Sat. morning May 23
Opening response
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
Send your Holy Spirit upon us,
and clothe us with power from on high. Alleluia.
Prayer of thanksgiving
Blessed are you, creator God, to you be praise and glory forever. As your Spirit moved over the face of the waters, bringing light and life to your creation, pour out your Spirit on us today that we may walk as children of light and by your grace reveal your presence.
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
My Faith Looks Up to Thee
Words: Ray Palmer (1875)
Music: Lowell Mason (1831)
Our Great Redeemer’s Praise (#351)
My faith looks up to Thee,
Thou Lamb of Calvary,
Savior divine!
Now hear me while I pray,
take all my guilt away;
O let me from this day
be wholly Thine.
May Thy rich grace impart
strength to my fainting heart,
my zeal inspire;
as Thou hast died for me,
O may my love to Thee
pure, warm, and changeless be,
a living fire.
While life’s dark maze I tread,
and griefs around me spread,
be Thou my Guide;
bid darkness turn to day,
wipe sorrow’s tears away,
nor let me ever stray
from Thee aside.
When ends life's transient dream,
when death’s cold, sullen stream
shall o'er me roll,
blest Savior, then in love,
fear and distrust remove;
O bear me safe above,
a ransomed soul.
Confession of Sin
The LORD is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in mercy.
He has not dealt with us according to our sins,
nor recompensed us according to our iniquities.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so great is his mercy toward those who fear Him.
Silence is kept for reflection.
Holy God,
Holy and strong,
Holy and immortal,
have mercy upon us.
As far as the east is from the west,
so far has He removed our transgressions from us.
As a father pities his children,
so the LORD pities those who fear Him.
Bless the LORD, O my soul;
and all that is within me, bless His holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all His benefits.
Psalm 42
As the deer pants for the water brooks,
so my soul pants for You, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?
My tears have been my food
day and night,
while they continually say to me,
“Where is your God?”
When I remember these things,
I pour out my soul within me.
For I would go with the throng of people,
and lead them in procession to the house of God,
with the voice of joy and praise,
a multitude keeping festival.
Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God,
for I shall again praise Him
for the help of His presence.
O my God, my soul is cast down within me;
therefore I remember You
from the land of Jordan,
and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.
Deep calls to deep
at the thunder of Your waterfalls;
all Your waves and Your billows
have gone over me.
The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime,
and in the night His song will be with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.
I will say to God, my rock,
“Why have You forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?”
As a shattering of my bones,
my enemies reproach me,
while they say to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”
Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God;
for I shall again praise Him,
my salvation and 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.
Psalm prayer
Come, creator Spirit, source of life; sustain us when our hearts are heavy and our wells have run dry, for you are the Father’s gift, with him who is our living water, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Psalm 43
Vindicate me, O God,
and plead my cause against an ungodly people;
deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man!
For You are the God of my refuge;
why have You cast me off?
Why do I walk about mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?
Oh send out Your light and Your truth;
let them lead me;
let them bring me to Your holy hill
and to Your dwelling.
Then I will go to the altar of God,
to God my exceeding joy,
and with the harp I will praise You,
O God, my God.
Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God;
for I shall again praise Him,
my salvation and 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.
Psalm prayer
Come, Holy Spirit, light and truth; bring us to the altar of life, and renew our joy and gladness in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Old Testament reading
Numbers 32:1-27
Now the Reubenites and the Gadites had a very great number of livestock, and when they saw the land of Jazer and behold, the land of Gilead was a place for livestock, the Gadites and the Reubenites came and spoke to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and to the leaders of the assembly, saying, “Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Sebam, and Nebo, and Beon, the land which the LORD defeated before the assembly of Israel is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock.” And they said, “If we have found mercy in your sight, let this land be given to your servants for a possession, and do not take us over the Jordan.”
Moses said to the Gadites and to the Reubenites, “Will your brothers go to war, and you will dwell here? And why would you discourage the hearts of the Israelites from going over into the land which the LORD has given to them? Thus your fathers did, when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea to see the land. When they went up to the Valley of Eshkol and saw the land, they discouraged the hearts of the Israelites so they would not go into the land which the LORD had given them. And the anger of the LORD was inflamed on that day, and He swore, saying, ‘Surely none of the men who came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and older, will see the ground which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, because they did not completely follow Me, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, and Joshua the son of Nun, because they completely followed the LORD.’ The anger of the LORD was inflamed against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation that did evil in the eyes of the LORD was finished.
“And behold, you have risen up in your fathers’ place, an increase of sinful men, to increase more the burning anger of the LORD toward Israel. If you turn away from following Him, He will again abandon them in the wilderness, and you will destroy all this people.”
They approached him and said, “We will build sheepfolds here for our livestock and cities for our children. But we ourselves will be armed, ready before the Israelites, until we have brought them to their place. Our little ones will dwell in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land. We will not return to our houses until all the Israelites have inherited their inheritance. We will not inherit with them on the other side of the Jordan or beyond, because our inheritance fell to us on this side of the Jordan to the east.”
Moses said to them, “If you will do this thing, if you will be armed before the LORD for war, and all of you, each armed, will go over the Jordan before the LORD until He has driven out His enemies from before Him and the land is subdued before the LORD, then after that you will return and be exempt before the LORD and before Israel, and this land will be your possession before the LORD.
“But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the LORD, and be sure your sin will find you out. Build for yourselves cities for your children and folds for your sheep, and do that which has proceeded out of your mouth.”
The Gadites and the Reubenites spoke to Moses, saying, “Your servants will do as my lord commands. Our children, our wives, our flocks, and all our livestock will be there in the cities of Gilead, but your servants will cross over, each man armed for war, before the LORD to battle, as my lord says.”
Silence may be kept.
New Testament reading
Luke 9:1-17
Then He called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases. And He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. He said to them, “Take nothing for your journey: no staff, no bag, no bread, no money. And do not take two tunics apiece. Whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart. Whoever will not receive you, when you go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet as a testimony against them.” So they departed and went through the towns, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.
Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was done by Him. And he was perplexed, because it was said by some that John had risen from the dead, and by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the old prophets had risen. But Herod said, “I have beheaded John. But who is this of whom I hear such things?” And he tried to see Him.
When the apostles returned, they told Jesus all that they had done. Then He took them and went aside privately into a deserted place belonging to the city called Bethsaida. But when the crowds knew it, they followed Him. And He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who had need of healing.
When the day began to end, the twelve came and said to Him, “Send the crowds away, so they can go into the towns and surrounding countryside and lodge and get food. For we are in a deserted place here.”
He said to them, “You give them something to eat.”
They said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we go and buy food for all these people.” There were about five thousand men.
But He said to His disciples, “Make them sit down in groups of fifty.” They did so, and made them all sit down. Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed them, and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. They all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of broken pieces that remained were collected.
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:
God’s royal priesthood, for empowerment by the Spirit
Those who wait on God, that they may find renewal
All people, that they may acknowledge the kingdom of the ascended Christ
The earth, for productivity and for fruitful harvests
All who are struggling with broken relationships
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
O God the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: we beseech you, leave us not comfortless, but send your Holy Spirit to strengthen us and exalt us to the place where our Savior Christ is gone before, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer
Being made one by the power of the Spirit, 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 the Spirit kindle in us the fire of God’s love.
Amen.