Thu. morning Mar. 26
Opening response
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
Let your ways be known on earth,
your salvation among all nations.
Prayer of thanksgiving
Blessed are you, Lord God of our salvation, to you be praise and glory forever. As a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, your only Son was lifted up that he might draw the whole world to himself. May we walk this day in the way of the cross and always be ready to share its weight, declaring your love for all the world.
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
New Every Morning Is the Love
Words: John Keble (1792-1866)
Music: Samuel Webbe the elder (1740-1816)
Our Great Redeemer’s Praise (#333)
New every morning is the love
Our wakening and uprising prove;
Through sleep and darkness safely brought,
Restored to life, and power, and thought.
New mercies, each returning day,
Hover around us while we pray;
New perils past, new sins forgiven,
New thoughts of God, new hopes of heaven.
If on our daily course our mind
Be set to hallow all we find,
New treasures still, of countless price,
God will provide for sacrifice.
The trivial round, the common task,
Would furnish all we ought to ask,
Room to deny ourselves, a road
To bring us daily nearer God.
Only, O Lord, in thy dear love
Fit us for perfect rest above;
And help us this and every day
To live more nearly as we pray.
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 40
𝙍: You have multiplied your wondrous deeds, O LORD.
I waited patiently for the LORD,
and He turned to me and heard my cry.
He also brought me up out of a horrible pit,
out of the miry clay,
and set my feet upon a rock,
and established my steps.
He has put a new song in my mouth,
praise to our God;
many will see it and fear,
and will trust in the LORD.
Blessed is the man
who makes the LORD his trust,
who does not turn to the proud,
to those who go astray after lies.
You have multiplied, O LORD my God,
Your wondrous deeds
and Your thoughts toward us;
none can compare with You.
if I would declare and speak of them,
they are more than can be numbered.
𝙍: You have multiplied your wondrous deeds, O LORD.
Sacrifice and offering You did not desire;
my ears You have opened.
Burnt offering and sin offering
You have not required.
Then I said, “Behold, I have come;
in the scroll of the book it is written of me.
I delight to do Your will, O my God;
Your law is within my heart.”
I have proclaimed the glad news of righteousness in the great congregation;
behold, I have not restrained my lips,
O LORD, as You know.
I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart;
I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation;
I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth
from the great congregation.
𝙍: You have multiplied your wondrous deeds, O LORD.
Withhold not Your mercy from me, O LORD;
let Your lovingkindness and Your truth continually preserve me.
For innumerable evils have surrounded me;
my iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up;
they are more than the hairs of my head;
therefore my heart fails me.
Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me;
O LORD, make haste to help me.
Let them be ashamed and confounded together
who seek to snatch away my life;
let them be driven backward and dishonored
who desire my hurt.
Let them be appalled because of their shame
who say to me, “Aha, aha!”
𝙍: You have multiplied your wondrous deeds, O LORD.
Let all those who seek You
rejoice and be glad in You;
let those who love Your salvation say continually,
“The LORD be magnified!”
But I am poor and needy;
yet the LORD is mindful of me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
do not delay, O my God.
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: You have multiplied your wondrous deeds, O LORD.
Psalm prayer
Free us from our sins, God, and may our sacrifices be of praise to the glory of your Son, our Redeemer, Jesus Christ.
Psalm 125
𝙍: Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God.
Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion,
which cannot be moved, but abides forever.
As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
so the LORD surrounds His people,
from this time forth and forevermore.
𝙍: Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God.
For the scepter of the wicked shall not rest
on the land allotted to the righteous,
lest the righteous put forth
their hands to do wrong.
Do good, O LORD, to those who are good,
and to those who are upright in their hearts.
As for those who turn aside to their crooked ways,
the Lord will lead them away with the workers of iniquity.
Peace be upon Israel!
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: Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God.
Psalm prayer
God of power, you are strong to save, and you never fail those who trust in you; keep us under your protection and spread abroad your reign of peace through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Old Testament reading
Exodus 9:13-35
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, and say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews: Let My people go, so that they may serve Me. For I will at this time send all My plagues upon you and your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like Me in all the earth. For by now I could have stretched out My hand, so that I might strike you and your people with pestilence, and you would be cut off from the earth. But, indeed, for this cause I have raised you up, in order to show in you My power, so that My name may be declared throughout all the earth. Still, you exalt yourself against My people by forbidding them to go. Behold, tomorrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very severe hail, such as has not happened in Egypt since it was founded until now. Send therefore now and bring your livestock and all that you have in the field to safety. Every man and beast which shall be found in the field and not brought home when the hail comes down upon them will die.’ ”
He that feared the word of the LORD among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his livestock flee into the houses. But he that failed to regard the word of the LORD left his servants and his livestock in the field.
So the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch forth your hand toward the heavens, so that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon man and beast, and upon every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt.” Moses stretched forth his rod toward the heavens, and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and fire ran along upon the ground. So the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt. So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail. It was so severe that there had been none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. The hail struck all the land of Egypt, all that was in the field, both man and beast, and the hail struck every herb of the field and broke every tree of the field. Only in the land of Goshen, where the Israelites were, was there no hail.
Then Pharaoh sent and called for Moses and Aaron, and said to them, “I have sinned this time. The LORD is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. Entreat the LORD, for there has been enough of God’s mighty thunder and hail, and I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer.”
Moses said to him, “As soon as I am gone out of the city, I will spread out my hands to the LORD. The thunder shall cease, and there shall no longer be any more hail, so that you may know that the earth is the LORD’s. But as for you and your servants, I know that you will not yet fear the LORD God.”
Now the flax and the barley were struck, for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was in bud. But the wheat and the spelt were not struck, for they grow up later.
So Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh and spread out his hands to the LORD, and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was no longer poured upon the earth. However, when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants. The heart of Pharaoh hardened, and he would not let the Israelites go, just as the LORD had spoken by Moses.
Silence may be kept.
New Testament reading
Hebrews 12:14-29
Pursue peace with all men, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord, watching diligently so that no one falls short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness spring up to cause trouble, and many become defiled by it, lest there be any sexually immoral or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected. For he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.
You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and storm, and to the sound of a trumpet and to a voice speaking words, such that those who heard them begged that the word not be spoken to them anymore. For they could not endure that which was commanded: “If so much as a beast touches the mountain, it must be stoned or thrust through with a spear.” So terrible was the sight that Moses said, “I am terrified and trembling.”
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels; to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, who are enrolled in heaven; to God, the Judge of all; and to the spirits of the righteous ones made complete; and to Jesus, the Mediator of a new covenant; and to the sprinkled blood that speaks better than that of Abel.
See that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused Him who spoke on earth, much less shall we escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven. At that time His voice shook the earth, but now He has given us a promise, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also heaven.” And this statement, “Yet once more,” signifies the removal of those things that can be shaken, things that are created, so that only those things that cannot be shaken will remain.
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be moved, let us be gracious, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.
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 persecuted church
The oppressed peoples of the world
All who are lonely
All who are near to death
All who are facing loss
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
Most merciful God, who by the death and resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ delivered and saved the world: grant that by faith in him who suffered on the cross we may triumph in the power of his victory; 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
Standing at the foot of the cross, 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 bore our sins on the cross, set us free to serve him with joy.
Amen.