Friday evening June 16

Saturday evening
Thursday 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

Lord, We Believe and Wait the Hour

Charles Wesley

Lord, we believe and wait the hour,
Which all thy great salvation brings;
The Spirit of love, and health, and power
Shall come and make us priests and kings,
Thou wilt perform thy faithful word:
“The servant shall be as his Lord.”
 
The promise stands forever sure,
And we shall in thine image shine,
Partakers of a nature pure,
Holy, angelical, divine;
In Spirit joined to thee, the Son,
And thou art with thy Father one.
 
Faithful and true we now receive,
The promise ratified by thee;
To thee the when and how we leave,
In time and in eternity;
We only hang upon thy word,
“The servant shall be as his Lord.”

Confession of sin

Come, Holy Spirit of God,
and search our hearts with the light of Christ.
 
Our Lord Jesus Christ said:
The first commandment is this:
‘Israel, listen! Our God is the one Lord, 
and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, 
with all your being, with all your mind, 
and with all your strength.’
 
The second is this: ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself.’
No other commandment is greater than these.
All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commandments.
 
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 love for you is like a morning cloud,
like the dew that goes away early.
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.

The Word of God

Psalm 22

Refrain: 
Lord, please don’t be far from me.
 
My God! My God,
    why have you left me all alone?
    Why are you so far from saving me—
        so far from my anguished groans?
My God, I cry out during the day,
    but you don’t answer;
    even at nighttime I don’t stop.
You are the holy one, enthroned.
You are Israel’s praise.
Our ancestors trusted you—
    they trusted you and you rescued them;
    they cried out to you and they were saved;
    they trusted you and they weren’t ashamed.
But I’m just a worm, less than human;
    insulted by one person, despised by another.
All who see me make fun of me—
    they gape, shaking their heads:
    “He committed himself to the Lord,
        so let God rescue him;
        let God deliver him
        because God likes him so much.”
But you are the one who pulled me from the womb,
    placing me safely at my mother’s breasts.
I was thrown on you from birth;
    you’ve been my God
    since I was in my mother’s womb.
Please don’t be far from me,
    because trouble is near
        and there’s no one to help.
Many bulls surround me;
    mighty bulls from Bashan encircle me.
They open their mouths at me
    like a lion ripping and roaring!
I’m poured out like water.
    All my bones have fallen apart.
        My heart is like wax;
        it melts inside me.
My strength is dried up
    like a piece of broken pottery.
My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
    you’ve set me down in the dirt of death.
Dogs surround me;
    a pack of evil people circle me like a lion—
    oh, my poor hands and feet!
I can count all my bones!
    Meanwhile, they just stare at me, watching me.
They divvy up my garments among themselves;
    they cast lots for my clothes.
But you, Lord! Don’t be far away!
    You are my strength!
    Come quick and help me!
Deliver me from the sword.
    Deliver my life from the power of the dog.
    Save me from the mouth of the lion.
    From the horns of the wild oxen
    you have answered me!
I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters;
    I will praise you in the very center of the congregation!
All of you who revere the Lord—praise him!
    All of you who are Jacob’s descendants—honor him!
    All of you who are all Israel’s offspring—
        stand in awe of him!
Because he didn’t despise or detest
    the suffering of the one who suffered—
    he didn’t hide his face from me.
    No, he listened when I cried out to him for help.
I offer praise in the great congregation
    because of you;
    I will fulfill my promises
    in the presence of those who honor God.
Let all those who are suffering eat and be full!
    Let all who seek the Lord praise him!
        I pray your hearts live forever!
Every part of the earth
    will remember and come back to the Lord;
    every family among all the nations will worship you.
Because the right to rule belongs to the Lord,
    he rules all nations.
Indeed, all the earth’s powerful
    will worship him;
    all who are descending to the dust
    will kneel before him;
    my being also lives for him.
Future descendants will serve him;
    generations to come will be told about my Lord.
They will proclaim God’s righteousness
        to those not yet born,
        telling them what God has done.
 
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: 
Lord, please don’t be far from me.

