Fri. morning Jul. 3
Opening response
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
Prayer of thanksgiving
Blessed are you, Sovereign God, creator of all, to you be glory and praise forever. You founded the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands. In the fullness of time, you made us in your image, and in these last days you have spoken to us in your Son Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh. As we rejoice in the gift of your presence among us, let the light of your love always shine in our hearts, your Spirit ever renew our lives, and your praises ever be on our lips.
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
Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee
Confession of Sin
O King enthroned on high, filling the earth with your glory: holy is your name, Lord God Almighty.
A time of silence and self-examination may be kept.
In our sinfulness, we cry to you to take our guilt away, and to cleanse our lips to speak your word, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
May the God of all healing and forgiveness draw us to himself, and cleanse us from all our sins that we may behold the glory of his Son, the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Psalm 92
𝙍: You, O LORD, are on high forever.
It is good to give thanks to the LORD,
and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High,
to declare Your lovingkindness in the morning,
and Your faithfulness in the night,
with the ten-stringed lute and with the harp,
and on the lyre with a solemn sound.
For You, O LORD, have made me glad through Your work;
I will sing joyfully at the works of Your hands.
O LORD, how great are Your works!
Your thoughts are very deep!
𝙍: You, O LORD, are on high forever.
A brutish man does not know,
nor does a fool understand this:
that though the wicked spring up like grass
and though all the workers of iniquity flourish,
they will be destroyed forever:
But You, O LORD, are on high forever.
For behold, Your enemies, O LORD,
for behold, Your enemies shall perish;
all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.
But You have exalted my horn like the horn of the wild ox;
You have anointed me with fresh oil.
My eyes have seen the downfall of my enemies,
and my ears have heard the doom of my wicked adversaries.
𝙍: You, O LORD, are on high forever.
The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree
and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
Those who are planted in the house of the LORD
shall flourish in the courts of our God.
They shall still bear fruit in old age;
they shall be healthy and flourishing,
to declare that the LORD is upright;
He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.
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, O LORD, are on high forever.
Psalm Prayer
Give us the music of your praise, Lord, morning, noon, and night, that our lives may be fruitful and our lips confess you as the true and only God.
Psalm 146
𝙍: The LORD shall reign forever.
Praise the LORD!
Praise the LORD, O my soul!
While I live I will praise the LORD;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.
Do not put your trust in princes,
nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help.
His spirit departs, he returns to the earth;
on that very day his plans perish.
𝙍: The LORD shall reign forever.
Blessed is he who has the God of Jacob for his help,
whose hope is in the LORD his God,
who made heaven and earth,
the sea and all that is in them;
who keeps faith forever;
who executes justice for the oppressed;
who gives food to the hungry.
𝙍: The LORD shall reign forever.
The LORD sets free the prisoners.
The LORD opens the eyes of the blind;
the LORD raises up those who are bowed down;
the LORD loves the righteous.
The LORD watches over the strangers;
He relieves the fatherless and widow,
but the way of the wicked He turns upside down.
The LORD shall reign forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.
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: The LORD shall reign forever.
Psalm prayer
Lord of all, our breath and being come from you, yet our earthly end is dust; as you loose the bound and feed the hungry, so bring us in your mercy through the grave and gate of death to the feast of eternal life, where you reign forevermore.
Old Testament reading
2 Samuel 15:17-21
So the king left with all of the people after him, and they came to a stop at the furthest house. Now all his servants passed on beside him, all the Kerethites, all the Pelethites, and all the Gittites, six hundred men who had followed him from Gath, passed on before the king.
The king said to Ittai the Gittite, “Why are you also going with us? Go back and dwell with the king, for you are a foreigner and, moreover, exiled from your own place. You came only yesterday. Shall I cause you to go roaming around with us today? I am going where I go. Go back, and take back your brothers with you. Mercy and truth be with you.”
Ittai answered the king and said, “As the LORD lives and as lives my lord the king, only in the place where my lord the king is, whether for death or for life, there alone will your servant be.”
Silence may be kept.
New Testament reading
John 11:1-16
Now a man was sick, Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. This was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. So the sisters sent word to Him, saying, “Lord, he whom You love is sick.”
When Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified by it.” Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. So when He heard that he was sick, He remained where He was two more days. Then after this He said to the disciples, “Let us go into Judea again.”
His disciples said to Him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone You. Are You going there again?”
Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks during the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks during the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”
After He said this, He said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep. But I am going that I may awaken him from sleep.”
Then His disciples said, “Lord, if he is sleeping, he will be well.” Jesus had spoken of his death. But they thought that He was speaking of getting rest through sleep.
So then Jesus plainly told them, “Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe. Nevertheless let us go to him.”
Then Thomas, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us go also, that we may die with Him.”
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:
National leaders, public officials, and the armed forces
Peace and justice in the world
Those who work for reconciliation
All whose lives are devastated by war and civil strife
Prisoners, refugees, and homeless people
Other intercessions and supplications may be offered as the Holy Spirit leads.
Response
Father, by your Spirit
Bring in your kingdom.
Silence may be kept.
Collect of the day
Almighty and eternal God, who, for the firmer foundation of our faith, allowed your holy apostle Thomas to doubt the resurrection of your Son till word and sight convinced him: grant to us, who have not seen, that we also may believe and so confess Christ as our Lord and our God; who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer
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
The Lord bless us, and preserve us from all evil, and keep us in eternal life.
Amen.