Lent Midweek 5 The Afflicted Penitent Hopes in the Eternal Lord March 19, 2015 HYMN Glory Be to Jesus 1 Glory be to Jesus, Who in bitter pains Poured for me the lifeblood From His sacred veins! 2 Grace and life eternal In that blood I find; Blest be His compassion, Infinitely kind! 3 Blest through endless ages Be the precious stream Which from endless torment Did the world redeem! 4 Abel s blood for vengeance Pleaded to the skies; But the blood of Jesus For our pardon cries. 5 Oft as earth exulting Wafts its praise on high, Angel hosts rejoicing Make their glad reply. 6 Lift we, then, our voices, Swell the mighty flood; Louder still and louder Praise the precious blood! INVOCATION Text (sts. 1 6) and Music: Public domain P: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. OPENING SENTENCES P: Even when we were dead in our trespasses, C: God made us alive together with Christ. P: By grace you have been saved through faith.
C: It is the gift of God. P: Jesus said, I came not to save the righteous, C: but sinners. P: Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, C: whose sin is covered. P: Let us then in penitence confess our sin in the presence of God and of one another. CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION (Silence for reflection and self-examination.) P: Beloved in the Lord! Let us draw near with a true heart and confess our sins unto God our Father, beseeching Him in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to grant us forgiveness. P: Our help is in the name of the Lord, C: who made heaven and earth. P: I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, C: and You forgave the iniquity of my sin. P: O almighty God, merciful Father, C: I, a poor, miserable sinner, confess unto You all my sins and iniquities with which I have ever offended You and justly deserved Your temporal and eternal punishment. But I am heartily sorry for them and sincerely repent of them, and I pray You of Your boundless mercy and for the sake of the holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death of Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to be gracious and merciful to me, a poor, sinful being. P: Upon this your confession, I, by virtue of my office, as a called and ordained servant of the Word, announce the grace of God unto all of you, and in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. HYMN Lamb of God Pure and Holy Lamb of God, pure and holy, Who on the cross didst suffer, Ever patient and lowly, Thyself to scorn didst offer. All sins Thou borest for us, Else had despair reigned o er us: Have mercy on us, O Jesus! O Jesus! Text and Music: Public domain 2
SALUTATION P: The Lord be with you. C: And also with you. PRAYER FROM SUNDAY P: Let us pray. Almighty God, our heavenly Father, Your mercies are new every morning; and though we deserve only punishment, You receive us as Your children and provide for all our needs of body and soul. C: Grant that we may heartily acknowledge Your merciful goodness, give thanks for all Your benefits, and serve You in willing obedience; P: through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. PRAYER FOR TODAY P: O Lord God, You call Your people to an eternal hope and a sure confidence that never fails. C: Grant that we may pass this season of prayer and penitence assured of the presence of the Holy Spirit to sustain us and support us, so that we may with pure hearts and purified lives reach the joys awaiting us in the fullness of Your kingdom; P: through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. FIRST READING Isaiah 55:6 13 P: Seek the LORD while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that He may have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, declares the LORD. Lector: For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes out from My mouth; C: it shall not return to Me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. P: For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; 3
Lector: the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; C: and it shall make a name for the LORD, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. Lector: O Lord, have mercy on us. C: Thanks be to God. SECOND READING 1 Peter 1:10 13 Lector: O Lord, have mercy on us. C: Thanks be to God. THIRD READING Luke 15:8 10 P: O Lord, have mercy on us. C: Thanks be to God. HYMN Jesus, Refuge of the Weary (Interspersed with readings from Psalm 102) Lector: Hear my prayer, O LORD; let my cry come to You! C: (spoken) Do not hide Your face from me in the day of my distress! Incline Your ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I call! Lector: For my days pass away like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace. My heart is struck down like grass and has withered; I forget to eat my bread. Because of my loud groaning my bones cling to my flesh. I am like a desert owl of the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places; I lie awake; I am like a lonely sparrow on the housetop. C: Jesus, refuge of the weary, Blest Redeemer, whom we love, Fountain in life s desert dreary, Savior from the world above: Often have Your eyes, offended, Gazed upon the sinner s fall; Yet upon the cross extended, You have borne the pain of all. Lector: All the day my enemies taunt me; those who deride me use my name for a curse. For I eat ashes like bread and mingle tears with my drink, because of Your 4
