Good evening, I'm Jika and this is Daily Office Evening Prayer, right too. If you hear some wildlife of the insect variety in the background, it's because I'm blessed this evening to be able to hang out on the Black Rock now and say my evening prayer. Well, Jack is at his crew camp, so or not crew camp, but growing practice rather than a crew camp this summer and this is the first week of growing. So he's on the JV team kind of allowed to bump up with the older kids because he did the two crew camp sessions this summer, so he's got a little bit of knowledge under his belt, but it's pretty freaking awesome.
The Shell House, or one of them, they built a larger one, but there is a Shell House here that was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and so it's pretty neat. So I've been sitting here by the water and I have beautiful sights with architecture and natural and we get to say Daily Office Evening Prayer together, so I think that's pretty awesome. I hope that you all are doing well because you make your transition into the fall season. Fall is my favorite season, so forgive me if I'm a little extra exuberant.
So this is the Friday of Proper 17. Our readings today are Psalm 35, Job 19, 1 through 7, and 14 through 27, Acts 13, 13 through 25, and John 9, 18 through 41. We will begin on page 115 of the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. Let my prayer be set forth in your sight as incense.
The lifting up of my hands is the evening sacrifice. To your friends in Christ, here in the presence of Almighty God, let us kneel in silence and with penitent and obedient hearts confess our sins so that we may have teeth forgiven us by His infinite goodness and mercy. Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you and thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart.
We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry when we humbly repent. For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us, that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways to the glory of your name. Amen.
Almighty God, have mercy on us, forgive us all our sins through our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen us in all goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, keep us in eternal life. Amen. Oh God, make speed to save us. Oh Lord, make haste to help us.
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. Alleluia. O gracious light, pure brightness of the ever-living Father in heaven.
O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed. Now as we come to the setting of the Son, and our eyes behold of us for light, we sing your praises, O God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you are worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices. O Son of God, O giver of life, and to be glorified through all the worlds.
Lord, excuse me, I almost forgot to read our Psalm. Psalm 35. Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me, fight against those who fight against me. Take hold of shield and buckler, and rise up to help me.
Draw the Spirit and javelin against my pursuers. Say to my soul, I am your salvation. Let them be put to shame and dishonor who seek after my life. Let them be turned back and confounded through the vise-evil against me.
Let them be like chaff before the wind, with the angel of the Lord driving them on. Let their way be dark and slippery, with the angel of the Lord pursuing them, for without cause they hid their not for me, without cause they dug a pit for my life. Let ruin come on them on the wares, and let the nut that they hid and snare them. Let them fall in it to their ruin.
Then my soul shall rejoice in the Lord, exulting in his deliverance. All my bones shall say, who Lord is like you. They deliver the weak from those too strong for them, the weak and needy from those who disboiled them. Malicious witnesses rise up.
They ask me about things I do not know. They repay me good for evil. My soul is forlorn. But as for me, when they were sick, I wore sackcloth.
I afflicted myself with fasting. I prayed with head bowed on my bosom, as though I grieved for a friend or a brother. I went about as one who laments for a mother, bowed down and in mourning. But at my stumbling, they gathered in glee.
They gathered together against me. The ruffians who I did not know tore at me without ceasing. They impiously mocked more and more, gnashing at me with their teeth. Oh, how long, O Lord, will you look on?
Rescue me from their ravages, my life from the lions. Then I will thank you in the great congregation. In the mighty throng I will praise you. Do not let my treacherous enemies rejoice over me, or those who hate me without cause wink the eye, for they do not speak peace, but they conceive deceitful words against those who are quiet in the land.
They open wide their mouths against me. They say, aha, aha, our eyes have seen it. You have seen, O Lord, do not be silent. O Lord, do not be far from me.
Wake up, is stir yourself for my defense, and for my cause, my God and my Lord. Vindicate me, O Lord, my God, according to your righteousness. And do not let them rejoice over me. Do not let them say to themselves, aha, we have our hearts desired.
Do not let them say, we have swallowed you up. Let all those who rejoice at my calamity be put to shame and confusion. Let those who exalt themselves against me be clothed with shame and dishonor. Those who desire my vindication shout for joy and be glad.
And say evermore, great is the Lord, who delights in the welfare of his servant. Then my tongue shall tell of your righteousness and of 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.
Job 19, 1 through 7, and 14 through 27. How long will you torment me and break me in pieces with words? These ten times you have cast reproached upon me. Are you not ashamed to wrong me?
