Wed. morning Dec. 31
Opening response
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
You laid the foundation of the earth
and the heavens are the work of your hands.
Prayer of thanksgiving
Blessed are you, sovereign God, creator of heaven and earth, to you be praise and glory forever. As your living Word, eternal in heaven, assumed the frailty of our mortal flesh, may the light of your love be born in us to fill our hearts with joy as we sing:
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
Angels from the Realms of Glory
Words: James Montgomery (1816)
Music: Henry T. Smart (1867)
Our Great Redeemer’s Praise (#190)
Angels from the realms of glory,
wing your flight o'er all the earth;
ye who sang creation's story
now proclaim Messiah's birth:
Refrain:
Come and worship, come and worship,
worship Christ, the newborn king.
Shepherds, in the field abiding,
Watching o’er your flocks by night,
God with us is now residing;
Yonder shines the infant light. [Refrain]
Sages, leave your contemplations,
Brighter visions beam afar;
Seek the great Desire of nations;
Ye have seen His natal star. [Refrain]
Saints, before the altar bending,
Watching long in hope and fear;
Suddenly the Lord, descending,
In His temple shall appear. [Refrain]
Confession of Sin
O King enthroned on high, filling the earth with your glory: holy is your name, Lord God Almighty.
A time of silence and self-examination may be kept.
In our sinfulness, we cry to you to take our guilt away, and to cleanse our lips to speak your word, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
May the God of all healing and forgiveness draw us to himself, and cleanse us from all our sins that we may behold the glory of his Son, the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Psalm 102
𝙍: My help comes from the LORD.
Hear my prayer, O LORD,
and let my cry come to You.
Do not hide Your face from me
in the day of my trouble;
incline Your ear to me;
in the day when I call, answer me speedily.
𝙍: My help comes from the LORD.
For my days pass away like smoke,
and my bones burn like a furnace.
My heart is stricken and withered like grass,
so that I forget to eat my bread.
Because of the sound of my groaning
my bones cling to my skin.
I am like an owl of the wilderness;
like an owl of the desert.
I lie awake, and am
like a sparrow alone on the housetop.
My enemies reproach me all the day;
those who deride me use my name for a curse.
For I eat ashes like bread
and mingle my drink with tears,
because of Your indignation and Your wrath;
for You have lifted me up and cast me away.
My days are like an evening shadow;
I wither away like grass.
𝙍: My help comes from the LORD.
But You, O LORD, shall endure forever,
the remembrance of Your name to all generations.
You will arise and have mercy on Zion,
for it is time to favor her;
the appointed time has come.
For Your servants take pleasure in her stones,
and take pity on her dust.
So the nations will fear the name of the LORD,
and all the kings of the earth Your glory.
For the LORD will build up Zion;
He will appear in His glory.
He will regard the prayer of the destitute,
and will not despise their prayer.
𝙍: My help comes from the LORD.
Let this be recorded for the generation to come,
so that a people yet to be created may praise the LORD.
For He looked down from the height of His sanctuary;
from heaven the LORD beheld the earth,
to hear the groaning of the prisoners,
to release those who were appointed to die,
to declare the name of the LORD in Zion,
and His praise in Jerusalem,
when the peoples are gathered together,
and the kingdoms, to serve the LORD.
𝙍: My help comes from the LORD.
He has weakened my strength in midcourse;
He has shortened my days.
I said,
“O my God, do not take me away in the midst of my days;
Your years endure throughout all generations.”
Of old You laid the foundation of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of Your hands.
They will perish, but You will endure;
indeed, they will all wear out like a garment;
like a robe You will change them,
and they will pass away.
But You are the same,
and Your years will have no end.
The children of Your servants shall continue;
and their descendants shall be established before 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: My help comes from the LORD.
Psalm prayer
Have pity on our frailty, O God, and in the hour of our death cast us not away as clothing that is worn, for you are our eternal refuge; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Old Testament reading
Jonah 3-4
The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time, saying, “Get up, go to Nineveh, the great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.”
So Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three-day journey across. Jonah began to enter the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, “In forty days’ time, Nineveh will be overthrown!” So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast. And everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.
When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself in sackcloth, and sat in ashes. Then he made a proclamation in Nineveh:
“By decree of the king and his nobles:
No man or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not eat or drink water. Both man and animals shall cover themselves with sackcloth and cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. Who knows? God may relent and change His mind. He may turn from His fierce anger, so that we will not perish.”
When God saw their actions, that they turned from their evil ways, He changed His mind about the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.
Now this greatly displeased Jonah, and he became angry. He prayed to the LORD and said, “O LORD! Is this not what I said while I was still in my own land? This is the reason that I fled before to Tarshish, because I knew that You are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in faithfulness, and ready to relent from punishment. Therefore, LORD, take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
Then the LORD said, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
So Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city and made for himself a booth there. He sat under it in the shade, waiting to see what would happen to the city. Then the LORD God appointed a plant, and it grew up over Jonah to provide shade over his head, to provide comfort from his grief. And Jonah was very happy about the plant. But at dawn the next day, God appointed a worm to attack the plant so that it withered. When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah so that he became faint and asked that he might die. He said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”
And Jonah replied, “It is right for me to be angry, even to death.”
The LORD said, “You are troubled about the plant for which you did not labor and did not grow. It came up in a night and perished in a night. Should I not, therefore, be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than one hundred and twenty thousand people, who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?”
Silence may be kept.
New Testament reading
Colossians 1:24-2:7
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and fill up in my flesh that which is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church. I have been made a servant of it according to the commission of God, which has been given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, even the mystery which has been hidden from past ages and generations, but now is revealed to His saints. To them God would make known what is the glorious riches of this mystery among the nations. It is Christ in you, the hope of glory, whom we preach, warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present them complete in Christ Jesus. In this I labor, striving according to His power, which effectively works in me.
I would like you to know what a great struggle I am having for you, and for those at Laodicea, and for everyone who has not seen my face in the body, that their hearts may be comforted, being knit together in love, and receive all the riches and assurance of full understanding, and knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Now this I say lest anyone beguile you with enticing words. For though I am absent in the body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing and seeing your orderliness and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.
As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith, just as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.
Silence may be kept.
The Benedictus (The Song of Zechariah)
Luke 1:68-79
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for He has visited and redeemed His people,
and has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of His servant David,
as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets of long ago,
that we should be saved from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us,
to perform the mercy promised to our fathers
and to remember His holy covenant,
the oath which He swore to our father Abraham,
to grant us that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies,
might serve Him without fear,
in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our lives.
And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest;
for you will go before the presence of the Lord to prepare His ways,
to give knowledge of salvation to His people
by the remission of their sins,
through the tender mercy of our God,
whereby the sunrise from on high has visited us;
to give light to those who sit in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way 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.
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:
The Church, especially in places of conflict
The Holy Land, for peace with justice, and reconciliation
Refugees and asylum seekers
Homeless people
Families with young children
Other intercessions and supplications may be offered as the Holy Spirit leads.
Response
Father, by your Spirit
Bring in your kingdom.
Silence may be kept.
Collect of the day
Almighty God, who wonderfully created us in your own image and yet more wonderfully restored us through your Son Jesus Christ: grant that, as he came to share in our humanity, so we may share the life of his divinity; who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer
Rejoicing in the presence of God here among us, 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, who has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light, bless us and fill us with peace.
Amen.