Prelude
Greeting and Welcome
Lighting of the Candles
Hymn of Invocation – Jesus, I Will Ponder Now (LSB 440)
Jesus, I will ponder now
On Your holy passion;
With Your Spirit me endow
For such meditation.
Grant that I in love and faith
May the image cherish
Of Your suff’ring, pain, and death
That I may not perish.
Make me see Your great distress,
Anguish, and affliction,
Bonds and stripes and wretchedness
And Your crucifixion;
Make me see how scourge and rod,
Spear and nails did wound You,
How for them You died, O God,
Who with thorns had crowned You.
Yet, O Lord, not thus alone
Make me see Your passion,
But its cause to me make known
And its termination.
Ah! I also and my sin
Wrought Your deep affliction;
This indeed the cause has been
Of Your crucifixion.
Invocation
P: In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.
C: Amen.
Opening Sentences
P: O Lord, open my lips,
C: and my mouth will declare Your praise.
P: Make haste, O God, to deliver me;
C: make haste to help me, O Lord.
Glory be 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.
Praise to You, O Christ, Lamb of our salvation.
First Reading – Zephaniah 2:1–3
Gather together, yes, gather, O shameless nation,
before the decree takes effect—before the day passes away like chaff—
before there comes upon you the burning anger of the Lord,
before there comes upon you the day of the anger of the Lord.
Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, who do his just commands;
seek righteousness; seek humility;
perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the Lord.
P: O Lord, have mercy on us.
C: Thanks be to God.
Second Reading – Philippians 2:1–11
So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
P: O Lord, have mercy on us.
C: Thanks be to God.
Third Reading – Mark 2:18-22
Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”
P: O Lord, have mercy on us.
C: Thanks be to God.
Responsory
P: Deliver me, O Lord, my God, for You are the God of my salvation.
C: Rescue me from my enemies, protect me from those who rise against me.
P: In You, O Lord, do I put my trust, leave me not, O Lord, my God.
C: Rescue me from my enemies, protect me from those who rise against me.
P: Deliver me, O Lord, my God, for You are the God of my salvation.
C: Rescue me from my enemies, protect me from those who rise against me.
Hymn – You Satisfy the Hungry Heart (LSB 641)
Refrain: You satisfy the hungry heart
With gift of finest wheat.
Come give to us, O saving Lord,
The bread of life to eat.
With joyful lips we sing to You
Our praise and gratitude
That You should count us worthy, Lord,
To share this heav’nly food. Refrain
Is not the cup we bless and share
The blood of Christ outpoured?
Do not one cup, one loaf, declare
Our oneness in the Lord? Refrain
You give Yourself to us, O Lord;
Then selfless let us be,
To serve each other in Your name
In truth and charity. Refrain
Sermon
Apostles' Creed
C: I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life + everlasting. Amen.
