Sat. evening Jan. 17
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Opening response
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
Your light springs up for the righteous
and all the peoples have seen your glory.
Prayer of thanksgiving
Blessed are you, Sovereign God, king of the nations, to you be praise and glory forever. From the rising of the sun to its setting, your name is proclaimed in all the world. As the Sun of Righteousness dawns in our hearts, anoint our lips with the seal of your Spirit that we may witness to your gospel and sing your praise in all the earth.
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
Alas! and Did My Savior Bleed?
Words: Isaac Watts (1707); ref. Ralph E. Hudson (1885)
Music: Ralph E. Hudson (1885)
Our Great Redeemer’s Praise (#564)
Alas, and did my Savior bleed?
And did my Sovereign die?
Would He devote that sacred head
For sinners such as I?
Was it for crimes that I have done
He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!
Refrain:
At the cross, at the cross where
I first saw the light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away,
It was there by faith I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day!
Well might the sun in darkness hide,
And shut His glories in,
When Christ, the mighty Maker, died
For man, the creature’s sin. [Refrain]
But drops of grief can ne’er repay
The debt of love I owe;
Here, Lord, I give myself away,
’Tis all that I can do.
Confession of Sin
Seek the LORD while He may be found,
call upon Him while He is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
and let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy upon him,
and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.
cf Isaiah 55
A time of silence and self-examination may be kept.
Lord God, I have sinned against you; I have done what is evil in your sight. I am sorry and repent. Have mercy on me according to your lovingkindness. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Renew a right spirit within me, and restore unto me the joy of your salvation, through Jesus Christ my 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,
because He has heard the voice of my supplications.
Therefore my heart rejoices,
and with my song I will thank Him.
cf Psalm 28:7,9
Psalm 84
𝙍: Blessed are those who dwell in Your house.
How lovely is Your dwelling place,
O LORD of Hosts!
My soul longs and even yearns
for the courtyards of the LORD;
my heart and my flesh cry out
for the living God.
Even the sparrow has found a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may lay her young,
at Your altars,
O LORD of Hosts, my King and my God.
Blessed are those who dwell in Your house;
they will still be praising You.
𝙍: Blessed are those who dwell in Your house.
Blessed is the man whose strength is in You,
in whose heart are the paths to Zion.
As they pass through the Valley of Baca,
they make it a spring;
the early rain also covers it with pools.
They go from strength to strength;
every one of them appears in Zion before God.
𝙍: Blessed are those who dwell in Your house.
O LORD God of Hosts, hear my prayer;
give ear, O God of Jacob!
Behold our shield, O God,
and look upon the face of Your anointed.
For a day in Your courtyards is better
than a thousand elsewhere.
𝙍: Blessed are those who dwell in Your house.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
For the LORD God is a sun and shield;
the LORD will give grace and glory;
no good thing will He withhold
from those who walk uprightly.
O LORD of Hosts,
blessed is the man who trusts in 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.
𝙍: Blessed are those who dwell in Your house.
Psalm prayer
Lord God, sustain us in this vale of tears with the vision of your grace and glory, that, strengthened by the bread of life, we may come to your eternal dwelling place; in the power of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Psalm 85
𝙍: Show us Your mercy, O LORD.
LORD, You have been favorable to Your land;
You have brought back the captivity of Jacob.
You have forgiven the iniquity of Your people;
You have covered all their sin.
You have withdrawn all Your wrath;
You have turned from the fierceness of Your anger.
𝙍: Show us Your mercy, O LORD.
Restore us, O God of our salvation,
and cause Your indignation toward us to cease.
Will You be angry with us forever?
Will You prolong Your anger to all generations?
Will You not revive us again,
that Your people may rejoice in You?
Show us Your mercy, O LORD,
and grant us Your salvation.
𝙍: Show us Your mercy, O LORD.
I will hear what God the LORD will say,
for He will speak peace to His people and to His saints;
but let them not turn back to folly.
Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him,
that glory may dwell in our land.
𝙍: Show us Your mercy, O LORD.
Mercy and truth have met together;
righteousness and peace have kissed.
Truth springs from the earth,
and righteousness looks down from heaven.
Yes, the LORD will give what is good,
and our land will yield its increase.
Righteousness will go before Him
and prepare a way for His footsteps.
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: Show us Your mercy, O LORD.
Psalm prayer
Most holy God, when we come to you fearing that truth condemns us, show us that truth is one with love in your Word made flesh, our Savior Jesus Christ.
Old Testament reading
Amos 5:18-27
Woe to you that desire
the day of the LORD!
Why do you want the day of the LORD?
It is darkness, and not light,
as if someone fled away from a lion,
but a bear attacked him,
or got into the house
and rested his hand on the wall,
but a snake bit him.
Will not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light?
Will it not be deep darkness, with no brightness in it?
I hate, I despise your festivals,
and I am not pleased by your solemn assemblies.
Though you offer Me burnt offerings or your grain offerings,
I will not accept them,
nor will I regard the offerings
of your fattened animals.
Take away from Me the noise of your songs;
I will not listen to the melody of your harps.
But let justice roll down like water,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Did you bring Me sacrifices and offerings
those forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
But you will carry away Sukuth your king
and Kaiwan your star-images,
your gods that you made for yourselves,
as I drive you away into exile beyond Damascus,
says the LORD, whose name is the God of Hosts.
Silence may be kept.
New Testament reading
1 Corinthians 5
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles, that a man has his father’s wife. But you are arrogant. Instead you should have mourned, so that he who has done this deed might be removed from among you. For indeed, though absent in body but present in spirit, I have already, as if I were present, judged him who has done this deed, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. When you are assembled, along with my spirit, in the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver him to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that the spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord Jesus.
Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch? Therefore purge out the old yeast, that you may be a new batch, since you are unleavened. For even Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old yeast, nor with the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
I wrote to you in my letter not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I did not mean the sexually immoral people of this world, or the covetous and extortioners, or the idolaters, since you would then need to go out of the world. But I have written to you not to keep company with any man who is called a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner. Do not even eat with such a person.
For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But God judges those who are outside. Therefore “put away from among yourselves that wicked person.”
Silence may be kept.
The Magnificat (The Song of Mary)
Luke 1:46-55
My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.
For He has regarded
the low estate of His servant.
For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed.
For He who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is His name.
His mercy is on those who fear Him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with His arm;
He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He has pulled down the mighty from their thrones
and exalted those of low degree.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich He has sent away empty.
He has helped His servant Israel,
in remembrance of His mercy,
as He spoke to our fathers,
to Abraham and to 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.
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.
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:
The unity of the Church
The peace of the world
The healing of the sick
The revelation of Christ to those from whom his glory is hidden
All who travel
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 God, in Christ you make all things new: transform the poverty of our nature by the riches of your grace, and in the renewal of our lives, make known your heavenly glory; 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
Believing the promises of God, 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
May Christ, who sends us to the nations, give us the power of his Spirit.
Amen.