Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near.
Isaiah 55.6
Glory to God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit:
as in the beginning, so now, and for ever. Amen.
A poem: The Praise of God’s Servants
Come now, praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord:
you that stand by night in the house of the Lord.
Lift up your hands in the holy place and praise the Lord:
May the Lord bless you from Zion,
the Lord who made heaven and earth.
Psalm 134
The opening prayer
By night and by day we worship the Lord; let us pray with one heart and mind.
We remember God’s presence and pause in silence.
Father of lights, receive the prayer and praise we offer you as our daily sacrifice; make us a light for all the world, delivered by your goodness from all the works of darkness; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. Amen.
The readings
Micah 2.1-5
Alas for those who devise wickedness
and evil deeds on their beds!
When the morning dawns, they perform it,
because it is in their power.
They covet fields, and seize them;
houses, and take them away;
they oppress householder and house,
people and their inheritance.
Therefore, thus says the LORD:
Now, I am devising against this family an evil
from which you cannot remove your necks;
and you shall not walk haughtily,
for it will be an evil time.
On that day they shall take up a taunt-song against you,
and wail with bitter lamentation,
and say, ‘We are utterly ruined;
the LORD alters the inheritance of my people;
how he removes it from me!
Among our captors he parcels out our fields.’
Therefore you will have no one to cast the line by lot
in the assembly of the LORD.
Psalm 10.1-5a, 12
Why stand so far off, O Lord?
Why hide yourself in time of trouble?
The wicked in their pride persecute the poor;
let them be caught in the schemes they have devised.
The wicked boast of their heart’s desire;
the covetous curse and revile the Lord.
The wicked in their arrogance say, ‘God will not avenge it’;
in all their scheming God counts for nothing.
They are stubborn in all their ways, for your judgements are far above out of their sight;
they scoff at all their adversaries.
Arise, O Lord God, and lift up your hand;
forget not the poor.
Matthew 12.14-21
But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.
When Jesus became aware of this, he departed. Many crowds followed him, and he cured all of them, and he ordered them not to make him known. This was to fulfil what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
‘Here is my servant, whom I have chosen,
my beloved, with whom my soul is well pleased.
I will put my Spirit upon him,
and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.
He will not wrangle or cry aloud,
nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets.
He will not break a bruised reed
or quench a smouldering wick
until he brings justice to victory.
And in his name the Gentiles will hope.’
The Prayers
The Lord’s Prayer
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.
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.
This week’s prayer:
O Lord, we beseech you
mercifully to receive the prayers of your people who call upon you,
and grant that they may both perceive and know
what things they ought to do,
and also may have grace and power
faithfully to fulfil them;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
We thank God for what we have and pray for what we need.
Today we pray for ourselves, that God would give us his Spirit to help us live a life marked by holiness. In our local church, we ask God to bless people preparing to come to worship tomorrow, and support for those who who can’t be at church because of illness or age. In our world, we pray for all who serve in the courts and the justice system. We remember before God those who have asked for our prayers, or who are in need of them.
A prayer for the day
God our Saviour, you sent Jesus into the world of sin, and delivered him up to death for us: kindle in our hearts the same love with which he loved his own to the end; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
The Lord be with us
now and forever.
Let us praise the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
May the God of all grace, who has called us to eternal glory in Christ, restore, establish, strengthen us. To him be the dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
1 Peter 5.10-11