Thursday evening October 12
Friday evening
Wednesday evening
Preparation
Opening response
Favor us, Lord, and deliver us.
Lord, come quickly and help us.
Prayer of thanksgiving
Blessed are you, Lord God, creator of day and night:
to you be praise and glory forever.
As darkness falls you renew your promise
to reveal among us the light of your presence.
By the light of Christ, your living Word,
dispel the darkness of our hearts
that we may walk as children of light
and sing your praise throughout the world.
Blessed be God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Blessed be God forever.
That this evening may be holy, good and peaceful,
let us pray with one heart and mind.
Silence is kept.
As our evening prayer rises before you, O God,
so may your mercy come down upon us
to cleanse our hearts
and set us free to sing your praise
now and forever.
Amen.
Hymn
Thee in the Watches of the Night
Charles Wesley
Thee in the watches of the night,
Do I not, Lord, remember still,
And meditate with calm delight,
On the dear counsels of thy will?
Thy will is my perfection here;
And sighs for this, my whole desire,
To attain the heavenly character,
And spotless in thy arms expire
Confession of sin
Seek the Lord when he can still be found;
call him while he is yet near.
Let the wicked abandon their ways
and the sinful their schemes.
Let them return to the Lord so that he may have mercy on them,
to our God, because he is generous with forgiveness.
cf Isaiah 55
A time of silence and self-examination may be kept.
Lord God,
we have sinned against you;
we have committed evil in your sight.
We are sorry and repent.
Have mercy on us according to your faithful love.
Wash us completely clean of our guilt; purify us from our sin.
Put a new, faithful spirit deep inside us,
and return the joy of your salvation to us
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 the Lord,
because he has listened to our request for mercy.
Therefore our hearts will rejoice
and we will thank him with our song.
cf Psalm 28:7,9
The Word of God
Psalm 78:40-72
Refrain:
Earth: Tremble before the Lord!
How often they rebelled against God in the wilderness
and distressed him in the desert!
Time and time again they tested God,
provoking the holy one of Israel.
They didn’t remember God’s power—
the day when he saved them from the enemy;
how God performed his signs in Egypt,
his marvelous works in the field of Zoan.
God turned their rivers into blood;
they couldn’t drink from their own streams.
God sent swarms against them to eat them up,
frogs to destroy them.
God handed over their crops to caterpillars,
their land’s produce to locusts.
God killed their vines with hail,
their sycamore trees with frost.
God delivered their cattle over to disease,
their herds to plagues.
God unleashed his burning anger against them—
fury, indignation, distress,
a troop of evil messengers.
God blazed a path for his wrath.
He didn’t save them from death,
but delivered their lives over to disease.
God struck down all of Egypt’s oldest males;
in Ham’s tents, he struck their pride and joy.
God led his own people out like sheep,
guiding them like a flock in the wilderness.
God led them in safety—they were not afraid!
But the sea engulfed their enemies!
God brought them to his holy territory,
to the mountain that his own strong hand had acquired.
God drove out the nations before them
and apportioned property for them;
he settled Israel’s tribes in their tents.
But they tested and defied the Most High God;
they didn’t pay attention to his warnings.
They turned away, became faithless just like their ancestors;
they twisted away like a defective bow.
They angered God with their many shrines;
they angered him with their idols.
God heard and became enraged;
he rejected Israel utterly.
God abandoned the sanctuary at Shiloh,
the tent where he had lived with humans.
God let his power be held captive,
let his glory go to the enemy’s hand.
God delivered his people up to the sword;
he was enraged at his own possession.
Fire devoured his young men,
and his young women had no wedding songs.
God’s priests were killed by the sword,
and his widows couldn’t even cry.
But then my Lord woke up—
as if he’d been sleeping!
Like a warrior shaking off wine,
God beat back his foes;
he made them an everlasting disgrace.
God rejected the tent of Joseph
and didn’t choose the tribe of Ephraim.
Instead, he chose the tribe of Judah,
the mountain of Zion, which he loves.
God built his sanctuary like the highest heaven
and like the earth, which he established forever.
And God chose David, his servant,
taking him from the sheepfolds.
God brought him from shepherding nursing ewes
to shepherd his people Jacob,
to shepherd his inheritance, Israel.
David shepherded them with a heart of integrity;
he led them with the skill of his hands.
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.
Refrain:
Earth: Tremble before the Lord!
Psalm prayer
God our shepherd,
in all our wanderings and temptations,
teach us to rest in your mercy
and trust in your defence;
through him who laid down his life for us,
Jesus Christ our Lord.
Old Testament reading
2 Kings 1:2-17
Ahaziah fell out the window of his second-story room in Samaria and was hurt. He sent messengers, telling them, “Go to Ekron’s god Baal-zebub, and ask if I will recover from this injury.”
But the Lord’s messenger said to Elijah from Tishbe, “Go, intercept the messengers of Samaria’s king, and ask them, ‘Is it because there’s no God in Israel that you are going to question Ekron’s god Baal-zebub? This is what the Lord says: You will never get out of the bed you are lying in; you will die for sure!’” So Elijah set off.
The messengers returned to Ahaziah. He said to them, “Why have you come back?”
They said to him, “A man met us and said, ‘Go back to the king who sent you. Say to him, This is what the Lord says: Is it because there’s no God in Israel that you’ve come to question Ekron’s god Baal-zebub? Because of this, you will never get out of the bed you are lying in; you will die for sure!’”
Ahaziah said to them, “Describe the man who met you and said these things.”