Psalm prayer

Restless with grief and fear,
the abandoned turn to you:
in every hour of trial,
good Lord, deliver us,
God most holy, God most strong,
whose wisdom is the cross of Christ.

Old Testament reading
Joshua 9:3-26

In contrast, when the population of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, they acted cleverly. They set out pretending to be messengers. They took worn-out sacks for their donkeys and worn-out wineskins that were split and mended. They had worn-out, patched sandals on their feet and were wearing worn-out clothes. All the bread in their supplies was dry and crumbly.
 
They went to Joshua at the camp at Gilgal. They said to him and to Israel, “We have come from a distant country. So now, make a treaty with us.”
 
Israel said to the Hivites, “Perhaps you live among us. How then could we make a treaty with you?”
 
Then they said to Joshua, “We are your servants.”
 
Joshua said to them, “Who are you? Where have you come from?”
 
They said to him, “Your servants have come from a very distant country because of the reputation of the Lord your God. We have heard a report about him and everything he did in Egypt. We heard about everything he did to the two kings of the Amorites on the east side of the Jordan, Heshbon’s King Sihon and Bashan’s King Og, who was in Ashtaroth. Our elders and all the population of our land said to us, ‘Take along supplies for the journey. Go meet them and say to them, “We are your servants. So now make a treaty with us.”’ This is our bread. On the day we left to come to you we took it warm from our houses as supplies. But now here it is, dried up and crumbly. These wineskins were new when we filled them. But here they are, split open. These clothes and sandals of ours are worn out from the very long journey.” The Israelites took some of their supplies, but they didn’t ask for any decision from the Lord. Joshua made peace with them. He made a treaty with them to protect their lives. The leaders of the community made a solemn pledge to them.
 
Three days after the Israelites made a treaty with the Gibeonites, the Israelites heard that they were actually their neighbors and were living among them. So on the third day the Israelites marched out and came to their cities: Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath-jearim. But the Israelites didn’t strike at them. This was because the leaders of the community had made a solemn pledge to them by the Lord, the God of Israel. The entire community grumbled against the leaders. Then all the leaders said to the whole community, “We have made a solemn pledge to them by the Lord, the God of Israel. So we can’t touch them now. This is what we’ll do with them. We’ll let them live so that wrath won’t come down on us because of the solemn pledge that we made to them.” The leaders went on to say to them, “Let them live.” So they became woodcutters and water haulers for the whole community, exactly as the leaders had intended for them.
 
Joshua called for the Gibeonites and spoke to them: “Why have you deceived us by saying, ‘We live very far away from you,’ when actually you live among us? So now you are cursed. Some of you will always serve as woodcutters and water haulers for my God’s house.”
 
They answered Joshua, “Your servants had been told that the Lord your God had commanded his servant Moses to give you the entire land and to wipe out all its population on your account. So we feared for our very lives because of you and did this thing. Now, here we are in your power. Do to us whatever seems good and proper to you.” So Joshua treated them in this way. He spared them from the power of the Israelites, and they didn’t kill them.
 
Silence may be kept.

New Testament reading
Luke 11:29-36

When the crowds grew, Jesus said, “This generation is an evil generation. It looks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except Jonah’s sign. Just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so the Human One will be a sign to this generation. The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the people of this generation and condemn them, because she came from a distant land to hear Solomon’s wisdom. And look, someone greater than Solomon is here. The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they changed their hearts and lives in response to Jonah’s preaching—and one greater than Jonah is here.
 
“People don’t light a lamp and then put it in a closet or under a basket. Rather, they place the lamp on a lampstand so that those who enter the house can see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light. But when your eye is bad, your whole body is full of darkness. Therefore, see to it that the light in you isn’t darkness. If your whole body is full of light—with no part darkened—then it will be as full of light as when a lamp shines brightly on you.”
 
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:
 
Political leaders and the armed forces
Peace and justice in the world
Those who work for reconciliation
All whose lives are devastated by war and civil strife
Prisoners, refugees and homeless people
 
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 and everlasting God,
you have given us your servants grace,
by the confession of a true faith,
to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity
and in the power of the divine majesty to worship the Unity:
keep us steadfast in this faith,
that we may evermore be defended from all adversities;
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.