Fri. morning Jan. 2
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
Come, Holy Spirit of God,
and search our hearts with the light of Christ.
Our Lord Jesus Christ said:
“The first of all the commandments is, ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Amen. Lord, have mercy.
After a period of reflection
Come, let us return to the Lord and say:
Lord our God, in our sin, we have avoided your call. Our faithfulness is like a morning cloud, and like the early dew, it goes away. Have mercy on us; deliver us from judgment; bind up our wounds and revive us; in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
cf Hosea 6
May Almighty God, who sent his Son into the world to save sinners, bring us his pardon and peace, now and forever.
Amen.
Psalm 18:1-30
𝙍: The LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.
I love You, O LORD, my strength.
The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer;
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge;
my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised,
so shall I be saved from my enemies.
𝙍: The LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.
The cords of death encompassed me;
the torrents of destruction assailed me.
The cords of Sheol surrounded me;
the snares of death confronted me.
In my distress I called upon the LORD,
and cried for help to my God;
He heard my voice from His temple,
and my cry to Him reached His ears.
Then the earth shook and trembled;
the foundations of the hills also quaked,
because He was angry.
Smoke went up from His nostrils,
and devouring fire from His mouth;
coals were kindled by it.
He bowed the heavens and came down;
darkness was under His feet.
He rode on a cherub and flew;
He flew swiftly on the wings of the wind.
He made darkness His secret place;
His pavilion surrounding Him
was dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.
𝙍: The LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.
Out of the brightness before Him, His thick clouds passed
with hailstones and coals of fire.
The LORD thundered in the heavens,
and the Most High uttered His voice,
hailstones and coals of fire.
He sent out His arrows and scattered the enemy;
He shot out lightnings and vanquished them.
Then the channels of the sea were seen,
the foundations of the world were uncovered
at Your rebuke, O LORD,
at the blast of the breath of Your nostrils.
𝙍: The LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.
He sent from above, He took me;
He drew me out of many waters.
He delivered me from my strong enemy,
and from those who hated me,
for they were too strong for me.
They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
but the LORD was my support.
He also brought me forth into a broad place;
He delivered me because He delighted in me.
𝙍: The LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.
The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness;
according to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me.
For I have kept the ways of the LORD,
and have not wickedly departed from my God.
For all His decrees were before me,
and I did not put away His statutes from me.
I was also upright before Him,
and I kept myself from my iniquity.
Therefore the LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands in His sight.
𝙍: The LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.
With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful;
with the blameless man You will show Yourself blameless;
with the pure You will show Yourself pure;
and with the crooked You will show Yourself shrewd.
For You will save the humble people,
but will bring down haughty eyes.
For You will light my lamp;
the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.
For by You I can outrun a troop,
and by my God I can leap over a wall.
As for God, His way is perfect;
the word of the LORD is proven;
He is a shield
to all who take refuge in Him.
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: The LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.
Psalm prayer
From your royal throne, O God, you sent your living Word to pierce the gloom of oppression; so, in our souls’ night, come with your saving help and penetrate our darkness with the rays of your glory in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Old Testament reading
Ruth 1
In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. And a man from Bethlehem in Judah went to live in the land of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. The name of the man was Elimelek, the name of his wife was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.
Now Elimelek, the husband of Naomi, died, so she was left alone with her two sons. They took Moabite wives for themselves; the name of one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years. Then Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.
So she got up with her daughters-in-law to return from the land of Moab, for in the land of Moab, she had heard that the LORD had visited His people by giving them food. She set out from the place where she had been, with her two daughters-in-law, and they went on their way to return to the land of Judah.
Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each to her mother’s house. May the LORD deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with your deceased husbands and with me. May the LORD grant that you each find rest in the house of another husband.”
Then she kissed them, and they raised their voices and wept aloud. They said to her, “We will return with you to your people.”
But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters. Why would you go with me? Are there sons in my womb, who could become your husbands? Turn back, my daughters! Go, for I am too old to have a husband. Even if I thought that there was still hope for me, that I could have a husband tonight and give birth to sons, would you wait until they were grown? Would you refrain from getting married? No, my daughters. It is much more bitter for me than for you, for the hand of the LORD has turned against me.”
Then they raised their voices and wept aloud once more. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.
Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law has returned to her people and her gods. Return with her!”
But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to turn back from following you. For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you stay, I will stay. Your people shall be my people and your God my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD do thus to me, and worse, if anything but death separates you and me!” When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her.
So they both went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women asked, “Is this Naomi?”
But she said to them, “Do not call me Naomi. Call me Mara, because the Almighty has brought great bitterness to me. I was full when I left, but the LORD has caused me to return empty. Why should you call me Naomi when the LORD has opposed me? The Almighty has brought misfortune upon me!”
So Naomi returned from the land of Moab with Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law. They came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
Silence may be kept.
New Testament reading
Colossians 2:8-23
Beware lest anyone captivate you through philosophy and vain deceit, in the tradition of men and the elementary principles of the world, and not after Christ.
For in Him lives all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you are complete in Him, who is the head of all authority and power. In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which also you were raised with Him through the faith of the power of God, who has raised Him from the dead.
And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has resurrected together with Him, having forgiven you all sins. He blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us and contrary to us, and He took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed authorities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them by the cross.
Therefore let no one judge you regarding food, or drink, or in respect of a holy day or new moon or sabbath days. These are shadows of things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Do not let anyone cheat you of your reward by delighting in false humility and the worship of angels, dwelling on those things which he has not seen, vainly arrogant due to his unspiritual mind, and not supporting the head, from which the entire body, nourished and knit together by joints and sinews, grows as God gives the increase.
Therefore, if you died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you subject yourself to legalistic rules? “Do not touch! Do not taste! Do not handle!” These all are to perish with use and are aligned with the commandments and teachings of men. These things have indeed a show of wisdom in self-imposed worship and humility and neglecting of the body, but are worthless against the indulgence of the flesh.
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
Lord, in your mercy
hear our prayer.
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.