Sat. morning Jan. 17
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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
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
Words: Charles Wesley (1747)
Music: John Zundel (1870)
Our Great Redeemer’s Praise (#88)
Love divine, all loves excelling,
Joy of Heav'n to Earth come down,
Fix in us thy humble dwelling,
All thy faithful mercies crown;
Jesus, thou art all compassion,
Pure, unbounded love thou art;
Visit us with thy salvation,
Enter ev'ry trembling heart.
Breathe, O breathe thy loving Spirit
Into ev'ry troubled breast;
Let us all in thee inherit,
Let us find thy promised rest;
Take away our bent to sinning;
Alpha and Omega be;
End of faith as its beginning,
Set our hearts at liberty.
Come, Almighty to deliver;
Let us all thy life receive;
Suddenly return, and never,
Never more thy temples leave.
Thee we would be always blessing,
Serve thee as thy host above,
Pray, and praise thee without ceasing,
Glory in thy perfect love.
Finish, then, thy new creation;
Pure and spotless let us be;
Let us see thy great salvation
Perfectly restored in thee;
Changed from glory into glory
Till in Heav'n we take our place,
Till we cast our crowns before thee,
Lost in wonder, love, and praise!
Confession of Sin
When we cry to the LORD in our trouble,
He will save us from our distress.
God will bring us out of darkness
and out of the shadow of death.
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
A time of silence and self-examination may be kept.
May the Father forgive us by the death of his Son, and strengthen us to live in the power of the Spirit all our days.
Amen.
Let us give thanks to the LORD for His goodness,
and for His wonderful works to all people!
Let us offer sacrifices of thanksgiving,
and declare God’s works with rejoicing.
cf Psalm 107
Psalm 29
𝙍: The LORD will bless His people with peace.
Ascribe to the LORD, O you mighty ones,
ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
Ascribe to the LORD the glory due His name;
worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.
The voice of the LORD is over the waters;
the God of glory thunders;
the LORD is over many waters.
𝙍: The LORD will bless His people with peace.
The voice of the LORD is powerful;
the voice of the LORD is full of majesty.
The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars;
the LORD splinters the cedars of Lebanon.
He makes them skip like a calf,
Lebanon and Sirion like a wild ox.
𝙍: The LORD will bless His people with peace.
The voice of the LORD divides
the flames of fire.
The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness;
the LORD shakes the Wilderness of Kadesh.
The voice of the LORD makes the deer give birth,
and strips the forests bare;
and in His temple everyone says, “Glory!”
The LORD sat enthroned over the flood;
and the LORD sits as King forever.
The LORD will give strength to His people;
the LORD will bless His people with 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.
𝙍: The LORD will bless His people with peace.
Psalm prayer
Open our ears, glorious Lord Christ, to hear the music of your voice above the chaos of this world; open our eyes to see the vision of your glory, for you are our King, now and forever.
Psalm 33
𝙍: The earth is full of the lovingkindness of the LORD.
Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous!
Praise is becoming to the upright.
Praise the LORD with the harp;
make music to Him with an instrument of ten strings.
Sing to Him a new song;
play skillfully with a shout of joy.
For the word of the LORD is upright,
and all His work is done in truth.
He loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of the lovingkindness of the LORD.
𝙍: The earth is full of the lovingkindness of the LORD.
By the word of the LORD the heavens were made,
and all their host by the breath of His mouth.
He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap;
He puts the deeps in storehouses.
Let all the earth fear the LORD;
let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.
For He spoke, and it was done;
He commanded, and it stood fast.
𝙍: The earth is full of the lovingkindness of the LORD.
The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;
He makes the plans of the people of no effect.
The counsel of the LORD stands forever,
the plans of His heart to all generations.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people whom He has chosen as His inheritance.
𝙍: The earth is full of the lovingkindness of the LORD.
The LORD looks down from heaven;
He sees all the sons of men.
From the place of His habitation He gazes
on all the inhabitants of the earth;
He fashions the hearts of them all;
He considers all their works.
No king is saved by a great army;
a mighty man is not delivered by great strength.
A horse is a vain hope for safety;
it will not deliver by its great strength.
𝙍: The earth is full of the lovingkindness of the LORD.
Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him,
on those who hope in His lovingkindness,
to deliver their soul from death,
and to keep them alive in famine.
Our soul waits for the LORD;
He is our help and our shield.
For our heart will rejoice in Him,
because we have trusted in His holy name.
Let Your lovingkindness, O LORD, be upon us,
just as we hope in 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: The earth is full of the lovingkindness of the LORD.
Psalm prayer
Feed your people, Lord, with your holy word, and free us from the emptiness of our wrongful desires, that we may sing the new song of salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Old Testament reading
Genesis 6:1-10
When men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair and took as wives any they chose. The LORD said, “My Spirit will not always strive with man, for he is flesh; yet his days will be one hundred and twenty years.”
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was continually only evil. The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him in His heart. So the LORD said, “I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—both man and beast, and the creeping things, and the birds of the sky, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.
These are the generations of Noah.
Noah was a just man and blameless among his contemporaries. Noah walked with God. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Silence may be kept.
New Testament reading
Matthew 22:34-46
When the Pharisees heard that He silenced the Sadducees, they came together. One of them, who was a lawyer, tested Him by asking Him, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?”
Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
While the Pharisees were assembled, Jesus asked them, “What do you think of the Christ? Whose Son is He?”
They said to Him, “The Son of David.”
He said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying:
‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at My right hand,
until I make Your enemies
Your footstool” ’?
If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his Son?” No one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare to ask Him any more questions.
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
Lord, hear your people
and answer our prayers.
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.