Wed. morning Apr. 1
Opening response
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
Let your ways be known on earth,
your salvation among all nations.
Prayer of thanksgiving
Blessed are you, Lord God of our salvation, to you be praise and glory forever. As a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, your only Son was lifted up that he might draw the whole world to himself. May we walk this day in the way of the cross and always be ready to share its weight, declaring your love for all the world.
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
Give to Our God Immortal Praise
Words: Isaac Watts (1719)
Music: John Haton (c. 1793)
Our Great Redeemer’s Praise (#13)
Give to our God immortal praise
Mercy and truth are all His ways
Wonders of grace to God belong
Repeat His mercies in your song
He built the earth, He spread the sky
And fixed the starry lights on high
Wonders of grace to God belong
Repeat His mercies in your song
He fills the sun with morning light
He bids the moon direct the night
His mercies ever shall endure
When suns and moons shall shine no more
He sent His Son with pow'r to save
From guilt and darkness and the grave
Wonders of grace to God belong
Repeat His mercies in your song
Through this vast world He guides our feet
And leads us to His heav'nly seat
His mercies ever shall endure
When this our world shall be no more
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 102
𝙍: My help comes from the LORD.
Hear my prayer, O LORD,
and let my cry come to You.
Do not hide Your face from me
in the day of my trouble;
incline Your ear to me;
in the day when I call, answer me speedily.
𝙍: My help comes from the LORD.
For my days pass away like smoke,
and my bones burn like a furnace.
My heart is stricken and withered like grass,
so that I forget to eat my bread.
Because of the sound of my groaning
my bones cling to my skin.
I am like an owl of the wilderness;
like an owl of the desert.
I lie awake, and am
like a sparrow alone on the housetop.
My enemies reproach me all the day;
those who deride me use my name for a curse.
For I eat ashes like bread
and mingle my drink with tears,
because of Your indignation and Your wrath;
for You have lifted me up and cast me away.
My days are like an evening shadow;
I wither away like grass.
𝙍: My help comes from the LORD.
But You, O LORD, shall endure forever,
the remembrance of Your name to all generations.
You will arise and have mercy on Zion,
for it is time to favor her;
the appointed time has come.
For Your servants take pleasure in her stones,
and take pity on her dust.
So the nations will fear the name of the LORD,
and all the kings of the earth Your glory.
For the LORD will build up Zion;
He will appear in His glory.
He will regard the prayer of the destitute,
and will not despise their prayer.
𝙍: My help comes from the LORD.
Let this be recorded for the generation to come,
so that a people yet to be created may praise the LORD.
For He looked down from the height of His sanctuary;
from heaven the LORD beheld the earth,
to hear the groaning of the prisoners,
to release those who were appointed to die,
to declare the name of the LORD in Zion,
and His praise in Jerusalem,
when the peoples are gathered together,
and the kingdoms, to serve the LORD.
𝙍: My help comes from the LORD.
He has weakened my strength in midcourse;
He has shortened my days.
I said,
“O my God, do not take me away in the midst of my days;
Your years endure throughout all generations.”
Of old You laid the foundation of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of Your hands.
They will perish, but You will endure;
indeed, they will all wear out like a garment;
like a robe You will change them,
and they will pass away.
But You are the same,
and Your years will have no end.
The children of Your servants shall continue;
and their descendants shall be established before You.
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: My help comes from the LORD.
Psalm prayer
Have pity on our frailty, O God, and in the hour of our death cast us not away as clothing that is worn, for you are our eternal refuge; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Old Testament reading
Jeremiah 11:18-20
The LORD has made it known to me and I knew it; then You showed me their deeds. But I was like a gentle lamb that is brought to the slaughter, and I did not know that they had devised plots against me, saying,
“Let us destroy the tree with the fruit,
and let us cut him off from the land of the living
so that his name may be remembered no more.”
But, O LORD of Hosts, who judges righteously,
who tries the feelings and the heart,
let me see Your vengeance on them,
for to You I have revealed my cause.
Silence may be kept.
New Testament reading
Luke 22:54-71
Then they arrested Him, and led Him away, and brought Him into the high priest’s house. Peter followed at a distance. But when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat among them. Then a servant girl saw him as he sat near the fire, and gazed at him, and said, “This man was with Him.”
But he denied Him, saying, “Woman, I do not know Him.”
A little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.”
Peter said, “Man, I am not!”
About an hour later another man firmly declared, “Certainly, this man also was with Him, for he is a Galilean.”
Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are saying.” Immediately, while he was yet speaking, the cock crowed. The Lord turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had told him, “Before the cock crows, you will deny Me three times.” And Peter went outside and wept bitterly.
The men who guarded Jesus mocked Him and whipped Him. When they had blindfolded Him, they struck Him on the face and asked Him, “Prophesy! Who struck You?” And many other things they blasphemously spoke against Him.
When day came, the assembly of the elders of the people, both the chief priests and scribes, came together and led Him away to their council, saying, “Are You the Christ? Tell us!”
He said to them, “If I tell you, you will not believe. And if I also question you, you will not answer Me or release Me. From now on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God.”
They all said, “Are You then the Son of God?”
He said to them, “You truly say that I am.”
Then they said, “What further testimony do we need? We have heard it from His own mouth.”
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 persecuted church
The oppressed peoples of the world
All who are lonely
All who are near to death
All who are facing loss
Other intercessions and supplications may be offered as the Holy Spirit leads.
Response
Loving God, we look to you.
Receive our prayer.
Silence may be kept.
Collect of the day
Almighty and everlasting God, who in your tender love toward the human race sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our flesh and to suffer death upon the cross: grant that we may follow the example of his patience and humility, and also be made partakers of his resurrection; 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
Standing at the foot of the cross, 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 Christ, who bore our sins on the cross, set us free to serve him with joy.
Amen.