus Christ our Lord.

Psalm 42

As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul longs after You, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, the living God.
When shall I come and appear in God’s presence?
My tears have been my food
both day and night,
while men ask me all day long,
“Where is your God?”
These things come to mind as I pour out my soul:
how I walked with the multitude,
leading the procession to the house of God
with shouts of joy and praise.

Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why the unease within me?
Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him
for the salvation of His presence.

O my God, my soul despairs within me.
Therefore I remember You
from the land of Jordan and the peaks of Hermon—
even from Mount Mizar.
Deep calls to deep
in the roar of Your waterfalls;
all Your breakers and waves
have rolled over me.

The LORD decrees His loving devotion by day,
and at night His song is with me
as a prayer to the God of my life.

I say to God my Rock,
“Why have You forgotten me?
Why must I walk in sorrow
because of the enemy’s oppression?”
Like the crushing of my bones,
my enemies taunt me,
while they say to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”

Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why the unease within me?
Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him,
my Savior and my God.

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

Come, creator Spirit, source of life;
sustain us when our hearts are heavy
and our wells have run dry,
for you are the Father’s gift,
with him who is our living water,
Jesus Christ our Lord.

Psalm 43

Vindicate me, O God, and plead my case
against an ungodly nation;
deliver me from deceitful and unjust men.
For You are the God of my refuge.
Why have You rejected me?
Why must I walk in sorrow
because of the enemy’s oppression?

Send out Your light and Your truth;
let them lead me.
Let them bring me to Your holy mountain,
and to the place where You dwell.
Then I will go to the altar of God,
to God, my greatest joy.
I will praise You with the harp,
O God, my God.

Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why the unease within me?
Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him,
my Savior and my God.

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

Come, creator Spirit, light and truth;
bring us to the altar of life
and renew our joy and gladness
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Old Testament reading

2 Chronicles 1:1-13

Now Solomon son of David established himself securely over his kingdom, and the LORD his God was with him and highly exalted him.

Then Solomon spoke to all Israel, to the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, to the judges, and to every leader in all Israel—the heads of the families. And Solomon and the whole assembly went to the high place at Gibeon because it was the location of God’s Tent of Meeting, which Moses the servant of the LORD had made in the wilderness.

Now David had brought the ark of God from Kiriath-jearim to the place he had prepared for it, because he had pitched a tent for it in Jerusalem. But the bronze altar made by Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, was in Gibeon before the tabernacle of the LORD. So Solomon and the assembly inquired of Him there.

Solomon offered sacrifices there before the LORD on the bronze altar in the Tent of Meeting, where he offered a thousand burnt offerings.

That night God appeared to Solomon and said, “Ask, and I will give it to you!”

Solomon replied to God: “You have shown much loving devotion to my father David, and You have made me king in his place. Now, O LORD God, let Your promise to my father David be fulfilled. For You have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth. Now grant me wisdom and knowledge, so that I may lead this people. For who is able to govern this great people of Yours?”

God said to Solomon, “Since this was in your heart instead of requesting riches or wealth or glory for yourself or death for your enemies—and since you have not even requested long life but have asked for wisdom and knowledge to govern My people over whom I have made you king— therefore wisdom and knowledge have been granted to you. And I will also give you riches and wealth and honor unlike anything given to the kings before you or after you.”

So Solomon went to Jerusalem from the high place in Gibeon before the Tent of Meeting, and he reigned over Israel.

Silence may be kept.

New Testament reading

Mark 12:18-27

Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and questioned Him: “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man is to marry his brother’s widow and raise up offspring for him. Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died, leaving no children. Then the second one married the widow, but he also died and left no children. And the third did likewise. In this way, none of the seven left any children. And last of all, the woman died. In the resurrection, then, whose wife will she be? For all seven were married to her.”

Jesus said to them, “Aren’t you mistaken, because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage. Instead, they will be like the angels in heaven.

But concerning the dead rising, have you not read about the burning bush in the Book of Moses, how God told him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”

Silence may be kept.

The Benedictus (The Song of Zechariah)

Luke 1:68-79

𝙍: Give your people the knowledge of salvation, O God, through the forgiveness of their sins.

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: Give your people the knowledge of salvation, O God, through the forgiveness of their sins.

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.

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:

Our homes, families, friends, and all whom we love
Those whose time is spent caring for others
Those who are close to death
Those who have lost hope
The worship of the church

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

Response

Lord of life
In your mercy, hear us.

Silence may be kept.

Collect of the day

God, who in generous mercy sent the Holy Spirit
upon your church in the burning fire of your love:
grant that your people may be fervent
in the fellowship of the gospel
that, always abiding in you,
they may be found steadfast in faith and active in service;
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, 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

The Lord bless us,
preserve us from all evil,
and keep us in eternal life.
Amen.