Mon. morning Dec. 8
Opening response
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
Reveal among us the light of your presence
that we may behold your power and glory.
Prayer of thanksgiving
Blessed are you, Sovereign God of all, to you be praise and glory forever. In your tender compassion, the dawn from on high is breaking upon us to dispel the lingering shadows of light. As we look for your coming among us this day, open our eyes to behold your presence and strengthen our hands to do your will, that the world may rejoice and give you praise. 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
Arm of the Lord, Awake, Awake!
Music by The Hymnodist: Spotify, Apple, Amazon, iHeart, YouTube Music, Pandora, Boomplay, Deezer
Lyrics by Charles Wesley
Chorus
Arm of the Lord, awake, awake
Thine own immortal strength put on
With terror clothed, hell's kingdom shake
And cast thy foes with fury down
Verses 1 & 2
As in the ancient days appear
The sacred annals speak thy fame
Be now omnipotently near
To endless ages still the same
Thy arm, Lord, is not shortened now
It lacks not now the power to save
Still present with thy people, thou
Bearest them through life's disparted wave
Chorus
Verses 3 & 4
By death and hell pursued in vain
To thee the ransomed seed shall come
Shouting their heavenly Zion gain
And pass through death triumphant home
The pain of life shall there be over
The anguish and distracting care
There, sighing grief shall weep no more
And sin shall never enter there
Chorus
Verse 5
Where pure essential joy is found
The Lord's redeemed, their heads shall raise
With everlasting gladness crowned
And filled with love, and lost in praise
Chorus
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 44
𝙍: Arise, O God, and be our help.
We have heard with our ears, O God;
our fathers have told us
what deeds You performed in their days,
in the days of old:
You drove out the nations with Your hand,
but them You planted;
You afflicted the peoples,
but them You set free.
For they did not take possession of the land by their own sword,
nor did their own arm save them;
but it was Your right hand, and Your arm,
and the light of Your countenance, because You favored them.
𝙍: Arise, O God, and be our help.
You are my King, O God;
command victories for Jacob.
Through You we will push down our enemies;
through Your name we will trample those who rise up against us.
For I will not trust in my bow,
nor can my sword save me.
But You have saved us from our enemies,
and have put to shame those who hate us.
In God we have boasted continually,
and we will give thanks to Your name forever.
𝙍: Arise, O God, and be our help.
But You have rejected us and put us to shame,
and you do not go out with our armies.
You make us turn back from the enemy,
and those who hate us have taken spoil for themselves.
You have given us up like sheep for slaughter,
and have scattered us among the nations.
You sell Your people for a low price,
and do not increase Your wealth by their sale.
You make us a reproach to our neighbors,
a scorn and a derision to those around us.
You make us a byword among the nations,
a shaking of the head among the peoples.
𝙍: Arise, O God, and be our help.
My disgrace is continually before me,
and shame has covered my face
at the voice of him who reproaches and reviles,
at the presence of the enemy and avenger.
All this has come upon us;
yet we have not forgotten You,
nor have we dealt falsely with Your covenant.
Our heart has not turned back,
nor have our steps departed from Your way;
Yet You have broken us in the place of jackals
and covered us with the shadow of death.
If we had forgotten the name of our God
or stretched out our hands to a foreign god,
would not God search this out?
For He knows the secrets of the heart.
Yet for Your sake we are killed all day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
𝙍: Arise, O God, and be our help.
Awake! Why do You sleep, O Lord?
Arise! Do not cast us off forever!
Why do You hide Your face?
Why do you forget our affliction and our oppression?
For our soul is bowed down to the dust;
our body clings to the ground.
Arise, be our help.
Redeem us for the sake of Your lovingkindness!
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: Arise, O God, and be our help.
Psalm prayer
In the darkness of unknowing, when your love seems absent, draw near to us, O God, in Christ forsaken, in Christ risen, our Redeemer and our Lord.
Old Testament reading
Isaiah 30:1-18
Woe to the rebellious children,
says the LORD,
who take counsel, but not from Me,
and make an alliance, but not of My Spirit,
in order to add sin to sin;
they walk down to Egypt
and have not asked from My mouth,
to strengthen themselves in the safety of Pharaoh
and to trust in the shadow of Egypt!
Therefore the safety of Pharaoh shall be your shame
and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your humiliation.
For their princes were at Zoan,
and their ambassadors came to Hanes.
They all will be ashamed
of a people who cannot profit them,
who are not a help or profit,
but a shame and also a reproach.
The burden of the beasts of the Negev.
Through a land of trouble and anguish,
from which comes the lioness and lion,
the viper and fiery flying serpent,
they will carry their riches on the shoulders of young donkeys,
and their treasures on the humps of camels,
to a people who shall not profit them.
For the Egyptians shall help in vain and to no purpose.
Therefore, I have called her,
“Rahab who has been exterminated.”
Now go, write it before them on a tablet,
and note it in a book,
that it may serve in the time to come
as a witness forever;
for this is a rebellious people, lying children,
children who refuse to listen to the law of the LORD;
they say to the seers,
“You must not see visions,”
and to the prophets,
“You must not prophesy to us right things;
speak to us pleasant things,
prophesy illusions.
Get out of the way,
turn aside from the path,
let us hear no more
about the Holy One of Israel.”
Therefore, thus says the Holy One of Israel:
Because you despise this word
and trust in oppression and perverseness,
and rely on them,
therefore this iniquity shall be to you
as a breach ready to fall, swelling up in a high wall,
whose collapse comes suddenly, in an instant.
He shall break it as the breaking of the potter’s vessel
that is broken in pieces;
He shall not spare so that there shall not be found in the breaking of it a shard
to take fire from the hearth
or with which to take water out of a cistern.
For thus says the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel:
In returning and rest you shall be saved;
in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.
Yet you were not willing,
and you said, “No, for we will flee on horses”;
therefore you shall flee.
“And we will ride on swift horses”;
therefore those who pursue you shall be swift.
One thousand shall flee
at the threat of one man;
at the threat of five
you shall flee
until you are left
as a flag on the top of a mountain
and as a banner on a hill.
God’s Promise to Zion
Therefore, the LORD longs to be gracious to you,
and therefore, He waits on high to have mercy on you;
for the LORD is a God of justice;
how blessed are all who long for Him.
Silence may be kept.
New Testament reading
Matthew 14:1-12
At that time Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus, and said to his servants, “This is John the Baptist; he has risen from the dead. And therefore mighty works are at work in him.”
For Herod had laid hold of John, bound him, and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife. For John said to him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” When Herod would have put him to death, he feared the crowd, because they counted him as a prophet.
But when Herod’s birthday was celebrated, the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod. Therefore he promised with an oath to give her whatever she would ask. Being previously instructed by her mother, she said, “Give me John the Baptist’s head on a platter.” The king was sorry. Nevertheless, for the oath’s sake and those who sat with him at supper, he commanded it to be given to her. He sent and beheaded John in the prison. His head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother. His disciples came and took up the body and buried it. And they went and told Jesus.
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, that she may be ready for the coming of Christ
The leaders of the Church
The nations, that they may be subject to the rule of God
Those who are working for justice in the world
The broken, that they may find God’s healing
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
O Lord, raise up, we pray, your power and come among us, and with great might assist us; that whereas, through our sins and wickedness we are grievously hindered in running the race that is set before us, your bountiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, to whom with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and forever.
Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer
Awaiting his coming in glory, 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 the Lord, when he comes, find us watching and waiting.
Amen.