And even if it is true that I have erred, my error remains with me. If indeed you magnify yourselves against me and make my humiliation an argument against me. Know then that God has put me in the wrong and closed his nut around me. Even when I cry out violence, I am not answered.
I call aloud, but there is no justice. My relatives and my close friends have failed me. The guests in my house have forgotten me. My serving girls count me as a stranger.
I have become an alien in their eyes. I call to my servant that he gives me no answer. I must myself plead with him. My breath is repulsive to my family.
I am loathsome to my own family. Even young children despise me. When I rise they talk against me. All my intimate friends abhor me.
And those whom I love have turned against me. My bones cling to my skin and to my flesh. And I have escaped by the skin of my teeth. Have pity on me.
Have pity on me, O you, my friends. For the hand of God has touched me. Why do you, like God, pursue me, never satisfied with my flesh? Oh, that my words were written down.
Oh, that they were inscribed in a book. Oh, that with an iron pen and with a lead, they were engraved on a rock forever. For I know that my redeemer lives. And at the last, and that at the last, he will stand upon the earth.
And after my skin has been thus destroyed. Then in my flesh I shall see God. Whom I shall see on my side. And my eyes shall behold and not in other.
My heart thinks within me. If you say, how will we persecute him? And the root of the matter is found in him. Be afraid of the sword.
For wrath brings the punishment of the sword. So that you may know there is a judgment. The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
We'll be using Cancical 13 as our first Cancical this evening. It's on page 90. Glory to you, Lord God of our fathers. You are worthy of praise.
Glory to you. Glory to you for the radiance of your holy name. We will praise you and highly exalt you forever. Glory to you in the splendor of your temple.
On the throne of your majesty, glory to you. Glory to you seated between the cherubim. We will praise you and highly exalt you forever. Glory to you, beholding the depths.
In the high vault of heaven, glory to you. Glory to you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We will praise you and highly exalt you forever. Acts 13 verses 13 through 25.
Then Paul and his companions set sail from Pafos and came to Perga in Pamphilia. John, however, left them and returned to Jerusalem. But they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. And on the Sabbath day, they went into the synagogue and sat down.
After the reading of the law and the prophets, the officials of the synagogue sent them a message, saying, brothers, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, give it. So Paul stood up and with a gesture began to speak. New Israelites and others who fear God, listen. The God of this people Israel chose our ancestors and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt.
And with and with uplifted arm, he led them out of it. For about 40 years, he put up with them in the wilderness. After he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance. For about 450 years.
After that, he gave them judges until the time of the prophet Samuel. Then they asked for a king. And God gave them Saul, son of Kish, and he had removed him. When he had removed him, he made David their king.
In his testimony about him, he said, I have found David, son of Jesse, to be a man after my heart, who will carry out all my wishes. Of this man's posterity, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised. Before his coming, John had already proclaimed baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. The word of the Lord, thanks be to God.
Our second tentacle is the Magnificat, found on page 119 of the Book of Common Prayer. My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God my Savior. For he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day, all generations will call me blessed. The Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation. He has shown the strength of his arm.
He has scattered the crowd in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent to my empty. He has come to the help of his servant Israel, for he has remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children forever.
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. Our Gospel reading is John chapter nine, verse 18 through 41. The holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to John.
Glory to you, Lord Christ. The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them. Is this your son who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?
His parents answered, we know that this is our son and that he was born blind, but we do not know how it is that he now sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him, he is of age, he will speak for himself. His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews. For the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue.
Therefore, his parents said he is of age, ask him. So for the second time, they called the man who had been blind and they said to him, give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner. He answered, I do not know whether he is a sinner.
One thing, I do know. That though I was blind, now I see. They said to him, what did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?
He answered them, I have told you already and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples? Then they reviled him saying, you are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.
We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from. The man answered, here is an astonishing thing. You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will.
Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. They answered him, you were born entirely in sins, and you and are you trying to teach us? And they drove him out.
Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found them, he said, do you believe in the Son of Man? He answered, and who is he, sir? Tell me so that I may believe in him. Jesus said, you have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.
He said, Lord, I believe, and he worships him. Jesus said, I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind. Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, surely we are not blind, are we? Jesus said to them, if you were blind, you would not have sin.
But now that you say we see, your sin remains. The Gospel of the Lord, praise to you, Lord Christ. We continue with the Apostles' Creed on page 120 of the Book of Common Prayer. 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 power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, his 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.
The Lord be with you, and also with you. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done.
On earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Save us from the time of trial, and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever. Amen. We will use suffragists at B on page 122. That this evening may be wholly good and peaceful.
We entreat you, O Lord, that your holy angels may lead us in paths of peace and good will. We entreat you, O Lord, that we may be pardoned and forgiven for our sins and offenses. We entreat you, O Lord. That there may be peace to your church and to the whole world.
We entreat you, O Lord, that we may depart this life in your faith and fear, and not be condemned before the great judgment seat of Christ. We entreat you, O Lord, that we may be bound together by your Holy Spirit in the communion of all your saints, in trusting one another and all our life to Christ. We entreat you, O Lord. Lord Jesus Christ, by your death, you took away the sting of death.
Grant to us your servants, so to follow in faith where you have led the way, that we may at length fall asleep peacefully in you, and wake up in your likeness for your tender mercy, sake, amen. Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work or watch or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Ten the sick Lord Christ, give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous, and all for your love, sake, amen. And now is the time where we have a few thoughts and we say some personal prayers.
So what stands out to me from our first two readings, the song and the Old Testament are two things. Well, actually, throughout all the readings, let's just kind of be a little general about it tonight, but two things. One, the importance of voice. So both voice lifted up in prayer and then also voice lifted up to speak truth into the world.
I think would be the right way to say it. That's particularly important right now. There's a lot of dissenting voices in our world today, and if you guys are watching the news, there's a lot about the book and the op-ed piece that just came out, and then the following aftermath of attempt to either discredit, and actually I haven't seen as much of that because I thought I would on the op-ed piece. I haven't seen as much of that trying to be discredited as I've heard about trying to figure out who the anonymous source is.
So this is a time when our words are really important, when our voices matter, and we need to stand up and make them heard. But first we have to discern when and what. So when the right time to speak up is and what it is that we say, and I don't know your particular situation, I don't know your particular passions, I don't know what God has entrusted you with in the world. And your part is partnership of the Universal Christ Project is the way some folks would say it.
And I think that that phrase works as well as any for expressing what we're all trying to do here together to continue to evolve humanity into its best self. So I'm gonna leave that bit kind of there, and then there's another bit that I wanna talk about, and that is the recurring theme through our readings today, both describing the existence of a belief system where it was thought that trial meant punishment for sin. So in the case of Job, and in the case of the blind man, the folks in their communities, that these terrible things that happened to them are in the case of the blind man, the disability that he was born with were the result of sin, either the sin of self or the parents sin. And Jesus dispels that.
He talks about suffering and trial as something that guides us through, that he can lift in his timing, that has a purpose. And I think that's so relevant to us today. I still find that in our Christian community, we are, I am for sure inclined to believe that somehow we got ourselves into this bad place, even when the trial's not of our own making. And I was speaking with someone else about that earlier today, you know, that there's a couple sharp edges, well, there's a bajillion right?
Sharp edges to abuse, right? And victims, they carry that forward, so they kind of have a warplend, and I'm one of them, most of you know that. So I can speak to this personally, I guess. There's a tendency to view the world through warplend, and I've lived and still occasionally take day trips back to both of these places, where either it's a kind of despair, I think, that somehow I was made to be a victim, and that God's purpose for me, and woe is me, and everybody's beating up on me, and there's nothing I can do about it.
Or what we're kind of talking about in the readings here, this belief that somehow I brought it upon myself, now don't get me wrong. There are definitely times when the trial that I'm going through is consequence for my action. And that I think we need to own, but own in a way that we derive the lesson or the blessing, make the amends where and if we can, and move on better people for having allowed God to walk us through the healing process, even when the trial that we're in is of our own making, is a consequence of a poor choice that we made, or et cetera, et cetera. But I think it's really, really important to note that not all trials have a root and sin, especially the sin of the parent.
So that's my piece on that. The general thanksgiving will stay together can be found on page 125. Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we are unworthy servants to give you humble thanks for all your goodness and loving kindness to us and to all whom you have made. We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life, but above all for your immeasurable love and the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, the means of grace and for the hope of glory.
And we pray, give us such an awareness of your mercies, that with truly thankful hearts and may show forth your praise, not only with our lips but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to your service and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with you in the Holy Spirit, the honor and glory throughout all ages. Amen. Almighty God, you have given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplication to you, and you have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his name, you will be in the midst of them. For fill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions is may be best for us, granting us in this world knowledge of your truth, and in the age to come life everlasting.
Amen. Let us bless the Lord. Thanks be to God. Glory to God who's power working in us and do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.
Glory to him from generation to generation in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever. Amen.