Tuesday evening August 8

Wednesday evening
Monday evening

Preparation

Opening response

Favor us, Lord, and deliver us.
Lord, come quickly and help us.

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

Open, Lord, My Inward Ear

Charles Wesley
           
Open, Lord, my inward ear,
and bid my heart rejoice;
Bid my quiet spirit hear
The comfort of thy voice;
Never in the whirlwind found,
or where earthquake rocks the place,
Still and silent is the sound,
The whisper of thy grace.

Show me, as my soul can bear,
the depth of inbred sin;
All my unbelief declare
the pride that lurks within:
Take me, whom thyself hast bought,
and bring into captivity
Every high aspiring thought
that would not stoop to Thee.

Lord, my time is in thy hand,
my soul to thee convert;
Thou canst make me understand,
though I am slow of heart;
Thine in whom I live and move,
Thine, Lord, the work, the praise is thine!
Thou art wisdom, power and love,
and all thou art is mine.

From the world of sin and noise
And hurry I withdraw;
For the small and inward voice
I wait with humble awe:
Silent am I now and still,
Dare not in thy presence move;
To my waiting soul reveal
The secret of thy love.

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.

The Word of God

Psalm 33

Refrain: 
The Lord’s faithful love fills the whole earth.

All you who are righteous,
    shout joyfully to the Lord!
    It’s right for those who do right to praise God.
Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre!
    Sing praises to him with the ten-stringed harp!
Sing to him a new song!
    Play your best with joyful shouts!
Because the Lord’s word is right,
    his every act is done in good faith.
He loves righteousness and justice;
    the Lord’s faithful love fills the whole earth.
The skies were made by the Lord’s word,
    all their starry multitude by the breath of his mouth.
He gathered the ocean waters into a heap;
    he put the deep seas into storerooms.
All the earth honors the Lord;
    all the earth’s inhabitants stand in awe of him.
Because when he spoke, it happened!
    When he commanded, there it was!
The Lord overrules what the nations plan;
    he frustrates what the peoples intend to do.
But the Lord’s plan stands forever;
    what he intends to do lasts from one generation to the next.
The nation whose God is the Lord,
    the people whom God has chosen as his possession,
    is truly happy!
The Lord looks down from heaven;
    he sees every human being.
From his dwelling place God observes
    all who live on earth.
God is the one who made all their hearts,
    the one who knows everything they do.
Kings aren’t saved by the strength of their armies;
    warriors aren’t rescued by how much power they have.
A warhorse is a bad bet for victory;
    it can’t save despite its great strength.
But look here: the Lord’s eyes watch all who honor him,
    all who wait for his faithful love,
    to deliver their lives from death
    and keep them alive during a famine.
We put our hope in the Lord.
    He is our help and our shield.
Our heart rejoices in God
    because we trust his holy name.
Lord, let your faithful love surround us
    because we wait for you. 

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’s faithful love fills the whole earth.

Psalm prayer

Feed your people, Lord,
with your holy word
and free us from the emptiness of our
wrongful desires,
that we may sing the new song of salvation
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Old Testament reading
1 Samuel 15:1-23

Samuel said to Saul, “The Lord sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel. Listen now to the Lord’s words! This is what the Lord of heavenly forces says: I am going to punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel: how they attacked the Israelites as they came up from Egypt. So go! Attack the Amalekites; put everything that belongs to them under the ban. Spare no one. Kill men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and donkeys.”

Saul called out the troops and counted them at Telaim: two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand more troops from Judah. Then Saul advanced on the Amalekite city and laid an ambush in the valley. Saul told the Kenites, “Get going! Leave the Amalekites immediately because you showed kindness to the Israelites when they came out of Egypt. Otherwise, I’ll destroy you right along with them.” So the Kenites left the Amalekites. Then Saul attacked the Amalekites from Havilah all the way to Shur, which is near Egypt. He captured Agag the Amalekite king alive, but Saul placed all the people under the ban, killing them with the sword. Saul and the troops spared Agag along with the best sheep, cattle, fattened calves, lambs, and everything of value. They weren’t willing to put them under the ban; but anything that was despised or of no value they placed under the ban.

