Fri. morning May 8
Opening response
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
In your resurrection, O Christ,
let heaven and earth rejoice. Alleluia.
Prayer of thanksgiving
Blessed are you, Lord God of our salvation, to you be praise and glory forever. As once you ransomed your people from Egypt and led them to freedom in the promised land, so now you have delivered us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of your risen Son. May we, the first fruits of your new creation, rejoice in this new day you have made, and praise you for your mighty acts.
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
When we cry to the LORD in our trouble,
He will save us from our distress.
God will bring us out of darkness
and out of the shadow of death.
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
A time of silence and self-examination may be kept.
May the Father forgive us by the death of his Son, and strengthen us to live in the power of the Spirit all our days.
Amen.
Let us give thanks to the LORD for His goodness,
and for His wonderful works to all people!
Let us offer sacrifices of thanksgiving,
and declare God’s works with rejoicing.
cf Psalm 107
Psalm 138
𝙍: Your mercy, O LORD, endures forever.
I will give You thanks, O LORD, with all my heart;
before the gods will I sing Your praise.
I will bow down toward Your holy temple
and give thanks to Your name
for Your lovingkindness and for Your truth,
for You have magnified above all things
Your name and Your word.
On the day I called, You answered me,
and made me bold with strength of soul.
𝙍: Your mercy, O LORD, endures forever.
All the kings of the earth shall give you thanks, O LORD,
when they hear the words of Your mouth.
Yes, they shall sing of the ways of the LORD,
for great is the glory of the LORD.
Though the LORD is exalted, yet has He regard for the lowly,
but the proud He knows from afar.
𝙍: Your mercy, O LORD, endures forever.
Though I walk in the midst of trouble,
You will preserve me;
You will stretch Your hand out against the wrath of my enemies,
and Your right hand will deliver me.
The LORD will fulfill that which concerns me;
Your mercy, O LORD, endures forever;
forsake not the works of Your hands.
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: Your mercy, O LORD, endures forever.
Psalm prayer
Lord our God, supreme over all things, look upon the humble and lowly and put new strength into our souls to complete your purpose for us in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Psalm 149
𝙍: Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth!
Praise the LORD!
Sing to the LORD a new song,
and His praise in the congregation of the saints.
Let Israel rejoice in his maker;
let the sons of Zion be joyful in their King.
Let them praise His name in the dance;
let them sing praises to Him with the timbrel and harp.
For the LORD takes pleasure in His people;
He will beautify the meek with salvation.
𝙍: Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth!
Let the saints be joyful in glory;
let them sing for joy on their beds.
Let the high praises of God be in their mouth,
and a two-edged sword in their hand,
to execute vengeance on the nations,
and punishment on the peoples;
to bind their kings with chains,
and their nobles with fetters of iron;
to execute on them the judgment written!
This honor have all His saints.
Praise 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: Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth!
Psalm prayer
Glorious and redeeming God, give us hearts to praise you all our days and wills to reject the world’s deceits, that we may bind the evils of our age and proclaim the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Old Testament reading
Numbers 14:1-25
And the whole assembly lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and against Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, “O that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or that we had died in this wilderness! And why has the LORD brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should become prey? Is it not better for us to return to Egypt?” And they said one to another, “Let us select a leader, and let us return to Egypt.”
Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the congregation of the assembly of the Israelites. Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, from the ones who explored the land, tore their clothes. And they spoke to all the assembly of the Israelites, saying, “The land which we passed through to explore it is a very, very good land. If the LORD delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land which flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the LORD, nor fear the people of the land because they are bread for us. Their defense is gone from them, and the LORD is with us. Do not fear them.”
But all the assembly said, “Stone them with stones.” And the glory of the LORD appeared at the tent of meeting before all the Israelites. The LORD said to Moses, “How long will this people disgrace Me? And how long will they not believe Me, in spite of all the signs which I have done among them? I will strike them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make from you a nation greater and mightier than they.”
Moses said to the LORD, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for by Your power You brought this people up from among them, and they will say to the inhabitants of this land that they heard that You, LORD, are among this people, that You, LORD, are seen face to face, and Your cloud stands over them, and in the pillar of cloud You go before them by day and by a pillar of fire at night. Now if You kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of You will speak, saying, ‘The LORD was not able to bring this people into the land which He swore to them, so He slaughtered them in the wilderness.’
“So now, I pray, let the power of my LORD be great, just as You have spoken, saying, ‘The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but He will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation.’ Pardon the iniquity of this people, I pray, according to the greatness of Your grace, just as You have pardoned this people, from Egypt even until now.”
The LORD said, “I have forgiven according to your word. But truly as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the LORD. Because all those men seeing My glory and My signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted Me now these ten times, and have not listened to My voice, surely they will not see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor will any of them who disgraced Me see it. But My servant Caleb, because he had a different spirit with him and followed Me fully, I will bring him into the land where he went, and his seed will possess it. Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites lived in the valley. Tomorrow you will turn, and you will set out for the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.”
Silence may be kept.
New Testament reading
Luke 6:1-11
On the second Sabbath after the first, He went through the grain fields, and His disciples plucked and ate the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands. Some of the Pharisees said to them, “Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?”
Jesus answered them, “Have you not read what David did when he and those who were with him were hungry? He went into the house of God, and took and ate the ritual bread, and also gave it to those who were with him. This was not lawful, but for the priests only to eat.” Then He said to them, “The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
On another Sabbath, when He entered the synagogue and taught, there was a man whose right hand had withered. The scribes and the Pharisees watched Him to see whether He would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find an accusation against Him. But He knew their thoughts, and He said to the man who had the withered hand, “Rise and stand in front.” So he rose and stood in front.
Then Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one thing: Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?”
Then looking around at them all, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was restored as whole as the other. But they were filled with madness and discussed with each other what they might do to Jesus.
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 people of God, that they may proclaim the risen Lord
God’s creation, that the peoples of the earth may meet their responsibility to care
Those in despair and darkness, that they may find the hope and light of Christ
Those in fear of death, that they may find faith through the resurrection
Prisoners and captives
Other intercessions and supplications may be offered as the Holy Spirit leads.
Response
In faith we pray
We pray to you, our God.
Silence may be kept.
Collect of the day
Almighty God, who through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ have overcome death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life: grant that, as by your grace going before us you put into our minds good desires, so by your continual help we may bring them to good effect; through Jesus Christ our risen 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
Rejoicing in God’s new creation, 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 risen Christ grant us the joys of eternal life.
Amen.