Saturday evening June 30
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
Arise, My Soul, Arise
Charles Wesley
Arise, my soul arise,
Thy Savior’s sacrifice!
All the names that love could find,
All the forms that love could take,
Jesus in himself hath joined,
Thee, my soul, his own to make.
Prophet, to me reveal
Thy Father’s perfect will;
Never mortal spake like thee,
Human Prophet, like divine;
Loud and strong their voices be,
Small, and still, and inward thine!
On thee, my Priest, I call;
Thy blood atoned for all:
Still the Lamb as slain appears,
Still thou standest before the throne,
Ever offering up my prayers,
These presenting with thine own.
Jesus, thou art my King,
From thee my strength I bring;
Shadowed by thy mighty hand,
Savior, who shall pluck me thence?
Faith supports; by faith I stand,
Strong in thy omnipotence.
Hail! everlasting Lord,
Divine, incarnate Word!
Thee let all my powers confess;
Thee my latest breath proclaim;
Help, ye angel choirs to bless,
Shout the loved Emmanuel’s name!
Confession of sin
The Lord is compassionate and merciful,
very patient, and full of faithful love.
He doesn’t deal with us according to our sin
or repay us according to our wrongdoing.
Because as high as heaven is above the earth,
that’s how large God’s faithful love is for those who honor him.
Silence is kept for reflection.
Holy God,
Holy and strong,
Holy and immortal,
have mercy upon us.
As far as east is from west—
that’s how far God has removed our sin from us.
As a father has compassion on his children,
that’s how the Lord feels compassion for those who honor him.
Let my whole being bless the Lord.
Let everything inside me bless his holy name.
Let my whole being bless the Lord,
and never forget all his good deeds.
The Word of God
Psalm 104
Refrain:
I will sing to the Lord as long as I live.
Let my whole being bless the Lord!
Lord my God, how fantastic you are!
You are clothed in glory and grandeur!
You wear light like a robe;
you open the skies like a curtain.
You build your lofty house on the waters;
you make the clouds your chariot,
going around on the wings of the wind.
You make the winds your messengers;
you make fire and flame your ministers.
You established the earth on its foundations
so that it will never ever fall.
You covered it with the watery deep like a piece of clothing;
the waters were higher than the mountains!
But at your rebuke they ran away;
they fled in fear at the sound of your thunder.
They flowed over the mountains,
streaming down the valleys
to the place you established for them.
You set a boundary they cannot cross
so they’ll never again cover the earth.
You put gushing springs into dry riverbeds.
They flow between the mountains,
providing water for every wild animal—
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
Overhead, the birds in the sky make their home,
chirping loudly in the trees.
From your lofty house, you water the mountains.
The earth is filled full by the fruit of what you’ve done.
You make grass grow for cattle;
you make plants for human farming
in order to get food from the ground,
and wine, which cheers people’s hearts,
along with oil, which makes the face shine,
and bread, which sustains the human heart.
The Lord’s trees are well watered—
the cedars of Lebanon, which God planted,
where the birds make their nests,
where the stork has a home in the cypresses.
The high mountains belong to the mountain goats;
the ridges are the refuge of badgers.
God made the moon for the seasons,
and the sun too, which knows when to set.
You bring on the darkness and it is night,
when every forest animal prowls.
The young lions roar for their prey,
seeking their food from God.
When the sun rises, they gather together
and lie down in their dens.
Then people go off to their work,
to do their work until evening.
Lord, you have done so many things!
You made them all so wisely!
The earth is full of your creations!
And then there’s the sea, wide and deep,
with its countless creatures—
living things both small and large.
There go the ships on it,
and Leviathan, which you made, plays in it!
All your creations wait for you
to give them their food on time.
When you give it to them, they gather it up;
when you open your hand, they are filled completely full!
But when you hide your face, they are terrified;
when you take away their breath,
they die and return to dust.
When you let loose your breath, they are created,
and you make the surface of the ground brand-new again.
Let the Lord’s glory last forever!
Let the Lord rejoice in all he has made!
He has only to look at the earth, and it shakes.
God just touches the mountains, and they erupt in smoke.
I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God while I’m still alive.
Let my praise be pleasing to him;
I’m rejoicing in the Lord!
Let sinners be wiped clean from the earth;
let the wicked be no more.
But let my whole being bless the Lord!
Praise the Lord!
