❖ Confession of Sin

O Father, receive again the thing which you have created.

O Son, receive the thing which you have governed.

O Holy Spirit, fetch the thing which you so bountifully have preserved.

Three persons and one very God, I entreat you: remember not my offenses forever.

For I cry, Lord God and Father, mercy.

Lord God Son, mercy.

Lord God Holy Spirit, mercy. Amen.

[Martin Luther]

❖ Reading of the Law

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

You shall have no other gods before me.

You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

You shall not murder.

You shall not commit adultery.

You shall not steal.

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.

[Exodus 20:1–17]

❖ Adoration

Be joyful in the Lord, all you lands. Serve the Lord with gladness, and come before his presence with a song. Be sure that the Lord is God. It is he that made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. O go your way into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise. Be thankful to him, and speak good of his name. For the Lord is gracious, his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endures from generation to generation. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

[Book of Common Prayer]

❖ Call to Worship

Let the peoples praise you, O God;

let all the peoples praise you!

Let the nations be glad and sing for joy,

for you judge the peoples with equity

and guide the nations upon earth. Selah.

Let the peoples praise you, O God;

let all the peoples praise you!

[Psalm 67:3–5]

❖ Praise

Glory be to God the Father;

Glory be to God the Son;

Glory be to God the Spirit, ever three and ever one:

As it was in the beginning, now and evermore shall be.

[Gloria Patri]

❖ Athanasian Creed, Part 3

Whoever desires to be saved should above all hold to the catholic faith. Anyone who does not keep it whole and unbroken will doubtless perish eternally. Now this is the catholic faith:

that we worship one God in Trinity and the Trinity in unity, neither confounding their persons nor dividing the essence…

But it is necessary for eternal salvation that one also believe in the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ faithfully.

Now this is the true faith:

that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Son,

is both God and man, equally.

He is God from the essence of the Father, begotten before time;

and he is man from the essence of his mother, born in time;

completely God, completely man, with a rational soul and human flesh;

equal to the Father as regards divinity,

less than the Father as regards humanity.

Although he is God and man, yet Christ is not two, but one.

He is one, however, not by his divinity being turned into flesh,

but by God’s taking humanity to himself.

He is one, certainly not by the blending of his essence,

but by the unity of his person.

For just as one man is both rational soul and flesh,

so too the one Christ is both God and man.

He suffered for our salvation;

he descended to hell;

he arose from the dead on the third day;

he ascended to heaven;

he is seated at the Father’s right hand;

from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

At his coming all people will arise bodily and give an accounting of their own deeds.

Those who have done good will enter eternal life,

and those who have done evil will enter eternal fire.

This is the catholic faith: that one cannot be saved without believing it firmly and faithfully.

❖ Assurance of Pardon

Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion;

shout, O Israel!

Rejoice and exult with all your heart,

O daughter of Jerusalem!

The Lord has taken away the judgments against you;

he has cleared away your enemies.

The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;

you shall never again fear evil.

[Zephaniah 3:14–15]

❖ Confession of Sin

O Lord, our heavenly Father, seeing you are our Maker, and we are the workmanship of your hands; seeing you are our Pastor, and we your flock; seeing also that you are our Redeemer, and we are the people whom you have bought; finally, because you are our God, and we are your chosen inheritance—let not your anger be kindled against us, that you should punish us in your wrath, neither remember our wickedness so as to take vengeance for it, but rather chastise us according to your mercy. We confess, O Lord, that our misdeeds have inflamed your wrath against us, yet considering that by your grace we call upon your name, and make profession of your truth—maintain, we ask you, the work that you have begun in us, to the end that all the world may know that you are our God and Savior. You know that those you have destroyed and brought to confusion, do not set forth your praises, but the heavy souls, the humble hearts, the consciences oppressed and laden with the grievous burden of their sins, and therefore thirst after your grace, they shall set forth your praise and glory. Amen.

[Middleburg Liturgy]

❖ Reading of the Law

Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. . . . You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. . . . Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. . . . Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. . . . So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

[Matthew 5:20, 48; 6:1, 33; 7:12]

❖ Adoration

If you had not been my shield and defense, innumerable evils would have surrounded me and danger would have overcome me, that I could not have left my bed and risen in health—therefore it becomes me to praise my God. Early do I seek you, and in the morning shall my prayer ascend unto you, that you would this day preserve me and all mine, from the devices and power of the devil, from sin and shame, and from all evil. Amen.

[Johann Habermann]

❖ Call to Worship

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

[Colossians 1:13–14]

❖ Lord’s Prayer

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name;

your kingdom come;

your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.

Amen.

❖ Prayer of Intercession

Almighty God, whose creation, and the work of whose hands we are—grant us to know that we exist and move in you alone, so that we may submit ourselves unto you, not merely being directed by your secret providence, but showing ourselves your willing and obedient followers, as it becomes sons. Thus may we endeavor to glorify your name in this world, till we arrive at the enjoyment of that blessed heritage which is laid up for us in heaven, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

[John Calvin]

❖ Scripture Reading

• Exodus 9

• Luke 12

• Job 27

• 1 Corinthians 13

❖ Prayer for Illumination

Divine Spirit, illumine to me the words of the Lord.

Show me the wealth of glory that lies beneath the old familiar stories.

Teach me the depths of meaning hidden in the songs of Zion.

Raise me to the heights of aspiration that is reached by the wings of the prophet.

Lift me to the summit of faith that is trod by the feet of the apostle.

Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. Amen.

[George Matheson]