Opening response

Lord, open our lips
and our mouth shall proclaim your praise.

Hear our voice, O LORD, according to Your loving devotion;
give us life according to Your justice.

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

Ah! What Avails My Strife

Charles Wesley

Ah! what avails my strife,
My wandering to and fro?
Thou hast the words of endless life,
Ah! Whither should I go?

Thy condescending grace
To me did freely move;
It calls me still to seek thy face,
And stoops to ask my love.

My worthless heart to gain,
The God of all that breathe
Was found in fashion as a man,
And died a cursèd death.

And can I yet delay
My little all to give?
To tear my soul from earth away
For Jesus to receive?

Ah! no: I all forsake;
My friends, my life resign;
Gracious redeemer, take, O take,
And seal me ever thine!

Confession of sin

Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake their own ways
and the unrighteous their own thoughts.
Let them return to the LORD so that he may have compassion,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

cf Isaiah 55

A time of silence and self-examination may be kept.

Lord God,
we have sinned against you;
we have done what is evil in your sight.
We are sorry and repent.
Have mercy on us according to your loving devotion.
Wash us clean of our iniquity and cleanse us from our sin.
Renew a right spirit within us,
and restore to us the joy of your salvation
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

cf Psalm 51

May the Father of all mercies
cleanse us from our sins,
and restore us in his image
to the praise and glory of his name,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Bless be the LORD,
for he has heard our cry for mercy.
Therefore our hearts rejoice
and we give thanks to him with our song.

cf Psalm 28:7, 9

Psalm 44

𝙍: Rise up, O LORD; be our help!

We have heard with our ears, O God;
our fathers have told us
the work You did in their days,
in the days of old.
With Your hand You drove out the nations
and planted our fathers there;
You crushed the peoples
and cast them out.
For it was not by their sword that they took the land;
their arm did not bring them victory.
It was by Your right hand,
Your arm, and the light of Your face,
because You favored them. 𝙍

You are my King, O God,
who ordains victories for Jacob.
Through You we repel our foes;
through Your name we trample our enemies.
For I do not trust in my bow,
nor does my sword save me.
For You save us from our enemies;
You put those who hate us to shame.
In God we have boasted all day long,
and Your name we will praise forever. 𝙍

But You have rejected and humbled us;
You no longer go forth with our armies.
You have made us retreat from the foe,
and those who hate us have plundered us.
You have given us up as sheep to be devoured;
You have scattered us among the nations.
You sell Your people for nothing;
no profit do You gain from their sale.

You have made us a reproach to our neighbors,
a mockery and derision to those around us.
You have made us a byword among the nations,
a laughingstock among the peoples. 𝙍

All day long my disgrace is before me,
and shame has covered my face,
at the voice of the scorner and reviler,
because of the enemy, bent on revenge.

All this has come upon us,
though we have not forgotten You
or betrayed Your covenant.
Our hearts have not turned back;
our steps have not strayed from Your path.
But You have crushed us in the lair of jackals;
You have covered us with deepest darkness.

If we had forgotten the name of our God
or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
would not God have discovered,
since He knows the secrets of the heart?
Yet for Your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. 𝙍

Wake up, O Lord! Why are You sleeping?
Arise! Do not reject us forever.
Why do You hide Your face
and forget our affliction and oppression?
For our soul has sunk to the dust;
our bodies cling to the earth.
Rise up; be our help!
Redeem us on account of Your loving devotion.

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: Rise up, O LORD; be our help!

Psalm prayer

In the darkness of unknowing,
when your love seems absent,
draw near to us, O God,
in Christ forsaken,
in Christ risen,
our Redeemer and our Lord.

Old Testament reading

Jeremiah 5:1-19

“Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem.
Look now and take note; search her squares.
If you can find a single person,
anyone who acts justly,
anyone who seeks the truth,
then I will forgive the city.
Although they say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives,’
they are swearing falsely.”

