Sat. morning Mar. 14
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
Christian! Dost Thou See Them
Words: Andrew of Crete (660-732); trans. John M. Neale (1818-1866)
Music: John B. Dykes (1823-1876)
Our Great Redeemer’s Praise (#475)
Christian! dost thou see them
on the holy ground,
how the pow'rs of darkness
rage thy steps around?
Christian! up and smite them,
counting gain but loss,
in the strength that cometh
by the holy cross.
Christian! dost thou feel them,
how they work within,
striving, tempting, luring,
goading into sin?
Christian! never tremble;
never be downcast;
gird thee for the battle;
watch, and pray, and fast!
Christian! dost thou hear them,
how they speak thee fair?
"Always fast and vigil?
Always watch and prayer?"
Christian! answer boldly,
"While I breath, I pray!"
Peace shall follow battle,
night shall end in day.
"Well I know thy trouble,
O my servant true;
thou art very weary–
I was weary too;
but that toil shall make thee
some day all Mine own,
and the end of sorrow
shall be near My throne."
Confession of Sin
Let us confess our sins against God and our neighbor.
Silence may be kept.
Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us; that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your name. Amen.
Almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us all our sins through our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen us in all goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep us in eternal life.
Amen.
Psalm 31
𝙍: Into Your hand I commit my spirit.
In You, O LORD, do I seek refuge;
let me never be ashamed;
deliver me in Your righteousness.
Incline Your ear to me;
deliver me speedily;
be my rock of refuge,
a strong fortress to save me.
For You are my rock and my fortress;
for Your name’s sake, lead me and guide me.
Pull me out of the net that they have hidden for me,
for You are my strength.
Into Your hand I commit my spirit;
You have redeemed me, O LORD, God of truth.
𝙍: Into Your hand I commit my spirit.
I have hated those who regard worthless idols,
but I trust in the LORD.
I will be glad and rejoice in Your lovingkindness,
for You have seen my trouble;
You have known my soul in adversities,
and have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy;
You have set my feet in a broad place.
𝙍: Into Your hand I commit my spirit.
Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am in distress;
my eye wastes away from grief,
yes, my soul and my body.
For my life is spent with grief,
and my years with sighing;
my strength fails because of my iniquity,
and my bones waste away.
I have become a reproach among all my enemies,
but especially among my neighbors,
and an object of dread to my acquaintances;
those who see me outside flee from me.
I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind;
I am like a broken vessel.
For I hear the slander of many;
fear is on every side;
while they take counsel together against me,
they plot to take away my life.
𝙍: Into Your hand I commit my spirit.
But I trust in You, O LORD;
I say, “You are my God.”
My times are in Your hand;
deliver me from the hand of my enemies,
and from those who persecute me.
Make Your face shine upon Your servant;
save me by Your lovingkindness.
Do not let me be ashamed, O LORD,
for I have called upon You;
let the wicked be ashamed,
and let them go silently to Sheol.
Let the lying lips be put to silence,
which speak insolently
with pride and contempt against the righteous.
𝙍: Into Your hand I commit my spirit.
Oh, how great is Your goodness,
which You have laid up for those who fear You,
which You have prepared for those
who take refuge in You before the sons of men!
You will hide them in the shelter of Your presence
from the plots of man;
You will keep them secretly in a shelter
from contentious tongues.
Blessed be the LORD,
for He has shown me His marvelous lovingkindness
in a fortified city.
For I said in my haste,
“I am cut off from before Your eyes.”
Nevertheless You heard the voice of my supplications
when I cried out to You.
𝙍: Into Your hand I commit my spirit.
Oh, love the LORD, all you His saints!
The LORD preserves the faithful,
but fully repays the one who acts in pride.
Be strong, and He will strengthen your heart,
all you who wait for the LORD.
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: Into Your hand I commit my spirit.
Psalm prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, when scorn and shame besiege us, and hope is veiled in grief, hold us in your wounded hands and make your face shine on us again, for you are our Lord and God.
Old Testament reading
Exodus 1:22-2:10
Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, “You must cast every son that is born into the river, and you must preserve every daughter’s life.”
Now a man of the house of Levi went and married a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw him, that he was a beautiful child, she hid him three months. When she could no longer hide him, she got a papyrus basket for him, and daubed it with tar and pitch. She then put the child in it and set it in the reeds by the river’s bank. Then his sister stood afar off so that she might know what would happen to him.
The daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river while her maidens walked along by the river’s side, and when she saw the container among the reeds, she sent her maid, and she retrieved it. When she opened it, she saw the child. And behold, the baby was crying. She had compassion on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.”
Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call for you a nursing woman of the Hebrew women so that she may nurse the child for you?”
And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So the young girl went and called the child’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away, and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. Now the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses and said, “Because I drew him out of the water.”
Silence may be kept.
New Testament reading
Hebrews 8
Now this is the main point of the things that we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister in the sanctuary and the true tabernacle, which the Lord, not man, set up.
For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this priest also have something to offer. For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests that offer gifts according to the law. They serve in a sanctuary that is an example and shadow of the heavenly one, as Moses was instructed by God when he was about to make the tabernacle, “See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, because He is the Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.
For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no occasion would have been sought for a second. For finding fault with them, God says:
“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord,
when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah,
not according to the covenant
that I made with their fathers
in the day when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of the land of Egypt;
because they did not continue in My covenant,
and I rejected them, says the Lord.
This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, says the Lord:
I will put My laws into their minds
and write them on their hearts;
and I will be their God,
and they shall be My people.
No longer shall every man teach his neighbor,
and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
for all shall know Me,
from the least of them to the greatest.
For I will be merciful toward their unrighteousness,
and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
In speaking of a new covenant He has made the first one old. Now that which is decaying and growing old is ready to vanish away.
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 of life
In your mercy, hear us.
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.