indignation and anger; for You have taken me up and thrown me down. My days are like an evening shadow; I wither away like grass. C: (spoken) But You, O LORD, are enthroned forever; You are remembered throughout all generations. Lector: You will arise and have pity on Zion; it is the time to favor her; the appointed time has come. For Your servants hold her stones dear and have pity on her dust. Nations will fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth will fear Your glory. For the LORD builds up Zion; He appears in His glory; He regards the prayer of the destitute and does not despise their prayer. C: Do we pass that cross unheeding, Breathing no repentant vow, Though we see You wounded, bleeding, See Your thorn-encircled brow? Yet Your sinless death has brought us Life eternal, peace, and rest; Only what Your grace has taught us Calms the sinner s deep distress. Lector: Let this be recorded for a generation to come, so that a people yet to be created may praise the LORD: that He looked down from His holy height; from heaven the LORD looked at the earth, to hear the groans of the prisoners, to set free those who were doomed to die, that they may declare in Zion the name of the LORD, and in Jerusalem His praise, when peoples gather together, and kingdoms, to worship the LORD. C: (spoken) He has broken my strength in midcourse; He has shortened my days. O my God, I say, take me not away in the midst of my days You whose years endure throughout all generations! Lector: Of old You laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but You will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but You are the same, and Your years have no end. The children of Your servants shall dwell secure; their offspring shall be established before You. SERMON C: Jesus, may our hearts be burning With more fervent love for You; May our eyes be ever turning To behold Your cross anew Till in glory, parted never From the blessed Savior s side, Graven in our hearts forever, Dwell the cross, the Crucified. Hymn text: Girolamo Savonarola, 1452 98; tr. Jane F. Wilde, 1826 96, alt. Public domain. 5
OFFERING PASSION READING Mark 14:1 11 Lector: It was now two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill Him, for they said, Men: Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar from the people. Lector: And while He was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as He was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over His head. There were some who said to themselves indignantly, Women: Why was the ointment wasted like that? For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor. Lector: And they scolded her. But Jesus said, P: Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to Me. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have Me. She has done what she could; she has anointed My body beforehand for burial. And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her. Lector: Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray Him to them. And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money. And he sought an opportunity to betray Him. PRAYERS P: Let us pray to the Lord. C: Lord, have mercy. P: These and any other things You would have us ask of You, heavenly Father, grant to us for the sake of the suffering, death, and resurrection of Your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. THE LORD S PRAYER WORDS OF INSTITUTION DISTRIBUTION HYMN Christ, the Life of All the Living 1 Christ, the life of all the living, Christ, the death of death, our foe, Who, Thyself for me once giving To the darkest depths of woe: Through Thy suff rings, death, and merit 6
I eternal life inherit. 2 Thou, ah! Thou, hast taken on Thee Bonds and stripes, a cruel rod; Pain and scorn were heaped upon Thee, O Thou sinless Son of God! Thus didst Thou my soul deliver From the bonds of sin forever. 3 Thou hast borne the smiting only That my wounds might all be whole; Thou hast suffered, sad and lonely, Rest to give my weary soul; Yea, the curse of God enduring, Blessing unto me securing. 4 Heartless scoffers did surround Thee, Treating Thee with shameful scorn And with piercing thorns they crowned Thee. All disgrace Thou, Lord, hast borne, That as Thine Thou mightest own me And with heav nly glory crown me. 5 Thou hast suffered men to bruise Thee, That from pain I might be free; Falsely did Thy foes accuse Thee: Thence I gain security; Comfortless Thy soul did languish Me to comfort in my anguish. 6 Thou hast suffered great affliction And hast borne it patiently, Even death by crucifixion, Fully to atone for me; Thou didst choose to be tormented 7
That my doom should be prevented. 7 Then, for all that wrought my pardon, For Thy sorrows deep and sore, For Thine anguish in the Garden, I will thank Thee evermore, Thank Thee for Thy groaning, sighing, For Thy bleeding and Thy dying, For that last triumphant cry, And shall praise Thee, Lord, on high. COLLECT FOR PEACE Text (sts. 1 7) and Music: Public domain P: O God, from whom come all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works, give to us, Your servants, that peace which the world cannot give, that our hearts may be set to obey Your commandments and also that we, being defended from the fear of our enemies, may live in peace and quietness; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. LUTHER S EVENING PRAYER P: Let us pray. C: I thank You, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son, that You have graciously kept me this day; and I pray that You would forgive me all my sins where I have done wrong, and graciously keep me this night. For into Your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me. Amen. BENEDICTION P: God go with you on your penitential journey, before you to prepare a path of service, above you so that you need not fear, and within you to move you to love and good works, and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit be with you now and forever. HYMN Sing, My Tongue, the Glorious Battle... LSB 454 vs. 1-3 1 Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle; Sing the ending of the fray. 8
Now above the cross, the trophy, Sound the loud triumphant lay; Tell how Christ, the world s redeemer, As a victim won the day. 2 Tell how, when at length the fullness Of the_appointed time was come, He, the Word, was born of woman, Left for us His Father s home, Blazed the path of true obedience, Shone as light amidst the gloom. 3 Thus, with thirty years accomplished, He went forth from Nazareth, Destined, dedicated, willing, Did His work, and met His death; Like a lamb He humbly yielded On the cross His dying breath. Text: Public domain Creative Worship for the Lutheran Parish, Series B, Part 2. Copyright 2014 Concordia Publishing House. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. 9