Good evening friends, today is Friday, January 31st, 2020. Our readings for today, and since we didn't do morning prayer together this morning, I'm going to do everything all at once. So our readings are Psalm 51, Genesis 17, 15 through 27, Hebrews 10, 11 through 25, and John 6, 1 through 15. Now I might not do any commentary on the readings this evening, we might just read through the prayers and the Scripture.
We'll see how it goes. How about that, folks? Thank you for being here with me tonight. I will bless God, who gives me counsel.
My heart teaches me, night after night. I have set God always before me, because God is at my right hand, I shall not fall. Dear 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 obtain forgiveness by God's 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, and 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 the grace of Jesus Christ, strengthen us in all goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, keep us in eternal life. Amen. Oh, God, makes me to save us, oh, God, make haste to help us, praise to the Holy and undivided Trinity, one God, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
Oh, gracious light, pure brightness of the ever-living Creator in heaven, oh, Jesus Christ, holy and blessed. Now as we come to the setting of the Son, and our eyes behold the best for light, we sing your praises, oh, God, Creator, in carnit and holy spirit, you are worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices, oh, Son of God, oh, giver of life, and to be glorified through all the worlds. Psalm 51, have mercy on me, oh, God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly for my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin, for I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me, against you, you alone have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment. Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me, you desire truth in the inward being, therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart, purge me with his up, and I shall be clean, wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness, with the bones you have crushed for joys, hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities, create in me a clean heart, oh, God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me, restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit, then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from bloodshed, oh, God, oh, God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance, oh, God, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise, for you have no delight in sacrifice, if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased. The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, oh, God, you will not despise.
Do good to Zion in your good pleasure, rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, then you will delight in right sacrifices, and burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings, then bulls will be offered on your altar. Praise to the holy and undivided Trinity, one God, as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever. Amen. A reading from Genesis, chapter 17, verses 15 through 27.
God said to Abraham, as for Sarai, your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her, I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations, kings of people shall come from her, then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, can child be born to a man who is 100 years old, can Sarah, who is 90 years old, and Abraham said to God, oh, that Ishmael might live in your sight. God said no, but your wife, Sarah, shall bear you a son, and you shall name him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.
As for Ishmael, I have heard you. I will bless him and make him fruitful and exceedingly numerous. He shall be the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation, but my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this season next year. And when he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham, then Abraham took his son Ishmael and all the slaves born in his house were bought with his money every male among the men of Abraham's house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskin that buried day.
As God had said to him, Abraham was 99 years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, and his son Ishmael was 13 years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. That buried day, Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised, and all the men of his house slaves born in the house and those bought with money from a foreigner were circumcised with him. Here with the Spirit is saying to God's people, thanks be to God. Can'tacle Q, a song of Christ's goodness.
Jesus is a mother you gather your people to you, you are gentle with us as a mother with her children. Often you weep over our sins in our pride, tenderly you draw us from hatred and judgment. You comfort us in sorrow and bind up our wounds, in sickness you nurse us, and with pure milk you feed us. Jesus, by your dying we are born to new life, by your anguish and labor we come forth and joy.
Despair turns to hope through your sweet goodness, through your gentleness we find comfort in fear. Your warmth gives life to the dead, your touch makes sinners righteous. Lord Jesus in your mercy heal us, in your love and tenderness remake us, and your compassion bring grace and forgiveness, for the beauty of heaven may your love prepare us. Praised to the holy and undivided Trinity, one God, as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever.
A reading from Hebrews chapter 10 verses 11 through 25, and every priest stands day after day at Christ's service offering a gain in the gain the same sacrifices that can never take away sins, but when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and since then has been made waiting, and since then has been waiting until his enemies would be made a footstool for his seat, for by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified, and the Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying, this is the covenant that I will make with them, after those days says God, I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds. He also adds, they also adds. I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more. Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
Therefore my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with a true heart and full assurance of faith with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together as is a habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day approaching. Praised to the Holy and Undivided Trinity, one God, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever.
Here with the Spirit is saying to God's people, Amen. My soul proclaims the greatness of God, my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior. For God has looked with favor on this humble human. From this day all generations will call me blessed.
The Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is their name. They have mercy. They have mercy on those who fear them, in every generation. They have shown the strength of their arm.
