Opening response

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

Let your ways be known upon earth,
your saving power among the 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

Oh What a Blessed Hope Is Ours

Charles Wesley

Oh, what a blessed hope is ours!
While here on earth we stay,
We more than taste the heavenly powers,
And antedate that day.

We feel the resurrection near,
Our life in Christ concealed,
And with his glorious presence here,
Our earthen vessels filled.

Oh, would he all of heaven bestow!
Then like our Lord we’ll rise,
Our bodies, fully ransomed, go
To take the glorious prize.

In rapturous awe, on him to gaze,
Who bought the sight for me;
And shout and wonder at his grace,
Through all eternity.

Confession of sin

The LORD is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion.
He has not dealt with us according to our sins
or repaid us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his loving devotion for those who fear him.

Silence is kept for reflection.

Holy God,
Holy and strong,
Holy and immortal,
have mercy upon us.

As far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him.

Bless the LORD, O my soul;
all that is within me, bless his holy name.

Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and do not forget all his kind deeds.

Psalm 40

𝙍: Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders You have done.

I waited patiently for the LORD;
He inclined to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me up from the pit of despair,
out of the miry clay;
He set my feet upon a rock,
and made my footsteps firm.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear
and put their trust in the LORD.

Blessed is the man
who has made the LORD his trust,
who has not turned to the proud,
nor to those who lapse into falsehood.
Many, O LORD my God,
are the wonders You have done,
and the plans You have for us—
none can compare to You—
if I proclaim and declare them,
they are more than I can count. 𝙍

Sacrifice and offering You did not desire,
but my ears You have opened.
Burnt offerings and sin offerings
You did not require.
Then I said, “Here I am, I have come—
it is written about me in the scroll:
I delight to do Your will, O my God;
Your law is within my heart.”

I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly;
behold, I do not seal my lips,
as You, O LORD, do know.
I have not covered up Your righteousness in my heart;
I have declared Your faithfulness and salvation;
I have not concealed Your loving devotion and faithfulness
from the great assembly. 𝙍

O LORD, do not withhold Your mercy from me;
Your loving devotion and faithfulness will always guard me.
For evils without number surround me;
my sins have overtaken me, so that I cannot see.
They are more than the hairs of my head,
and my heart has failed within me.
Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me;
hurry, O LORD, to help me.

May those who seek my life
be ashamed and confounded;
may those who wish me harm
be repelled and humiliated.
May those who say to me, “Aha, aha!”
be appalled at their own shame. 𝙍

May all who seek You
rejoice and be glad in You;
may those who love Your salvation
always say, “The LORD be magnified!”

But I am poor and needy;
may the Lord think of me.
You are my helper and deliverer;
O my God, do not delay.

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: Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders You have done.

Psalm prayer

Free us from our sins, O God,
and may our sacrifices be of praise
to the glory of your Son,
our Redeemer, Jesus Christ.

Psalm 125

𝙍: Glorious things are ascribed to you, O city of God.

Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion.
It cannot be moved; it abides forever.
As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
so the LORD surrounds His people,
both now and forevermore.

For the scepter of the wicked will not rest
upon the land allotted to the righteous,
so that the righteous will not put forth
their hands to injustice.

Do good, O LORD, to those who are good,
and to the upright in heart.
But those who turn to crooked ways
the LORD will banish with the evildoers.

Peace be upon Israel.

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: Glorious things are ascribed to you, O city of God.

Psalm prayer

God of power,
you are strong to save
and you never fail those who trust in you;
keep us under your protection
and spread abroad your reign of peace
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Old Testament reading

Jeremiah 23:9-32

As for the prophets:

My heart is broken within me,
and all my bones tremble.
I have become like a drunkard,
like a man overcome by wine,
because of the LORD,
because of His holy words.
For the land is full of adulterers—
because of the curse, the land mourns
and the pastures of the wilderness have dried up—
their course is evil
and their power is misused.

“For both prophet and priest are ungodly;
even in My house I have found their wickedness,”
declares the LORD.
“Therefore their path will become slick;
they will be driven away into the darkness and fall into it.
For I will bring disaster upon them
in the year of their punishment,”
declares the LORD.
“Among the prophets of Samaria
I saw an offensive thing:
They prophesied by Baal
and led My people Israel astray.
And among the prophets of Jerusalem
I have seen a horrible thing:
They commit adultery
and walk in lies.
They strengthen the hands of evildoers,
so that no one turns his back on wickedness.
They are all like Sodom to Me;
the people of Jerusalem are like Gomorrah.”

Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts says concerning the prophets:

“I will feed them wormwood
and give them poisoned water to drink,
for from the prophets of Jerusalem
ungodliness has spread throughout the land.”

This is what the LORD of Hosts says:

“Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you.
They are filling you with false hopes.
They speak visions from their own minds,
not from the mouth of the LORD.
They keep saying to those who despise Me,
‘The LORD says that you will have peace,’
and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart,
‘No harm will come to you.’

But which of them has stood in the council of the LORD
to see and hear His word?
Who has given heed to His word
and obeyed it?
Behold, the storm of the LORD
has gone out with fury,
a whirlwind swirling down
upon the heads of the wicked.
The anger of the LORD will not turn back
until He has fully accomplished the purposes of His heart.
In the days to come
you will understand this clearly.

I did not send these prophets,
yet they have run with their message;
I did not speak to them,
yet they have prophesied.
But if they had stood in My council,
they would have proclaimed My words to My people
and turned them back
from their evil ways and deeds.”

“Am I only a God nearby,” declares the LORD, “and not a God far away?”

“Can a man hide in secret places where I cannot see him?” declares the LORD.

“Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the LORD.
“I have heard the sayings of the prophets who prophesy lies in My name: ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’ How long will this continue in the hearts of these prophets who prophesy falsehood, these prophets of the delusion of their own minds? They suppose the dreams that they tell one another will make My people forget My name, just as their fathers forgot My name through the worship of Baal.

Let the prophet who has a dream retell it, but let him who has My word speak it truthfully. For what is straw compared to grain?” declares the LORD. “Is not My word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that smashes a rock?”

“Therefore behold,” declares the LORD, “I am against the prophets who steal from one another words they attribute to Me.”

“Yes,” declares the LORD, “I am against the prophets who wag their own tongues and proclaim, ‘The LORD declares it.’ ”

“Indeed,” declares the LORD, “I am against those who prophesy false dreams and retell them to lead My people astray with their reckless lies. It was not I who sent them or commanded them, and they are of no benefit at all to these people,” declares the LORD.

Silence may be kept.

New Testament reading

John 12:12-19

The next day the great crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet Him, shouting:

“Hosanna!”

“Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Blessed is the King of Israel!”

Finding a young donkey, Jesus sat on it, as it is written:

“Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion.

See, your King is coming,
seated on the colt of a donkey.”

At first His disciples did not understand these things, but after Jesus was glorified they remembered what had been done to Him, and they realized that these very things had also been written about Him.

Meanwhile, many people continued to testify that they had been with Jesus when He called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead. That is also why the crowd went out to meet Him, because they heard that He had performed this sign.

Then the Pharisees said to one another, “You can see that this is doing you no good. Look how the whole world has gone after Him!”

Silence may be kept.

The Benedictus (The Song of Zechariah)

Luke 1:68-79

𝙍: The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved, it is the power of God.

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: The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved, it is the power of God.

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

Lord, hear your people
and answer our prayers.

Silence may be kept.

Collect of the day

Most merciful God,
who by the death and resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ
delivered and saved the world:
grant that by faith in him who suffered on the cross
we may triumph in the power of his victory;
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.