Then the Lord’s word came to Samuel: “I regret making Saul king because he has turned away from following me and hasn’t done what I said.” Samuel was upset at this, and he prayed to the Lord all night long.

Samuel got up early in the morning to meet Saul, and was told, “Saul went to Carmel, where he is setting up a monument for himself. Then he left and went down to Gilgal.”

When Samuel reached Saul, Saul greeted him, “The Lord bless you! I have done what the Lord said.”

“Then what,” Samuel asked, “is this bleating of sheep in my ears and mooing of cattle I hear?”

“They were taken from the Amalekites,” Saul said, “because the troops spared the best sheep and cattle in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God. The rest was placed under the ban.”

Samuel then said to Saul, “Enough! Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.”

“Tell me,” Saul replied.

Samuel said, “Even if you think you are insignificant, aren’t you the leader of Israel’s tribes? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. The Lord sent you on a mission, instructing you, ‘Go, and put the sinful Amalekites under the ban. Fight against them until you’ve wiped them out.’ Why didn’t you obey the Lord? You did evil in the Lord’s eyes when you tore into the plunder!”

“But I did obey the Lord!” Saul protested to Samuel. “I went on the mission the Lord sent me on. I captured Agag the Amalekite king, and I put the Amalekites under the ban. Yes, the troops took sheep and cattle from the plunder—the very best items placed under the ban—but in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal.”

Then Samuel replied,

“Does the Lord want entirely burned offerings and sacrifices
    as much as obedience to the Lord?
Listen to this: obeying is better than sacrificing,
    paying attention is better than fat from rams,
because rebellion is as bad as the sin of divination;
    arrogance is like the evil of idolatry.
Because you have rejected what the Lord said,
    he has rejected you as king.”

Silence may be kept.

New Testament reading
Luke 23:26-43

As they led Jesus away, they grabbed Simon, a man from Cyrene, who was coming in from the countryside. They put the cross on his back and made him carry it behind Jesus. A huge crowd of people followed Jesus, including women, who were mourning and wailing for him. Jesus turned to the women and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, don’t cry for me. Rather, cry for yourselves and your children. The time will come when they will say, ‘Happy are those who are unable to become pregnant, the wombs that never gave birth, and the breasts that never nursed a child.’ Then they will say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ If they do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”

They also led two other criminals to be executed with Jesus. When they arrived at the place called The Skull, they crucified him, along with the criminals, one on his right and the other on his left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing.” They drew lots as a way of dividing up his clothing.

The people were standing around watching, but the leaders sneered at him, saying, “He saved others. Let him save himself if he really is the Christ sent from God, the chosen one.”

The soldiers also mocked him. They came up to him, offering him sour wine and saying, “If you really are the king of the Jews, save yourself.” Above his head was a notice of the formal charge against him. It read “This is the king of the Jews.”

One of the criminals hanging next to Jesus insulted him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”

Responding, the other criminal spoke harshly to him, “Don’t you fear God, seeing that you’ve also been sentenced to die? We are rightly condemned, for we are receiving the appropriate sentence for what we did. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Jesus replied, “I assure you that today you will be with me in paradise.”

Silence may be kept.

Gospel canticle
The Magnificat (The Song of Mary)

Refrain:
God, you have done great things and holy is your name.

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:
God, you have done great things 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.

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:

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 of life
In your mercy, hear us.

Silence may be kept.

Collect of the day

Almighty Lord and everlasting God,
we beseech you to direct, sanctify and govern
      both our hearts and bodies
in the ways of your laws
      and the works of your commandments;
that through your most mighty protection, both here and ever,
we may be preserved in body and soul;
through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
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.