Tue. morning Jul. 28
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
Day by Day
Confession of Sin
Come, Holy Spirit of God,
and search our hearts with the light of Christ.
Our Lord Jesus Christ said:
“The first of all the commandments is, ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Amen. Lord, have mercy.
After a period of reflection
Come, let us return to the Lord and say:
Lord our God, in our sin, we have avoided your call. Our faithfulness is like a morning cloud, and like the early dew, it goes away. Have mercy on us; deliver us from judgment; bind up our wounds and revive us; in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
cf Hosea 6
May Almighty God, who sent his Son into the world to save sinners, bring us his pardon and peace, now and forever.
Amen.
Psalm 32
𝙍: Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous ones.
Blessed is he
whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man
against whom the LORD imputes no iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
When I kept silent,
my body wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
For day and night
Your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was turned
into the drought of summer.
𝙍: Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous ones.
I acknowledged my sin to You,
and my iniquity I did not conceal.
I said, “I will confess
my transgressions to the LORD,”
and You forgave
the iniquity of my sin.
For this cause everyone who is godly will pray to You
in a time when You may be found;
surely in the flood of great waters,
they shall not reach him.
You are my hiding place;
You will preserve me from trouble;
You will surround me with songs of deliverance.
𝙍: Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous ones.
I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
Do not be like the horse or like the mule,
which have no understanding,
which must be restrained with bit and bridle,
or they will not come near you.
Many are the sorrows of the wicked,
but lovingkindness will surround
the man who trusts in the LORD.
Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous ones;
and shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart!
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: Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous ones.
Psalm prayer
Give us honest hearts, O God, and send your kindly Spirit to help us confess our sins and bring us the peace of your forgiveness; in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Psalm 36
𝙍: With You, O God, is the fountain of life.
An oracle within my heart
about the transgression of the wicked:
There is no fear of God
before their eyes.
For he flatters himself in his own eyes,
so that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated.
The words of his mouth are wickedness and deceit;
he has ceased to be wise and to do good.
He devises mischief on his bed;
he sets himself on a path that is not good;
he does not reject evil.
𝙍: With You, O God, is the fountain of life.
Your mercy, O LORD, extends to the heavens,
and Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
Your righteousness is like the great mountains,
Your judgments are like the great deep;
O LORD, You preserve man and beast.
How excellent is Your lovingkindness, O God!
Therefore mankind
seeks refuge in the shadow of Your wings.
They will drink their fill from the abundance of Your house,
and You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures.
For with You is the fountain of life;
in Your light we see light.
𝙍: With You, O God, is the fountain of life.
Oh, continue Your lovingkindness to those who know You,
and Your righteousness to the upright in heart.
Let not the foot of the arrogant tread on me,
and let not the hand of the wicked drive me away.
There the workers of iniquity have fallen;
they are cast down and are not able to rise.
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: With You, O God, is the fountain of life.
Psalm prayer
O God, the fountain of life, make us bright with wisdom, that we may be lightened with the knowledge of your glory in the face of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Old Testament reading
1 Samuel 15:1-23
Samuel said to Saul, “The LORD sent me to anoint you to be king over His people, over Israel. Now therefore listen to the voice of the words of the LORD. Thus says the LORD of Hosts, ‘I remember what Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt. Now go and strike Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not have compassion on them but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’ ”
So Saul summoned the people together, and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand men of Judah. Then Saul came to the city of Amalek and laid an ambush in the valley. Saul said to the Kenites, “Go, depart, go down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to all the Israelites when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.
Then Saul struck the Amalekites from Havilah until you come to Shur, which is near Egypt. He took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, oxen, fatlings, and lambs. And of all that was good, they were not willing to utterly destroy them. But everything that was despised and weak, that they completely destroyed.
Then came the word of the LORD to Samuel, saying, “I regret that I have set up Saul to be king because he has turned back from following Me, and he has not carried out My words.” And it grieved Samuel, and he cried to the LORD all night.
When Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning, it was told Samuel, saying, “Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set up a monument for himself. Then he turned and has passed on down to Gilgal.”
Samuel came to Saul. And Saul said to him, “Blessed are you of the LORD. I have carried out the word of the LORD.”
Samuel said, “Then what is the sound of this flock of sheep in my ears? And the sound of the cattle which I am hearing?”
And Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites. For the people spared the best of the sheep and oxen, to sacrifice to the LORD your God, and the rest we have utterly destroyed.”
Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stop, and I will tell you what the LORD spoke to me this night.”
And he said to him, “Speak.”
Samuel said, “When you were little in your own sight, were you not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the LORD anointed you king over Israel? And the LORD sent you on a journey, and said, ‘Go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are destroyed.’ Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD? And why did you rush upon the spoil and do evil in the sight of the LORD?”
And Saul said to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the LORD. And I have followed in the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took from the plunder sheep and oxen, the firstfruits of the banned things to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal.”
Samuel said,
“Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD?
Behold, obedience is better than sacrifice,
a listening ear than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,
and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the LORD,
He has also rejected you from being king.”
Silence may be kept.
New Testament reading
Luke 23:26-43
As they led Him away, they seized Simon of Cyrene, who was coming from the country, and they laid the cross on him to carry it behind Jesus. A large number of people followed Him, including women who mourned and lamented Him. Jesus turned to them, saying, “Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, who never bore and never nursed!’ Then
they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’
and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’
For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
Two different men, who were criminals, also were led with Him to be killed. When they came to the place which is called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and one on the left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they divided His clothes by casting lots.
The people stood by watching. But the rulers with them scoffed, saying, “He saved others. Let Him save Himself if He is the Christ, the Chosen One of God.”
And the soldiers also mocked Him, coming to Him and offering Him sour wine, saying, “If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself.”
An inscription was written over Him in letters of Greek and Latin and Hebrew:
THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
One of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us!”
But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, seeing you are under the same sentence? And we indeed, justly. For we are receiving the due reward of our deeds. But this Man has done nothing amiss.”
Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.”
Jesus said to him, “Truly, I tell you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
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:
All who are sick in body, mind, or spirit
Those in the midst of famine or disaster
Victims of abuse and violence, intolerance, and prejudice
Those who are bereaved
All who work in the medical and healing professions
Other intercessions and supplications may be offered as the Holy Spirit leads.
Response
Lord, in your mercy
hear our prayer.
Silence may be kept.
Collect of the day
Almighty Lord and everlasting God, we beseech you to direct, sanctify and govern both our hearts and bodies in the ways of your laws and the works of your commandments; that through your most mighty protection, both here and ever, we may be preserved in body and soul; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
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.