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:
I will sing to the Lord as long as I live.
Psalm prayer
Creator God,
send your Holy Spirit to renew this living world,
that the whole creation,
in its groaning and striving,
may know your loving purpose
and come to reflect your glory;
in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Old Testament reading
Nehemiah 9:24-38
So the descendants went in and possessed the land.
Before them, you subdued the Canaanites who inhabited the land.
You also handed over to them their kings and the neighboring peoples,
to do with as they wished.
They captured fortified cities and productive land,
and took possession of houses filled with all kinds of good things:
Excavated cisterns, vineyards, olive orchards, and a great many fruit trees.
They ate until they were satisfied and grew fat,
and delighted themselves in your great goodness.
But they were disobedient, rebelled against you,
and turned their back on your Instruction.
They killed your prophets who had warned them so that they might return to you.
They held you in great contempt.
Therefore, you handed them over to the power of their enemies who made them suffer.
But when they cried out to you in their suffering,
you heard them from heaven.
Because you are merciful,
you gave them saviors who saved them from the power of their enemies.
But after they had rest from this, they again started doing evil against you.
So you gave them over to the power of their enemies who ruled over them.
Yet when they turned and cried to you,
you heard from heaven and rescued them many times because of your great mercy.
You also warned them to return to your Instruction,
but they acted arrogantly and didn’t obey your commands.
They sinned against your judgments,
even though life comes by keeping them.
They turned a stubborn shoulder, became headstrong, and wouldn’t obey.
You were patient with them for many years
and warned them by your spirit through the prophets.
But they wouldn’t listen,
so you handed them over to the neighboring peoples.
In your great mercy, however, you didn’t make an end of them.
Neither did you forsake them, because you are a merciful and compassionate God.
Now, our God, great and mighty and awesome God,
you are the one who faithfully keeps the covenant.
Don’t treat lightly all of the hardship that has come upon us,
upon our kings, our officials, our priests, our prophets, our ancestors, and all your people,
from the time of the kings of Assyria until today.
You have been just in all that has happened to us;
you have acted faithfully, and we have done wrong.
Our kings, our officials, our priests, and our ancestors haven’t kept your Instruction.
They haven’t heeded your commandments and the warnings that you gave them.
Even in their own kingdom, surrounded by the great goodness that you gave to them,
even in the wide and rich land that you gave them,
they didn’t serve you or turn from their wicked works.
So now today we are slaves,
slaves in the land that you gave to our ancestors
to enjoy its fruit and its good gifts.
Its produce profits the kings whom you have placed over us because of our sins.
They have power over our bodies and do as they please with our livestock.
We are in great distress.
Because of all this, we are making a firm agreement in writing, with the names of our officials, our Levites, and our priests on the seal.
Silence may be kept.
New Testament reading
Romans 16:17-27
Brothers and sisters, I urge you to watch out for people who create divisions and problems against the teaching that you learned. Keep away from them. People like that aren’t serving the Lord. They are serving their own feelings. They deceive the hearts of innocent people with smooth talk and flattery. The news of your obedience has reached everybody, so I’m happy for you. But I want you to be wise about what’s good, and innocent about what’s evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Timothy my coworker says hello to you, and Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater, my relatives. I’m Tertius, and I’m writing this letter to you in the Lord—hello! Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church, says hello to you. Erastus the city treasurer says hello to you, along with our brother Quartus.
May the glory be to God who can strengthen you with my good news and the message that I preach about Jesus Christ. He can strengthen you with the announcement of the secret that was kept quiet for a long time. Now that secret is revealed through what the prophets wrote. It is made known to the Gentiles in order to lead to their faithful obedience based on the command of the eternal God. May the glory be to God, who alone is wise! May the glory be to him through Jesus Christ forever! Amen.
Silence may be kept.
Gospel canticle
The Magnificat (The Song of Mary)
Refrain:
You show mercy to everyone, from one generation to the next, who honors you as God.
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:
You show mercy to everyone, from one generation to the next, who honors you as 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,
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:
Our homes, families, friends and all whom we love
Those whose time is spent caring for others
Those who are close to death
Those who have lost hope
The worship of the church
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,
by whose Spirit the whole body of the church
is governed and sanctified:
hear our prayer which we offer for all your faithful people,
that in their vocation and ministry
they may serve you in holiness and truth
to the glory of your name;
through our Lord and Savior 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
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.