Wednesday morning February 28

Thursday morning
Tuesday morning

Preparation

Opening response

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

Hear our voice, Lord, according to your faithful love,
according to your judgment give us life.

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 curséd 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, 
I all to thee resign: 
Gracious Redeemer, take, oh, take, 
And seal me ever thine!

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 35

Refrain: 
Establish justice for me according to your righteousness, Lord, my God. 

Lord, argue with those who argue with me;
    fight with those who fight against me!
Grab a shield and armor;
    stand up and help me!
Use your spear and ax
    against those who are out to get me!
    Say to me: “I’m your salvation!”
Let those who want me dead
    be humiliated and put to shame.
Let those who intend to hurt me
    be thoroughly frustrated and disgraced.
Let them be like dust on the wind—
    and let the Lord’s messenger be the one who does the blowing!
Let their path be dark and slippery—
    and let the Lord’s messenger be the one who does the chasing!
Because they hid their net for me for no reason,
    they dug a pit for me for no reason.
Let disaster come to them when they don’t suspect it.
    Let the net they hid catch them instead!
    Let them fall into it—to their disaster!

But I will rejoice in the Lord;
    I will celebrate his salvation.
All my bones will say, “Lord, who could compare to you?
    You rescue the weak from those who overpower them;
        you rescue the weak and the needy from those who plunder them.”

Violent witnesses stand up.
    They question me about things I know nothing about.
They pay me back evil for good,
    leaving me stricken with grief.
But when they were sick, I wore clothes for grieving,
    and I kept a strict fast.
When my prayer came back unanswered,
I would wander around like I was grieving a friend or a brother.
    I was weighed down, sad, like I was a mother in mourning.
But when I stumbled, they celebrated and gathered together—
    they gathered together against me!
    Strangers I didn’t know tore me to pieces and wouldn’t quit.
They ridiculed me over and over again,
    like godless people would do,
    grinding their teeth at me.

How long, my Lord, will you watch this happen?
    Rescue me from their attacks;
    rescue my precious life from these predatory lions!
Then I will thank you in the great assembly;
    I will praise you in a huge crowd of people.
Don’t let those who are my enemies
    without cause celebrate over me;
    don’t let those who hate me for no reason
        wink at my demise.
They don’t speak the truth;
    instead, they plot false accusations
    against innocent people in the land.
They speak out against me,
    saying, “Yes! Oh, yes! We’ve seen it with our own eyes!”

But you’ve seen it too, Lord.
    Don’t keep quiet about it.
    Please don’t be far from me, my Lord.
Wake up! Get up and do justice for me;
    argue my case, my Lord and my God!
Establish justice for me
    according to your righteousness, Lord, my God.
Don’t let them celebrate over me.
    Don’t let them say to themselves,
    Yes! Exactly what we wanted!
    Don’t let them say, “We ate him up!”
Let all those who celebrate my misfortune be disgraced and put to shame!
Let those who exalt themselves over me
        be dressed up in shame and dishonor!
But let those who want things to be set right for me
        shout for joy and celebrate!
    Let them constantly say, “The Lord is great—
        God wants his servant to be at peace.”
Then my tongue will talk
        all about your righteousness;
    it will talk
        about your praise all day long.

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: 
Establish justice for me according to your righteousness, Lord, my God. 

Psalm prayer

Free us, righteous God, from all oppression,
and bring justice to the nations,
that all the world may know you
as King of kings and Lord of lords,
now and forever.

Old Testament reading
Genesis 44:18-34

Judah approached him and said, “Please, my master, allow your servant to say something to my master without getting angry with your servant since you are like Pharaoh himself. My master asked his servants, ‘Do you have a father or brother?’ And we said to my master, ‘Yes, we have an elderly father and a young brother, born when he was old. His brother is dead and he’s his mother’s only child. But his father loves him.’ You told your servants, ‘Bring him down to me so I can see him.’ And we said to my master, ‘The young man can’t leave his father. If he leaves, his father will die.’ You said to your servants, ‘If your youngest brother doesn’t come down with you, you’ll never see my face again.’

“When we went back to my father your servant, we told him what you said. Our father told us, ‘Go back and buy for us a little food.’ But we said, ‘We can’t go down. We will go down only if our youngest brother is with us. We won’t be able to gain an audience with the man without our youngest brother with us.’ Your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife gave birth to two sons for me. One disappeared and I said, “He must have been torn up by a wild animal,” and I haven’t seen him since. And if you take this one from me too, something terrible will happen to him, and you will send me—old as I am—to my grave in despair.’ When I now go back to your servant my father without the young man—whose life is so bound up with his— and when he sees that the young man isn’t with us, he will die, and your servants will have sent our father your servant—old as he is—to his grave in grief. I, your servant, guaranteed the young man’s safety to my father, telling him, ‘If I don’t bring him back to you, it will be my fault forever.’ Now, please let your servant stay as your slave instead of the young man so that he can go back with his brothers. How can I go back to my father without the young man? I couldn’t bear to see how badly my father would be hurt.”

Silence may be kept.

New Testament reading
Hebrews 2:10-18

It was appropriate for God, for whom and through whom everything exists, to use experiences of suffering to make perfect the pioneer of salvation. This salvation belongs to many sons and daughters whom he’s leading to glory. This is because the one who makes people holy and the people who are being made holy all come from one source. That is why Jesus isn’t ashamed to call them brothers and sisters when he says,

I will publicly announce your name to my brothers and sisters.
        I will praise you in the middle of the assembly.

He also says,

I will rely on him.

And also,

Here I am with the children whom God has given to me.

Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he also shared the same things in the same way. He did this to destroy the one who holds the power over death—the devil—by dying. He set free those who were held in slavery their entire lives by their fear of death. Of course, he isn’t trying to help angels, but rather he’s helping Abraham’s descendants. Therefore, he had to be made like his brothers and sisters in every way. This was so that he could become a merciful and faithful high priest in things relating to God, in order to wipe away the sins of the people. He’s able to help those who are being tempted, since he himself experienced suffering when he was tempted.

Silence may be kept.

Gospel canticle
The Benedictus (The Song of Zechariah)

Refrain: 
Happy are people who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness, because they will be fed until they are full.

Bless the Lord God of Israel
because he has come to help and has delivered his people.
He has raised up a mighty savior for us in his servant David’s house,
just as he said through the mouths of his holy prophets long ago.
He has brought salvation from our enemies
and from the power of all those who hate us.
He has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors,
and remembered his holy covenant,
the solemn pledge he made to our ancestor Abraham.
He has granted that we would be rescued
from the power of our enemies
so that we could serve him without fear,
in holiness and righteousness in God’s eyes,
for as long as we live.
You, child, will be called a prophet of the Most High,
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way.
You will tell his people how to be saved
through the forgiveness of their sins.
Because of our God’s deep compassion,
the dawn from heaven will break upon us,
to give light to those who are sitting in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide us on the path of peace.”

Luke 1:68-79

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: 
Happy are people who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness, because they will be fed until they are full.

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

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,
you show to those who are in error the light of your truth,
that they may return to the way of righteousness:
grant to all those who are admitted
      into the fellowship of Christ's religion,
that they may reject those things
      that are contrary to their profession,
and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same;
through our Lord Jesus Christ,
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 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

May God our Redeemer show us compassion and love.
Amen.