Thu. morning Jan. 15
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
My Hope Is Built
Words: Edward More (1834)
Music: William B. Bradbury (1863)
Our Great Redeemer’s Praise (#102)
My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus' name.
When darkness veils his lovely face,
I rest on his unchanging grace;
in every high and stormy gale,
my anchor holds within the veil.
Refrain:
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand:
all other ground is sinking sand;
all other ground is sinking sand.
His oath, his covenant, his blood,
support me in the whelming flood;
when all around my soul gives way,
he then is all my hope and stay. [Refrain]
When he shall come with trumpet sound,
O may I then in him be found:
dressed in his righteousness alone,
faultless to stand before the throne. [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 21
𝙍: The king trusts in the LORD.
The king will rejoice in Your strength, O LORD,
and in Your salvation how greatly will he rejoice!
You have given him his heart’s desire,
and have not withheld the request of his lips.
For You meet him with the blessings of goodness;
You set a crown of pure gold on his head.
He asked life of You, and You gave it to him,
length of days forever and ever.
𝙍: The king trusts in the LORD.
His glory is great in Your salvation;
honor and majesty You bestow on him.
For You have made him most blessed forever;
You have made him glad with the joy of Your presence.
For the king trusts in the LORD,
and by the lovingkindness of the Most High
he shall not be moved.
𝙍: The king trusts in the LORD.
Your hand will find out all Your enemies;
Your right hand will find out those who hate You.
You will make them like a fiery furnace
in the time of Your anger;
the LORD will swallow them up in His wrath,
and the fire will consume them.
You will destroy their offspring from the earth,
and their descendants from among the sons of men.
𝙍: The king trusts in the LORD.
For they intended evil against You;
they devised a plot which they are not able to perform.
Therefore You will put them to flight;
You will aim Your bows at their faces.
Be exalted, O LORD, in Your strength!
We will sing and praise Your power.
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 king trusts in the LORD.
Psalm prayer
Crown us, God, but with humility, and robe us with compassion, that, as you call us into the kingdom of your Son, we may strive to overcome all evil by the power of good, and so walk gently on the earth with you, our God, forever.
Psalm 24
𝙍: The LORD of Hosts, He is the King of glory.
The earth is the LORD’s, and the fullness thereof,
the world, and those who dwell therein.
For He has founded it on the seas,
and established it on the rivers.
𝙍: The LORD of Hosts, He is the King of glory.
Who may ascend the hill of the LORD?
Who may stand in His holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood,
nor sworn deceitfully.
He will receive the blessing from the LORD,
and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him,
who seek Your face.
𝙍: The LORD of Hosts, He is the King of glory.
Lift up your heads, O you gates!
Be lifted up, you everlasting doors!
And the King of glory will come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The LORD strong and mighty,
the LORD mighty in battle.
Lift up your heads, O you gates!
Lift up, you everlasting doors!
And the King of glory shall come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The LORD of Hosts,
He is the King of glory.
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 of Hosts, He is the King of glory.
Psalm prayer
O LORD of hosts, purify our hearts that the glorious King may come in, your Son, Jesus our Redeemer.
Old Testament reading
Genesis 3
Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden’?”
And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit from the trees of the garden; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You will not eat of it, nor will you touch it, or else you will die.’ ”
Then the serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! For God knows that on the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasing to the eyes and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Then they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. The LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
He said, “I heard Your voice in the garden and was afraid, because I was naked; so I hid myself.”
And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”
Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What have you done?”
And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
The LORD God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this,
You are cursed above all livestock,
and above every beast of the field;
you will go on your belly,
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he will bruise your head,
and you will bruise his heel.”
To the woman He said,
“I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth,
and in pain you will bring forth children;
your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.”
And to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it,’
Cursed is the ground on account of you;
in hard labor you will eat of it
all the days of your life.
Thorns and thistles it will bring forth for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face
you will eat bread
until you return to the ground,
because out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you will return.”
The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living.
The LORD God made garments of skins for both Adam and his wife and clothed them. Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil. And now, he might reach out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. He drove the man out, and at the east of the garden of Eden He placed the cherubim and a flaming sword which turned in every direction, to guard the way to the tree of life.
Silence may be kept.
New Testament reading
Matthew 22:1-14
Jesus spoke to them again by parables, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding, but they would not come.
“Again, he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited: See, I have prepared my supper. My oxen and fattened calves are killed, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
“But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his business; the rest took his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them. When the king heard about it, he was angry. He sent in his army and destroyed those murderers and burned up their city.
“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the streets, and invite to the wedding banquet as many as you find.’ So those servants went out into the streets and gathered together as many as they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.
“But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man who was not wearing wedding garments. He said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without wedding garments?’ And he was speechless.
“Then the king told the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
“For many are called, but few are chosen.”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 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
Father, hear our prayer,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Silence may be kept.
Collect of the day
Eternal Father, who at the baptism of Jesus revealed him to be your Son, anointing him with the Holy Spirit: grant to us, who are born again by water and the Spirit, that we may be faithful to our calling as your adopted children; 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.