They have scattered the proud in their conceit. They have cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly. They have filled the hungry with good things, and the rich they have sent away empty. They have come to the help of their servant Israel.
For they have remembered their promise of mercy, the promise they made to our forebears, to Abraham and Sarah and their children forever. Praise to the holy and undivided Trinity, one God, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen. The holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to John, glory to you, Lord Christ.
John chapter 6 verses 1 through 15. After this, Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberius. A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples.
Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, where are we to buy bread for these people to eat? He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, six months' wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.
One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, there is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they among so many people? Jesus said, make the people sit down. Now, there was a great deal of grass in the place, so they sat down, about 5,000 in all. When Jesus took the loaves and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated, so also the fish, as much as they wanted.
When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, gather up the fragments left over so that nothing may be lost. So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, this is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world. When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
The gospel of our gracious Jesus Christ, praise to you, dear Christ. I believe in God the Creator Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, their only progeny, our God, who was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, who suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified died and was buried, who descended to the dead, who on the third day rose again, who ascended into heaven, who was seated at the right hand of the Creator, who 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 dead, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.
Amen. God be with you, and also with you, let us pray. Our Creator in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your sovereignty 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. Save us from the time of trial, and deliver us from evil. For the sovereignty, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever.
Amen. That this evening may be holy, good, and peaceful, we entreat you, O God, that your holy angels may lead us in paths of peace and goodwill, we entreat you, O God, that we may be pardoned and forgiven for our sins and offenses, we entreat you, O God, that there may be peace to your church and to the whole world, we entreat you, O God, 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 God. That we may be bound together by your Holy Spirit in the communion of St. John, St.
Clair, St. Francis, St. Joan, St. Michael, and all your saints, entrusting one another and all our life to Christ, we entreat you, O God.
Gracious Jesus Christ, by your death you took away the sing 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, O men. Most holy God, the source of all good desires, all right judgments, and all just works, give to us your servants that peace which the world cannot give, so that our minds may be fixed on the doing of your will, and that we, being delivered from the fear of all enemies, may live in peace and quietness, through the mercies of Christ Jesus our Savior, amen. Be our light in the darkness, O God, and in your great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night, for the love of your only Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. O God, the life of all who live, the light of the faithful, the strength of those who labor and the repose of the dead, we thank you for the blessings of the day that has passed, and humbly ask for your protection through the coming night.
Bring us in safety to the morning hours, through the one who died and rose again for us, your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, O men. Gracious Christ, stay with us, for evening is at hand and the day is passed, for your companion in the way, kindle our hearts and awaken hope, that we may know you as your revealed inscripture in the breaking of bread, grant us for the sake of your love, O men. Keep watch, dear God, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep, tend the sick, gracious Christ, give rest to the weary, bless the dying, sue the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous, and all for your love's sake, O men. I think I can sum up everything that I want to say about our readings today, pretty succinctly.
I know, go and laugh, and say for once. I think that our prayer for us today is to see God's grace at work in the world around us, to cooperate with God's love in knowing and loving ourselves and knowing and loving Christ. And these things are inextricably intertwined. And that we may trust in God that when we bring God what we have, our crumbs and our catch, that God takes it and multiplies it until it is abundantly more than is needed.
So I offer to you today, God, all that I am and all that I have, and I know that in and of myself it is not enough, but you will take it, you will take me, and you will make me enough. I am awed by your love, and I choose to cooperate with your love in my transformation, in the transformation of your world, in your community, ever closer to what you created us to be. In the holy name of your Son, Jesus Christ, I pray all this for all of us. I pray your transformation, I pray your multiplication, I pray your abundance, I pray your blessing and I trust in you, God, that you want only good for me, and for all of us, and that you take all things and work them to our good.
I give great thanks, and I rest secure in you. I trust in you. I have peace in knowing that I and my Son rest in your hands, to all of our loved ones as well. Amen.
Almighty God, creator of all mercies, we, your collaborators, your humble co-creators, awed by the gifts and roles that you have given us, we give you our 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, in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, for 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 we 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 God, to whom with you in the Holy Spirit be 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.
Fulfill now, O God, our desires and petitions as 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 God. Thanks be to God.
May the God of hope fill us with all joy and peace and believing through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.