Tue. morning Mar. 17
Opening response
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
Hear my voice according to your lovingkindness.
O LORD, give me life according to your judgment.
Prayer of thanksgiving
Blessed are you, God of compassion and mercy, to you be praise and glory forever. In the darkness of our sin, your light breaks forth like the dawn and your healing springs up for deliverance. As we rejoice in the gift of your saving help, sustain us with your bountiful Spirit and open our lips to sing your 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
Fight the Good Fight
Words: John Samuel Bewley Monsell (1863)
Music: John Hatton (1793)
Our Great Redeemer’s Praise (#473)
Fight the good fight with all thy might;
Christ is thy strength, and Christ thy right;
Lay hold on life, and it shall be
Thy joy and crown eternally.
Run the straight race through God's good grace;
Lift up thine eyes, and seek his face.
Life with its way before us lies;
Christ is the path, and Christ the prize.
Cast care aside; lean on thy Guide
His boundless mercy will provide;
Trust, and thy trusting soul shall prove
Christ is its life, and Christ its love.
Faint not, nor fear, his arms are near;
He changeth not, and thou art dear;
Only believe, and thou shalt see
That Christ is all in all to thee.
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 54
𝙍: Behold, God is my helper.
Save me, O God, by Your name,
and vindicate me by Your strength.
Hear my prayer, O God;
give ear to the words of my mouth.
For strangers have risen against me,
and oppressors seek my life;
they do not set God before them.
Behold, God is my helper;
the Lord is with those who uphold my life.
𝙍: Behold, God is my helper.
He will repay my enemies for their evil.
In Your faithfulness, destroy them.
I will sacrifice a freewill offering to You;
I will give thanks to Your name, O LORD, for it is good.
For He has delivered me from every trouble,
and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies.
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: Behold, God is my helper.
Psalm prayer
Living God, reach through the violence of the proud and the despair of the weak to create in Jesus Christ a people free to praise your holy name, now and forever.
Psalm 79
𝙍: Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name.
O God, the nations have come into Your inheritance;
Your holy temple have they defiled;
they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.
The dead bodies of Your servants
have they given to the birds of the heavens as food,
the flesh of Your faithful to the beasts of the earth.
Their blood have they poured out like water
all around Jerusalem,
and there was no one to bury them.
We have become a reproach to our neighbors,
a scorn and derision to those who are around us.
𝙍: Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name.
How long, O LORD? Will You be angry forever?
Will Your jealousy burn like fire?
Pour out Your wrath
upon the nations that do not know You,
and upon the kingdoms
that do not call upon Your name.
For they have devoured Jacob,
and laid waste his dwelling place.
𝙍: Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name.
Do not remember against us the iniquities of our forefathers;
let Your tender mercies come speedily to us,
for we have been brought very low.
Help us, O God of our salvation,
for the glory of Your name;
deliver us, and provide atonement for our sins,
for Your name’s sake!
Why should the nations say,
“Where is their God?”
𝙍: Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name.
Let the avenging of the shed blood of Your servants
be known among the nations before our eyes!
Let the groaning of the prisoners come before You;
according to the greatness of Your power
preserve those who are appointed to die.
And render to our neighbors sevenfold into their lap
the reproach with which they have reproached You, O Lord.
But we, Your people and the sheep of Your pasture,
will give You thanks forever;
we will declare Your praise
to all generations.
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: Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name.
Psalm prayer
When faith is scorned, and love grows cold, then, God of hosts, rebuild your Church on lives of thankfulness and patient prayer; through Christ your eternal Son.
Old Testament reading
Exodus 2:23-3:20
In the passing of time, the king of Egypt died. And the Israelites sighed because of the bondage, and they cried out, and their cry came up to God on account of the bondage. God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God looked on the Israelites, and God had concern for them.
Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to the mountain of God, to Horeb. The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. So Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.”
When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him from out of the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses.”
And he said, “Here I am.”
He said, “Do not come near. Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” Moreover He said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.
The Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. Therefore, I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now behold, the cry of the Israelites has come to Me. Moreover, I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them. Come now therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh so that you may bring forth My people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”
Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring forth the Israelites out of Egypt?”
And He said, “Certainly I will be with you, and this will be a sign to you, that I have sent you: When you have brought forth the people out of Egypt, all of you shall serve God on this mountain.”
Moses said to God, “I am going to the Israelites and will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ When they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?”
And God said to Moses, “I am who I am,” and He said, “You will say this to the Israelites, ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ”
God, moreover, said to Moses, “Thus you will say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.’
“Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared to me, saying, “I am indeed concerned about you and what has been done to you in Egypt. Therefore, I said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey.” ’
“They shall listen to your voice, and you shall come, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt, and you must say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews has met with us. Therefore, now, let us go, we ask you, three days’ journey into the wilderness so that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’ However, I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not even under a forceful hand. So I will stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all My wonders which I will perform in its midst, and after that he will let you go.
Silence may be kept.
New Testament reading
Hebrews 9:15-28
For this reason He is the Mediator of a new covenant, since a death has occurred for the redemption of the sins that were committed under the first covenant, so that those who are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
For where there is a will, there must also of necessity be the death of the one who grants it. For a will has force after men are dead, since it has no force at all while the one who made it lives. So not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. For when Moses had taught every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God has commanded you to keep.” Likewise he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of worship with blood. And according to the law almost everything must be cleansed with blood; without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
It was therefore necessary that the replicas of heavenly things be cleansed with these sacrifices, but that the heavenly things themselves be cleansed with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter holy places made with hands, which are patterned after the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Nor did He enter to offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. For then He would have had to suffer repeatedly since the world was created, but now He has appeared once at the end of the ages to put away sin by sacrificing Himself. As it is appointed for men to die once, but after this comes the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many, and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin but to save those who eagerly wait for Him.
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:
Those preparing for baptism and confirmation
Those serving through leadership
Those looking for forgiveness
Those misled by the false gods of this present age
All who are hungry
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
Merciful Lord, absolve your people from their offenses, that through your bountiful goodness we may all be delivered from the chains of those sins which by our frailty we have committed; grant this, heavenly Father, for Jesus Christ’s sake, our blessed Lord and Savior, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer
Trusting in the compassion 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 God our Redeemer show us compassion and love.
Amen.