Opening response

O God, make speed to save us.
O Lord, make haste to help us.

Hear our voice, O Lord, according to your faithful love,
according to your judgment give us life.

Prayer of thanksgiving

Blessed are you, Lord God of our salvation,
to you be glory and praise forever.
In the darkness of our sin you have shone in our hearts
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ.
Open our eyes to acknowledge your presence,
that freed from the misery of sin and shame
we may grow into your likeness from glory to glory.
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

Thou, Lord, on Whom I Still Depend

Charles Wesley

Thou, Lord, on whom I still depend,
Shalt keep me faithful to the end;
I trust thy truth, and love, and power
Shall save me till my latest hour;
And when I lay this body down,
Reward with an immortal crown.

Jesus, in thy great name I go
To conquer death, my final foe;
And when I quit this cumbrous clay,
And soar on angels' wings away,
My soul the second death defies,
And reigns eternal in the skies.

Eye hath not seen, nor ear hath heard,
What Christ hath for his saints prepared,
Who conquer through their Saviour's might,
Who sink into perfection's height,
And trample death beneath their feet,
And gladly die their Lord to meet.

Dost thou desire to know and see
What thy mysterious name shall be?
Contending for thy heavenly home,
Thy latest foe in death overcome;
Till then, thou searchest out in vain
What only conquest can explain.

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.

Bless 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 36

𝙍: With You, O God, is the fountain of life.

An oracle is in my heart
regarding the transgression of the wicked man:
There is no fear of God
before his eyes.
For his eyes are too full of conceit
to detect or hate his own sin.
The words of his mouth are wicked and deceitful;
he has ceased to be wise and well-doing.
Even on his bed he plots wickedness;
he sets himself on a path that is not good;
he fails to reject evil. 𝙍

Your loving devotion, O LORD, reaches to the heavens,
Your faithfulness to the clouds.
Your righteousness is like the highest mountains;
Your judgments are like the deepest sea.
O LORD, You preserve man and beast.
How precious is Your loving devotion, O God,
that the children of men take refuge
in the shadow of Your wings!
They feast on the abundance of Your house,
and You give them drink from Your river of delights.
For with You is the fountain of life;
in Your light we see light. 𝙍

Extend Your loving devotion to those who know You,
and Your righteousness to the upright in heart.
Let not the foot of the proud come against me,
nor the hand of the wicked drive me away.
There the evildoers lie fallen,
thrown down and unable to rise.

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: With You, O God, is the fountain of life.

Psalm prayer

O God, the fountain of life,
make us bright with wisdom,
that we may be lightened with the knowledge of your glory
in the face of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Psalm 39

𝙍: Show me, O LORD, my end and the measure of my days.

I said, “I will watch my ways
so that I will not sin with my tongue;
I will guard my mouth with a muzzle
as long as the wicked are present.”
I was speechless and still;
I remained silent, even from speaking good,
and my sorrow was stirred. 𝙍

My heart grew hot within me;
as I mused, the fire burned.

Then I spoke with my tongue:

“Show me, O LORD, my end
and the measure of my days.
Let me know how fleeting my life is.
You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths,
and my lifetime as nothing before You.
Truly each man at his best
exists as but a breath.

Surely every man goes about like a phantom;
surely he bustles in vain;
he heaps up riches
not knowing who will haul them away. 𝙍

And now, O Lord, for what do I wait?
My hope is in You.
Deliver me from all my transgressions;
do not make me the reproach of fools.
I have become mute;
I do not open my mouth
because of what You have done.
Remove Your scourge from me;
I am perishing by the force of Your hand.
You discipline and correct a man for his iniquity,
consuming like a moth what he holds dear;
surely each man is but a vapor. 𝙍

Hear my prayer, O LORD,
and give ear to my cry for help;
do not be deaf to my weeping.
For I am a foreigner dwelling with You,
a stranger like all my fathers.
Turn Your gaze away from me,
that I may again be cheered
before I depart and am no more.”

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 me, O LORD, my end and the measure of my days.

Psalm prayer

O Christ, Son of the living God,
help us when we are too cast down to pray,
and grant that we may trust you all our days,
for you are with us in our living and our dying,
Jesus, Lord and God.

