Wed. morning Mar. 11
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
Give to Our God Immortal Praise
Words: Isaac Watts (1719)
Music: John Haton (c. 1793)
Our Great Redeemer’s Praise (#13)
Give to our God immortal praise
Mercy and truth are all His ways
Wonders of grace to God belong
Repeat His mercies in your song
He built the earth, He spread the sky
And fixed the starry lights on high
Wonders of grace to God belong
Repeat His mercies in your song
He fills the sun with morning light
He bids the moon direct the night
His mercies ever shall endure
When suns and moons shall shine no more
He sent His Son with pow'r to save
From guilt and darkness and the grave
Wonders of grace to God belong
Repeat His mercies in your song
Through this vast world He guides our feet
And leads us to His heav'nly seat
His mercies ever shall endure
When this our world shall be no more
Confession of Sin
Seek the LORD while He may be found,
call upon Him while He is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
and let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy upon him,
and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.
cf Isaiah 55
A time of silence and self-examination may be kept.
Lord God, I have sinned against you; I have done what is evil in your sight. I am sorry and repent. Have mercy on me according to your lovingkindness. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Renew a right spirit within me, and restore unto me the joy of your salvation, through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.
cf Psalm 51
May the Father of all mercies cleanse us from our sins, and restore us in his image to the praise and glory of his name, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Blessed be the LORD,
because He has heard the voice of my supplications.
Therefore my heart rejoices,
and with my song I will thank Him.
cf Psalm 28:7,9
Psalm 38
𝙍: Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation.
O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your wrath,
nor chasten me in Your hot displeasure!
For Your arrows pierce me,
and Your hand presses down on me.
There is no soundness in my flesh because of Your indignation,
nor is there health in my bones because of my sin.
For my iniquities have gone over my head;
like a heavy burden they are too heavy for me.
𝙍: Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation.
My wounds grow foul and fester
because of my foolishness.
I am bent down, I am bowed down greatly;
I go around mourning all day long.
For my loins are filled with burning,
and there is no soundness in my flesh.
I am feeble and severely broken;
I groan because of the disquietness of my heart.
𝙍: Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation.
O Lord, all my longing is before You,
and my sighing is not hidden from You.
My heart throbs, my strength fails me;
as for the light of my eyes, it also has gone from me.
My friends and my companions stand aloof from my affliction,
and relatives stand far off.
Those who seek my life lay their snares;
those who seek my harm speak of destruction,
and plan treachery all day long.
𝙍: Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation.
But I, like a deaf man, do not hear;
I am like a mute who does not speak.
Thus I am like a man who does not hear,
and in whose mouth is no response.
For in You, O LORD, do I hope;
it is You, O Lord my God, who will answer.
For I said, “Hear me, lest they rejoice over me,
lest, when my foot slips, they exalt themselves against me.”
𝙍: Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation.
For I am ready to fall,
and my pain is continually before me.
I confess my iniquity;
I am sorry for my sin.
But my enemies are vigorous, and they are strong;
and those who wrongfully hate me are many.
Those who render evil for good attack me
because I pursue good.
Do not forsake me, O LORD;
O my God, do not be far from me.
Make haste to help me,
O Lord, my salvation.
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: Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation.
Psalm prayer
Almighty Lord and Savior, behold with pity the wounds of your people; do not forsake us, sinful as we are, but for the sake of the passion of your Beloved One, Jesus, come quickly to our aid, for his mercy’s sake.
Old Testament reading
Genesis 49:1-32
Jacob called to his sons and said, “Gather yourselves together, so that I may tell you what will befall you in the last days.
Gather yourselves together and hear, sons of Jacob,
and listen to your father Israel.
Reuben, you are my firstborn,
my might and the beginning of my strength,
the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power.
Unstable as water, you shall not excel,
because you went up to your father’s bed;
then you defiled it—he went up to my couch.
Simeon and Levi are brothers;
weapons of violence are their swords.
Let my soul not enter into their council;
let my glory not be united with their assembly;
for in their anger they killed men
and in their self-will they hamstrung oxen.
Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce;
and their wrath, for it is cruel!
I will divide them in Jacob
and scatter them in Israel.
Judah, your brothers shall praise you;
your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
your father’s sons will bow down before you.
Judah is a lion’s cub;
from the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He crouches and lies down like a lion;
and as a lion, who dares rouse him?
The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
nor a lawgiver from between his feet,
until Shiloh comes;
and to him will be the obedience of the people.
He tethers his foal to the vine,
and his colt to the choicest vine;
he washes his garments in wine,
his clothes in the blood of grapes.
His eyes are darker than wine,
and his teeth whiter than milk.
Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea;
and he shall be a haven of ships.
His border shall be at Sidon.
Issachar is a strong donkey,
lying down between two burdens;
he saw that a resting place was good,
and that the land was pleasant;
so he bowed his shoulder to bear the burden
and became a slave to forced labor.
Dan shall judge his people
as one of the tribes of Israel.
Dan shall be a serpent by the road,
a viper on the path,
that bites the horse’s heels
so that its rider will fall backward.
I wait for Your salvation, O LORD!
Gad shall be attacked by raiding bands,
but he shall raid at their heels.
Asher’s food shall be rich,
and he shall yield royal delicacies.
Naphtali is a doe set loose;
he gives beautiful words.
Joseph is a fruitful bough,
a fruitful bough by a spring,
whose branches run over the wall.
The archers bitterly attacked him,
they shot at him and hated him.
But his bow remained firm.
His arms were agile
because of the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob,
because of the Shepherd, the rock of Israel,
because of the God of your father who will help you,
and by the Almighty who will bless you
with blessings from heaven above,
blessings from the deep that lies beneath,
the blessings of the breasts and the womb.
The blessings of your father have surpassed
the blessings of my fathers,
up to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills.
They will be on the head of Joseph,
and on the crown of the head of him who was set apart from his brothers.
Benjamin is a ravenous wolf;
in the morning he devours the prey,
and at night he divides the spoil.”
These are all the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said to them when he blessed them. He blessed them, each with the blessing appropriate to him.
Then he charged them and said to them, “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought along with the field from Ephron the Hittite as a burial place. They buried Abraham and Sarah his wife there. They buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife there, and I buried Leah there. The field and the cave that is there were purchased from the sons of Heth.”
Silence may be kept.
New Testament reading
Hebrews 6:13-20
For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could vow by no one greater, He vowed by Himself, saying, “Surely I will bless you, and surely I will multiply you.” So after Abraham had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
For men indeed swear by a greater authority than themselves, and for them an oath of confirmation ends all dispute. So God, wanting to show more abundantly the immutability of His counsel to the heirs of promise, confirmed it by an oath. So that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this hope as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, which enters the inner sanctuary behind the veil. This is where Jesus has entered for us as a forerunner, since He has become the everlasting High Priest in the order of Melchizedek.
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
Father, hear our prayer,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Silence may be kept.
Collect of the day
Almighty God, whose beloved Son did not ascend to joy without first enduring pain, and did not enter into glory before being crucified: Grant us mercy, that as we follow the way of the cross, we may discover it to be the path of true life and lasting peace; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives 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.