O LORD, do not Your eyes look for truth?
You struck them, but they felt no pain.
You finished them off,
but they refused to accept discipline.
They have made their faces harder than stone
and refused to repent.

Then I said, “They are only the poor;
they have played the fool,
for they do not know the way of the LORD,
the justice of their God.
I will go to the powerful
and speak to them.
Surely they know the way of the LORD,
the justice of their God.”

But they too, with one accord, had broken the yoke
and torn off the chains.
Therefore a lion from the forest will strike them down,
a wolf from the desert will ravage them.
A leopard will lie in wait near their cities,
and everyone who ventures out will be torn to pieces.
For their rebellious acts are many,
and their unfaithful deeds are numerous.

“Why should I forgive you?
Your children have forsaken Me
and sworn by gods that are not gods.
I satisfied their needs, yet they committed adultery
and assembled at the houses of prostitutes.
They are well-fed, lusty stallions,
each neighing after his neighbor’s wife.
Should I not punish them for these things?”
declares the LORD.
“Should I not avenge Myself
on such a nation as this?
Go up through her vineyards and ravage them,
but do not finish them off.
Strip off her branches,
for they do not belong to the LORD.
For the house of Israel and the house of Judah
have been utterly unfaithful to Me,”
declares the LORD.

They have lied about the LORD and said:

“He will not do anything; harm will not come to us;
we will not see sword or famine.
The prophets are but wind,
for the word is not in them.
So let their own predictions befall them.”

Therefore this is what the LORD God of Hosts says:

“Because you have spoken this word,
I will make My words a fire in your mouth
and this people the wood it consumes.
Behold, I am bringing a distant nation against you,
O house of Israel,” declares the LORD.
“It is an established nation,
an ancient nation,
a nation whose language you do not know
and whose speech you do not understand.
Their quivers are like open graves;
they are all mighty men.
They will devour your harvest and food;
they will consume your sons and daughters;
they will eat up your flocks and herds;
they will feed on your vines and fig trees.
With the sword they will destroy
the fortified cities in which you trust.”

“Yet even in those days,” declares the LORD, “I will not make a full end of you. And when the people ask, ‘For what offense has the LORD our God done all these things to us?’ You are to tell them, ‘Just as you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so will you serve foreigners in a land that is not your own.’ ”

Silence may be kept.

New Testament reading

John 5:19-29

So Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself, unless He sees the Father doing it. For whatever the Father does, the Son also does. The Father loves the Son and shows Him all He does. And to your amazement, He will show Him even greater works than these. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom He wishes.

Furthermore, the Father judges no one, but has assigned all judgment to the Son, so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.

Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not come under judgment. Indeed, he has crossed over from death to life.

Truly, truly, I tell you, the hour is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so also He has granted the Son to have life in Himself. And He has given Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man.

Do not be amazed at this, for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear His voice and come out—those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

Silence may be kept.

The Benedictus (The Song of Zechariah)

Luke 1:68-79

𝙍: Because of your tender mercy, O God, the Dawn will visit us from on high.

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
because He has visited and redeemed His people.
He has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of His servant David,
as He spoke through His holy prophets,
those of ages past,
salvation from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us,
to show mercy to our fathers
and to remember His holy covenant,
the oath He swore to our father Abraham,
to grant us deliverance from hostile hands,
that we may serve Him without fear,
in holiness and righteousness before Him
all the days of our lives.

And you, child, will be called
a prophet of the Most High;
for you will go on before the Lord
to prepare the way for Him,
to give to His people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the Dawn will visit us from on high,
to shine on those who live in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet
into the path 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.

𝙍: Because of your tender mercy, O God, the Dawn will visit us from on high.

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

Father, hear our prayer,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Silence may be kept.

Collect of the day

Almighty God,
whose Son Jesus Christ fasted forty days in the wilderness,
and was tempted as we are, yet without sin:
give us grace to discipline ourselves in obedience to your Spirit;
and, as you know our weakness,
so may we know your power to save;
through Jesus Christ your Son our 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

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.