Old Testament reading

Genesis 49:1-32

Then Jacob called for his sons and said, “Gather around so that I can tell you what will happen to you in the days to come:

Come together and listen, O sons of Jacob;
listen to your father Israel.

Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might,
and the beginning of my strength,
excelling in honor,
excelling in power.
Uncontrolled as the waters,
you will no longer excel,
because you went up to your father’s bed,
onto my couch, and defiled it.

Simeon and Levi are brothers;
their swords are weapons of violence.
May I never enter their council;
may I never join their assembly.
For they kill men in their anger,
and hamstring oxen on a whim.
Cursed be their anger, for it is strong,
and their wrath, for it is cruel!
I will disperse them in Jacob
and scatter them in Israel.

Judah, your brothers shall praise you.
Your hand shall be on the necks of your enemies;
your father’s sons shall bow down to you.
Judah is a young lion—
my son, you return from the prey.

Like a lion he crouches and lies down;
like a lioness, who dares to rouse him?
The scepter will not depart from Judah,
nor the staff from between his feet,
until Shiloh comes
and the allegiance of the nations is his.
He ties his donkey to the vine,
his colt to the choicest branch.
He washes his garments in wine,
his robes in the blood of grapes.
His eyes are darker than wine,
and his teeth are whiter than milk.

Zebulun shall dwell by the seashore
and become a harbor for ships;
his border shall extend to Sidon.

Issachar is a strong donkey,
lying down between the sheepfolds.
He saw that his resting place was good
and that his land was pleasant,
so he bent his shoulder to the burden
and submitted to labor as a servant.

Dan shall provide justice for his people
as one of the tribes of Israel.
He will be a snake by the road,
a viper in the path
that bites the horse’s heels
so that its rider tumbles backward.

I await Your salvation, O LORD.

Gad will be attacked by raiders,
but he will attack their heels.

Asher’s food will be rich;
he shall provide royal delicacies.

Naphtali is a doe set free
that bears beautiful fawns.

Joseph is a fruitful vine—
a fruitful vine by a spring,
whose branches scale the wall.
The archers attacked him with bitterness;
they aimed at him in hostility.
Yet he steadied his bow,
and his strong arms were tempered
by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob,
in the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,
by the God of your father who helps you,
and by the Almighty who blesses you,
with blessings of the heavens above,
with blessings of the depths below,
with blessings of the breasts and womb.
The blessings of your father have surpassed
the blessings of the ancient mountains
and the bounty of the everlasting hills.
May they rest on the head of Joseph,
on the brow of the prince of his brothers.

Benjamin is a ravenous wolf;
in the morning he devours the prey,
in the evening he divides the plunder.”

These are the tribes of Israel, twelve in all, and this was what their father said to them. He blessed them, and he blessed each one with a suitable blessing.

Then Jacob instructed them, “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite. The cave is in the field of Machpelah near Mamre, in the land of Canaan. This is the field Abraham purchased from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site. There Abraham and his wife Sarah are buried, there Isaac and his wife Rebekah are buried, and there I buried Leah. The field and the cave that is in it were purchased from the Hittites.”

Silence may be kept.

New Testament reading

Hebrews 6:13-20

When God made His promise to Abraham, since He had no one greater to swear by, He swore by Himself, saying, “I will surely bless you and multiply your descendants.” And so Abraham, after waiting patiently, obtained the promise.

Men swear by someone greater than themselves, and their oath serves as a confirmation to end all argument. So when God wanted to make the unchanging nature of His purpose very clear to the heirs of the promise, He guaranteed it with an oath. Thus by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be strongly encouraged.

We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus our forerunner has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.

Silence may be kept.

The Magnificat (The Song of Mary)

Luke 1:46-55

𝙍: Come, let us return to the Lord, for our God will freely pardon.

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: Come, let us return to the Lord, for our God will freely pardon.

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:

Those preparing for baptism and confirmation
Those serving through leadership
Those looking for forgiveness
Those misled by the false gods of this present age
All who are hungry

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,
whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain,
and entered not into glory before he was crucified:
mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross,
may find it none other than the way of life and peace;
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

Trusting in the compassion 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 God our Redeemer show us compassion and love.
Amen.