They said to him, “He wore clothes made of hair with a leather belt around his waist.”
Ahaziah said, “That was Elijah from Tishbe.”
So Ahaziah sent out a commander with fifty soldiers. The commander met up with Elijah while he was sitting on a hilltop. The commander said, “Man of God, the king says, ‘Come down!’”
Elijah replied to the commander of the fifty soldiers, “If I really am a man of God, may fire come down from the sky and burn up you and your fifty soldiers.” Then fire came down from the sky and burned up the commander and his fifty soldiers.
Ahaziah then sent another commander with fifty soldiers. The commander said to Elijah, “Man of God, this is what the king says: ‘Hurry and come down!’”
Elijah said to them, “If I really am a man of God, may fire come down from the sky and burn up you and your fifty soldiers.” Then God’s fire came down from the sky and burned up the commander and his fifty soldiers.
For a third time Ahaziah sent a commander with fifty soldiers. So the third commander arrived. He kneeled before Elijah and begged him, “Man of God! Please have some regard for my life and the lives of these fifty soldiers who are your servants. Look, fire came from the sky and burned up the two earlier commanders and their troops of fifty soldiers. Please have regard for my life.”
Then the Lord’s messenger said to Elijah, “Go down with him. Don’t be afraid of him.” So Elijah set out to go with him to the king.
Elijah said to the king: “This is what the Lord says: Why did you send messengers to question Ekron’s god Baal-zebub? Is there no God in Israel whose word you could seek? Because of this, you won’t ever get out of the bed you are lying in; you’ll die for sure!” So Ahaziah died in agreement with the Lord’s word that Elijah had spoken.
Because Ahaziah had no son, Joram became king after him in the second year of Judah’s King Jehoram, who was Jehoshaphat’s son.
Silence may be kept.
New Testament reading
Acts 24:1-23
Five days later the high priest Ananias came down with some elders and a lawyer named Tertullus. They pressed charges against Paul before the governor. After the governor summoned Paul, Tertullus began to make his case against him. He declared, “Under your leadership, we have experienced substantial peace, and your administration has brought reforms to our nation. Always and everywhere, most honorable Felix, we acknowledge this with deep gratitude. I don’t want to take too much of your time, so I ask that you listen with your usual courtesy to our brief statement of the facts. We have found this man to be a troublemaker who stirs up riots among all the Jews throughout the empire. He’s a ringleader of the Nazarene faction and even tried to defile the temple. That’s when we arrested him. By examining him yourself, you will be able to verify the allegations we are bringing against him.” The Jews reinforced the action against Paul, affirming the truth of these accusations.
The governor nodded at Paul, giving him permission to speak.
He responded, “I know that you have been judge over this nation for many years, so I gladly offer my own defense. You can verify that I went up to worship in Jerusalem no more than twelve days ago. They didn’t find me arguing with anyone in the temple or stirring up a crowd, whether in the synagogue or anywhere else in the city. Nor can they prove to you the allegations they are now bringing against me. I do admit this to you, that I am a follower of the Way, which they call a faction. Accordingly, I worship the God of our ancestors and believe everything set out in the Law and written in the Prophets. The hope I have in God I also share with my accusers, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous. On account of this, I have committed myself to maintaining a clear conscience before God and with all people. After an absence of several years, I came to Jerusalem to bring gifts for the poor of my nation and to offer sacrifices. When they found me in the temple, I was ritually pure. There was no crowd and no disturbance. But there were some Jews from the province of Asia. They should be here making their accusations, if indeed they have something against me. In their absence, have these people who are here declare what crime they found when I stood before the Jerusalem Council. Perhaps it concerns this one statement that I blurted out when I was with them: ‘I am on trial before you today because of the resurrection of the dead.’”
Felix, who had an accurate understanding of the Way, adjourned the meeting. He said, “When Lysias the commander arrives from Jerusalem, I will decide this case.” He arranged for a centurion to guard Paul. He was to give Paul some freedom, and his friends were not to be hindered in their efforts to provide for him.
Silence may be kept.
Gospel canticle
The Magnificat (The Song of Mary)
Refrain:
God, you have done great things and holy is your name.
With all my heart I glorify the Lord!
In the depths of who I am I rejoice in God my savior.
He has looked with favor on the low status of his servant.
Look! From now on, everyone will consider me highly favored
because the mighty one has done great things for me.
Holy is his name.
He shows mercy to everyone,
from one generation to the next,
who honors him as God.
He has shown strength with his arm.
He has scattered those with arrogant thoughts and proud inclinations.
He has pulled the powerful down from their thrones
and lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away empty-handed.
He has come to the aid of his servant Israel,
remembering his mercy,
just as he promised to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to Abraham’s descendants forever.
Luke 1:46-55
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.
Refrain:
God, you have done great things and holy is your name.
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,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
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,
is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and 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.
Prayers
Thanksgiving and intercession
Thanksgiving may be made for the day.
Intercessions are offered
for peace
for individuals and their needs
Prayers may include the following concerns:
Local government, community leaders
All who provide local services
Those who work with young or elderly people
Schools, colleges and universities
Emergency and rescue organizations
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,
you have made us for yourself,
and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you:
pour your love into our hearts and draw us to yourself,
and so bring us at last to your heavenly city
where we shall see you face to face;
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
As our Savior taught us, so we pray
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power,
and the glory are yours
now and forever.
Amen.
Conclusion
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and the love of God,
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,
be with us all evermore.
Amen.